馬鹿なお話/(山下嘉四郎)


 むかしむかし、中国の南ヒマラヤという山麓に、広い広い野原(のっぱら)がありました。そこではウマとシカが仲良く暮らしていました。

 ある時、ウマがシカに「シカさん、我には一日に千里も走る(はける)ような逞しい足があるし、虎や獅子にも負けない頑丈な身体を持っているばって(が)、残念ながら頭におめ(お前)のような角が無い。この上、角があれば虎はおろか獅子でも我さかなわない。それさえあれば、我だっきゃ獣の王様になることがでぎる。王様になった時は、おめごと(お前を)関白の位にするはんて(ので)何とか、我さその角ごと(を)譲ってけなが(ください)。」と言いました。そして、嫌がるシカから無理矢理に角を取って自分の頭にのせました。

 シカの角を頭に着けたウマは「それ見れ、立派になったべさ。」と、得意になってその辺の野原を駆け回りました。すると、その近くで畑の仕事をしていた農夫達が「あれ、あれ何だば。ウマに似ているばって(が)頭に角コおがってら(生えでる)。ウマだがシカだが分からねな。珍しい獣だでば。」と、みんなで寄って集って捕まえてしまいました。

 方々から大勢の人が集まって、協議をしましたが、誰一人として分かっている人はいませんでした。とうとう、ウマにシカの角があるのだから「うましか」だろうということになりました。
 「うましか」と名付けられたウマは、獣の王様になるどころか、各地の見世物小屋に連れていかれて「変な獣だ。うましかというのだそうだ。」とみんなから野次を飛ばされ、一生見世物として暮らさなければなりませんでした。

 自分の力量をわきまえず、高望みした「うましか」の事を、いつしか「馬鹿(ばか)」というようになりました。

 トッツパレコピー


WHERE "BAKA" (FOOL) CAME FROM (kasirou yamasita)

Many years ago in china at the foot of the south himalayan mountains there lived a horse and a deer. They were thought to be very good friends and they seemed happy.
But one day the horse said to the deer
"My friend, I have four strong legs so I can run ten miles a day and I have a powerful and strong body which is much stronger than a tiger or lion's body but I don't have wonderful antlers like you.
They are the one thing i really want. If I had antlers like yours, I would be king of all the animals, even the lions and tigers would look up to me. please give me your antlers. I promise that if I become king of the animals I will make you my top minister."

Deer did not want to give the horse his antlers but the horse was stronger and took the antlers. He put them on his head and proudly pranced around saying "Look at me, don't I look great ?
There were some farmers working nearby and they saw the horse running around with the deer's antlers on his head.

They were very puzzled. It looked like a horse but it had antlers on it's head; was it a horse or a deer.'?
It certainly was a very strange animal. The farmers wanted to have a better look so they caught it and told people about it.

Many people came to see the strange animal. There were many discussions about what it was but nobody knew. finally a decision was made,
Because it looked like a horse but it had deer antlers it was to be called 'umashika' (horsedeer).

The horse called umashika didn't become king of the animals. instead he was taken all over the country so people could see how strange he was.
When people saw him they said
"So this is the strange animal everyone is calling umashika !"

They were very unkind and for the rest of the horse's life he was taken around the country so people could see how strange he looked. soon, ordinary people who desperately wanted to become great and powerful came to be called umashika.

Umashika was too long to say so it was abbreviated to 'baka' (the japanese character for uma or horse is also 'ba' and shika or deer is also 'ka').Baka soon became a popular word and this is how it came to mean fool.

Tottsuparekkopi (The end)


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