The Story of the Lightning and the Thunder

In the olden days the thunder and lightning lived on the earth amongst all the other people, but the king made them live at the far end of the town, as far as possible from other people's houses.

昔、雷と稲妻はほかの人々にまじって地上に住んでいたが、王は二人を、ほかの人々の家からできるだけ離れた町のはずれに住まわせた。

The thunder was an old mother sheep, and the lightning was her son, a ram. Whenever the ram got angry he used to go about and burn houses and knock down trees; he even did damage on the farms, and sometimes killed people. Whenever the lightning did these things, his mother used to call out to him in a very loud voice to stop and not to do any more damage; but the lightning did not care in the least for what his mother said, and when he was in a bad temper used to do a very large amount of damage. At last the people could not stand it any longer, and complained to the king.

雷は年とった母羊で、稲妻はその息子の雄羊だった。雄羊は腹を立てるといつも、あちこちを歩きまわって家を焼き、木をなぎ倒した。畑にまで害をなし、ときには人を殺すこともあった。稲妻がこうしたことをするたびに、母親はたいそう大きな声で、やめなさい、もうこれ以上害をなしてはいけないと呼びかけた。けれども稲妻は母親の言うことなど少しも気にかけず、機嫌が悪いときにはひどい害をなした。とうとう人々はもう我慢できなくなり、王に訴え出た。

So the king made a special order that the sheep (Thunder) and her son, the ram (Lightning), should leave the town and live in the far bush. This did not do much good, as when the ram got angry he still burnt the forest, and the flames sometimes spread to the farms and consumed them.

そこで王は特別の命令を出して、羊(雷)とその息子の雄羊(稲妻)に町を出て遠い藪の中に住むよう命じた。これはあまり役に立たなかった。雄羊は腹を立てると、やはり森を焼き、その炎がときには畑にまで広がって焼きつくしたからである。

So the people complained again, and the king banished both the lightning and the thunder from the earth and made them live in the sky, where they could not cause so much destruction. Ever since, when the lightning is angry, he commits damage as before, but you can hear his mother, the thunder, rebuking him and telling him to stop. Sometimes, however, when the mother has gone away some distance from her naughty son, you can still see that he is angry and is doing damage, but his mother's voice cannot be heard.

そこで人々はまた訴え出た。王は稲妻と雷を二人とも地上から追放し、それほどの害をなせない空に住まわせた。それからというもの、稲妻は怒ると前と同じように害をなすが、母親の雷がしかりつけて、やめなさいと言っているのが聞こえる。けれどもときには、母親がいたずら息子から遠く離れてしまっていて、稲妻が怒って害をなしているのは見えても、母親の声は聞こえないことがある。