| Carp | |
November 2, 2014
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| There was a pond where an old carp lived for a long time. The carp was able to speak human language. When he was young, he was curious about human's communication and came near the bank in order to listen to their conversations, and eventually learned how to talk. One day, a man came and started to go into the pond with his clothes on. The carp immediately figured out that the man was going to commit suicide. The carp said, pretending not to realize the man's intentions, "Your swimsuit is cool." The man said, "What?" The carp repeated, "Your swimsuit is cool." The man said, "Are you an idiot? This is not a swimsuit." The man was drowsy because he was about to commit suicide, so he didn't think anything about the carp speaking; but, rather, thought what carp said was strange. The man said, "This is a suit but it isn't a swimsuit, idiot!" The carp felt offended being called an 'idiot' but he was patient and said, "I thought it was a swimsuit." The man said, "The word 'swimsuit' has the 'suit' part but this is just a 'suit' not a 'swimsuit', a swimsuit is a suit used for swimming, you idiot." The carp said, "I thought you were going to swim because you came in the water." This words made the man realize something. "…I'm in the water… You are
The carp said, "I've been here for more than one hundred years so maybe God gave me a special skill. Maybe He wants me to help somebody." "Help? …" At this point, the man's face became sane. He looked weak and began to sob. The carp suggested to the man that he should to go up on the bank. The man followed the carp's advice. The man sat down on the bank and told his story. He broke up with his girlfriend. He was fired and became bankrupt. His parents had died and he had no friends to talk with about his problems. The carp said, "You are not so old. You look like you are in good shape. You can get another job and maybe you can get a new girlfriend." The man said, "I'm not so smart. I'm not sophisticated." The carp replied, "I've seen many people. Compared to them, you look normal. Actually, you have something about you." The man retorted, "I don't think that a person who is about to commit suicide is normal. And … what do you mean I have something special about me?" The carp replied, "I can't explain it with my poor vocabulary. But my intuition from my long life says that somehow you are special." The man weakly laughed, "Of course I'm special because I want to commit suicide." Looking at the man's expression, the carp thought for a minute and said, "Ok, I'd like to prove it. Can you see something in the water and on the bank?" The man looked around the water and on the bankside. When he entered the pond, he didn't realized it but now he was able to recognize that the water was rather dirty with lots of trash in it, and there was garbage here and there on the bank. He nodded. The carp continued, "You can clean up here. Nobody has ever cleaned up here during my life time; so, if you clean it up, you can say that you're special." The man said, "But to do something after being told to do it is different from to do something by one's own will." The carp said, "I don't think so. If you are told to go rob a bank, will you do it? To be told something is just a trigger; whether you do it or not, is your will." "Oh, you are a philosophical carp, aren't you?" The man said teasingly. It was the first time for a long time that he looked relaxed. The man took off his jacket and rolled up his sleeves of his collared-shirt. He re-entered the pond, and started to grab the garbage from the water, and throw it on the bank. He earnestly continued it until it became dark. The next day, he came to the pond again. This time he wasn't wearing a suit, but a swimsuit. (Of course the carp teased him about it.) He cleaned up the pond enthusiastically. He came to the pond every day. Several heaps of garbage piled up on the bank. Each pile became bigger and bigger. After a couple of weeks' of devotion, there was no garbage in the water. Next, he started to gather the garbage around the bank. Each pile became as tall as he himself. It took a couple more weeks. After he cleaned up the bank thoroughly, he started to separate the garbage into things that decompose, metals, plastics, glass, and other decomposed items. It took a couple more weeks to do this. After that task was finished, he went to the public garbage center and asked them to haul that garbage away. It took a couple of weeks because the authorities at first didn't believe him. After his persistent negotiations, the worker-in-charge came to see the pond and was very surprised about seeing so many piles of garbage. After the trucks carried away the garbage an uncountable amount of times, there was a different sight around the pond. A beautiful sight to see the clear pond water and the green bank. It was shining under the sun. The carp soon came to the man sitting on the bank. "Good job! Now you must be feeling that you are special." The guy replied, "I wanted to be special indeed. But now I don't care about it. Now I can say that anybody can do this if you have some special trigger." The man smiled at the carp. (The End) |
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*eventually ついには
*suicide 自殺
*drowsy もうろうとして
*rather それどころか
*patient 我慢強い
*suggest 促す
*bankrupt 破産
*sophisticated 洗練した
*retort 言い返す
*intuition 直感
*looking at 見て
*will 意志
*trigger 引き金
*philosophical 哲学的
*enthusiastically 熱心に
*devotion 献身
*decompose 腐食する
*persistent 執拗な