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| Image Information: Urashima Taro and the Turtle illustration: Source: kyuhoshi.com |
There was
once an old couple that lived alone peacefully in a small field outside of the
big city. They had lived there for many years, and had been married in harmony
for even more. Their lives were not easy, but they worked the land each day and
prayed to their gods every night and were at peace with their station in life.
For although the wife was barren, the husband loved her more than he loved the
idea of children, and so the years passed in quick succession, full of love and
companionship. But the wife, although content, prayed each night for a light to
come to her life, for something to break the monotony that had became her life.
One
morning, the wife awoke, startled, to a loud crashing sound. Rushing outside
she found that her favorite tree had fallen over in the nearby field. Crying
out, she ran over to it and fell to her knees, supplicating herself to the gods
to which she had prayed. With her head bowed, her tears fell straight to the
ground and mixed with the dirt. She cried until she had run out of tears,
lamenting her life because although she loved her husband dearly there were
parts of her life that were just too empty to ignore.
As she went
to stand, she used her hand to brace herself in the small pool of water that
had accrued at her feet. Thinking nothing of it, she turned to make her way
back to her small house, and her favored husband. But as she began to walk she
heard small sounds and turned her head back on instinct to investigate.
“Who are
you?” The little boy sitting in a pile of mud asked her, idly running his
fingers through the damp ground and rubbing the mess between small, pink
fingers.
Startled,
her hands flew to her chest, and she stuttered out a surprised, “me?”
“You’re
funny,” the boy said, beginning to stand, “I think I’d like to live you now.”
And
honestly, what was the old woman to say in response to that? She had been
praying for a ray of light and it had found her. Who was she to question her
good fortune? So she reached out her hand and told him, “Well, grab on. Lets
head home then.”
Thrilled
with her discovery, she introduced the little boy to her husband. He asked not
where he came from, but asked for his name. The wife started to say that she had
not asked, but the boy spoke up with a confident “Sylvanus,” his hand still
tightly clutching the old woman’s, “but you can call me Sylvan.”
The man,
laughing at the boy’s oddness, grabbed the boy’s other hand and touched his
wife’s smiling face. “Okay kid, sounds good.”
Years
passed and the old couple’s lives continued to shine with radiance from
Sylvan’s company. They loved him dearly and taught him all there was to know
about the world. As he grew, he showed much promise in the art of fishing, so
the old couple prompted him to go off and perfect his skill and to learn as
much as he could. For though he was the light of their life, they knew that one
day he would return to them.
And even
though the boy was gone, the old couple could still feel his presence with them
all the days he was gone. And they knew he was happy. And as days turned to
months, and months to years, they continued to be happy and content with the
life that once saddened them, because their boy was off doing what he loved and
was happy. There came a day far off in the future where the old couple slipped
into death, curled around their partner, still content with the knowledge that
their boy would one day come back to them.
Author’s Note:
I chose to write my story based on the Japanese Fairy Tale
(Lang) Uraschimataro and the Turtle.
In this story a young man goes off to become a great and brave fisherman, only
to one day wreck his boat and be saved by a huge sea turtle that he had once
shown mercy to as a young child. This turtle rewards him by introducing him to
the daughter of the Sea God. They fall deeply in love and he stays with her at
her behest. Until one day the desire to see his parents for one last time
overwhelms him and he returns to the shore. It turns out that he has spent 300
years underwater with the woman and his parents have lost since died. In
despair he opens a box (that he was told not to) and quickly grows into his old
age and dies on the shore wishing to take back his choices.
I thought that this story was really sad and wanted to kind
of show how the parents must have felt after their child left and never
returned. I kept some of the magical aspects of the original story, but kept it
mainly from their perspective of blindness to his life after his departure. I
also wanted to include the fact that he did end up seeing his parents again (in
death), which kind of lessens the blow of the story.
Bibliography:
Story
source: The Pink Fairy
Book by Andrew Lang and illustrated by H. J. Ford (1897). Urashimataro and the Turtle
