（1） Once upon a time, there lived an old woodcutter and his wife. They loved each other very much.

（2） On a sunny day, the old woodcutter sat on his usual stump to have a rice ball that his wife had made him for lunch. When he unwrapped the bamboo leaf, the rice ball fell from his hand and went rolling into a small hole.

（3） "Oh no! What a waste!" The old man looked into the hole and heard a lovely song coming from deep inside,

“A rice ball rolling, rolling, rolling,
rolling into the hole.”

（4） “How strange! Who is singing?” he thought.
The old man rolled another rice ball into the hole and again heard a lovely song coming from the hole,

“A rice ball rolling, rolling, rolling,
rolling into the hole.”

(5) “What fun!”
The old man rolled rice ball after rice ball into the hole until he had no more left.

(6) “Welcome home, dear! What happened to you? You look so tired.”
“Oh! I am hungry. I am so hungry. I am soooo hungry!"

(7) The old man ate until he was full then told her about the strange song he heard that afternoon.

(8) “That is so strange. I wonder who is singing?” she asked.
“I really want to find out,” he said.
“I will prepare a lot of rice balls for you tomorrow so you can hear them sing over and over again," she said.
The old wife cooked a bushel of rice for her husband.

(9) The next morning, the old woodcutter eagerly went to the forest. When lunch time finally came he started rolling the rice balls into the hole.

(10) “Rice balls rolling, rolling, rolling,
rolling into the hole.”

(11) “How lucky I am! I can hear the beautiful song again. What lovely voices! I want to find out who is singing... Well, maybe the best way to find the singers is to roll myself into the hole."

(12) The old man hugged his knees and bent his back until he was round like a big rice ball. He rolled himself into the hole.
In the hole, he found many mice dancing and singing in a circle.

“Rice balls rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling into the hole,
Old man rolling, rolling, rolling, rolling into the hole"

(13) “Thank you for the rice balls. We had lots of food to eat yesterday and today. We will make rice cakes for you in return.”

(14) The mice brought out a small mortar and a pestle and pounded rice cake, singing:

“Flat, flat, flat
Mice making rice cakes, flat
For the nice old man to eat
Mice making rice cakes, flat”

（15） The old man ate the delicious rice cakes until his stomach was very full.

（16） “Please accept this present from us,” said a mouse. "This is a magic wishing hammer. If you shake this hammer and make a wish, you can get anything you want. This is to thank you for being so kind to us.”

（17） When the old man got back home, he asked his wife,
“Is there anything you want to wish for?”

（18） “Hmmm...I always wanted to have a baby. We would be so happy if we had a cute baby.”

（19） “Let’s try it,” the old man said.
He shook the magic wishing hammer with all of his might, and made a wish.
“Let there be a baby! Let there be a baby.”
And...

（20） There was a cute baby in the old woman’s lap! The baby was as plump and round as a rice ball.

（21） The old couple lived happily ever after and cherished their baby.

2 Omusubi kororin – Rolling Rice Balls

Anthology of 7 Japanese Children's Stories
(Japanese-English Bilingual Picture Book)

『日本（にほん）の童話（どうわ）』 全（ぜん）7話（わ） 第（だい）2話（わ） おむすびころりん (英語（えいご）) 準拠（じゅんきょ）

編（へん） 三間（みま） 由紀子（ゆきこ）
絵（え） 武（たけ） 美和（みわ）
翻訳（ほんやく） Matthew TURKEL
朗読（ろうどく） Peter RILEY

制作（せいさく） NPO法人（ほうじん） 地球（ちきゅう）ことば村（むら）・世界（せかい）言語（げんご）博物（はくぶつ）館（かん）

2021.2.4