2020年11月25日水曜日

the picture book "Story of cosmic forest."

  I would like to introduce the picture book "Story of cosmic forest." which I produced before I started my activities at the Mithila Museum.




宇宙の森の物語

『星を食べる魚』 読む

『星の森に住む象』 読む

『星のけはいをかんじたねこ』 読む

『もっとも遠い星を見た少女スワジ』 読む

『星に踊る木 ソンダ・パダ』 読む




the picture book "Story of cosmic forest."

Illustration and story by Hasegawa Tokio
Published by Dharma Shutraina School




A fish who ate stars.


A fish having golden fins lived in a cosmic forest.

He gulped stars if found any. 

He swam all the way if a little light could be seen in the forest.

Thousand years passed gulping stars and his body became bigger and started shining.

More stars were eaten, bigger the fish grew and has become extremely big.

Sheela, Goddess of Night sky, wondered why forest was becoming darker.

One day when she was in a happy mood playing the music of stars, she heard sound coming from deep forest.

 

Deiye Sarienmoh,

Deiye Sarienmoh,

Moh, Moh,





The Goddess flew toward the sound riding on a shining star called “Geet”.

Noticing the Goddess approaching, the big fat fish stopped eating stars and ran away.

Realizing the cause of darker night sky, the Goddess in anger took the ring of stars and threw at the fish.

The ring of stars with brilliant shine chased the fish giving a sound of Shruu Shruu Shruu.

As golden fins were broken the fish fell into the darkness in no time.

Plenty stars came out of the fish’s mouth and were flown away into night sky.

The fish kept on falling down and was becoming smaller.

The fish endlessly grew smaller and was dropped in the sea of stars at last.






Shining stars came out of the mouth of fish swimming in sea.
Goum is the name of a shellfish who loves to sing.
Stars fell down to the bottom of deep sea.

Boku Moku Moku Moku Moku Boku

Star realizing the place was not the night sky wanted to go back to the original country of stars.
Goum came near the star. 
The star asked Goum how he could get out of sea.
Goum thought a while and took the star to the forest of seaweeds.
Forest reflected the light of star and many silvery grains of light climbed up 
to the sky giving out sound,  pot, pot. The star held the soft round grain of
light one by one. Looking at the scene, Goum began to sing;

Star holding silvery grain of light.
Star holding silvery grain of light.   
Bon Moku Bon Moku





Many years passed. In the forest of seaweeds green moss grew all over the star.
Goum, seashell, fond of singing died already and became a part of Sea.
The Star kept on holding silvery grains of light.
One day as the star took a grain of light, seaweeds suddenly shook themselves      
and the star was drifted up softly.
The higher the star climbed, the more sea became blue.
At last the star could make his face appear over the surface of sea.

Birds were flying in sky. 
Wondering to find the shining island on blue sea、they flew 
toward the island.
The star asked the birds how he could go to the country of stars.
The birds said, “We cannot take you to the country of stars but we may be able to 
take you to the top of mountain which is the nearest to Stars”
Birds called out to other birds to gather.
After a little while, the sky turned black with so many birds.




Birds caught the star firmly and started flapping wings, then sea started rippling.

and the star started climbing up into sky.

They flew over many clouds.  They kept on flying even in rain.

There were some birds who could not fly any more.

They flew out of the black rain clouds somehow and found a white mountain.

At last they were successful in taking the star to the top of high mountain.

When stars appeared in sky, birds went back. 

The star was happy as he could see his own country, but he did not know how   to climb up further.  He was looking forward to see the night every day. 



 

Thus, he had to stay there for long time till he turned out to be a steep white mountain. He remembered sadly about Goum, seashell, which became sea and

about birds which became sky.

One night a shooting bright star fell into sea and after that sea started 

shining night and day.


The star which turned to be white mountain wished to meet the shooting star.

The star of white mountain wanted to walk and search


Time passed,

They say the high mountain is still walking in sea.

 






Elephant who lived in a forest of stars. 



In the end of deep cosmos, there was a forest of stars.
Huge elephant having one task stayed there.
One day the elephant was having a walk in the forest and fell down into a muddy pool of stars.  The elephant tried hard to come out from the pool. The more he tried the lower he went down.
And he died there finally.








Body of the elephant spread away in sky to become many stars but

white task could not.  

It was stuck on the star for a very long time. 

One day the star moved and went into the endless bottom of cosmos.

They say the biggest shooting star was seen in the cosmos on that day.









Cat who could feel the movement of stars.


 

Once upon a time many small countries existed beside river Nile of Egypt.

Fikelos, one of those countries was ruled by young king called Atthela.

People suffered from big famines and the floods of river Nile.

   

King Atthela invited the elite astronomers from nearby countries and 

asked them to find out about the premonition of coming calamities but

nobody could give a correct prediction.





One morning the king ordered his messenger to go and call Kantala who was a

great astronomer and told him that he dreamed the shining star which he

never had seen before.  The king asked if the dream was a prewarning of some 

calamity coming. Kantala thought for a while and then he told him about

a strange story told recently. It was about a cat who lived in a forest of desert.                               

Name of the cat was Jiverus. It was a country where dwarfs lived. 

The story was whenever Jiverus, the cat, made a strange gesture as if she felt

something unusual happened, the silvery shooting star appeared in sky.


King decided to send his messengers to the country. 

They started for a long journey of desert carrying many gifts and golden headdress

for the cat.





Several months later dark skinned young boy Tirus and Jiverus with golden headdress travelled toward the country near the river Nile.

Tirus played a single stringed harp, and Jiverus sang whenever stars shined.


Jeetala Tokina, 

Jeetala Tokina,

Safyu Takina

Mayfi Fina





When they reached the country of Fikelos, whole country was filled with joy.

The king went out of his palace to welcome them while drums were beaten.

The sound was so loud it went over the river Nile to reach the neighboring countries.

The young boy Tirus was shocked to find many weak and weary people.

King invited them and a party was held in their honor.

King spoke to Tirus about famines. Bards also started to sing the 

unfortunate calamities happened to the country. 

On the same night. Tirus a young boy promised King he would stay in this country with Jiverus.

Inside the garden of the palace, a house was built with leaves Jiverus favored and they started staying in the house. 

The duty of the boy was to inform astronomers if Jiverus, the cat felt something odd about the stars.





Three years passed.

Jiverus and Tirus, young boy, were playing on the grass as usual.

The day when big red sun was directly above the country of Fikelos 

Jiverus, the cat, behaved unusually and looked up the backward of sky

Tirus ran to astronomers in hurry 

Hearing the news, Kantala informed king immediately.

The King was happy and ordered to beat drums.

Countrymen of Fikelos gathered around the palace to know 

what was happening. King told them that Jiverus, the cat, was responding to 

some strange happening in sky. He ordered people to look up the sky when 

stars appeared.

Everybody in the country of Fikeros looked up the starlit sky that night.

They found a magnificently shining small star beside a big star called

Tares.

Several years later, Kantala and other astronomers found out the relation of 

the newly found star and famine.

No big famines ever occurred afterwards.






Swaji, a little girl who could see the farthest star.


 

This is a story of an incident in ancient India.

Old holy man was walking in a town called Daya.

He felt more calmness and peace in evening rather than in morning.

From his tied hair string, Ganges water was flowing out , not drying up on the way 

and fell down to ground.

He saw a dumb girl sitting on a piece of dirty cloth in roadside.

Her name was Swaji.

He looked into her pure set of eyes and went away.

Swaji filled with some strange feeling followed him.

Coming out of the town, the holy man passed the rocky mountain and

went into a dark thick forest.  





Quiet morning visited as usual the deep forest where he lived.

He went into a small river inside the forest and bathed there like birds

in morning brightness. He chanted a prayer as he came back

to his hut.


Sarvo Budha  Jadha Yadha,

Sarvo Bokti, Pradha Yeni,

Tun Stuta, Stuta, Yeh Ikawa,

Babunt Bha, Mokta Yeni,

Swarga Bha, Balgadhi,

Devi, Narayoni, Sanstuteh,

Swarga Bha, Balgadhi,

Devi, Narayoni, Mastuteh





Then he collected dry leaves, started a fire and warmed himself.

White cow appeared from somewhere and sat beside him quietly.

Swaji also appeared. Holy man looked at the pure eyes of Swaji

She laughed timidly. Swaji asked him with her gesture why he

lived in a dangerous forest.

She went near holy man, broke the branch of a tree and drew the footprint of   tiger. She told him she could not sleep due to fear last night. White cow also listened. Not only cow but birds and trees trembling with morning wind

listened too.

He said everything is in forest. Necessary things for man’s life are available

in forest. All the items and hearts are obtainable there. That is why a man who is searching a truth lives in forest. He put his hand on the forehead of white cow.





Then Swaji became fond of visiting this deep forest. That is not the whole story. Birds and animals of the forest started liking her.

Holy man felt he now understood the secret of those pure set of eyes 

Several winters passed and Swaji was now reading the books of holy man.





One night, Swaji was reading a book with a small lamp as usual.

When she wanted to go out to give rest for her eyes, holy man asked    

where she was going and she replied in gesture she was going to see

stars to give rest to her eyes.

Holy man kept silence for some time. The sound of birds could be heard.

Holy man pointed the sky saying you could see stars from here only. Swaji 

was fond of holy man who spoke this way.

The curled hair of holy man with a faint light oozing made him look divine.  But Swaji could not see any stars. She could only see the dirty sooty roof.  Holy man was still watching stars.




Slowly Swaji started being able to see like the holy man. 

By thinking about stars which could be around there, stars could be seen 

a little by little. Holy man asked her to observe stars of further away.

Swaji tried and the light appeared in her eyes which became brighter.

Holy man told her “You can see the stars which have not been seen by

anybody. They say the person who saw those stars can float among stars.

You can see the star in the farthest place.”

It did not take much time for Swaji to see the farthest star.

Her eyes were filled with bright light and deep light flashed inside her eyes.



Swaji is said that she stayed among stars even when she was playing with

deers and birds lived in the forest.


 






Sonda Pada, A tree which danced with star.


 

A slow movement was happening in the century of darkness when cosmos 

had not even stars. The movement was gradually making a figure 

which appeared as a tree of Sonda Pada.


Cosmos welcomed the century of light and stars gradually started to appear.

Stars having many colors like rainbow gave lights to darkness and 

the tree of Sonda Pada started dancing. After sometime seeds fell like raindrops

and they rooted on the land of stars.





The star, Peekla was giving out green color light. 

So many clouds came up from the seeds which fell into the crack.

From those clouds, wind was born and was called Goushila.

Eventually, plenty rain came out from clouds and wind and fell on the earth.

The crack became sea and grass came from the rocky earth.

Then forest of Gogula came.

From the forest Gogula, silver colored birds were born. And the birds were always singing.


Gogula Peekla,

Gogula Peekla

Sheekla Goushila




The bird was always singing but did not know how to dance.

One day, wind Goshila had been blowing for many days, the bird finally was 

blown away and was slammed strongly.

The beautiful silvery wings were wretched and unrecognizable.

Somehow the injured bird hid in the dark hole of a tree and was surprised

to see the strange scene. There was nothing which was not dancing 

within the massive wind of Goshila.

Even little green grass also knows how to dance.

thinking this way, the weary bird fell into a deep sleep. 



In his dream, the bird was flying toward the tree of Sonda pada.

The bird had a strange dream.  The tree Sonda Pada was dancing

with the shining star.  

The bird whispered in his dream, I, too, want to dance.

Perch on my tree and you will dance.

The voice came from the stars.

The bird perched on the tree and found he became 

Sonda Pada




When the wind, Goshila, went away, bright morning visited again in the forest,

Bathing in a bright light in morning, the silver bird who turned to be Sonda Pada in a forest of Gogula sang and danced happily.


Gogula Peekla,

Gogula Peekla,

Sheekla Goushila,


We are born from tree dancing with stars

Dancing we are.

We are born from the forest of Gogula

Dancing we are.


Cosmos is a tree dancing with Stars.

Cosmos is a forest dancing with stars.


Gogula Sheekla

Gogula Sheekla

Peekla Peekla