横浜こぼれ話は筆者の佐藤栄次が随筆や意見や考えを書いておりますので、一度見に来てください、

 

Red powder

Grateful Crane
Long long ago, on the last day of a year a millionaire and his wife were very busy preparing many dishes for visitors in the New Year, when they heard a knock on the door.
The host opened the door to find a miserable Buddhist monk standing there.
He was covered with snow and wet to the skin.
He quietly said to the host.
“I lost my way. It’s so dark outside, would you please put me up for the night?”

“We can’t put up a poor monk like you.” said the host, closing the door with a slam.
The monk next knocked on the door of another house.
There lived an old man and his old wife at the house.
“I lost my way. It’s so dark outside, would you please put me up for the night?”
“We are so happy to have a monk on the last day of the year.
Please do come in though it is not so beautiful.”
said the old couple and invited him to warm himself by the hearth.
“I appreciate your kindness.”
He said quietly to them,
“Hang a big stewpot on the fire in this hearth and put three potatoes in it.”

The monk sat on his knees and prayed with his hands put together and his eyes closed.
Before long, to their surprise, rice, rice-cakes, vegetables, fish, meat and so on came out of the pot.

“Mr. Monk. Wonderful! Thank you for giving us beautiful dishes for the New Year. We feel as if we were in the dream.”
It was the first day of New Year.
When he left their home, he said to them,
“I would like to give you a present. What would you like to have?”
“We have enough. No, thank you.”
But he requested so hard until the two accepted.
“So we are so old that we can’t work so hard. What we want is youthfulness, with which we can work so hard again.”
The monk said to them, taking out some powder from one of his sleeves.
“Put this yellow powder in the tub when you have a bath.”
On the night they had a bath containing yellow powder.
A mysterious thing took place.
“You are so beautiful.” said the husband.
“You are so handsome.” said the wife.
The old couple really returned to the young couple.
Hearing this, the millionaire found out the monk and brought him to his house by force, making the monk sit down in front of the gorgeous dinner and demanding for the magic powder.
The monk gave him red powder not yellow one.
Driving the monk out, the millionaire and his wife dived into a hot tub with red powder in.
The two changed into monkeys whose buttocks were red.

 

The end