Skip to main content

Tam and Tu

Once upon a time, there had a man named Tam. Tam was a musical instrument-maker. He used to bring musical instruments to other areas to sell. When all musical instruments were sold, he turned back home and made other musical instruments. One time, he went distantly. He met a man on his way. The man was under a tree resting. He felt tired so he approached the man and had a rest. They had a conversation and therefore, he knew the man was Tu. He was a trader but that time he lost all money. He was thinking about finding a new job to live, being a servant.
vietnamese fairy tales
Tam felt sorry for Tu so he gave him half of his food to Tu.
“Help me shoulder my musical instruments till you separate, I will pay you some money”, said Tam.
They went. Later, they both felt thirsty. They found the way to a well but the well was nearly dry, too deep to take water. Tu turned to Tam and said:
“We have only choice. One of us will stand here, keep a top of this rope so the other can follow this rope to the bottom of this well and drink. Later, when the person in the well goes up, the other will go down to drink”. 
So they did. Tu was the first person who went down. But, as Tam went down, Tu left him there, under the well, shouldered the musical instruments away. Tam had called Tu many times but he didn’t response. He knew that he was cheated so that he tried to scream, hoping someone could hear his voice. But, the well was the place very few people went cross. He screamed and creamed very long that made his throat pained. At last, some travelers went cross and heard his voice at the late afternoon. They helped him up then strode.
Tam shuffled on the road, trying to find somewhere to take a rest, so tired and feeling disappointed about Tu who he had tried to help but he seemed to be a bastard. Later, he reached an old temple. he knocked on the door and asked the guard to let him stay there one night.
“Hope you can let me stay here sir. I can not force my feet move anymore”, he said in exhausted breathes.
“I’m afraid that you can’t because here is the place four evils live. They will throttle any strange who dares to stay here in night. Move! Before you can’t”, said the guard.
Tam was too tired to move. His eyes nearly shut that he couldn’t think more much about other things but to have a sleep.
“I can’t move anymore sir. Please let me to the place that I can hide myself in”, he said
“Only at cave entrance that was where you can hide yourself. There had a hole on the wall next to the evils’ cave”. Said the guard.
Tam went in the hole, helped himself lay. He slept and was woken up by somebody’s voice. Four evils were standing at front of the cave entrance, taking.
“Behind this temple, ten steps to the left. There has six jars of silver”, said the first evil.
“Behind this temple, ten steps to the right. There has six jar of gold”, said the second evil.
“I know a pearl which can force us die immediately”, said the third evil.
“Where?”, said the fourth evil.
“Just next to our entrance”, said the third evil.
Suddenly, Tam felt something which was under his body. That was a shining pearl. He threw the pear to the evils at one. All evils fell down, motionless. He went out to check and they all had died.
The next morning, Tam made his way to the guard and thanked him. Later, he went toward his home and brought his family back the temple. They dug up the places which evils mentioned and found the things, six jars of gold and silver. From that time, Tam became richer and had a happy life.
You must wonder how about Tu. After Tu stole Tam’s instruments, he went toward a distant place. When sunset, he walked in an inn to rest but the owner prevented him.
“Go! Go away. Here isn’t safe” said the owner, “Recently, evils always come and stay here in nighttime. They will kill any stranger who dares to stay here at night”.
Though he was very scared, Tu still decided to stay there because it was too late to find other place. The owner led him to a secret cave. Tu set the instruments front of the cave entrance, went in and slept. Midnight, evils came.
“Bum! Bum!” evils ran to every direction after an evil stepped on a drum. One of them bursted onto the cave Tu was in. The evil killed him while he was sleeping.
THE END
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"

Book Introductions

1. Complete Collection of Vietnamese Fairy Tales - A Treasury of Legends and Folklore

Discover over 240 enchanting Vietnamese fairy tales, translated into English and beautifully illustrated. This collection is a treasure trove of legends and folklore that reflect Vietnam's rich cultural heritage. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

2. Vietnamese Fairy Tales - Stories in English and Vietnamese

This bilingual collection features 162 Vietnamese fairy tales in both English and Vietnamese, with stunning illustrations. Ideal for language learners and cultural enthusiasts. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

3. The Treasury of Fables

An enchanting collection of timeless fables, written in English and beautifully illustrated. Perfect for all ages, these stories offer valuable moral lessons. Available as an ebook on: Kobo, Apple Books

Read more: 
List of Vietnamese fairy tales
Tale 139: Kill python
Tale 140: Hai Giap
Tale 142: Binh and Dinh
Tale 143: The hole contains gold or the hole contains silver 
Tale 144: The heir
-----
Truyện cổ tích Việt nam (For people who can read Vietnamese) 
Vietnamese historical stories (For people who love history)

Essential Reads: Engaging Books You Can't Miss!

Nhãn:

Comments

Post a Comment

BÀI ĐĂNG ĐƯỢC XEM NHIỀU

List of Vietnamese fairy tales

Vietnamese  fairy tales includes many stories as Tam and Cam; So Dua; Hundred – knot- bamboo tree... which were spread in folk. Each stories has  its own meaning. I think I can not translate exactly each word into english but I will try my best to convey its meaning to you. Hope you like them!
1 comment
Read more

Thuong Luong

Thuong Luong was common name of creatures which are in people’s imagines. They are distant relatives of dragons. While dragons are worshiped as gods, the gods ruled rivers and sea and the gods can make rains, Thuong Luong is not respected as dragons that the creatures are too amorous, combative, wild, and have bad behaviors. All most of them like to harm people.
3 comments
Read more

So dua - Coconut boy

Once upon a time, there in a village had a couple who worked as servants for a landlord. Although they were over fifty years old, they had ever not had a child. They were sad about that, but they had never given up to dream about a child. One day, it's a very hot day, when the wife was working in the field and felt very thirsty. She seeked for water, but she didn't see any but a little water in a skull which was in a hole beside an ancient tree. She had no choice but to drink it. Right the moment she drank, the feeling of cold water running from her throat to her stomach made her felt very comfortable. As a magic, she was pregnant after that short time. Then, the husband died before he got the happiness looking his child be born. After nine months and ten days, the wife gave birth a son but he didn't look like any child on the world. He had no feet, no leg, and even no body. He just had a head with full of eyes, nose, ear, hair and mouth on it. He didn't ugly but was ...
Read more

Thanh Giong

Once  upon a time, a woman was old but she had not given birth a child. One day, when she went to her field, she saw a stranger footsore on the ground. The big footsore made her surprise and said: “omg, this footsore is so big” the she put her foot into the footsore. More 9 months later, she gave birth to a little boy named Giong. The boy was extraordinary that he was over three years old but had not spoken. He only knew lying and smiling. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com That year, the enemies they were known An planed to attack the country of the boy. They were merciless. Wherever they had gone, houses were ruined, fields were fired, people were killed. The sight behind them is mess of corpse and blood and ashes.The King was worry he forced his servants to look for person who could fight against the enemies.  One day, a servent went to Giong’s village while the woman was holding the boy in her arms, she said sadly that: “Giong, I wonder that when you hav...
Read more

The tale of watermelon

Once  upon a time, a young man whose name was Mai An  Tiem   was a slave. He was sold to a King named Hung   Vuong . Mai An   Tiem   was clever, he   learned   vietnamese   language very fast.   Futher , he knew so many stories, places and could do everything so good so he was liked by Hung   Vuong   very much that wherever Hung   Vuong   had come he also came with him. Three years later, he was Hung   Vuong   let to become a noble and was stayed in a building near the castle. Besides, Hung   Vuong   made his daughter become his wife.  Mai An   Tiem   now had wife, a five-year-old son, servants and assets. He seemed to lack nothing. Although he had never been arrogant people still were jealous with his his luck. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com One day, people who were participating in a party complimented as much as they could but he only said: “That because of ...
Read more

Bài 1.6: Động từ “to be”.

Động từ “to be” là một động từ đặc biệt và gần như có nhiều dạng thức nhất trong nhóm động từ. Vì vây, để giải thích rõ ràng ý nghĩa và các sử dụng động từ “to be” là một vấn đề khá phức tạp. Mình sẽ có gắng giải thích một cách dễ hiểu nhất cho các bạn.
Post a Comment
Read more

Tu Thuc and wonderland

A  boy, named Tu Thuc, lived in Tran dynasty. He was offspring of a mandarin and was taught carefully. When he was 20 years old, he got passed all contests the king organized. So, he was appointed to be district mandarin. Not like other mandarins he liked freedom, hated rules. He also didn’t like to swarm others. He liked to drink, do poetry and go sightseeing. A large temple stood in the area he managed. Peonies were grown in temple’s garden and they bloomed in every January that was also the time the temple had a Buddhist festival. Many people from anywhere gathered at there as the festival started. Tu Thuc had heard about the festival and wanted to go to there one time. He put on normal clothes that helped him not to be realized by others. He went alone to the temple. That time, Buddhism was national religion of the country so monks were people who had high positions. Monks set a rule that anyone who picked up flowers or broke boughs would be paid for that and if they ha...
Post a Comment
Read more

138. Quan Âm ba mặt

- Xưa thật là xưa, ở thành Lạc Dương quan lại thì tham ô, thanh thiếu niên thì hư hỏng. Ngài Quan Âm có ý định muốn giáo hóa họ, nên biến thành một người đàn bà nhà quê, tay cầm một cái hộp gấm, trong hộp có một tấm kính bằng đồng đen quý báu, đem đến chợ Lạc Dương bán. Có người tới hỏi giá, người đàn bà nhà quê đáp : - Tấm kính của tôi đây là một bảo vật rất quý hiếm có trên thế gian này, giá là một ngàn lượng bạc ròng, dư một hào không lấy, thiếu một hào không bán, không bớt không trừ, già trẻ lớn bé ai muốn mua cũng được. Người nào có mắt tinh đời hãy mau đem tiền tới mua, bỏ lỡ cơ hội này thì về sau có mười vạn tám ngàn lượng bạc cũng không được ! Có một thiếu niên muốn kiếm chuyện nên chõ mồm vô hỏi : - Tấm kính bằng đồng có chút xíu mà đòi giá cao quá vậy, thật là nói thách quá cỡ ! Ðâu, bà nói cho tôi nghe thử, tấm kính này có cái gì hay ? Người đàn bà nhà quê trả lời : - Tấm kính của tôi có nhiều cái hay lắm chứ ! Thứ nhất, nó có thể soi được tâm người thi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tale of the Hundred - knot Bamboo tree

Once upon a time, there had a boy who was poor, had no field. Therefore, he found the way to work for a landlord. He was healthy, worked hard and great in working so the landlord wanted him to work for him long time without any pay. One day, he called the boy to come. "You are honest and healthy. If you agree to work for me in three years without pay, I will let you marry with my only daughter after that." The boy agreed. He believed completely. He worked very hard, help the landlord turn richer that he could build more houses, buy more fields and cattles. Then, time passed. Three years nearly crossed, the boy always remembered his master's promise while his master, the landlord didn't want to do his promise. He in secret had found another boy for his daughter, a son of another landlord in that area. Therefore, what he need was a reason to refuse the boy. One day, he called the boy to come. "You have worked very hard for three years, waken early, slept late....
Read more