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

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

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

Bài 1.5: Cách sử dụng at, on, in cho thời gian, ngày, tháng, năm, mùa.

Chào các bạn! Bởi vì mình có hay dich truyện và một vài thứ linh tinh khác nên thường bắt gặp ngày, tháng năm. Thật ra khôngkhó để sử dụng đúng nhưng mỗi lần cần đến mình lại phải tra lại tra cứu. Điều đó rất mất thời gian nên hôm nay mình viết một bài liên quan đến at, on, in + thời gian để giúp bạn nào chưa biết và giúp chính mình nhớ được cách sử dụng của các giới từ at, on, in và dạng thời gian được theo sau giới từ đó.
Post a Comment
Read more

The tale of great doctor

Once  upon a time, a doctor lived in a village who was solid expertise that he could find out and cured all diseases. Besides, he was a kind, honest man so people who lived in the village loved and respected him very much. They called him Mr. doctor. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com Meanwhile, a woman who lived in the village wanted to kill her husband to live with another man. One day, her husband had flu. The woman thought immediately about buying poison for him. She went to meet the doctor and priced but the doctor, in another hand, didn’t agree though whatever price she gave him. He said he would never used medicine to harm everyone. The woman had never given up, she still gave prices higher and higher that made the doctor saw clearly the woman would never given up until her husband was dead. Therefore, the doctor gave her tonic and said that if her husband drank that medicine he would never woke up. The woman was very happy; she went home and Slow-cooked medi...
Read more

144. Cổ tích bóng đêm

Ngày xưa, xưa thật là xưa, khi bóng đêm chiếm toàn bộ trái đất, bóng đêm tự cho mình là độc tôn, là duy nhất. Thời gian dần trôi, bên cạnh bóng đêm còn có ánh sáng mặt trời, ánh sáng của những vì sao le lói. Bóng đêm bây giờ không là duy nhất nữa. Phải chia sẻ khoảng không gian sống cho một kẻ có tên là ánh sáng .  Thế là bóng đêm rất ghét ánh sáng , ghét nhiều đến nỗi , bóng đêm chẳng thèm để ý đến ánh sáng nữa. Hễ đâu có ánh sáng thì bóng đêm quay lưng đi, chẳng cần nhìn làm gì, chẳng cần tiếp xúc với cái luồng sáng chói chang ấy. Bóng đêm là thế, có gì đó cô độc và lạnh lùng, vì muôn loài bây giờ chỉ thích ánh sáng thôi. Muôn loài vui chơi, đùa giỡn, sinh hoạt và lao động cùng ánh sáng. Còn khi bóng đêm đến, muôn loài chỉ muốn ngủ hoặc ngồi nhìn ngắm mà chẳng hề vui đùa với Bóng đêm. Thế là đêm thật buồn, thật cô độc và lạnh lẽo. Từ khi ánh sáng xuất hiện, bóng đêm ghét ánh sáng, hận ánh sáng, giờ đây bóng đêm tuyệt giao với ánh sáng và cũng chả thèm muôn loài. Mặc kệ, bó...
Post a Comment
Read more

The tale of "Banh Chung" and "Banh Day"

Once  upon a time, that had a king who was so old so he wanted to abdicate. He had had few wives who had given bird twelve sons. All of his sons had grown up and also were great people. The King was confused about choosing. “All of them are talent people. It is so difficult that I can choose a person and nobody can be jealous” said the King. vietnamesefairytales.blogspot.com “My Lord the king, we can have a contest” said a servant. “Oh, it is a good idea but what is subject of the contest?” said the king  “Meaning dishes, which we can put on ancestral altar” said the servant. “Great, let’s doing” said the king. The king called his son to come on and said:  “My sons, I don’t have many time and I want one of you to become the king. Now, anybody who can find dishes which not only are delicious but still have great meaning to put on ancestral altar will become the king.” 
Read more

Thi Kinh Bodhisattva

A  person had been born times, lived other lives. Each time being born, the person was always a monk or a nut, lived with strong religious belief. She or he had passed nine lives but still   didn’t reach Nirvana. At the tenth, the person was reborn in the form of a girl. She was daughter of a normal family who lived in Cao Ly and her name was Thi Kinh. Thi Kinh was a calm, kind-hearted girl. She was the person who loved her mother and father, using to help them homework. When she grew up, he parent let her married with a student whose name’s Thien Si. Thien Si was born in normal family, not richer than her family but he was very hard in studying. Therefore, Thi Kinh had nothing more pleased than undertaking all homework for her husband to have time to study. One normal night, Thien Si sat on floor reading book while his wife, Thi Kinh, was staying by sewing. Front their face was only an oil lamp. Later, Thien Si felt tired, he laid down his head was on his wif...
Post a Comment
Read more