That time, East Sea was where unexpected storms often appeared. Whenever the unexpected storms came, they drowned all fishing boats which were distant from shore, ruined roofs standing by shore and they always took off a lot of people’s lives. When the storms left, there were screams, cries of people who lost their fathers, their husbands or their sons. Besides, things what helped them they was boats, fishing net, and others had been sunk into water. The lives of survivors turned poorer for many years. People could build their houses away from shore but that didn’t mean they could know about unexpected storms. Each year passed and more people were killed. People in the place had never stopped dropping tears they cried, begged and also cursed gods because they believed that gods had forgotten and led them in dangerous things. But not.
One day, Buddha who sat on a five-color-cloud flew cross there and heard cries. He stopped, bent down and observed whole the area. He realized that a lot of people lost their lives because of a storm and all of them were poor, kind people. The sight made him feel sad and he wanted to help them. Hurriedly, Buddha took off his coat then tore it in pieces. Later, threw the pieces into water and started whispered something that made pieces transform into strange creatures having soft body and eight sucker-bearing arms and they were octopuses. The octopuses separated to help people who were alive. Their soft bodies with many arms helped them easily went to anywhere in sea and did many duties in same time but they too small and weak to protect boats not to be broken. Therefore short time later, all of them came back, gathered under Buddha’s feet.
So Buddha picked some elephant bones, threw into water and at one they transformed into the creatures with huge body, intelligent and strong. They are whales.
“Go!” said Buddha, “Do your duty saving people”.
Whales with huge strong body could easily brought boats from middle of sea to shore but they were too slow and big to save people who were threw out of their boats down in water so Buddha created other creatures which will saved the people and also they were created to be guards of whales. The creatures with long, sharpen swords were known as swordfish. After they were created, they scattered to do their duty.
Whales were allowed to rule areas of sea. They were given a gift that helped them feel storms though they were very distant from their areas. Octopuses and swordfish became their underlings which were always with them, followed their orders. Because of what they did, whales were worshiped by fishers who called them by the name of honor, “Ca Ong”.
Well that’s an ancient story. But, I want to let you know about other story, the story about a whale.
That’s a young female whale which lived in Ong Doc, an area of sea. A day of her was started by moving around its area, finding out things strange. At noon, her and hers underlings had a hunt. Her underlings, two swordfish would rounded small fish while two octopuses would puff ink into water that made small fish couldn’t see and stupidly went into her mouth. The hunt fastly finished she always did a water line to thank her underlings. Of course, she always did her duty well, saving people. But you know young whales always have dream going off their areas. She also wanted the thing. Normal days, normal jobs which made her felt bored wanting a journey.
“Underlings. What do you think if I have a journey?” she said.
“Great!” said swordfish, “Storms don’t appear in this time so we can enjoy their journey in peace”.
“It’s not problem if we can go back in time”, said octopuses.
All of her underlings thought that it’s not problem if she had a journey so she decided to do what she wanted having a journey along the shore. They have a plan that was: They will go along the shore to the south and when they arrived to Ca Mau they would stayed here for few day having sightseeing; after that they will turned back moving to the north and meeting some friends. At last, they would go back their area. The journey was very interesting she could see many beauties, meet wonderful friends so that they spent more days than their plan for the places they came.
One night, when they were taking rest, she felt a storm. It’s an unexpected storm. All of them turned confused.
“Storm is coming. We have to come back, now”, she screamed.
They gathered immediately and then hurried went back. She used her ability and knew that a fishing boat had gone in dangerous area.
“God! We have a boat which is in danger”, he cried, “But, we need at least a day to go to the place. How can we save it?”
That moment she felt panic many people would died and that’s her mistake. A swordfish hit against her body.
“We need a day because we have to make a detour but if we crossed the place, we will in time”, said the swordfish.
The place they were talking about was Bo De river. Of course it’s not easy for her to get pass. Bo De river was shallow while her body was too huge. But, she had no choice to try her best. She followed ink octopuses left in water, moving hardly pass the river. Her skin was tore by rocks and trees which was in the river. You don’t know but that moment she was pregnant that made her mission turned more much difficult. It’s not time the baby whale should be given birth but, because she used too much strength so that the baby whale was pushed out. Maybe, the baby could survive but Bo De river didn’t have enough water for it to swim. Therefore, the baby died after that short time. She’s heart-broken but she had to do her duty. She left, continued moving pass the river. Later, they had come to their area. The storm, that time, was very strong. She immediately went to the sea. Fortunately, the boat was not drowned. She brought it on her body and moved to the shore. No one was killed and she completed her duty but she also had to rest for weeks because of injuries.
Her baby had died and its body was still in Bo De river. Very kind of fishers, they because of wanting to thank her built for her baby a tomb with a roof above that people could come and worship.
"Translator: Hung Nguyen"
Book Introductions
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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
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