Saturday, June 23, 2012

Ta-In and Ta-Na

A long time ago, in a village, there were two old men.  Their names were Ta-In and Ta-Na; they were intimate friends.  They had a good relationship and took care of their friends.
   Every day, they would go fishing at the river.  They were good fishermen.  They had a lot of fish to carry back home every day; when they had fish, they would share them together.  If another fisherman  didn't have fish, his friend would give him fish.  Fish was their food.
   One day, they went fishing, same as every day; they fished from morning to night, but they didn't have any fish.  They were very hungry, and they knew that if they didn't have any fish, they wouldn't have any food either.  Immediately, a fish bit Ta-In's hook.  They were very happy.  But it was a very big fish; Ta-In couldn't draw it up onto the shore, so he called Ta-Na to help him.  Ta-Na helped Ta-In to draw it up on the shore.  It was a very big fish; they were very happy and appreciated that.  They knew they would have food for tonight, and they wanted to go back home because they were very hungry.  But they had one problem: "Who is the owner of this fish?" -- because there was only one fish which was caught by both Ta-In and Ta-Na.  So they started to contradict each other; Ta-In told Ta-Na: "The fish bit my hook, so I am the owner, I will carry it to my house."  But Ta-Na opposed him; he told Ta-In: "If I didn't help you, this fish wouldn't be on shore right now, because you couldn't draw it by yourself.  So I'm the owner.'  They quarreled very loudly for a long time.
   And then, there was one guy who walked past that way.  His name was Ta-You; he heard about their problem, he walked to them and asked them about their problem, and they talked about their problem to him.  Ta-You thought about the problem, Then he smiled and told them, "I will help you to clear up this problem."  Ta-In and Ta-Na appreciated it because they wanted to go back home and eat dinner.
   Ta-You walked to them and said, "Ta-In, this fish bit your hook, so you should receive the fish's head, and Ta-Na, you helped Ta-In draw it on the shore, so you should receive the fish's tail."  Ta-In and Ta-Na appreciated it very much because they would have a part of the fish for their dinner, and they could go back home now.  But they had another problem.  Ta-In asked Ta-You, "How about the fish's body?"  Ta-You smiled and told them, "I'm the committee, so I should receive the fish's body."  Then Ta-You carried the fish's body to his house.
   Ta-In and Ta-Na were very sad.  They knew that if they united, they would have all of the fish and they could eat it together.  They knew that they had only the fish's head and the fish's tail because they didn't unite; if they weren't selfish, they would have had the whole fish.
1996
   -Met Junhavat
 

1 comment:

  1. Good day!

    I am a starting textbook writer for ESL learners in the Philippines and I have decided to include the short Thai folktale entitled, Ta-in and Ta-na, which I have found from your website. It is one of the short texts I have used as a springboard to explain and elaborate the skills that I want my target readers to develop. I would like to request you to grant me your permission to use the aforementioned literary piece in the textbook that I am writing. This will help me a lot.

    I am looking forward to receiving a favorable response from you soon. Thank you!

    Sincerely,

    Ma. Theresa Navales

    ReplyDelete