Arab News Japan 

TOKYO: YOSHIOKA Tamami, a 2^nd year student at the Faculty of Languages ​​and Culture, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, has translated a popular Japanese folk story, Gon, the little fox “Gongitsune,” authored by Niimi Nankichi, into Arabic. 

“I decided to do this translation into Arabic because I thought it would be interesting if I could use what I had learned in my first year to mark an achievement,” YOSHIOKA told Arab News Japan.

The story “Gongitsune” appears in all elementary school textbooks in Japan, “It was a good opportunity to introduce such Japanese stories to Arab countries,” she said.

As the spread of COVID-19 made it hard for students to travel or study abroad, Tamami also turned this challenge into an opportunity to continue her Arabic studies with “valuable advice” from her faculty professor, Hussein Khaldun.

The story is about Gon, a lonely little fox who repeatedly steals food and creates mischief among the people of a small village. 

One day, Gon managed to steal an eel from Hyoju, a young man, who was fishing to feed his sick mother.  Soon after, his mother dies and Hiyoju blames the fox.

Gon felt responsible for making Hyoju lonely. He tries to make it up by secretly giving the young man gifts he had stolen, but this only caused more trouble as villagers started to accuse Hyoju of stealing and beat him up.

Gon then secretly provided Hyoju with mushrooms and nuts from the forest. Hyoju felt grateful, although he did not know who was bringing them.

One day, Hyoju saw Gon sneaking around, and he remembered that Gon had taken the eel meant for his mother. Hyoju shot the fox out of grief for her death. 

Only afterwards does he realize, to his horror, that the fox he had just shot had given him all the mushrooms and nuts.