Once upon a time,
there was a village
just inside a vast mountain range. The villagers viewed themselves and were viewed by their neighbors as mountain people. They almost never went deeper into the mountain, but a legend existed inside the village that a volcano was somewhere in the mountains, and that one day it would erupt and destroy the village.
There was one family in the village with three children.
One day, the second eldest child declared that the volcano legend must be fiction, and decided to leave the village
out of the mountain range.
The first child stayed home.
The second child left, as they said they would.
The third, decided to head into the mountain range
in search of the volcano.
After setting off from home into the mountain,
the first person that the third met was a mountain guide.
"Where is the volcano?" the third asked the guide.
The guide did not know where the volcano was, but was
familiar with a number of paths across the mountain range.
The third traveled with the guide for some time, learning
the mountain paths, but eventually decided to go on alone
knowing that was the only way to find the volcano.
Traveling further, the third encountered a settled couple living
a secluded life inside the mountain range. They welcomed the child
into their home, and invited the third to stay. Staying, the child
enjoyed a happy routine with the couple, but again decided to set
off alone on the quest to the volcano.
After many more travels, the third encountered an old solitary traveller,
admitting to looking for the volcano, too. The old stranger
believed that a certain peak was the volcano, and
pointed to it off in the distance.
The third child followed the old traveller, and they helped each other towards
the distant peak.
When they arrived, there was an expansive panoramic view
at the summit, but
no volcano. However, in the distance they caught sight of a small tendril of smoke that rose from
a peak farther off.
The old traveller squinted at the smoke and explained that the mountain
range was created by two forces--pointing to the river far below in the
ravine, the river created the valleys; and sweeping a hand forward, the
volcano created the peaks. Together they sculpted the mountain range.
With that, the old traveller jumped down into the ravine falling far down
into the river.
Alone again, the third child traveled to the volcano's peak. Reaching the top, the volcano exploded, destroying the child in the
molten fire.
The village's people were buried under ash.
Linear Translation
notation: pronunciation: /ø/
mou
town/society
'ou
just inside (mountains)
nou
family
hou
children
pou
[plus one]
chou
(first) stays home
lou
(second) leaves (mountains)
vou
(third) searches
thou
guide
gou
settled couple
kou
old-person
khou
followed/aided
fou
expansive view
rou
top,summit
qou
spots, catches sight of
zou
smoke (beacon)
jou
river (depositing, beating down force)
bou
volcano (destructive producing force)
tou
made [sculpted]
shou
(the) mountain range
you
(the old person) jumps (into the river)
dou
(third) travels (to volcano)
sou
explosion
dhou
burning (third) [directly]
wou
they (town's people, etc: all except second and third)
Volcano
