Table of Contents
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Table of Contents I. Foreword 4 II. Short Stories Little One Inch 6-7 My Cousin 8-10 The Story Spirits 11- 15 Two Days in a Foreign Land 16- 18 The Tamed Tigers of Thailand 19- 20 Who Bell the Cat? Morning in Nagrebcan Two Brothers The Man Who Never Lied The Silent Whisper III. Poetry Slowly Turning Japanese Awake No Gifts From War Tree Cut To My Native Land The Land of the Golden Sun IV. Songs Nanatsu No Ko Peng You Hangul Song for Singapore Munnali Kadhali Namewee Bahay Kubo Maa'-oul El Gharam Pata Pata Lan Ma Kwe` Kyay V. Quotations VI. Essays VII. Reference Foreword Aimless Stroll is a magazine that contains short stories, poetries, songs, and quotations from 10 different countries which are Japan, China, Korea, Singapore, Myanmar, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Africa, Thailand, and Malaysia. The author named the magazine “Aimless Stroll” because it means going to places in an aimless or leisure way. The title of the magazine is just quite obvious, because from the word it- self, “Aimless”, meaning no direction and “Stroll” meaning wander. In this magazine, you could be able to see the wonders of these 10 countries so that’s why you don’t need to go to these places to conquer its beauty. You could see its beauty by just reading their literature. Little One Inch Once long ago in Japan, there lived a couple who had no children. They prayed to the gods for a child, even one as small as a finger, and finally their prayers were answered. The child born to them was so small that they named him Issun Boshi, 'Little One Inch'. When Issun Boshi reached the age of 15, he said goodbye to his parents and set out for Kyoto, the capital city, to seek his for- tune. In Kyoto he found employment in a wealthy household. He could not do much work because of his size, but his diligence and sincerity pleased his master and his mistress. And their daughter found him delightful. One day Issun Boshi accompanied the girl to the temple. On the way, two giants leaped out in front of them from behind some bushes. Issun Boshi deliberately drew their attention to him so that the girl could escape. But then the giants were furious with him and one of them picked him up and swallowed him. Issun Boshi had a needle his mother had given him. He used to wear it around his waist like a sword. When he found himself in the gi- ant's stomach he took out the needle from its scabbard and began to stab the giant's stomach with it. Then climbing out through the gullet he stormed into the giant's mouth where he wreaked havoc with his nee- dle. The giant was frightened and spat him out. When the other giant bent down to look at him, Issun Boshi stabbed him in the eye. The giants had had enough. They ran away, one holding a hand to his mouth and the other to his eye. In their haste they left behind a mallet which Issun Boshi and the girl — she had come back to help him — recognized as a magical object. "You have to hit it on the ground and make a wish," said the girl. In their haste they left behind a mallet which Issun Boshi and the girl — she had come back to help him — recognized as a magical object. "You have to hit it on the ground and make a wish," said the girl. So they hit the mallet on the ground and made a wish. The next moment, Issun Boshi had grown to normal size and stood clad in the armour of a samurai! The girl's father had no hesitation in giving his daughter in marriage to Issun Boshi, and the young samurai proved to be a devoted husband. Oh, yes, he brought his parents too, to live with him and them, though happy to see their dear son grown so big, continued to call him Issun Boshi! My Cousin By: Chen Yonglin Cousin was about to turn thirty, but no woman had as yet been will- ing to move in with him. Second Auntie, his mother, had been so worried about this that she couldn't get any sleep. He was her only son, and if she let the line end with him, how would she be able to face the spirits in the next world? She'd tried to hire matchmakers but they'd all turned her down flat. She wondered if it was because they thought her family was too poor. One matchmaker said she wasn't worried that young girlies would think the family was too poor. "It's because your son is a fool." Auntie got an ugly expression on her face. "Who says my son's a fool?" The matchmaker told her that that was what all the "girlies" were saying. Cousin is a bit foolish. Like, last year when he led a pig weighing over two hundred pounds to town to sell. He sold it for five hundred Yuan, tucked the money in his clothes and started home. When he passed by the bus depot he saw a man who looked utterly miserable, sitting on the con- crete, shivering. "What's wrong?" Cousin asked him. "Oh, God," the man said. "I lost my wallet. I don't even have the money to get home." "How much do you need?" Cousin asked him. "At least four hundred Yuan," the man said. "I'm from Guangzhou and came here on business. Can you loan me some? I'll send you money to repay you as soon as I get back to Guangzhou." Cousin pulled out four hundred Yuan and gave it to the guy without saying a word, then told the man his address. The man thanked him pro- fusely and walked off. After more than a month, the postman still had not stepped up to Cousin's door. Auntie yelled at Cousin for a whole day. Cousin said maybe the guy was a little short of cash, or maybe he'd lost the address he'd given him. Auntie got so mad she was trembling. "You blockhead, why can't you use your brains?" Cousin said that he'd be more careful in the future, but Auntie kept after him. "That pig, I busted my butt a whole year raising it, just to get scammed...." Eventually one of the matchmakers couldn't resist Auntie's tearful entreaties and worked hard to find a woman for Cousin. On the day they agreed to the marriage, Cousin took a thousand Yuan and went to town with the girl to buy clothes. When they got to the entrance to County Hos- pital, Cousin saw a young woman crying her eyes out. "What is it?" he asked her. "My dad has a serious illness and needs an operation," the young woman said, choking back her tears, "but I can't come up with the money." "How much does it cost?" Cousin asked. "The doctor says he won't do the operation for less than a thousand Yuan," she replied. Cousin fished the thousand Yuan out of his pocket, and the woman fell ker-plop to her knees in front of him. Cousin got flustered and quickly helped her to her feet. "C'mon, hurry, go save your dad." The young woman went off toward the hospital, and Cousin noticed that the girl he'd come with had disappeared. He looked all around but couldn't find her and returned home crestfallen. When Auntie heard him explain what had happened, her legs gave out and she slumped to the floor, weeping. The next morning, Auntie went to County Hospital with Cousin. They asked around and learned that the woman's father had died and she'd gone home. Auntie asked the doctor where she lived but he didn't know. With more than thirty villages in the county, there was no way to find her. Needless to say, Cousin's marriage to that girl was called off. Auntie stayed at home a whole day after that, crying and cussing a blue streak. Cousin couldn't stay there, so he went off to Guangzhou to look for work. He walked around the city until his feet were covered with callouses, but still couldn't find anything. Eventually he heard a fellow from our area say that the Milky Way Toy Factory was looking for porters, so he went there. When he met the Factory Director he thought the man looked familiar. "I seem to have seen you somewhere," he said. The Director said, "I've seen you, too." The man thought hard to remember, then slapped his forehead and said, "I've got it! I still owe you four hundred Yuan. Now you're here and I can finally pay you back. You must have thought I skipped out on the debt, but, really, I didn't. I wanted to send you the money as soon as I got back to Guangzhou, but I couldn't find the paper you'd given me with your address on it." And so Cousin became a foreman with a monthly sal- ary of one thousand Yuan. Two months later Cousin sent Auntie a letter along with fifteen hundred Yuan. "Even a fool can be blessed," she ex- claimed happily. Afterwards the factory prospered and hired a bunch of female employees. One day Cousin saw a familiar face when he got to work, and the young woman also did a double-take when she saw Cousin.