DETAILS
Author:
Translated by Lwam Ghebrehariat
Document Type: Folk tale ጽá‹áŒ½á‹‹á‹
Category: Educational ትáˆáˆ…áˆá‰³á‹Š, Fiction áˆá‰ ወለድ, Historical ታሪኻዊ, Linguistic ናዠቛንቛ, Traditional ባህለዊ
Date: Circa 2004
Date Details: Told on July 10, 2004
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Extras:
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Notes:
"Stone cutting is the hardest work there is," the storyteller says, and this belief seems to lend a special significance to this tale. It is the story of the stone cutter and the worm -- a religious tale about the God\'s mercy in the midst of struggle and hardship, the mercy for a worm trapped in a rock, and the mercy for a despairing stone cutter. This story was recorded in Edmonton, but the storyteller heard the story as a child growing up in Asmara. It was a guest from the country who told her the story. This simple and perhaps naive tale, the first one I ever translated, continues to fascinate me. There is a tension between the strong work ethic which is usually encouraged in folklore -- the ethic which urges one to take their own survival into their own hands, and to plan and make sacrifices for the future -- and a deeper sense of faith that, no matter what, the means of survival will be provided for us. This seems to be a tension about work; on the one hand, we need to work, but on the other hand, faith, according to this story, is all we really need.
Comments: None [add]
Artifact record edited by Lwam Ghebrehariat at 2006-05-12 08:26:14
Document Type: Folk tale ጽá‹áŒ½á‹‹á‹
Category: Educational ትáˆáˆ…áˆá‰³á‹Š, Fiction áˆá‰ ወለድ, Historical ታሪኻዊ, Linguistic ናዠቛንቛ, Traditional ባህለዊ
Date: Circa 2004
Date Details: Told on July 10, 2004
Location: Edmonton, Canada
Extras:
[view fulltext]
[view media]
Notes:
"Stone cutting is the hardest work there is," the storyteller says, and this belief seems to lend a special significance to this tale. It is the story of the stone cutter and the worm -- a religious tale about the God\'s mercy in the midst of struggle and hardship, the mercy for a worm trapped in a rock, and the mercy for a despairing stone cutter. This story was recorded in Edmonton, but the storyteller heard the story as a child growing up in Asmara. It was a guest from the country who told her the story. This simple and perhaps naive tale, the first one I ever translated, continues to fascinate me. There is a tension between the strong work ethic which is usually encouraged in folklore -- the ethic which urges one to take their own survival into their own hands, and to plan and make sacrifices for the future -- and a deeper sense of faith that, no matter what, the means of survival will be provided for us. This seems to be a tension about work; on the one hand, we need to work, but on the other hand, faith, according to this story, is all we really need.
Comments: None [add]
Artifact record edited by Lwam Ghebrehariat at 2006-05-12 08:26:14