Tyltyl and Mytyl

A swallow tells her chicks about the dangerous sea they must cross. A horse waits in the scorching sun while its master drinks. A rabbit lets others persuade her to cut off her ears, and a dreaming pig mistakes the road to the slaughterhouse for a royal invitation.

In these thirty-six short tales, Yamamura Bochō gives animals, plants, and ordinary objects voices that are tender, funny, sharp, and sometimes devastating. Parents and children misunderstand one another; pride collides with poverty; kindness appears unexpectedly; and the natural world offers no easy guarantee of justice. The author’s moving preface explains his wish to be not only a father but a good friend to his children.

First published as a collection in 1920, Tyltyl and Mytyl brings together the imaginative intimacy of children’s storytelling and the searching concerns of a poet. This complete new English translation preserves the preface, all thirty-six tales, and the original’s unsettling turns, with brief notes on cultural references and textual details. AI-assisted translation.