The Stones Are Soft by Boris Berger

In fact, the stones are soft, they just harden up when we touch them.  In fact, we are too soft, and the stones are too hard for us.

. . . When the stones were soft, says a Nanai legend.  'At the beginning of the world there were three people: Shanwai, Shankoah, Shankah.
And this three men made a man named Kado and a woman Julyaoo by the stones and the sand.  And then a maiden named Mamildzhi.  Humankind multiplied and occupied the whole land along the Amur.

Kado said: there are three suns in the sky.  Too hot to live.  I want to shoot two suns with arrows. . . And he went towards the sunrise.  Dug a hole.  Hid in it.  He saw the first sun rise and shot it down.  He shot at the second one, but missed.  Killed the third.  Only the one in the middle remain.  The water boiled — became a mountain.  The mountain boiled — became a river.   And while the stones were warm, Mamildzhi painted birds and animals on them.  Then the stones became hard. . .'

That's how it all happened.


transl. by Ed. Labintzeff