Kaguya-hime - Japanese

My story begins not in a grand castle, but in a quiet, rustling forest of bamboo. Hello, I am Kaguya-hime. You might think it strange, but my first memory is of a warm, gentle light filtering through the green walls of a bamboo stalk. One day, an old bamboo cutter named Taketori no Okina was working when he saw my stalk, glowing as if it held a tiny piece of the moon. When he cut it open, there I was, no bigger than his thumb. He and his wife, who had always wished for a child, took me home and loved me as their own. My story, which people came to call 'The Tale of the Bamboo Cutter,' is one of wonder and a little bit of sadness. I grew very quickly, and with each passing day, my adoptive parents found gold in the bamboo stalks, making our family rich. Can you imagine that? But as I grew, a strange feeling grew in my heart—a longing for a home I couldn't quite remember, especially when the full moon lit up the night sky.

Word of my unusual beauty spread throughout the land, and soon, five noble princes arrived, each wanting to marry me. But my heart was not mine to give. I didn't want to leave my parents or marry someone who didn't understand the secret sadness I held. So, I gave them each a task, a quest for a treasure so rare it was thought to be impossible to find. I asked one for the Buddha's stone begging bowl from India, another for a jeweled branch from the mythical island of Hōrai. I requested the legendary robe of the fire-rat, a vibrant jewel from the neck of a sea dragon, and a special shell said to be born from a swallow. I knew these were impossible tasks, but it was the only way I could think of to protect my secret. What would you have done? The princes tried, some with trickery and some with bravery, but none could bring me the real treasures. Even the Emperor of Japan heard of me and wished for me to come to his court, but I could not. My heart already belonged to the silent, shining moon that pulled at my soul every night, making me weep without knowing why.

Finally, the time came when I could no longer hide my secret. I confessed to my weeping parents that I was not of this world. I was a princess from Tsuki no Miyako, the Capital of the Moon, and my people were coming to take me home. My father pleaded with the Emperor, who sent hundreds of soldiers to guard our home on the 15th day of the eighth month. But when the celestial chariot descended from the sky, surrounded by beings of light, the soldiers were blinded and could not fight. A celestial maiden offered me a feathered robe, the Hagoromo. I knew that once I put it on, all my memories of Earth, all my love and sadness, would vanish. It was a difficult choice, wasn't it? I wrote a final, tearful letter to my parents and another to the Emperor, leaving them with a small elixir of immortality. Then, as the robe settled on my shoulders, my earthly feelings faded, and I rose back into the night sky. My story has been told for over a thousand years in Japan. It reminds people that beauty can be fleeting and that love and loss are two sides of the same coin. It has inspired countless paintings, poems, and even movies, and it encourages everyone to look up at the full moon and wonder about the shining princess who once called Earth her home.