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<p>The Animal Without Any Name</p>
Then he put the paper back in the box, and so as not to frighten his
very first friend, he hid in the wild grasses.
page 17
The animal with no name waited a little. But the more he waited, the more he thought that he
would like to know his friend’s name. He went back up to the box, knocked again and the box opened. But the drawing wasn’t there!
page 18
<p><p>The Animal Without Any Name</p></p>
In its place, there were lots of little pebbles. The little pebbles formed letters, which in
their turn formed words, which spelled out
“I’LL CALL YOU BAMASHA
OF THE DAY”
page 19
<p>The Animal Without Any Name</p>
Bamasha of the Day looked at the pebbles, looked at the grasses, looked at the clouds, and
smiled. He said to himself “What a pretty name, ‘Bamasha of the Day’,” and he cried out as loud as he could
“Who are you?”
page 20
<p>The Animal Without Any Name</p>
And the cry carried all across the prairie of wild grasses. The birds, the insects, the
grass runners… they all woke up.
page 21
<p>The Animal Without Any Name</p>
They all ran to the box to see who had shouted. And there, in the wild grasses, they discovered two new friends: Bamasha of the Day and Saloma of the Box.
page 22
complete English translation
The Animal Without Any Name
The Animal With No Name
drawings by julie lamberson and story by guillaume varet
1
In the middle of a prairie
of wild grasses lived an animal with no name and no friends.
2
The animal with no name
had no one to play with. No one to talk with. No one. No one. No
one.
3
He had never met the other
inhabitants of the wild grasses. That, in fact, was the reason he
didn’t have any friends. And he was bored a lot. A whole lot. So
he spent all his time sleeping in his little house.
4
The animal with no name
didn’t get up until the sun was very high in the sky, and the heat
stifled all signs of life. Silence reigned then over the prairie of
wild grasses, because all the other inhabitants were taking their
naps.
5
The birds took refuge in
their nests in the shade of the leaves.
6
The insects hid under the
grasses and let themselves be rocked by the wind.
7
The grass runners buried
themselves deep in the ground, there where the heat hesitated to
venture.
8
The prairie of wild
grasses was full of drowsiness then and empty of friends for the
animal with no name. And he believed himself to be alone.
9
One day, however, as he
ventured his snout into the bright daytime sun, he discovered an
enormous wooden box.
10
Observing it more closely,
he saw a lock without any key. What could be inside?
11
The animal with no name
pushed, pulled, bit, blew in the keyhole… but nothing worked, the
box didn’t open.
12
Where could this box have
come from, anyway? He looked all around him, trying to see if maybe
a box tree hadn’t grown up during the night. But there wasn’t
any new tree! Someone had put it there, then.
If there was a friend
somewhere in the prairie of wild grasses, he wanted to meet them.
13
To find out if the box was
empty, the animal with no name knocked softly on the wood.
And the box opened.
14
Inside the box, he found a
drawing. And at the bottom of the drawing, someone had written:
WHO ARE YOU?
15
The heart of the animal
with no name started to beat very fast. He didn’t feel like
sleeping any more at all. He felt like answering his friend. But
how to answer them?
Suddenly he had an idea.
16
He seized the drawing
again and on the back he wrote, “I am an animal with no name.”
Then he put the paper back in the box, and so as not to frighten his
very first friend, he hid in the wild grasses.
17
The animal with no name
waited a little. But the more he waited, the more he thought that he
would like to know his friend’s name. He went back up to the box,
knocked again and the box opened. But the drawing wasn’t there!
18
In its place, there were
lots of little pebbles. The little pebbles formed letters, which in
their turn formed words, which spelled out
“I’LL CALL YOU BAMASHA OF THE DAY”
19
Bamasha of the Day looked
at the pebbles, looked at the grasses, looked at the clouds, and
smiled. He said to himself “What a pretty name, ‘Bamasha of the
Day’,” and he cried out as loud as he could
“Who are you?”
20
And the cry carried all
across the prairie of wild grasses. The birds, the insects, the
grass runners… they all woke up.
21
They all ran to the box to
see who had shouted. And there, in the wild grasses, they discovered
two new friends: Bamasha of the Day and Saloma of the Box.
22
These days, Bamasha of the
Day doesn’t get bored anymore. He spends his time running in the
grasses with his new friends.
He’s moved house, too: now he lives with Saloma in a box always open for anyone who wants to stop by…