Simple Japanese

While they were talking like that, Telemachus went down to his father's high-roofed treasury. There was a great deal of polished gold and bronze there, as well as chests full of clothing and fragrant oils. Also, jars of old, sweet wine stood neatly along the walls, filled with unmixed sacred wine. This wine was set aside for when Odysseus returned after enduring so many hardships. The double doors were perfectly fitted. Day and night, the house's caretaker, Eurycleia, guarded them. She was the daughter of Ops, and the granddaughter of Peisenor. Telemachus called to her and asked her.

"Nurse, please draw twelve amphorae of sweet wine for me. Choose the best quality wine you have, second only to what is reserved for that unfortunate person. It seems you are thinking that the son of a god, Odysseus, who escaped death and fate, might return from somewhere. Make sure each amphora has a tight lid. Also, bring some wheat flour in a well-stitched leather bag. Twenty measures of ground wheat flour. You should know what I mean. Prepare everything together. My mother will go up to the upper rooms in the evening to prepare for sleep, and I will receive it then. I am going to Sparta and sandy Pylos to see if my dear father has returned or to inquire about news."

As Telemachus said this, his beloved nurse Eurycleia cried out. Lamenting, she said to him, "My dear child, how could such a thought have entered your mind? You, who are cherished by everyone, want to go alone to some distant land. The god Odysseus was far from home and died in a foreign land. If you leave, those people will immediately plot against you. They will kill you with trickery and divide all your possessions among themselves. Stay here and sit beside your belongings. You do not need to suffer or wander on the stormy sea."

The thoughtful Telemachus replied, "Please be assured, nurse. This plan was not devised without the guidance of a god. But please promise my beloved mother that you will not tell her about this. Until the eleventh or twelfth day, or until she herself wants to know and hears that I have departed." He said, "I don't want my mother to cry and damage her beautiful skin."

After he said that, the old woman swore a great oath in the name of the gods. After finishing her oath, she immediately poured sake into a jug and put wheat flour into a tightly sealed leather bag.