English: "Once upon a time..."
Arabic: "There was, oh what there was (or there wasn't) in the oldest of days and ages and times..."
Armenian: "There was, there was not..."
Czech: "Beyond seven mountain ranges, beyond seven rivers..."
Esperanto (which is constructed, so it barely counts, but it's a cool one): "In a time already long past, when it was still of use to cast a spell…"
Estonian: "Behind seven lands and seas there lived a..."
Filipino: "At the beginning of time..." or "At the first time..."
German: "Back in the days when it was still of help to wish for a thing..."
Gujarati: "This is an old story."
Hungarian: "Once there was, where there wasn't, there was a..."
Iraqw (Tanzania): "I remember something that our father told me and that is this:"
Irish: "A long, long, long time ago it was (and there was a king in Galway)"
Japanese: "Long ago, long ago..."
Korean: "In times of that a tiger used to smoke."
Koti(Mozambique): "Once upon the time, there was a truly great friendship..."
Persian: "Someone was, someone wasn't..."
Romanian: "There once was, (as never before)... because if there wasn't, it wouldn't have been to told"
Russian: "(In some kingdom, in some land) There lived, there was..."
Slovak: "Where the water was being strewn and the sand poured..."
(Slovak gets credit for its traditional ending: "...and if they haven't died already, they are living happily to this day.")
Turkish: "Once there was, and once there wasn't. In the long-distant days of yore, when haystacks winnowed sieves, when genies played jereed in the old bathhouse, fleas were barbers, camels were town criers, I softly rocked my baby grandmother to sleep in her creaking cradle, there was/lived, in an exotic land, far, far away, a/an..."
From: @Nomedabarbarian on twitter.
