Англомовна література

 

The Swan, the Pike and the Crab
The Mitten
Sirko
Mr. Cat
Rabbit’s Fat
The Goat and the Sheep

The Swan, the Pike and the Crab
Translated by Stefan R. Trela

The swan was swimming near the shore of a beautiful lake. He bent his neck to look into the water. The pike was swimming near the swan and asked him a question. «Mr. Swan, please tell me where you go when the water freez­es?»
«Why do you want to know?»
«I want to go somewhere for the wintertime because I cannot breathe under the ice.»
The swan said, «I usually fly to a warm place for the winter and stay there until spring.»
«Take me with you,» asked the pike.
«We can go together. It will be more cheerful,» said the swan.
The crab heard the conversation and said, «Take me with you.»
«You can come with us, it will be more cheerful» the swan replied.
«1 will tell you when to fly.» The swan thought, if the pike and the crab could swim in the water, then they could fly in the air.
Meanwhile, summer passed by, autumn came and at last the swan said, «It is time to fly south. Prepare yourself for tomorrow. We will go after dinner», the pike told the crab.
The crab said, «How, my sister, are we going to live on dry land without food? Let’s take some food with us that will last us until we get to the warm place.»
«How are we going to take it?» asked the pike. «Let’s fill the wagon with food and harness ourselves to it and pull it. Invite the swan for company. He will help us pull the wagon with the food.» The crab and the pike found a wag­on and some grass traces and were waiting for the swan. The next day the swan flew in and said, «Are you ready? I am flying.»
«Ready, ready! Only would you be so kind as to help us pull the wagon.»
«Good! Tie the trace around my foot.» The crab tied the trace onto the swan’s foot. The crab took a trace and put it on its claw, and the pike put a trace in its mouth.
«Together! Let’s go!» The crab went backwards moving his tail. The pike went into the deep water like an arrow, and the swan with its strong wings flew high into the sky. All of the traces ripped and the wagon didn’t move.
Who was right? Nobody judged them. Only the frogs laughed and they wondered why the crab and the pike tried this affair.

The Mitten
Translated by Edward D. Trela

One day Grandfather was walking through the forest with his dog. He lost his mitten while he was walking. A mouse was running in the forest. She saw the mitten. The mouse said, I will live in the mitten.
Then a frog came up and said, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse and who are you?
My name is a Croaking Frog. Let me in.
Come in. Now there were two occupants in the mit­ten.
Then a rabbit ran by. She came to the mitten and asked, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse and this is Croaking Frog, and who are you?
My name is Fast Rabbit. Let me in.
Come in. Now, there were three occupants in the mit­ten.
A fox was running through the forest and saw the mit­ten and asked, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse and this is Croaking Frog and Fast Rabbit, and who are you?
My name is Sister Fox. Let me in.

Come in. Then there were four occupants in the mit­ten.
A fox was running through the forest and saw the mit­ten and asked, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse and this is Croaking Frog, Fast Rabbit, and Sister Fox, and who are you?
My name is Brother Wolf. Let me in.
Come in. Now there were five occupants in the mit­ten.
A boar came running by the mitten and asked, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse and this is Croaking Frog, Fast Rabbit, Sister Fox, and Brother Wolf, but who are you?
My name is Buck Tooth Boar. Let me in.
Come in. Now there were six occupants in the mitten and it was getting very crowded.
Along came a bear and asked, Who is in this mitten?
I am Squeaking Mouse, and this is Croaking Frog, Fast Rabbit, Sister Fox, Brother Wolf, and Buck Tooth Boar. Who are you?
Ho, ho, ho. There are many of you in there. My name is Walking Bear. Let me in.
Where can you go? We are crowded already.
Somehow I will fit.
So come in, but sit at the end. The bear squeezed in
and there were seven occupants in the mitten. It was getting very crowded inside the mitten. The mitten almost ripped.
Then the Grandfather started to look for his mitten. He went back to look for it. His dog ran ahead and ran and ran and ran. The dog saw the mitten moving and began barking.
All the animals were frightened and ran out of the mit­ten. They spread out through the forest. The Grandfather picked up his mitten and put it into his pocket.

Sirko
Translated by Stefan R. Trela

There was a man with an old dog named Sirko.
The man didn’t want to keep the dog anymore. Sirko wandered off into a field and was feeling very bitter.
I was loyal to my owner for so many years. Now that I’m old, my owner does not want me anymore, thought Sirko.
Suddenly, a wolf came and asked him, Why are you walking here?
Sirko replied, Brother Wolf, my owner threw me off his property, and now I have no place to live.
The wolf asked, Do you want your owner to take you back?
Sirko said, Please help me get my owner to take me back into his house.
The wolf said, When your owner and his wife come to work in the field tomorrow morning, they will put their child
to rest, and you must walk close to the field so that I will know where they are. I will take their child, and you will try
to take it away from me. I will pretend that I am scared of you, and let you take the child away from me.During the harvest time, the man and the wife went to work in the fields. The woman put her little child to rest in the field and went to work next to her husband. All of a sudden the wolf came and took the child.

Sirko followed the wolf and caught him. The man hollered and encouraged Sirko to fight the wolf.
Sirko caught the wolf, and took the child from him. Sirko brought the child back to the man.
The man took bread and bacon out of his sack and rewarded Sirko for saving his child.
In the evening when they came home, the man said to his wife, Wife, make buckwheat pancakes and put lots of bacon in them.
When the pancakes were ready, he took Sirko to the table and sat by him.
The man put hot food on a plate for Sirko and cooled it so Sirko wouldn’t burn himself.
Sirko wanted to repay the wolf for helping him get back into his owner’s house.
The oldest daughter was planning a wedding. Everyone in the village would be visiting on Sunday. Sirko went out to the field to invite the wolf to this big wedding.
Come visit us on Sunday evening. I will take you into the house, and repay you for all the good things you did for me.
The wolf waited for Sunday and came to the place Sirko told him to wait.
Sirko took the wolf into the house, and put him under the table. Then Sirko took a lot of meat and drinks and put them under the table.
When the guests saw it, they wanted to beat the dog and wolf, but the owner said, Don’t beat Sirko. He has been good to me, and I will be good to him as long as he lives. Sirko took the best food from the table and gave it to the wolf.
At the end, the wolf couldn’t stand being quiet anymore and said, I am going to sing.
Sirko said, Please, don’t sing. It is going to be a disas­ter! I’ll give you some more to eat and drink if you will not sing.
When the wolf ate and drank more, he said, Now I am going to sing.
Don’t sing! We will both have to leave then. Oh, I can’t stand it anymore. I am going to sing.
The wolf started to holler under the table. The guests got up and wanted to beat the wolf. But Sirko laid on the wolf and pretended that he was choking the wolf.
The man said, Don’t beat the wolf because you could injure Sirko. He can manage the wolf by himself. Sirko took the wolf out of the house to the field and said, You were good to me and I was good to you.
They said good-bye to each other and went their sepa­rate ways.
Mr. Cat
Translated by Edward D. Trela
One man owned a cat and it was not useful to him anymore.
The cat could not catch a mouse, was sick, and was getting very old. One day the man took the cat to the woods and thought, Why do I need him? All I do is feed him. It would be better if he wandered off into the forest. So he left the cat and went home by himself.
A fox happened to see the cat and asked, Who are you?
The cat said, I am Mr. Cat.
The fox then replied, Would you like to be my husband and I will be your wife? The cat agreed. The fox took the cat to her house and was trying to please him. When she caught a chicken she did not eat it. She gave it to the cat.
One day a rabbit saw the fox and asked her, Sister Fox, may I come visit you some evening?
The fox answered, Right now Mr. Cat is staying with me, and he is going to tear you up if you come over.
The rabbit told the wolf, the bear and the wild boar about Mr. Cat.
They got together and planned how they could see Mr. Cat.
At last they decided, Let’s invite him to dinner and they decided what they would bring for dinner.
The wolf said, I will bring the meat for the borscht.
The wild boar said, I will bring beets and potatoes. The bear said, I will bring honey for the desert.
The rabbit said I will bring cabbage.
They obtained everything they needed and prepared din­ner. When they finished making dinner, they discussed who was going to call Mr. Cat.

The bear said, I cannot run fast enough to escape, if I had to.
The wild boar said, I am too clumsy.
The wolf said, I am old and cannot see well.
Only the rabbit did not have an excuse. The rabbit ran to the fox’s home and the fox came out to see the rabbit standing on two paws in front of his house and she said, Why are you here?
The rabbit answered, The wolf, bear, wild boar, and I are asking if you and Mr. Cat can come over for dinner?
We will come, but you have to hide. Otherwise, he will tear all of you up.
So they hid. The bear climbed up the tree. The wolf sat behind the bushes. The wild boar hid behind some branches, and the rabbit hid in a bush.
The fox brought Mr. Cat. When they got close to the table, and he saw lots of meat, he meowed, Mur, Mur, Mur.
When they heard that, they thought he was saying, more, more, more and wanted to eat them. Mr. Cat climbed on the table and started to eat so fast that his ear lobes were moving. When he finished eating, he stretched out on the table.
The wild boar was laying in the branches and a mosquito bit him on the tail and his tail moved. Mr. Cat thought that it was a mouse and he jumped and caught the boar by his tail. The wild boar got up and ran.
Mr. Cat was frightened by the wild boar and climbed up the tree where the bear was hiding. When the bear saw that Mr. Cat was climbing toward him, he started to climb higher. The branches could not support him and he fell straight down on the wolf and almost crushed him.
They got up and ran away as fast as they could. The rabbit ran with them. Later on they got together and said, He is so small, but he almost ate all of us.

Raddit’s Fat
Translated by Edward D. Trela
One day a gentleman went on a long journey with a coachman named Ivan. Both of them were quiet. The gentleman got tired of the silence so he started a conversation. At that time, he spotted a rabbit on the road. So he started a conversation about the rabbit.
In my forest we have rabbits that are much bigger than this little rabbit. One time i went hunting with ten gatherers. They put lots of rabbits where I was standing, and i was shooting at them. I got thirty of them. One of them was as big as a sheep. When 1 skinned him, I saw close to fifteen pounds of fat. This rabbit had so much fat!
The coachman was listening and then he said, Hey, pretty soon we will come to the bridge that breaks if liar’s travel across it.
The gentleman listened and said, Listen Ivan, did you hear what kind of rabbits we have? Well, he did not have fifteen pounds of fat but maybe ten pounds.
Of course a rabbit is a rabbit, said Ivan.
They rode farther and the gentleman again told Ivan, So Ivan, how soon will we be crossing the bridge that you were talking about?
Pretty soon, sir! said Ivan.
But you know, Ivan, he continued, maybe there were 3 to 4 pounds of fat on that rabbit and no more.
As for me, said Ivan, I can live with that.
They went farther and the gentleman was not sitting quietly, and then he asked again, How soon Ivan are we going to get to that bridge?
Pretty soon, sir. As soon as we get to that valley.
Hmmm, said the gentleman. You know Ivan, there was no fat at all on that rabbit. You know yourself what kind of fat is on a rabbit.
They came to the valley and the gentleman said, Where is the bridge that you were talking about?
Oh, sir, said Ivan, the bridge melts the same way as the fat on that rabbit you were talking about.
The Goat and the Sheep
Translated by Stefan R. Trela
There was a husband and a wife and they had a goat and a sheep.
The goat and the sheep were good friends. Wherever the goat went the sheep followed: when the goat was in the garden eating cabbage, the sheep was there with him, when the goat was in the orchard, the sheep was there with him.
Oh wife, said the husband, get rid of the sheep and the goat because they are eating everything in our orchard and garden.
Get out, goat and sheep! I don’t want to see you on my property again, said the wife.
As soon as the goat and sheep heard the wife say that, they made a large sack and left. They walked until they came to a large field. They saw a wolfs head in the middle of the field.
The sheep was strong but not brave, and the goat was
brave but not strong.
Oh goat, you take the head because you are brave.
Together they took the head and put it in the sack. They continued on until they saw a bonfire in the field.
Let’s go there and spend the night so wolves won’t eat
us.
They came to the bonfire and saw some wolves making porridge. They greeted the wolves by saying, Greetings, strong fellows.
Strong! Strong! The wolves replied joyfully.
The porridge is not boiling yet, you will be our meat, said the wolves.
The goat and sheep were very frightened.
The goat had a plan. He said to the sheep, Sheep, give me that wolfs head that we have in our sack. The sheep brought the wolfs head.
Not this one. Give me a bigger one, said the goat.
The sheep brought the same head again, but the goat said, Give me a bigger one.
Now the wolves got scared. They thought they should escape from there. These fellows would chop our heads off if we let them, thought the wolves. They bring wolves’ heads one after another.
One of the wolves said, Nice company, fellows. Our porridge is boiling and needs more water. I will go and bring some water.
When the wolf went to bring the water, he was thinking, Heck with your company. I don’t want to be with you.
The second wolf was waiting for the first wolf to return, and in the meantime, he was thinking about how to get away also.
Oh that deceitful wolf! He went to get water and he hasn’t come back and we need water. I will take a stick and bring him back like a dog.
He also went away and didn’t come back.
The third wolf was sitting and said, I will go and bring them both back. The third wolf was very glad to get a chance to get away.
Then the goat said to the sheep, Oh brother, let’s hurry and eat the porridge and get away from here.
They ate fast and got away.
that the three of us are afraid of a goat and a sheep. Let’s go and eat them.
They came but the goat and the sheep had already left and climbed a nearby oak tree. The wolves were thinking of a way they could catch the sheep and the goat.
They went and found the sheep and goat in an oak tree.
The goat was brave, and climbed to the top of the tree.
The sheep was not brave and remained in the lower branches.
Lay down, the wolves said to the first wolf.
You are the oldest and can make a magic spell that will bring them down from the tree.
The wolf laid down with his feet up and started to make magic.
The sheep was sitting on a branch and began shaking. He was not able to hold on and fell down on the wolf.
The goat was braver and he was not afraid and he started to holler, Give me the magic, wolf.
The wolves got scared and they ran away.
The goat and the sheep came down from the oak tree, went into the field, built themselves a home, and lived there.