Prevod

There was once a poor man who had four sons. When they were grown, he said to them, “Dear children, you must now go out into the world, for I have nothing to give you. Set off for foreign lands, learn a trade, and see how you can make your way.” So the four brothers took up their walking sticks, bade their father farewell, and went out through the town gate together. After they had travelled for some time, they came to a crossroads leading to four different regions. Then the eldest said, “Here we must part, but four years from today we shall meet again in this very place, and in the meantime each try his fortune.”

Each now went his own way, and the eldest met a man who asked where he was bound and what he intended to do. “I want to learn a trade,” he answered. “Then come with me and become a thief,” said the man. “No,” he replied, “that is hardly counted an honest trade, and it ends with a man swinging like a clapper in the gallows bell.” “Oh,” said the man, “you need not fear the gallows. I shall only teach you how to take what no one else can get, without anyone ever finding a trace of you.” So he let himself be persuaded, became an accomplished thief under the man’s guidance, and grew so skilful that nothing he set his heart on was safe from him. The second brother met a man who asked him the same question: what did he wish to learn in the world? “I do not know yet,” he answered. “Then come with me and become a stargazer. There is nothing better, for nothing remains hidden from you.” This pleased him, and he became so skilful a stargazer that, when his apprenticeship was over and he was ready to move on, his master gave him a telescope and said, “With this you can see whatever happens on earth and in the heavens, and nothing can remain hidden from you.” The third brother was taken on as an apprentice by a huntsman, who taught him everything belonging to the chase so thoroughly that he became a fully trained huntsman himself. On parting, his master gave him a gun and said, “This never misses. Whatever you take aim at, you are certain to hit.” The youngest brother likewise met a man who spoke to him and asked what he intended to do. “Would you like to become a tailor?” “Not that I know of,” said the lad. “Sitting hunched over from morning till night, flicking a needle back and forth, and working with a pressing iron—that is not to my liking.” “Nonsense,” answered the man. “You speak of what you know nothing about. With me you will learn quite another kind of tailoring, a respectable and proper art, and in some ways a very honourable one.” So he let himself be persuaded, went with the man, and learned his art from the ground up. At parting, the man gave him a needle and said, “With this you can sew together anything you come across, whether it is as soft as an egg or as hard as steel. It will become one whole piece, with not a seam to be seen.”

When the appointed four years were over, the four brothers arrived at the crossroads at the same time, embraced and kissed one another, and returned home to their father. “Well,” he said delightedly, “has the wind blown you back to me?” They told him how they had fared, and how each had learned his own trade. They were sitting outside the house beneath a great tree when their father said, “Now I shall put you to the test and see what you can do.” Then he looked up and said to his second son, “Up in the top of this tree, between two branches, there is a chaffinch’s nest. Tell me how many eggs are in it.” The stargazer took his telescope, looked up, and said, “There are five.” The father said to the eldest, “Fetch the eggs down without disturbing the bird sitting on them.” The skilful thief climbed the tree, took the five eggs from beneath the little bird, which noticed nothing and remained sitting quietly, and brought them down to his father. The father took them, set one at each corner of the table and the fifth in the middle, and said to the huntsman, “With a single shot, you must split all five eggs through the middle.” The huntsman raised his gun and shot all five eggs, just as his father had asked, with a single shot. He must surely have had the kind of gunpowder that shoots round corners. “Now it is your turn,” said the father to his fourth son. “Sew the eggs together again, and the little birds inside them too, so that the shot does them no harm.” The tailor took out his needle and sewed as his father had asked. When he had finished, the thief had to carry the eggs back up to the nest and slip them beneath the bird without its noticing a thing. The little creature finished hatching them, and a few days later the chicks crept out, each with a little red band round its neck where the tailor had sewn it together.

“Well,” said the old man to his sons, “I cannot praise you highly enough. You have made good use of your time and learned something worthwhile. I cannot say which of you deserves the highest praise. If only you soon have a chance to put your skills to use, we shall see.” Not long afterwards, a great commotion arose throughout the land: the king’s daughter had been carried off by a dragon. The king fretted over it day and night and proclaimed that whoever brought her back should have her for his wife. The four brothers said to one another, “Here is a chance to show what we can do,” and resolved to set out together and rescue the king’s daughter. “I shall soon find out where she is,” said the stargazer. He looked through his telescope and said, “I can see her already. She is sitting far from here on a rock in the sea, and beside her is the dragon guarding her.” Then he went to the king and asked for a ship for himself and his brothers, and sailed with them across the sea until they reached the rock. The king’s daughter was sitting there, but the dragon lay asleep in her lap. The huntsman said, “I dare not shoot. I should kill the beautiful maiden too.” “Then I shall try my luck,” said the thief. He crept up and stole her away from under the dragon, so quietly and nimbly that the monster noticed nothing and went on snoring. Full of joy, they hurried back to the ship with her and steered out into the open sea. But when the dragon awoke and found the king’s daughter gone, it came after them, snorting furiously through the air. Just as it hovered above the ship and was about to swoop down, the huntsman raised his gun and shot it straight through the heart. The monster fell dead, but it was so huge and mighty that as it fell it smashed the whole ship to pieces. Luckily, they managed to catch hold of a few planks and floated about on the vast sea. Once more they were in great peril, but the tailor wasted no time. He took his marvellous needle and hastily sewed the planks together with a few large stitches, sat down on them, and gathered up all the pieces of the ship. Then he sewed these together too, so skilfully that before long the ship was ready to sail again, and they were able to make their way safely home.

There was great joy when the king saw his daughter again. He said to the four brothers, “One of you shall have her for his wife, but you must settle among yourselves which one it is to be.” Then a fierce quarrel broke out among them, for each laid claim to her. The stargazer said, “If I had not seen the king’s daughter, all your skills would have been in vain. Therefore she is mine.” The thief said, “What good would seeing her have done if I had not stolen her away from under the dragon? Therefore she is mine.” The huntsman said, “The monster would have torn you all to pieces, along with the king’s daughter, if my bullet had not struck it. Therefore she is mine.” The tailor said, “And if I had not used my skill to stitch the ship together again, you would all have drowned miserably. Therefore she is mine.” Then the king gave his judgment. “Each of you has an equal right, and since each cannot have the maiden, none of you shall have her. But as a reward I shall give each of you half a kingdom.” The brothers were pleased with this decision and said, “It is better so than that we should fall out.” So each received half a kingdom, and they lived with their father in perfect happiness for as long as it pleased God.