Prevod

A poor man had twelve children and had to work day and night just to give them bread. When the thirteenth came into the world, he was at his wits’ end. He ran out onto the high road, meaning to ask the first person he met to be the child’s godfather. The first person he met was the good Lord. He already knew what was troubling the man and said to him, “Poor man, I pity you. I will stand godfather to your child, care for him, and make him happy on earth.” The man said, “Who are you?” — “I am the good Lord.” — “Then I do not want you for a godfather,” said the man. “You give to the rich and leave the poor to starve.” The man said this because he did not know how wisely God apportions wealth and poverty. So he turned away from the Lord and went on. Then the Devil came up to him and said, “What are you looking for? If you will take me as your child’s godfather, I will give him gold in abundance, and all the pleasures of the world besides.” The man asked, “Who are you?” — “I am the Devil.” — “Then I do not want you for a godfather,” said the man. “You deceive people and lead them astray.” He went on, and Death came striding towards him on his bony legs and said, “Take me for a godfather.” The man asked, “Who are you?” — “I am Death, who makes all men equal.” Then the man said, “You are the right one. You take the rich and the poor without distinction. You shall be my child’s godfather.” Death replied, “I will make your child rich and famous, for anyone who has me as a friend cannot fail.” The man said, “The christening is next Sunday. Be sure to come at the proper time.” Death appeared as he had promised and duly stood godfather.

When the boy had grown up, his godfather came to him one day and told him to come along. He led him out into the forest, showed him a herb growing there, and said, “Now you shall receive your christening gift. I shall make you a famous physician. Whenever you are called to a sick person, I shall appear to you. If I stand at the sick person’s head, you may confidently say that you will make him well again, and if you then give him some of this herb, he will recover. But if I stand at the sick person’s feet, he is mine, and you must say that all help is in vain and no physician in the world can save him. But beware of using the herb against my will, or it may go badly for you!”

Before long, the young man was the most famous physician in the whole world. “He need only look at a sick person to know how things stand, whether he will recover or must die,” people said of him. From far and wide they came to fetch him to the sick, and they gave him so much gold that he soon became a rich man. Now it happened that the king fell ill. The physician was summoned and asked to say whether there was any hope of recovery. But when he approached the bed, Death was standing at the sick man’s feet, and no herb could help him now. “If only I could outwit Death just this once,” thought the physician. “He will certainly resent it, but since I am his godson, he will surely turn a blind eye. I shall risk it.” So he took hold of the sick man and turned him round in the bed, so that Death was now standing at his head. Then he gave him some of the herb, and the king recovered and grew well again. But Death came to the physician with a dark and angry face, shook his finger at him, and said, “You have deceived me. This time I will forgive you because you are my godson, but if you dare do it again, it will cost you your life, and I shall take you away myself.”

Soon afterwards, the king’s daughter fell gravely ill. She was his only child, and he wept day and night until his eyes were blinded by tears. He had it proclaimed that whoever saved her from death should become her husband and inherit the crown. When the physician came to the sick girl’s bedside, he saw Death standing at her feet. He should have remembered his godfather’s warning, but the princess’s great beauty and the happiness of becoming her husband so bewitched him that he cast all caution to the winds. He did not see Death’s angry glances, nor how he raised his hand and shook his bony fist at him. He lifted the sick girl and laid her head where her feet had been. Then he gave her the herb, and at once life began to stir in her again.

When Death saw that he had been cheated of his own for a second time, he strode up to the physician and said, “You are finished. Now it is your turn.” He seized him with his icy hand in so fierce a grip that he could not resist, and led him into an underground cavern. There the physician saw thousands upon thousands of candles burning in rows that stretched beyond sight, some tall, some half as tall, and others short. Every moment some went out and others flared into life, so that the little flames seemed to be in constant change. “You see,” said Death, “these are the candles of human lives. The tall ones belong to children, the half-sized ones to married people in their prime, and the short ones to the aged. Yet children and young people, too, often have only a little candle.” — “Show me the candle of my life,” said the physician, thinking it must still be quite tall. Death pointed to a little stump that was just about to go out and said, “You see, there it is.” — “Oh, dear godfather,” said the terrified physician, “light me a new one. Do it for my sake, so that I may become king and marry the beautiful princess.” — “I cannot,” Death replied. “One must go out before a new one can be lit.” — “Then put the old one on top of a new one, so that it will go on burning as soon as the old one is finished,” pleaded the physician. Death pretended that he would grant his wish and fetched a tall, fresh candle. But because he wanted revenge, he deliberately fumbled as he transferred the old stump, and it fell over and went out. At once the physician sank to the ground, and now he himself had fallen into the hands of Death.