Prevod

There was once an unmarried man, and some people proposed a maiden for his wife, others a widow, and still others a divorced woman. Now he could not decide which to marry, for all three were good and beautiful in their own right. So he went to an old man to ask whether it was better to marry a maiden, a widow, or a divorced woman. The old man said to him, “My son, I cannot tell you anything about that. Go to the wise one—that is, Solomon—and he will know how to tell you which is best. Then come back and tell me what he said.” So the man went to Solomon’s palace. When he reached the palace, the servants asked him what he wanted, and he told them he had come to see the wise one. Then one of the servants took him inside and pointed to a child who was riding a stick and running about the palace courtyard. “There is the wise one.” The man was astonished and thought to himself, “What can that child possibly tell me? But since I have come this far, I may as well see what he has to say!” So he went over to Solomon. When he came up to him, Solomon politely brought his horse to a halt and asked what he wanted, and the man told him the whole story from beginning to end. Then the wise one answered, “If you marry a maiden, you know; if you marry a widow, she knows; but if you marry a divorced woman, beware of my horse!” Then he turned, caught the man a little across the legs with the end of his stick, and began racing about the courtyard again. The man thought to himself, “What a fool I am! A grown man like me, coming to a child for advice on whom to marry!” So he turned back and went to the old man to ask what sort of advice he had given him. When he reached the old man, he angrily shouted at him and told him all that had happened with the wise one. Then the old man said, “Ah, my son! The wise one did not say those things for nothing. ‘If you marry a maiden, you know’ means that she will believe you know everything better than she does, and will obey you in whatever you wish. ‘If you marry a widow, she knows’ means that she has already been a wife once and now thinks she knows everything; so she will not want to obey you, but will always want to order you about. ‘But if you marry a divorced woman, beware of my horse!’—and then he struck you across the legs with his stick—means: take care she does not give you the same sting she gave her first husband.”