Prevod

When Adam and Eve had been driven out of Paradise, they had to build themselves a house on barren ground and eat their bread by the sweat of their brows. Adam tilled the field, and Eve spun wool. Every year Eve brought a child into the world, but the children were not all alike: some were beautiful, others ugly. After a good while had passed, God sent an angel to the two of them with word that he wished to come and see their household. Delighted that the Lord should be so gracious, Eve busily cleaned her house, adorned it with flowers, and strewed rushes over the floor. Then she called her children to her, but only the beautiful ones. She washed and bathed them, combed their hair, dressed them in freshly laundered shirts, and urged them to behave decently and modestly in the Lord’s presence. They were to bow politely before him, offer him their hands, and answer his questions humbly and sensibly. The ugly children, however, were not to show themselves. One she hid beneath the hay, another beneath the roof, the third in the straw, the fourth in the oven, the fifth in the cellar, the sixth beneath a tub, the seventh beneath the wine barrel, the eighth beneath her old fur coat, the ninth and tenth beneath the cloth from which she used to make their clothes, and the eleventh and twelfth beneath the leather from which she cut out their shoes. She had just finished when there came a knock at the door. Adam looked through a crack and saw that it was the Lord. He opened the door reverently, and the heavenly Father stepped inside. There stood the beautiful children in a row; they bowed, offered him their hands, and knelt down. The Lord began to bless them, laying his hands upon the first and saying, “You shall become a mighty king”; to the second he said, “You, a prince”; to the third, “You, a count”; to the fourth, “You, a knight”; to the fifth, “You, a nobleman”; to the sixth, “You, a burgher”; to the seventh, “You, a merchant”; and to the eighth, “You, a learned man.” Thus he bestowed his rich blessing upon them all. When Eve saw how kind and gracious the Lord was, she thought, “I will bring out my ill-favored children; perhaps he will give them his blessing too.” So she ran and fetched them from the hay, the straw, the oven, and wherever else they had been hidden. Out came the whole rough, dirty, scabby, soot-covered troop. The Lord smiled, looked them all over, and said, “These too I will bless.” He laid his hands upon the first and said to him, “You shall become a farmer”; to the second, “You, a fisherman”; to the third, “You, a blacksmith”; to the fourth, “You, a tanner”; to the fifth, “You, a weaver”; to the sixth, “You, a shoemaker”; to the seventh, “You, a tailor”; to the eighth, “You, a potter”; to the ninth, “You, a carter”; to the tenth, “You, a boatman”; to the eleventh, “You, a messenger”; and to the twelfth, “You, a house servant all your life.” When Eve had heard all this, she said, “Lord, how unequally you divide your blessing! They are all my children, whom I have borne: your grace ought to fall upon them all alike.” But God replied, “Eve, you do not understand. It is my task, and necessary, to people the whole world with your children. If they were all princes and lords, who would grow the grain, thresh it, grind it, and bake the bread? Who would forge, weave, work timber, build, dig, cut, and mow? Each must fulfill the duties of his station, so that one may sustain another and all may be nourished, like the limbs of a body.” Then Eve answered, “Ah, Lord, forgive me. I was too hasty in speaking against you. May your divine will be done with my children too.”