Jagnjiček in ribica

Besedilo

Jagnjiček in ribica

Once upon a time there were a little brother and sister who loved each other dearly. Their own mother was dead, however, and they had a stepmother who bore them no goodwill and secretly did them every harm she could. One day the two were playing with other children in a meadow in front of the house. Beside the meadow lay a pond that reached right up to one side of the house. The children ran about, chasing one another and playing a counting-out game:

“Eneke, Beneke, let me live, my little bird to you I’ll give. Little bird shall find me straw, straw I’ll give the little cow, little cow shall give me milk, milk I’ll give the baker then, baker shall bake me a cake, cake I’ll give the little cat, little cat shall catch me mice, mice I’ll hang up in the smoke and cut myself a slice.”

As they said this, they stood in a circle, and whoever the word “slice” fell upon had to run away, while the others chased after and caught them. As they skipped about so merrily, their stepmother watched from the window and grew angry. Knowing the arts of witchcraft, she cast a spell on them both, turning the little brother into a fish and the little sister into a lamb. The little fish swam to and fro in the pond, full of sorrow, and the little lamb wandered to and fro in the meadow, full of sorrow, eating nothing and leaving every blade of grass untouched. A long time passed in this way, until one day visitors came to the castle. The wicked stepmother thought, “Now is my chance.” She called the cook and said to him, “Go and fetch the lamb from the meadow and slaughter it. We have nothing else for the guests.” So the cook went and fetched the little lamb, led it into the kitchen, and bound its little feet. It bore all this patiently. But when he had drawn his knife and was sharpening it on the threshold, ready to kill it, the lamb saw a little fish swimming to and fro in the water beside the kitchen drain, looking up at it. This was its little brother, for when the little fish had seen the cook leading the lamb away, it had swum along through the pond as far as the house. Then the little lamb called down, “Oh, little brother in the waters deep, how sorely does my poor heart weep!

The cook is sharpening his knife, he means to pierce my heart and take my life.” The little fish answered, “Oh, little sister up on high, how sorely does my poor heart cry, here in the waters deep!”

When the cook heard that the little lamb could speak and was calling such sorrowful words down to the little fish, he was frightened. He thought it could be no ordinary lamb, but must have been bewitched by the wicked woman of the house. So he said, “Be still; I will not slaughter you.” He took another animal and prepared it for the guests, then brought the little lamb to a kind peasant woman and told her all he had seen and heard. Now this woman had once been the little sister’s nurse, and she guessed at once who the lamb must be. She took it to a wise woman, who spoke a blessing over the little lamb and the little fish, restoring them to their human forms. Afterward she led them both into a great forest, to a little cottage where they lived in solitude, but contented and happy.