Prevod
A man once dreamed of treasure: a winged child, white as snow, came to him in his sleep and said, “Go to the highest mountain you know. There you will find a great pine, and beneath the pine a three-horned stone from which water trickles like tears. Dig beneath the stone to a depth equal to its height, and you will uncover a round jar with a golden lid, full of aspers. Lift off the lid and leave it there, but take the aspers, and let no one know what you have found, lest a venomous serpent bite you.” When the man awoke, he was overjoyed. He rose, dressed, and ran towards the place he had been told of. When he saw the pine and beneath it the three-horned, weeping stone, he set to digging all alone. Scarcely had he struck the earth a third time with his pick when he heard a childlike voice from below: “Whoever you are, leave off that work today!” At these words he fell to the ground in terror and sank into a sleep as deep as death. At that very moment the same child came to him again in a dream and said, “You rose, washed, dressed, set out on your way, and began your work, yet you did not cross yourself. And well may you pray to God: had it not been for me, you would have had a tale to tell of what befell you. When you rise, cross yourself as God commands; before you begin any work at all, you must always cross yourself first.” When the man awoke and came to his senses, he found himself not where he had fallen in fright, but in a garden filled with flowers. He crossed himself, took up his pick and hoe, and returned to the place he had been told of. Before beginning his work, he faced the sun, which was rising at that very moment, and crossed himself three times, saying, “The sun to the east, and mighty God to my aid!” Then he began digging, though with some fear that he might again hear a voice from below. As he dug and cleared away the earth, something suddenly flashed before him as though all the sun’s rays had shone into his eyes at once. And what should it be but a dragon asleep upon the treasure! When the man saw that he could not possibly take the treasure from beneath it, he solemnly adjured it three times to move aside. At this the dragon awoke and said, “I will not move from here, for this treasure is neither yours nor mine. Nevertheless, if you count all the springs in this mountain and come back to tell me how many there are, I will move aside for you; otherwise, never.” Hearing this, the man went from spring to spring, counting them in turn all over the mountain, but he lost his reckoning and could find neither their number nor their end. Weary from his efforts, he sat beneath a tree so tall that its like was nowhere else in the world. From its top he heard two voices quarrelling fiercely. He looked up and saw that a fairy man and a fairy woman had alighted there. The fairy man was trying to force the fairy woman to tell him something, and she, in fear, swore to him, saying, “By all the seventy-seven springs in this mountain, I do not know.” The fairy woman flew away, and the fairy man caught sight of the man below and told him to go and take the treasure. He went, and found the dragon gone. Then he lifted the golden lid from the jar and carried away all the treasure he found inside, leaving the lid behind.
