Prevod

A fox once made some cakes out of earth, baked them, and spread them with honey. Then she took the cakes to some turkey keepers and asked them for a young turkey, offering them honey cakes in return. The turkey keepers would not give her a young turkey, but told her to go to the swineherds, who would give her a piglet. So she went to the swineherds and asked them for a piglet, offering them honey cakes in return. The swineherds would not give her a piglet, but sent her to the cowherds, who would give her a calf. So she went to the cowherds and asked them for a calf, offering them honey cakes in return. The cowherds would not give her a calf, but sent her to the horse keepers, who would give her a foal. So she went to the horse keepers too, and asked them to give her a foal for her little honey cakes. The horse keepers gave her a foal, and she gave them the cakes, but strictly warned them not to break a single cake until she had crossed the hill. They did as she said, but when at last they broke the cakes and bit into them, they found that they were made of earth and that the fox had tricked them. At once they set off in pursuit, but she had already ridden far away on her prize, and they returned tired and empty-handed. When the fox reached home, she put the foal in a shed and began tending it. Every day she brought it fresh green grass and cool water, but whenever she went out to fetch grass and water, she always warned the foal to listen for her voice and her words: “Little mare, my little mare! Open the door for me: I am bringing you cool water and fresh green grass.” It was not to open the shed door to any other voice. One day a wolf came along who had often heard the fox calling to the foal to open the door, and he began calling in his deep voice: “Little mare, my little mare! Open the door for me: I am bringing you cool water and fresh green grass.” But the foal knew that this was not the fox’s high, thin voice, and would not open the door. Seeing this, the wolf hid behind a corner of the shed. A little while later, along came the fox with water and grass. As soon as she reached the shed, she stood at the door and said in her usual high, thin voice: “Little mare, my little mare! Open the door for me: I am bringing you cool water and fresh green grass.” Recognizing her voice, the foal opened the door at once, then began telling her how someone had come and spoken just as she did, asking it to open the door, but in a deeper voice, and how it had refused to open. Then the fox said, “Never, ever open the door to a deep voice, only to a very high, thin one.” The next day, when the fox went out again for water and grass, the wolf, who had listened to their whole conversation from behind the corner, came back, drew himself in as tightly as he could, and began in a very high, thin voice: “Little mare, my little mare! Open the door for me: I am bringing you cool water and fresh green grass.” The poor foal was deceived and opened the door. The wolf seized it by the neck, brought it down, and ate it all, leaving only the head and tail. Then he went away, and the shed door closed behind him just as it had been before. When the fox returned, she began calling as usual: “Little mare, my little mare! Open the door for me: I am bringing you cool water and fresh green grass.” But no one answered, and no one opened the door. Then she peered through the logs, and when she saw only the foal’s head and tail in the shed, she understood at once what misfortune had befallen her. She broke open the door and began sobbing and lamenting over the foal’s lifeless head. At last, overcome with grief and sorrow, she went and lay down in the road, pretending to be dead. A little later a man came that way with a cart. Finding the fox in the road, he picked her up and threw her into the cart, meaning to skin her when he got home. This man had three little cheeses in a bag in his cart. The fox, who had been lying quite still, slowly rose, pulled all three cheeses out of the bag, and ran off with them. Once she was well away, she ate two of the cheeses at once, slipped the third around her neck, and went on her way. As she walked along, she met the wolf who had eaten her foal. When he saw the cheese she was carrying, he asked her where she had got it, and she replied that she had lapped it out of the water. “And where is this water?” the wolf asked. “Come along, and I shall show you,” said the fox. It was about midnight, the moon was full, and the sky was clear. The fox led the wolf to a pool and, pointing to the moon reflected in the water, said, “There, do you see what a great cheese there is in the water? Just lap away, and you will lap it out, as I did mine.” So the poor wolf lapped and lapped until the water began coming out behind. Then the fox stopped up that opening and said, “Lap away, Wolfie, you will soon have it.” So the poor wolf lapped and lapped again, until the water began coming out of his ears. The fox stopped up his ears too, and said again, “Lap away, Wolfie, you will soon have it.” So the poor wolf lapped and lapped once more, until the water began coming out of his nose and mouth. Then the fox stopped up his nose and mouth as well, climbed onto his back, and said she was ill and could not walk, so he must carry her. The poor wolf began carrying her, and she began to sing in a long, drawn-out voice: “The sick one carries the well one, the sick one carries the well one.” When she kept repeating this, the wolf asked, “What are you saying, Auntie?” And she told him, “Nothing, Wolfie, I am delirious.” Then she struck up again: “The sick one carries the well one, the sick one carries the well one,” and went on like this until they reached a house where a wedding feast was being held. Hearing what the fox was saying, the wedding guests came out of the house and began praising her song. She told them she would sing even better if they would let them into the house, and then up into the loft. The wedding guests let them in. When the wolf had carried the fox with great difficulty up into the loft, which had a floor of woven wattles, she unstopped all his openings, and all the water poured out of him, drenching the wedding guests below. The guests rushed up to the loft. The fox leapt down and escaped, but they beat the poor wolf black and blue. When the wolf and the fox met again later, each asked the other how they had escaped. The wolf replied that he had been beaten all over and had barely got away; the fox said the same of herself. Now the fox invited the wolf to jump back and forth over a haystack pole that stood nearby. The wolf agreed to this too, to his own misfortune. After they had jumped over it several times, the fox told the wolf that he was not jumping properly: he was leaping too far to one side instead of straight over the pole. So he tried to leap straight over it and impaled himself upon it. The fox was delighted to see this and said to the wolf, “Wriggle, Wolfie, wriggle, you will soon be down.” And as the wolf wriggled, he slid all the way to the foot of the pole. Then she left him there, taking her revenge with these words: “I have long been wearing out my opanci over you, for it was you who ate my foal.”