Prevod

There was once a man who had a daughter called Clever Else. When she had grown up, her father said, "We must find her a husband." "Yes," said her mother, "if only someone would come who wanted her!" At last a man named Hans came from far away and asked for her hand, but he made it a condition that Clever Else should be truly clever. "Oh," said her father, "she has a sharp head on her shoulders," and her mother said, "Why, she can see the wind running down the street and hear the flies coughing." "Well," said Hans, "if she isn't truly clever, I won't marry her." Now, when they were sitting at table and had finished eating, her mother said, "Else, go down to the cellar and fetch some beer!" Clever Else took the jug from the wall and went down to the cellar, merrily clattering its lid along the way so that she would not grow bored. Once she was down below, she fetched a little stool and set it before the barrel, so that she would not have to bend over and perhaps hurt her back or suffer some unexpected injury. Then she set the jug in front of her and turned on the tap. While the beer was running into it, she did not want to leave her eyes idle, so she looked up at the wall and, after looking this way and that for some time, caught sight of a pickaxe directly above her, which the masons had left stuck there by mistake. Clever Else began to weep and said, "If I marry Hans, and we have a child, and the child grows up, and we send it down to the cellar to draw beer here, the pickaxe will fall on its head and kill it." So she sat there weeping and wailing at the top of her lungs over the misfortune to come. Those upstairs were waiting for their drink, but Clever Else still did not return. Then her mother said to the maid, "Go down to the cellar and see what's keeping Else!" The maid went down and found her sitting before the barrel, wailing loudly. "Else, why are you crying?" the maid asked. "Oh," she replied, "shouldn't I cry? If I marry Hans, and we have a child, and the child grows up and comes here to draw a drink, the pickaxe may fall on its head and kill it." Then the maid said, "What a clever Else we have!" She sat down beside her and began to weep over the misfortune too. After a while, when the maid had not returned and those upstairs were longing for a drink, the father said to the manservant, "Go down to the cellar and see what's keeping Else and the maid!" The manservant went down, and there sat Clever Else and the maid, both weeping together. "What are you crying about?" he asked. "Oh," said Else, "shouldn't I cry? If I marry Hans, and we have a child, and the child grows up and comes here to draw a drink, the pickaxe will fall on its head and kill it." Then the manservant said, "What a clever Else we have!" He sat down beside her and began to howl loudly too. Upstairs they waited for the manservant, but when he still did not come, the father said to his wife, "Go down to the cellar and see what's keeping Else!" His wife went down and found all three lamenting, and asked what the matter was. Else told her too that her future child would surely be killed by the pickaxe once it had grown up and gone to draw beer, if the pickaxe should fall. Then her mother likewise said, "Oh, what a clever Else we have!" She sat down and wept with them. The father waited upstairs a little longer, but when his wife did not return and his thirst grew ever greater, he said, "Now I must go down to the cellar myself and see what's keeping Else." But when he reached the cellar and found them all sitting together in tears, and heard that the cause was Else's child, which she might one day bring into the world and which might be killed by the pickaxe if it happened to be sitting beneath it drawing beer at the very moment it fell, he cried, "What a clever Else!" He sat down and wept with them too. The bridegroom remained upstairs alone for a long time, and as no one seemed inclined to return, he thought, "They must be waiting for you down below. You'd better go and see what they're up to." When he went down, there sat all five, wailing and lamenting most pitifully, each trying to outdo the others. "What terrible thing has happened?" he asked. "Oh, dear Hans," said Else, "if we marry and have a child, and it grows up, and perhaps we send it down here to draw a drink, then that pickaxe left stuck up there might fall and smash its head, leaving it dead on the ground. Shouldn't we cry?" "Well," said Hans, "my household needs no more sense than that. Since you are such a clever Else, I will marry you." He took her by the hand, led her upstairs, and married her.

After she had been married to Hans for a while, he said, "Wife, I'll go out to work and earn us some money. You go to the field and reap the corn, so that we have bread." "Yes, my dear Hans, I will." Once Hans had gone, she cooked herself a good pot of porridge and took it with her to the field. When she reached the field, she said to herself, "What shall I do? Shall I reap first, or eat first? Why, I'll eat first." So she emptied her pot of porridge, and when she had eaten her fill, she said again, "What shall I do? Shall I reap first, or sleep first? Why, I'll sleep first." Then she lay down among the corn and fell asleep. Hans had long since come home, but Else did not return, so he said, "What a clever Else I have! She's so hardworking she doesn't even come home to eat." But when she still did not appear and evening was drawing on, Hans went out to see how much she had reaped. Nothing had been reaped at all; instead, she lay asleep among the corn. Hans hurried home, fetched a fowling net hung with little bells, and draped it all around her, while she slept on. Then he ran home, locked the front door, sat down in his chair, and worked. At last, when it was quite dark, Clever Else awoke. As she stood up, something rattled all around her, and the little bells jingled with every step she took. She was frightened and began to doubt whether she really was Clever Else. "Am I myself, or am I not?" she said. But she did not know how to answer, and stood there for some time in doubt. At last she thought, "I'll go home and ask whether I am myself or not. They'll surely know." She ran to her own front door, but it was locked. Then she knocked at the window and called, "Hans, is Else inside?" "Yes," Hans answered, "she's inside." This gave her a fright, and she said, "Oh, heavens, then I'm not myself," and went to another door. But when people heard the jingling of the bells, they would not open their doors, and she could find shelter nowhere. So she ran away out of the village, and no one ever saw her again.