Prevod

Have you ever seen a really old wooden cupboard, quite black with age and carved with scrolls and foliage? Just such a cupboard stood in a sitting room. It had been inherited from a great-grandmother and was carved with roses and tulips from top to bottom. There were the strangest twists and curls, and among them little stags poked out their heads, with many-branched antlers. But in the middle of the cupboard a whole man had been carved. He was certainly a comical sight, and he grinned—you could hardly call it laughing. He had goat’s legs, little horns on his forehead, and a long beard. The children in the room always called him the Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant, because it was a difficult name to say, and not many people are given that title; but then, having him carved at all was quite something. Still, there he was! He was always looking towards the table beneath the mirror, for there stood a lovely little porcelain shepherdess. Her shoes were gilded, her dress was prettily caught up with a red rose, and she had a golden hat and a shepherd’s crook. She was beautiful. Close beside her stood a little chimney sweep, as black as coal, though he too was made of porcelain. He was as clean and neat as anyone else; being a chimney sweep was only a part he played. The porcelain maker might just as well have made him a prince, for it was all the same!

There he stood so neatly with his ladder, his face as pink and white as a girl’s, which was really a mistake, for he might well have had a little soot on it. He stood very close to the shepherdess. They had both been put where they stood, and since they had been put there together, they had become engaged. They were well suited to each other: they were young, they were made of the same porcelain, and both were equally fragile.

Close beside them stood another figure, three times as large: an old Chinese man who could nod his head. He too was made of porcelain, and said he was the little shepherdess’s grandfather, though he could hardly prove it. He claimed to have authority over her, and so he had nodded his consent to the Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant, who was asking for the little shepherdess’s hand.

“There’s a husband for you,” said the old Chinese man. “A husband who, I almost believe, is made of mahogany. He can make you a Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeantess. He has a whole cupboard full of silver, besides whatever he keeps in his secret compartments!”

“I won’t go into that dark cupboard!” said the little shepherdess. “I’ve heard he has eleven porcelain wives in there!” “Then you can be the twelfth!” said the Chinese man. “Tonight, as soon as the old cupboard creaks, you shall be married, as surely as I’m a Chinese man!” And then he nodded his head and fell asleep.

But the little shepherdess wept and looked at her heart’s dearest love, the porcelain chimney sweep. “I think I must ask you,” she said, “to come out into the wide world with me, for we cannot stay here!”

“Whatever you wish, I wish too!” said the little chimney sweep. “Let us go at once. I daresay I can support you by my trade!” “If only we were safely down from the table!” she said. “I shan’t be happy until we’re out in the wide world!”

And he comforted her and showed her where to put her little foot on the carved edges and gilded foliage down the table leg. He used his ladder to help her too, and soon they were down on the floor. But when they looked towards the old cupboard, there was such a commotion! All the carved stags thrust their heads farther out, raised their antlers, and twisted their necks. The Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant leapt high into the air and shouted across to the old Chinese man, “They’re running away! They’re running away!”

This frightened them a little, and they quickly jumped into the drawer beneath the window seat. Here lay three or four packs of cards, all incomplete, and a little puppet theatre, set up as well as could be managed. A play was being performed, and all the queens—diamonds and hearts, clubs and spades—sat in the front row, fanning themselves with their tulips. Behind them stood all the knaves, showing that they had heads both at the top and at the bottom, as playing cards do. The play was about two lovers who were not allowed to marry, and the shepherdess wept over it, for it was just like her own story.

“I can’t bear it!” she said. “I must get out of this drawer!” But when they reached the floor and looked up at the table, the old Chinese man had woken and was rocking his whole body to and fro, for his lower half was all one solid lump!

“Here comes the old Chinese man!” cried the little shepherdess, and she fell right down on her porcelain knees, she was so distressed. “I have an idea,” said the chimney sweep. “Shall we creep into the big potpourri jar in the corner? We can lie there on roses and lavender, and throw salt in his eyes when he comes.”

“That won’t do!” she said. “Besides, I know the old Chinese man and the potpourri jar were once engaged, and there’s always a little fondness left when people have been on such terms! No, there’s nothing for it but to go out into the wide world!”

“Have you really the courage to come out into the wide world with me?” asked the chimney sweep. “Have you thought how big it is, and that we can never come back here again?”

“I have!” she said. And the chimney sweep looked steadily at her, then said, “My way lies through the chimney! Have you really the courage to crawl with me through the stove, through both the drum and the pipe? Then we shall come out into the chimney, and there I know my way about! We’ll climb so high they cannot reach us, and right at the top there’s a hole leading out into the wide world!”

And he led her to the stove door. “It looks black in there!” she said. But she went with him all the same, through both the drum and the pipe, where it was as dark as the blackest night.

“Now we’re in the chimney!” he said. “And look! Look! The loveliest star is shining above us!” And it was a real star in the sky, shining straight down upon them as though it wanted to show them the way. And they climbed and they crawled. It was a dreadful journey, so high, so high! But he lifted her and helped her along; he held her and showed her the best places to put her little porcelain feet. At last they reached the very rim of the chimney and sat down on it, for they were very tired indeed, and no wonder.

The sky with all its stars was above them, and all the rooftops of the town lay below. They could see so far around them, so far out into the world. The poor shepherdess had never imagined it would be like this. She leaned her little head against her chimney sweep and wept until the gold flaked off her sash.

“It’s far too much!” she said. “I can’t bear it! The world is much too big! If only I were back on the little table beneath the mirror! I shall never be happy until I’m there again! Now I’ve followed you out into the wide world, you might follow me home again, if you care for me at all!”

And the chimney sweep tried to reason with her. He spoke of the old Chinese man and the Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant, but she sobbed so terribly and kissed her little chimney sweep so tenderly that he could do nothing but give in to her, though it was a mistake.

And so, with great difficulty, they climbed down the chimney again and crept through the drum and the pipe. It was not at all pleasant. Then they stood inside the dark stove, where they waited behind the door to find out how things stood in the room. All was quite still. They peeped out—alas, there in the middle of the floor lay the old Chinese man! He had fallen from the table while trying to follow them and lay broken into three pieces. His whole back had come off in one piece, and his head had rolled into a corner. The Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant stood where he had always stood, pondering.

“This is dreadful!” said the little shepherdess. “Old Grandfather is broken to pieces, and it’s our fault! I shall never survive it!” And she wrung her tiny hands.

“He can still be riveted together!” said the chimney sweep. “He can be riveted together perfectly well! Only don’t get so upset! Once they glue his back and put a good rivet in his neck, he’ll be as good as new again and able to say all sorts of unpleasant things to us!”

“Do you think so?” she said. And then they climbed back onto the table where they had stood before. “Just look how far we’ve come!” said the chimney sweep. “We might have spared ourselves all that trouble!”

“If only we could have old Grandfather riveted together!” said the shepherdess. “Can it cost so much?” And riveted together he was. The family had his back glued and a stout rivet put in his neck. He was as good as new, but he could no longer nod.

“You seem to have grown proud since you were broken to pieces!” said the Goat-Legged High-and-Low-General-War-Commander-Sergeant. “I don’t see that it’s anything to be so terribly grand about! Am I to have her, or am I not?”

And the chimney sweep and the little shepherdess looked so pleadingly at the old Chinese man. They were so afraid he would nod, but he could not, and he did not care to tell a stranger that he had a permanent rivet in his neck. And so the porcelain lovers stayed together, and they blessed Grandfather’s rivet and loved each other until they broke.