Prevod

Once upon a time there were two brothers who both served as soldiers, and one was rich and the other poor. The poor one decided to find a way out of his poverty, took off his soldier’s coat, and became a farmer. So he dug and hoed his little plot of land and sowed turnip seed. The seed sprouted, and among the plants grew one turnip that became great and mighty, swelling before his very eyes and showing no sign of stopping, so that it might well have been called the queen of all turnips, for its like had never been seen and never will be seen again. At last it was so large that it filled a whole cart by itself, and two oxen were needed to draw it. The farmer did not know what to do with it, or whether it would bring him good fortune or bad. At last he thought, ‘If you sell it, how much can you expect to get for it? And if you mean to eat it yourself, the little turnips will serve just as well. The best thing is to take it to the king and offer it to him as a gift.’ So he loaded it onto the cart, harnessed two oxen, took it to court, and presented it to the king. ‘What a curious thing!’ said the king. ‘I have seen many strange sights, but never such a monster as this. What sort of seed can it have grown from? Or is it only in your fields that such things thrive, and you are fortune’s favorite?’ ‘Oh no,’ said the farmer, ‘I am no favorite of fortune. I am a poor soldier who could no longer earn his bread, so I hung up my soldier’s coat and took to farming. I have a brother who is rich and well known to you, Your Majesty, but because I have nothing, the whole world has forgotten me.’ Then the king felt pity for him and said, ‘You shall be freed from poverty, and I shall give you so much that you may well be as rich as your brother.’ So he gave him a great deal of gold, fields, meadows, and herds, and made him so immensely rich that the other brother’s wealth could not compare with his. When the rich brother heard what his brother had gained from a single turnip, he envied him and racked his brains to think how he too might come by such good fortune. But he meant to go about it far more cleverly: he took gold and horses and brought them to the king, certain that the king would give him a much greater gift in return. For if his brother had received so much for a turnip, what might he not receive for such splendid things? The king accepted the gift and said that he knew of nothing rarer or finer to give him in return than the great turnip. So the rich man had to have his brother’s turnip put on a cart and driven home. Once there, he did not know on whom to vent his anger and vexation, until wicked thoughts came into his head and he resolved to kill his brother. He hired murderers to lie in wait, then went to his brother and said, ‘Dear brother, I know of a hidden treasure. Let us dig it up together and share it.’ The other agreed and went with him, suspecting nothing. But when they reached the place, the murderers sprang upon him, bound him, and were about to hang him from a tree. Just as they were setting about it, loud singing and the sound of hoofbeats rang out in the distance. They were so frightened that they hastily thrust their prisoner into a sack, hoisted him up to a branch, and fled. Up above, he struggled until he had made a hole in the sack through which he could put his head. Now the approaching traveler was only a wandering scholar, a young fellow riding along the road through the forest and merrily singing his song. When the man overhead noticed someone passing beneath him, he called out, ‘Greetings! You have come at a fortunate hour.’ The scholar looked all around, unable to tell where the voice was coming from, and at last said, ‘Who is calling to me?’ Then came the answer from the treetop: ‘Lift up your eyes. Here I sit in the sack of wisdom. In a short time I have learned such great things that all the schools are nothing by comparison. In a little while my learning will be complete, and I shall climb down wiser than anyone alive. I understand the stars and the signs of heaven, the blowing of every wind, the sand in the sea, the healing of sickness, and the powers of herbs, birds, and stones. If you were in here just once, you would feel what wonders flow from the sack of wisdom.’ When the scholar heard all this, he was astonished and said, ‘Blessed be the hour in which I found you! Might I not spend a little time in the sack too?’ The man above answered as though reluctant, ‘For a reward and a few kind words, I might let you in for a little while, but you must wait another hour. There is still something left for me to learn.’ The scholar waited a little, but soon the time began to drag, and he begged to be let in, for his thirst for wisdom was too great. Then the man above pretended to yield at last and said, ‘So that I can get out of the sack of wisdom, you must lower it by the rope, and then you may go in.’ So the scholar lowered him, untied the sack, and set him free. Then he himself cried, ‘Now pull me up as quickly as you can!’ and was about to step upright into the sack. ‘Wait!’ said the other. ‘That is not the way to do it.’ He seized him by the head, thrust him upside down into the sack, tied it shut, and hoisted the disciple of wisdom up the tree by the rope. Then he set him swinging in the air and said, ‘How do you fare, my dear fellow? See, already you can feel wisdom coming to you, and you are learning a fine lesson. Sit there quietly, then, until you grow wiser.’ With that he mounted the scholar’s horse and rode away.