Prevod

It has also reached me, O King, that there was a merchant who traveled often. He had a beautiful wife whom he loved, and so great was his love that he was jealous of her. He bought her a parrot, which would tell its master all that had happened in his absence. During one of his journeys, the merchant’s wife became enamored of a young man who would visit her, and she lavished kindness on him and enjoyed his company throughout her husband’s absence. When her husband returned from his journey, the parrot told him what had happened, saying, “My master, a young Turk used to visit your wife while you were away, and she treated him with the utmost kindness.” The man was about to kill his wife, but when she heard this, she said to him, “Husband, fear God and come to your senses! Can a bird have reason or understanding? If you wish me to prove this to you, so that you may know whether it speaks truth or falsehood, go tonight and sleep at a friend’s house. Then, in the morning, come back and question it, and you will know whether what it says is true or false.” So the man went to a friend’s house and spent the night there. When night fell, his wife took a piece of leather and covered the parrot’s cage with it. She sprinkled water on the leather and fanned it with a fan, brought a lamp close to it to imitate flashes of lightning, and kept turning a hand mill until morning came.

When her husband returned, she said to him, “My lord, question the parrot.” He went to the parrot, spoke to it, and asked it about the night before. The parrot said, “My master, who could have seen or heard anything last night?” “Why was that?” he asked. “My master,” it replied, “because of all the rain and wind, the thunder and lightning.” He said to it, “You lie! There was nothing of the sort last night.” The parrot replied, “I have told you only what I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears.” So he dismissed as lies everything it had told him about his wife and sought to make peace with her. But she said, “By God, I will not be reconciled with you until you slaughter this parrot that has lied about me.” The man went to the parrot and cut its throat. He then lived with his wife for a few more days, until one day he saw that young Turk leaving his house. Then he knew that the parrot had spoken the truth and his wife had lied. Regretting that he had slaughtered the parrot, he went straight in to his wife and cut her throat, and swore that he would never marry another woman as long as he lived. I have told you this, O King, only so that you may know how great their cunning is, and that haste brings regret. So the king abandoned his intention of killing his son.