Prevod

You surely know what a magnifying glass is—that round spectacle lens that makes everything look a hundred times bigger than it really is? If you hold it up to your eye and look at a drop of water from the pond, you will see more than a thousand strange creatures that you would never otherwise see in the water, but they are there, and they are real. It looks almost like a whole plateful of shrimps leaping about among one another, and they are so ravenous that they tear off one another’s arms and legs, ends and edges, and yet they are happy and contented, in their own way.

Now there was once an old man whom everyone called Krible-Krable, for that was his name. He always wanted to make the most of everything, and when he simply could not manage it, he resorted to magic.

One day he was sitting with his magnifying glass held up to his eye, looking at a drop of water taken from a puddle in the ditch. My, how things wriggled and squirmed in there! All those thousands of little creatures were hopping and leaping, tugging at one another and eating one another up.

“Why, this is dreadful!” said old Krible-Krable. “Can’t they be made to live in peace and quiet, each minding its own business?” And he thought and thought, but nothing came of it, so he had to use magic. “I must give them some colour, so they will show up more clearly!” he said, and he poured what looked like a little drop of red wine into the drop of water, but it was witch’s blood, the very finest kind, at two skillings. Then all the strange creatures turned rosy red all over, and it looked like a whole town full of naked savages.

“What have you got there?” asked another old wizard, who had no name, and that was what made him so distinguished. “Well, if you can guess what it is,” said Krible-Krable, “I’ll give it to you. But it isn’t easy to work out when you don’t know!”

And the wizard who had no name looked through the magnifying glass. It really did look like a whole town where everyone was running about without any clothes on! It was dreadful, but more dreadful still was the way they shoved and jostled one another, nipped and tugged, bit one another and dragged one another about. Whatever was at the bottom had to be on top, and whatever was on top had to be at the bottom! “Look! Look! His leg is longer than mine! Whack! Off with it! There’s one with a little bump behind his ear, a tiny, harmless bump, but it troubles him, so let’s make it trouble him even more!” And they pecked at it, and tugged at him, and ate him up because of that little bump. One sat as quietly as a little maiden, wishing only for peace and quiet, but the maiden had to be dragged out, and they tugged at her and tore at her and ate her up!

“This is extraordinarily amusing!” said the wizard. “Yes, but what do you think it is?” asked Krible-Krable. “Can you work it out?” “That’s plain enough to see!” said the other. “Why, it’s Copenhagen, or some other big city—they’re all alike. It’s a big city!”

“It’s ditch water!” said Krible-Krable.