Tuhaf bir çocuk


The wilful child


Bir zamanlar tuhaf bir çocuk vardı, annesinin sözünü hiç dinlemezdi. Bu yüzden Tanrı onu cezalandırdı ve hasta etti. Hiçbir hekim onu iyileştiremedi; sonunda ölüm döşeğine düştü. Mezara gömüldüğünde ve üzerine toprak atıldığında bir kolcağızı yerden havaya doğru uzandı. Onu yeniden gömüp üzerine toprak attılarsa da hiçbir yararı olmadı; kolu hep dışarıda kalıyordu. Derken annesi mezara geldi ve bu kolu sopayla dövdü. Bunu yapar yapmaz kol toprak altına çekildi ve çocukcağız ebedi uykusuna kavuştu.
Once upon a time there was a child who was willful, and would not dowh at her mother wished. For this reason God had no pleasure in her, and let her become ill, and no doctor could do her any good, and in a short time she lay on her death-bed. When she had been lowered into her grave, and the earth was spread over her, all at once her arm came out again, and stretched upwards, and when they had put it in and spread fresh earth over it, it was all to no purpose, for the arm always came out again. Then the mother herself was obliged to go to the grave, and strike the arm with a rod, and when she had done that, it was drawn in, and then at last the child had rest beneath the ground.