En løgnehistorie fra Ditmarsken


The Ditmarsch tale of wonders


Nu skal jeg fortælle jer noget. Jeg så to stegte høns flyve med brystet vendt op mod himlen og ryggen ned mod helvede. En ambolt og en møllesten svømmede ganske forsigtigt ned ad Rhinen og ved pinsetid sad en frø og spiste et plovjern, som var frosset fast i isen. Så var der engang tre karle, som ville fange en hare. De gik på krykker og træben, og den ene var døv, den anden blind, den tredie stum, og den fjerde kunne ikke røre en fod. Skal jeg fortælle jer, hvordan de bar sig ad? Den blinde så haren løbe over marken, den stumme sagde det til den lamme, og han greb fat i haren. Der var engang nogle folk, som ville sejle på land. De spændte sejlene ud for vinden og sejlede over grønne marker, men da de sejlede hen over et højt bjerg, druknede de allesammen. Der var engang en krebs, som forfulgte en hare, og højt oppe på et tag lå en ko, og den var selv kravlet derop. Der i landet er fluerne ligeså store som gederne hos os. Luk nu vinduet op så løgnen kan flyve ud.
I will tell you something. I saw two roasted fowls flying; they flew quickly and had their breasts turned to heaven and their backs to hell, and an anvil and a mill-stone swam across the Rhine prettily, slowly, and gently, and a frog sat on the ice at Whitsuntide and ate a ploughshare. Three fellows who wanted to catch a hare, went on crutches and stilts; one of them was deaf, the second blind, the third dumb, and the fourth could not stir a step. Do you want to know how it was done? First, the blind man saw the hare running across the field, the dumb one called to the lame one, and the lame one seized it by the neck.
There were certain men who wished to sail on dry land, and they set their sails in the wind, and sailed away over great fields. Then they sailed over a high mountain, and there they were miserably drowned. A crab was chasing a hare which was running away at full speed, and high up on the roof lay a cow which had climbed up there. In that country the flies are as big as the goats are here. Open the window, that the lies may fly out.