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.
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.
Coś wam opowiem. Widziałem jak, fruwają dwie pieczone kury. Fruwają szybko, brzuchem do góry, plecami do ziemi, a kowadło i kamień młyński pływały w Renie, cichuteńko i powoli, a żaba siedziała na lodzie i żarła lemiesz na zielone świątki.. Było też trzech jegomościów, łapali zająca, chodzili o kulach i szczudłach, jeden był głuchy, a drugi ślepy, trzeci niemy, a czwarty nogą nie mógł ruszyć. Chcecie wiedzieć, jak to było? Ten ślepy, ujrzał najpierw zająca, jak pędzi po polu, niemy zawołał paralityka, a paralityk złapał go za kołnierz. Paru chciało też żeglować po lądzie, rozpięli żagiel na wietrze, popłynęli przez wielkie pole. Przez wielką górę żeglowali, gdy się potopili. Rak przegonił zająca . A wysoko na dachu leżała krowa. W tamtym kraju muchy są tak wielkie, jak tu kozy. Otwórz okno, aby kłamstwa mogły wzlecieć.
Tłumaczył Jacek Fijołek, © Jacek Fijołek