Translated from the Ukrainian by Oles Kovalenko and Vasil Baryshev It wouldn't be inaccurate to say that it is the story-writers who actually introduce kids to the world they live in... Using words, they paint a bizarre yet convincing pattern of the essential human values Love, Beauty, Honesty, Courage as opposed to Hatred, Uglyness, Meanness, Cowardice... This is a massive, wide-ranging collection of tales full of action, ferocious energy and imagination offered by leading Ukrainian authors of several generations. .j Rocking with laughter and dissolving in tears, praising the good and grappling with the evil — these entertaining and brilliantly plotted mysteries have it all!
There was a certain village in a valley where lived Merry-mage, the local magician. He was very kind-hearted and good-humoured, always cheerful and bright. Merry mage was also well known for his hobby. He grew trees. But these weren't just ordinary trees. Instead of fruit, they produced all sorts of miraculous things. Miles and miles away, high up in the mountains in a large cave there lived a Dragon. He was a malicious, repulsive and cunning creature and he never harmed fools or simpletons, instead he treated them very well. "How clever this Dragon is!" the fools usually said after they escaped the deadly encounter unscathed. "And how beautiful, too. He takes good care of his teeth and claws and always keeps them sharp. And doesn't he smile nicely when he crawls out for a stroll! He shook hands with us all. Imagine that! He's more like a peaceful sparrow than a dangerous monster." No one knew, or even guessed, that the Dragon went mad with jealousy whenever he heard about Merrymage and his powers. He finally decided to outdo Merrymage by inventing something completely new and amazing... One day Merrymage planted a tree that soon produced a wealth of tasty things. There were fatbacks, sausages, smoked fish, bread and buns, pastries, pies with all kinds of fillings, fresh bottled milk, butter and farm cheese, you name it the tree grew it! Forks, spoons, dishes and plates of every shape dangled from the tree in clusters. There were even brightly painted toy cups for children! The Dragon turned green with envy when he heard about that wonderful tree. He didn't waste time being polite to the fools anymore. Instead, he crawled into his dark cave and stayed there, sprawled out, for many many days. Finally, the Dragon decided what he should do to get the better of Merrymage. He grew himself another head with huge jaws to match his first one. "Ha-ha ha!" the Dragon guffawed. "Come on, Merrymage, make yourself more sausages and fatbacks. I'll be out and through with all your goodies before you can say knife!'" In the meantime, Merrymage was hard at work as usual. He layed out a grove of trees that sprinkled water. The water was cool on hot days and warm when the weather was nasty. Children enjoyed playing in the water-grove so much that they were reluctant to go back home in the evening. Seeing this, the Dragon grew himself yet another head which threw flames at anything that got in his way. "Now then," the Dragon roared, "if I hear anybody praising Merrymage's tricks, fool or no fool, I shall burn him or her to ashes!" Merrymage didn't know what deadly encounters the Dragon had in store for him. He continued to use his power to make people happy. Now he grew a tall tree with long branches. Soon the tree was in full bud and it had very strange folliage. In fact, its leaves were like ears which could hear news from all over the world and the tree shared the news with the local people. Little by little, the villagers developed the habit of coming to this tree to learn about life in far-off lands, the wars and peace agreements, or the weather forecast. That was too much for the Dragon! Beside himself with rage and envy, he grew himself a fourth head, now with a poisonous tongue. The heads liked to argue with one another about which was the most spiteful and nasty. "I am s-s-spiteful!" hissed the first Dragon's head. "But I am very s-s-s-spiteful!" snapped back the second. "No, I am the most s s-s-spiteful!" argued the third head. As his heads kept arguing, the Dragon used his fourth one to laugh at Merrymage: "Ha-ha-ha! Work with your wonders, fellow, make more trees and all that stuff! I shall come and take it all anyway! You may be twice as good and merry, still you've got only one head! Once I've helped you to lose it, you won't get another!... See how many heads I have! And I can grow still more! Ha-ha-ha!" One day the Dragon crawled out of his dark cave. He hollowed his front paws round his eyes to make his sight sharper and saw the time had come to relieve his rival Merrymage of his magic wealth. "Enough of this!" bellowed the Dragon. "This fellar's head is going to roll! It's about time I got all his r-riches!" That's how the Dragon was roaring. His smile which had tricked so many fools, was goae now. Instead, there was an expression of cruelty and greediness on all the beast's faces. "I should get going!" the Dragon said to himself. "A good walk before lunch makes for a good appetite!" With this he started downhill for the valley. But the villagers spotted the advancing Dragon and knew at once why he had left his cave and who he was after. "We shall defend our Merrymage," they decided. "He has worked so hard for us, growing his magic plants. The Dragon is just a jealous beast! We must stop him! We must save Merrymage and his trees." Meanwhile, the Dragon crawled closer and closer until he reached the water-grove, the first obstacle in his way. The fact was, the Dragon couldn't stand water and only pretended he liked being clean when he licked his paws. The water-sprinkling trees were of no use to him and the beast tried to burn them down. Only he didn't know there was a dam around the grove that the villagers had built to help them water their fields. The moment the Dragon blew out a huge tongue of blue flame the people broke their dike open and the water flooded out. Within seconds the wicked creature was wet from head to tail, his flames extinguished. The Dragon's eyes blazed with fury... "Just you wait!" growled the beast, snorting. "I'll poison all of you! I shall poison your food, and make you regret the day you were born! You will remember me, you wil-1-1!" And with these words the Dragon plunged into the new attack, his poisonous tongue lashing out and sending drips of venom around. But the smart villagers didn't lose courage. Wasting no time, they managed to catch the Dragon's tongue and they pinned it to the ground with large wooden forks. Then they collected a bucketful of his venom! Later, they brought it to the local chemist making him wild with joy. For him, it was a godsend because he could use the venom to cure rheumatism, bursitis and other diseases, including bad temper. It was terrible humiliation! The Dragon became so angered he struck his tail against the ground with such force that the earth shook. He op ned his .jaws wide and rushed at the magic tree with fatbacks, sausages pancakes and other tasty things dangling from its' branches, Blinded with fury, the Dragon rolled mto briars that the villagers had planted around the magic tree and gobbled them down in no time. Only, he failed to notice the thorns on these shrubs... It was his stomach that told him what he had eaten. "Oh the pain! Oh my poor belly!" wailed the beast, writhing in agony. "These awful thorns... Only my granny's dropsy cure will help me... Oh my, I left it in the cave... It's miles away!" That's how the Dragon wailed as he dragged himself back to the distant mountains. Later, the Dragon realized that it was not going to be so easy to defeat Merrymage as long as the villagers supported him. So the Dragon bottled up his rage. He got rid of the extra heads leaving himself the most cunning one. He decorated his cave with precious stones'which he had unearthed in the mountains. Once a grim hiding place, the Dragon's cave soon became a private museum! The cunning creature went as far as placing his extra heads amidst his most attractive exhibits. Again he started receiving guests, as was his old tradition, and not all of those corning to see the Dragon's Display were necessarily fools or madmen. The host was out for sympathy, eagerly shaking hands with the visitors and bawling out: "Come to see the Dragon's Display! Meet the Amiable Dragon in person! Have a look at all these heads I used to have. Pretty, aren't they? You can touch them, you can buy them as souvenirs. Don't worry, my heads will do you no harm. There, look at my tail. Give it a good twist, I don't mind in the least! I'm very soft at heart!" The Dragon bent over backwards to worm his way into the people's affection. He was waiting until he would be able to catch them unawares and to destroy the wondrous trees Merry-mage had raised. Meanwhile, the treacherous Dragon was going to grow himself more heads with venomous tongues, cutting jaws and singeing flames for his evil purposes...
Добавлять комментарии могут только зарегистрированные пользователи. [ Регистрация | Вход ]
Вход на сайт
Поиск
ПОЛЕЗНЫЕ САЙТЫ
Песня "Как Челинтано" кавер версия от Сландо
Квартиры посуточно Донецк
Песня "Держи" кавер версия, клип (cover) Дима Билан
Как научиться играть на гитаре
Песня "Минуэт"
