Hungarian Folk Tales
WHEN I WAS A BOY
I want to tell you what I did when I was a little boy. Believe it or not, there was a huge poplar in my father’s garden. It was so tall that it reached the sky. On its trunk, there was a hole and in the hole there lived a yellow-bird. I wanted that bird so much that I climbed up the tree, but the hole was so small that I couldn’t put my hand into it. I thought that I would use my father’s pocket-knife to make the hole bigger. As I was widening the hole, I accidentally dropped the pocket-knife into it. I was terrified because I knew that my father would beat me if he heard about the story with the knife. So I ran away from home and didn’t even look back. As I was walking down the road I got to a village. I passed a house and looked into its yard where I saw a cart. I thought that if there was a cart there must be a horse, too. I went in to see if they took me for a cartman. The farmer looked at me and hired me at once. They didn’t take good care of me. Sometimes there was something to eat, sometimes there was nothing. The farmer hit me many times so I liked him like the goat loves the knife. Once the farmer told me to put the horses to the cart, because we were going to Debrecen. 35
“Should I grease the cart, governor?” “Of course, you should. It would run much smoother.” He gave me a big piece of fat, and I greased the cart from one end to the other. When the farmer saw what I did, he became very angry. “What have you done, you fool?” “You told me to grease the cart and I did so.” “You only have to grease the wheels.” “Why didn’t you tell me so in the first place?” He once again gave me a piece of fat, and I greased the wheel so much that grease was dripping down its side. “Did you grease the wheels, Jankó?” asked the farmer. “I did, governor. Take a look at it.” “You idiot. You should have greased the axle!” “But why didn’t you tell me so, governor?” He gave me another piece of fat, and I greased the axle so well that the wheels were spinning on their own. “So, Jankó, put the horses to the cart.” “How many horses should I put to the cart?” “Four. Put the two grey horses to the front and the two yellow ones to the back.” So I put the grey horses to the front of the cart and the yellow ones to the back of the cart, and I went into the house to call the master. “You can come I put the horses to the cart.” “Nice job Jankó, I wouldn’t believe you could do it so fast.” 36
When we went to the yard, my master started to swear. “How did you put the horses to the cart, you idiot?” “I did it as you told me so. Two at the front, two at the back.” He beat me at once, and showed me how to put the horses to the cart. He made me sit at the back of the cart while he was sitting at the front. He told me not to say anything until we reached Debrecen. The horses were flying to Debrecen, and I didn’t open my mouth. Suddenly I realised that a nail had fallen out, but I didn’t say a word. After that the wheelpin fell off. Then the hoop fell out shortly followed by the wheel. But I didn’t say a word. The farmer was just driving, but didn’t notice anything just when the horses started to draw the cart much slower and almost couldn’t take another step. The farmer was constantly swearing. “Giddy up, you usually reach Debrecen much fast“ er than this, so what happened now?” He looked at me angrily. “Did you give them enough to eat?” he asked, but as he looked back, he realized that there were no wheels, and that was the reason why the horses had stopped. “Why didn’t you tell me about this?” “I wanted to, but you told me not to say a word otherwise you’d kill me.” The farmer got really angry and beat me badly so I ran away as fast as I could. 37
I ran through hills and mountains, and I didn’t stop until I reached a village. I found another farmer there who hired me to look after his goats. He gave me a bag full of food, and I started for the farm. I was just about to leave when the farmer shouted at me. “Jankó, in the evening you can make a fire as big as you want, because there is enough wood there.” It was good that I could make fire, because it was cold in the evenings. So I made a huge fire at night so big that it set the farm on fire. I lay down and warmed my back and feet. Suddenly I saw that somebody was running towards me with a big stick in his hand. I thought it must have been my master. I was right. I jumped up and ran away. The farmer was shouting at me: “Stop! Stop, you criminal, I’ll kill you!” “I won’t stop. I’m not a fool,” I thought and ran as fast as I could. Fortunately, I got to a forest, where I climbed up a tree with two branches. Between the two branches of the tree, there was a hole and I put my feet in it, and suddenly I fell into the hole. I tried to climb out but I couldn’t. I got really sad, because I didn’t want to spend my entire youth there in the hole. On the third day some woodworking gypsies came, who wanted to chop down the tree. It was easy to do because it was a hollow tree. “Chop it, chop it!” I thought and when they cut as big a hole as I could climb out of it, I cried out and the gypsies got so scared that they ran away. I took their axes that they left there, and went into 38
the village where I sold them all. I don’t know how much money I got for them, because I gave it to the blind beggar who was sitting outside the church. I thought I could go home now, because my father wouldn’t be so angry. I was wandering in the forest, which was so vast that I couldn’t find my way out of it before the night fell. I was a bit scared because it was pitch dark. After a while, I saw a light and I started towards it. It turned out to be a huge fire. Twelve bandits were sitting around it, and each and every one of them was roasting an ox.
“What should I do? I’ll join them even if they kill me.” I went there and greeted them, but they were looking at me with strange eyes and that really terrified me. “Sit down with us, young lad, and make yourself at home,” said the oldest bandit. 39
I sat down and ate as much as I could. Then I went to bed, but I was too afraid to fall asleep, because I thought they would kill me. When they thought I was sleeping, they started debating about what to do with me. One of them suggested that they should kill me, because I could betray them. Another said: “We shouldn’t harm him. Possibly we could make as honest a man out of him as we are.” Finally, they decided to put me into a wine barrel and leave me there. “So, Jankó, that’s the end of your life,” I thought, but I didn’t dare to do anything. So the bandits put me into the barrel and left me there. I started to pray, and God answered my prayers. There was a hole on the bottom of the barrel, and I peeped out. To my luck, the bandits left their ox bones around the barrel, and a wolf was attracted by the smell. As the wolf was smelling the bones its tail accidentally slipped into the hole in the barrel. I grabbed its tail really hard, and the wolf started to run with the barrel. It was a really bumpy ride, but I didn’t mind, because it was taking me out of the forest.
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The wolf ran until it reached my village. There the barrel hit the side of a tree so hard that it fell into pieces. The wolf ran away and I stayed there in my village, and never left it ever again for the whole of my life.
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to make a braying noise nyög
braying of a goat kecskemekegés
inert élettelen
nest fészek
to beg könyörög
to shrink összezsugorodik to be worth sg ér vmit to greet köszönt to tinkle csendül
instantly nyomban
to figure out sg kitalál vmit
eagle nestling sasfióka flesh hús
maaing mekegés to sigh sóhajt
to dance the lead elöl táncol
WHEN I WAS A BOY poplar nyárfa
piece of fat háj
yellow-bird sárgarigó
wheel-pin lőcs
trunk fatörzs
pocket-knife bicska cart szekér cartman kocsis
to grease megken
governor gazduram
axle tengely
hoop tengelykarika Giddy up! Gyí! branch ág
hollow odvas
beggar koldus
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vast hatalmas
barrel hordó
ox
to pray imádkozik
pitch dark koromsötét ökör
to debate vitatkozik to betray elárul
to dare to do sg mer megtenni vmit
to peep kukucskál to attract vonz
THE PRINCE WITH THREE BEASTS to propose to sy megkéri vki kezét
to plot összeesküvést sző
to blossom virágzik
for good örökre
mercy kegyelem
ripe érett
to moan nyög
spring forrás
beast vadállat
to become tame megszelídül bow íj
to pretend tettet chest láda
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to deserve megérdemel
to mourn gyászol
curious kíváncsi
soldering grass forrasztófű to roar üvölt
cushion párna
to appreciate nagyra becsül to drag vonszol
to pierce keresztüldöf