The Pride of Icarus

Daedalus, one of the greatest inventors of ancient times, was asked by theking of Crete to build a maze where he could imprison the Minotaur, a monster half-man and half-bull, sothat it could never get out again. The ingenious architect did as he was asked, but some time later he helped Theseus, a famous hero, to kill the monster. As a punishment, the king of Crete ordered Daedalus to be impri­soned himself in the labyrinth, with his young son, Icarus.

“Don't worry,” the father encour­aged the boy. “I know already how we can get out of this prison!”

Daedalus made a huge pair of wings and he stuck them with wax onto his son's shoulders. The wings could be moved up and down by moving the arms. Then Daedalus made another pair of wings for himself.

The wings worked wonderfully. The two men took off, and with a few armstrokes they managed to climb high enough to get over the walls of the labyrinth, But then the young boy, out of pride, wanted to fly higher and higher, until the heat from the sun Melted the wax and his wings fell off. Then Icarus plunged to the ground and died. Daedalus, full of sadness, carried on flying until he reached safety.

The Apple Tree and the Dandelion

It was spring and the apple tree put out its bright little flowers. They were so lovely that even the princess was muchimpressed.

She cut off some branches and arranged them in a valuable vase in a palace hallway.

The apple branch was very proud of this tribute to its beauty. Through the windows it could see the flowers in the garden and the meadow, and it pitied them greatly for their foible, especially the humble dandelion, because with one puff chil­dren could blow away their seeds, suing them naked and defenceless. He pitied them because their destiny was so different from his. At the same time, he was proud of his own shapeli­ness, his beauty, and his rich vase in the hall. It did not occur to him that the sun shone on the poor dandelion just as brightly as it did on him.

One day, however, the princess brought in a dandelion to paint, and put it in the same vase as the flowering apple branch. Beside the delicate beauty of the meadow flower, destined to be blown away by the wind, the white flowers of the apple grew a bit red, with shame.

Terjemahan....

The Viper, the Frogs and the Water Snake

A viper often went to drink at a pond which a water snake claimed as his own. The two snakes decided they would have to settle the matter by fighting. The frogs eternal enemies of thewater snake, supported the viper.

On the day of the contest, the frogs began to croak madly, for they could think of nothing else to do. The viper won the battle, and afterwards the frogs asked the victorious viper for their share of the spoils. The viper began to whistle and the frogs were baffled.

“I'm repaying you in the same way you helped me,” explained the viper.

Terjemahan.....

The husband who looked after the house

 A farmer's wife became fed up with being criticised by her husband about how she ran the house, so one day she challenged him. “Tomorrow I'll go out and work in the fields, and you can take care of the work in the house, if you think you can do it better than me!” The next day the husband did his best to do things right. He began to make the butter, but his efforts soon made him thirsty and he went down to the cellar to drink some wine. He opened the barrel, but then he heard the pig come into the house and knock over the butter dish. He rushed back upstairs to stop the animal from causing more trouble, but he forgot toput the cork in the wine barrel again.

He kept getting into trouble all morning long. At lunchtime, when he put the stew on to boil, he remem­bered that he had not taken the cow out to pasture yet; but there was no time anymore. He decided to take it onto the roof, so it could eat the grass that grew among the tiles. It was very difficult to get the cow onto the roof. In the end he succeeded, and to make sure that the animal did not fall off, he tied it there with a rope.

Then he remembered the stew over the fire. To get back to the kitchen as fast as possible, so that the stew did not bum, he lowered himself down the chimney. For safety, he tied the other end of the rope to his foot. But the cow fell off the roof Just then, and the man was yanked back up the chimney and got stuck there.

When his wife came home from the fields, the first thing she saw was the cow dangling from the rope, so she cut it loose. On the other end the man dropped down.... into the fireplace. When the woman entered the house, she found the floor covered in butter, the cellar flooded with wine, and her husband upside down with his head in the stew!

She returned to her housework. From then on, of course, he never grumbled at her again.