Small stories

[BKnight]

OK, so I didn't find a word in english that would match the romainian "snoava" which is basically, a small story that you say by the campfire or near your stove...

A very old story I am going to say now...

Once upon a time there was a little girl. She had a mother and a father and they lived at the countryside. She loved her parents and her parents loved her more than anything in the world. For them she was like a little princess, like a breath of fresh air... she was like a piece of the sun.
One day, when the little girl was playing in the garden with the puppies she noticed something strange at her mother's hands. She rushed to her and said: "Why do u have so ugly hands, mommy?" The woman looked at her hands, black, scorched with missing nails and all that and she said : "Yes, my dear, your mommy's hands are very ugly!". The father, who was reading the newspaper on the porch heard the two of them talking but said nothing.
After a while, when the mother was away with chores, the father asked the little girl :"Do u like stories, Julliane?". "Oh, pappy, I like then so much that I would always listen to them". "Let me then tell u a story. Once upon a time there was a little girl. Her parents considered her to be the brightest gem on earth and loved her beyond belief. Her mother was beautiful... Her hands were so white that even the doves were ashamed... One day when the father was at work and the mother was returning home from the market with the hands full of groceries she saw a big flame on the sky. She gasped, dropped the groceries and rushed to see her own house in flames. The neighbours were all gathered around wathcing helplessly how the house was burning. Then she heard her baby's cry from inside. She rushed in. The people tried to stop her, saying that there was no hope, but she didn't listen. She entered the house... the smoke was rising to choke her and the flames were burning her hair and her clothes. Not caring for her, she found the bab'y cradle, took the little one in her arms, put out the flames which ignited the little diapers with her own hands and with the last strengths she got out. Her baby was safe... Her hands were destroyed...."
The little girl was crying... She ran to find her mother, threw her face in her mother burned hands and through sobs she said: "Dear mommy, your hands are the most beautiful in the whole wide world!"


Hope u liked the story... If u want more... ask for more!

[Elentari]

WOW! That is such a cool story! More! More!

[BKnight]

I'm really glad u like it, Elentari. It was rather sad than funny. Well, here's another one :

Once upon a time, there was a family of poor peasants. The man of the house worked very hard, all day long to bring food to his family. One day, after he had finished the work, he was resting on the side of the road. Out of nowhere a beautiful carriage stopped right next to him. The carriage was beautiful. The wheels were made out of gold, the carriage's doors were silver and the horses had diamond dust on their bridles. Our man stood in amazement. "This gotta be a very wealthy man", he thought. Then the carriage door opened and a tall man descended the little stairs. The man had a big topper on his head, an expensive overcoat on his shoulders, a long beard and leather boots.
"He must be one of the boyars." (very rich people in Middle age Romainia), our man thought. The tall man approached him. The peasant noticed that he had a big pouch at his belt. "Maybe he'll give me something..." The tall man stopped right in front of the peasant. They stared at each other for a while the the tall man reached out his hand to the peasant and said : "Give me something!"
Our man was dazed. "But, but, you are rich... I'm very poor... All I have is this bag of grains, for my family... And you ask me to...".
"Give me something!"
"I don't have anything to give"
"Give me something!"
The tall man's voice was not threatening, but annoying.
"Give me something!", he repeated.
No response.
"Give me something!", with his hand reached.
"Here, take this! A piece of my childrens bread". Our man opened the bag and gave him one grain, one single grain to the tall man.
"Thank you", he said. Climbed on his carriage and he left.
At home, when our man spilled the grains on the table he noticed something glittering.
"What's this?" he said. He searched the grains and he found a golden grain. Then he realized his mistake... His given grain was returned to him by God's messenger in a golden grain.
"Oh, if I had been a little more generous, I would have had a lot of golden grains now. Why didn't I give him at least a handful of grains!"

[BKnight]

My friends, if you are wondering from where are these stories I will tell you. I've found in my grandfather (may God rest his soul)
library an old book. Well, maybe not that old; it says it's from 1939. Pretty old, indeed. Inside the book
were these stories. I've read them and I've liked them so much that I thought it will be wrong not to
share them. So, here is another one:
Once upon a time, there was a man who had one son. The boy's mother passed into the other realm
at his birth, so the man had to take care of the boy alone. He raised him like any loving father would have done.
it wasn't his fault when the teenage boy strayed from the good path.
From that day forth, nothing would be like it used to. Not a single day passed without the boy doing something wrong.
He started drinking, smoking, talking dirty, getting in all kind of fights and "black" affairs. The boy's father was very sad.
In his saddness he went to his son ex-room. There he took a mallet and a nail and hammered the nail
into the door. After this, he used to hammer nails in his son door every time he had heard something bad about his boy.
Soon the door was filled with nails.
Long years passed...
The son, realizing his faults, came back to the right path. He took a job and started working. He
also started to make donnations to the orphenages, to churches and to asylums. Still, he was feeling
sorry about his mistakes. With a wonderous passion he started righting all his wrongs. He quit smoking and drinking.
He started helping the poor and the old. His father, hearing about his son deeds was pleased. Every
time he had heard about a good deed he took a nail out from the son's door. After quite some while there were no nails left in the door.
After two decades, the son returned home and said to his father. "Dear father, I reckon that you are still sad.
Tell me why! My good deeds have long surpassed my wrong and forsaken ones. But you are still
sad. Why?" The father asked to follow him to his old room. The two of them stopped in front of the old door,
filled with holes now. "My dear boy... My beloved boy... You are a changed man. You have done good.
But you see, your old deeds are marking my old heart like the holes of the nails are marking this door.
The nails have been removed, yes. But the holes will always remain."

[BKnight]

Once upon a time, it's said, there was a treasure hunter. He was searching for gems in ancient
temples, abandoned dig sites, lost jungles and sunken cities (no, I'm not talkining about dr. Jones).
One day the luck smiled upon him. While he was walking down the beach he saw something buried in the wet sand.
Probably the tides washed it upon the shore. He rushed to that thing and started digging with his own hands. After
a couple of minutes he found, to his amazement, a bag full with gems. But such gems, he never had seen.
A little sceptic he decided to take the gems to a specialist in ancient treasures to estimate the value
of the gems. He started walking up on the beach, towards the town. The sun was at noon, the gulls
were calling, the sea waves were quiet; in one word the heat was sipping the life out of anything.
And the bag was so heavy.... So heavy...
Our treasure hunter started to throw the gems, to relieve his burden.
After a while he had no gems, except for one. With the gem in hand, he entered the specialist's shop.
He threw the gem on the table and asked for its value. The specialist put on his spectacles and started,
fascinated to study the gem. After a while he said :"Unbelieving, I've never seen something as this. Its
crystaline structure is perfect, it hardly needs polishing. And I believe it's not from this earth. I suspect to be
more valuable than diamonds. I'm not sure, I need some more advanced equipment to determine this,
but if you give it to me I'll pay no matter how much for it." "Okay, 100 millions" said out treasur hunter.
"Done deal!" The specialist, knowing he had fooled our man for such a small amount of money, completed
the cheque with an evil smirk. "Do you have any more preciousses?" asked the evil specialist.
Our man rushed back to the beach hoping he will find the lost gems which only himself threw
away some minutes ago. To his dissappointment, he had found none.
Little he knew, that in his absence somebody who knew the gems very well picked them all up, and
no matter how heavy did they seem, he had carried them to the nearest shop.

[Ophelia]

Nice job BK !
It seems a lot like the national tales of my country , that we have as many as you may imagine , though more modern ;D
I might pull myself together one day and write one too , but it is not even close to a promise

the Laziness herself - Ophe

[BKnight]

Okay, I've got some other stories to tell / translate, but I'll be needing 5 posts here in order to push myself to the translating board. I mean, I have to see that you care and really want to hear more stories.

[Elentari]

I love your stories BK! Post more! Post more!! Which translater are you using by the way? www.babblefish.com has a few that work well.

[BKnight]

Thank you, Elentari; but there has to be 4 more posts. The translater? I am the one that translates them in english, I don't trust special automatic translater.
And BTW, it's nice to see that your work is appreciated. Thanks again.

[Tirinwen]

That was a cute story! Tell some more!

[Cenerue]

You are really talented! Those were great!

[BKnight]

Okay, guys, okay! I'll get on with the next stories. Maybe tomorrow or the next day I'll be able to post them. So, hang on tight...

[BKnight]

Once upon a time, in a far away kingdom, there lived a father with his little daughter. Her mother passed away when the girl was very young, so the poor father had to raise the little girl all by himself. And that's not an easy task for a man... Nevertheless, he loved his daughter more than his sight, so he tried his best to raise the girl properly. Despite all the harshness of life he had succeded in raising his daughter for 12 years. Each day she grew more wise and beautiful. She reminded a lot of his mother, so the poor father tried his best not to loose her too.
As I've said, life was harsh. The people were a lot poorer on that time. So, when the poor father had to steal to insure the survival of his family, he didn't think twice. Unfortunately, the law was very harsh too. The penalty for thievery was the removal of the hands by cutting. The sentence was very swift... the next day at dawn... off with his hands. The same day, in the evening, the girl decided to go to the palace's prison to visit her father. At first, the guards wouldn't even hear it. "No visitors allowed, girl! So, move along!" But, her please was so moving and her tears so burning hot that even the guards were moved and felt compasssion. They opened the gates and direct the little girl toward the prison. The little girl spent the night in front of her father cell. The next day, at dawn, the guards came and too the father in the main court to have his hands removed. They brought him in the main court to be seen by all people, even the king was there. Silently, he walked the stairs to the scaffold and placed his hands on the log for the executioner to cut. Everybody was staring... Some knew him and were sorry for him and his fate; others just came there to see some blood. The executioner raised his sword, but just then a wonder happened... Some thought that a glass had broke; it was just the little girl's cry: "No!" Crying, screaming he stepped on the scaffold, pushed her father aside and still with tears in her eyes she placed her own hands on the log. "Your Majesty, my father stole that bread because I was starving... I... I'm to blame here, not my poor father... His hands can work, mine are too frail, too young and too weak! So cut my own hands instead of his! I beg of you!" After a moment, when all were mesmerized, the king regained his composure and said: "If the girl wishes that, so be it!" The father tried to beg the king to reconsider, but he decided. The excutioner raised his long sword again and... he put it down. With a single gesture, the "evil" king had told the executioner not to harm the child. He stood up from his throne, came to the still kneeling child, wiped her tears, helped her stand and said:"A child that is wiling to sacrifice for her parents doesn't deserve this!" The king forgave the poor father and even presented him with a large sum of gold and a job at the palace. The king also ordered that, to remember this day, and this selfless sacrifice an inscription should be posted on the scalfold :"The parents blessed with such children are indeed blessed. The country that has this kind of parents is even more blessed."
As a conclusion, I would have written there instead : "The parents gave you life; what do you give in return?"

[BKnight]

I bet that your feelings for the beggars will change after reading this...

In a far away countrry, a long time ago, there lived a poor man. He once served in the king's army, but when all the enemies were vanquished he was dismissed. Because the speech of weapons and steel was the only job he knew, no one would hire him again.So, forced to live like an outcast he began hiding in the forests and leaving a secluded life, torn aside from the rest of society... Forced to live on the edge, he relied on other to feed him. So, he began begging for food. Some would give him half of bread, others one sack of potatoes, others rotten tomatoes, some even gave him gold coins.
There was one particular old lady that our beggar kept on "pestering". He would often come to her house asking for alms, saying his old phrase:"He who gives, gives to himself! He who does a good thing he does it for himself!" The lady was very greedy and she wouldn't give a thing to anybody. Although, because she had a very big house, the beggar knew she was very rich, so he kept coming and asking for alms.
Because the old man drove her mad, the old grumpy lady decided to get rid of the beggar. So, in her wicked mind he made up a plan... when the beggar came again, she gave him a nice, hot, golden bread in which she poured a lot of poison. The beggar accepted the bread with his usual saying. "He who gives, gives to himself! He who does a good thing he does it for himself!"
I think I haven't mentioned yet that the old lady had only one son... Very handsome, strong and kind. His passion was the hunting... So, one day she decided to go hunting just in the forests where our beggar was living. Because the young hunter, had never visited that forest before he was caught up by night and by a heavy rainstorm in the middle of the woods. Lost, a bit frightened and soaking wet he met with the poor beggar. The beggar was a kind man. He quickly took the young man into his shack, lit a fire, gave him some dry rags and offered him the best of his food... a big, round, golden bread that he was given to him by a "good Christian", as he put it. The young man, hungry as he was, ate the bread quickly... Soon after he felt nauseated, he began having burning in his stomach, vomiting, and shortly after he died, spasming his own liver out. The beggar, although a man of war, who had seen lots of deaths was terified. He quickly called the doctors and the guards from the nearby town... The doctors said the young man had been poisoned. The beggar pointed the old lady from which she received the bread... When the old lady saw the guards, the doctors, the beggar and had found out how her precious boy died, she went mad... Ripped her clothes, plucked her hair, screamed and laughed at the same time realizing what she had done... And as an horrific echo, in her head she could hear the old man saying... "He who gives, gives to himself! He who does a good thing he does it for himself!"

[ElberethVarda]

I shouldn't laugh, but I am. It's so very ironic! Great one, BKnight!