Moorish Literature: Comprising Romantic Ballads, Tales of the Berbers, Stories of the Kabyles, Folk-Lore, and National Traditions
General
Moorish Literature: Comprising Romantic Ballads, Tales of the Berbers, Stories of the Kabyles, Folk-Lore, and National Traditions
Spanish literature -- Translations into English
Then the dog told the other: "My master, hearing the chickens talk, began
to laugh. His wife asked him: 'Why are you laughing?' 'If I tell you, I
shall die.' 'Tell me and die,' That is why," continued the dog, "he has
given alms, for when he reveals his secret he will die, and I shall never
find anyone to act as he has."
The other dog replied: "As he knows our language, let him take a stick and
give it to his wife until she has had enough. As he beats her let him say:
'This is what I was laughing at. This is what I was laughing at. This is
what I was laughing at,' until she says to him, 'Reveal to me nothing.'"
The man heard the conversation of the dogs, and went and got a stick. When
his wife and he went to bed she said to him, "Tell me that now."
Then he took the stick and beat her, saying: "This is what I was laughing
at. This is what I was laughing at. This is what I was laughing at," until
she cried out:
"Don't tell it to me. Don't tell it to me. Don't tell it to me."
He left her alone. When the dogs heard that, they rejoiced, ran out on the
terrace, played, and ate their food. From that day the wife never again
said to her husband, "Tell me that!" They lived happy ever after. If I have
omitted anything, may God forgive me for it.
* * * * *
THE APPLE OF YOUTH
There once lived a king who had five daughters and no sons. They grew up.
He wanted them to marry, but they would not have any of the young men of
the city. A youth came from a far country and stood under the castle,
beneath the window of the youngest daughter. She saw him, and told her
father she would marry him.
"Bring him in," said the King.
"He will come to-morrow."
"God be praised," said the King, "that you are pleased with us."
The young man answered, "Give me your daughter for a wife."
"Advise me," said the King.
The stranger said, "Go and wait till to-morrow."
The next day the young man said to the King: "Make all the inhabitants of
the city come out. You will stand with the clerks at the entrance to the
gate. Dress your daughters and let them choose their husbands themselves."
The people began to come out. The eldest daughter struck one of them on the
chest with an apple, and they said: "That daughter has chosen a husband.
Bravo!" Each one of the daughters thus selected a husband, and the youngest
kept hers. A little while afterward, the King received a visit from one of
his sons-in-law, who said to him, "What do you want us to give you?"
"I'll see what my daughters want," he answered. "Come back in six days."
When they went to see their wives the King said to them, "I will ask of you
a thing about which they have spoken to me."
"What is it? We are anxious to know."
"It is an apple, the odor of which gives to the one who breathes it youth,
no matter what his age may be."
"It is difficult," they answered. "We know not where it can be found."
"If you do not bring it to me, you cannot marry my daughter."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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