Translation:The Still that Died

by Anonymous

The Still that Died

Once, a simple peasant had devised how to con some usurious trader in the city, who did him a lot of misfortune, and went one day to the trader, asking him: "Master, I beg you, borrow me a liquor still, so that I distil some liquor, and by this day^[1] I shall bring it to you and [you]^[2] will get for it a thaler. The trader gets greedy and borrows him the still, and the peasant in the seventh day goes away to the trader and carries a little liquor still, tiny beyond measure, saying: "Do you know what had happened, master?" "What?", the trader asked. "By God, your still had calved", the peasant answered, "and here I brought to you his calf, for it came to me in calf, and I do not want what is yours." "Bravo! bravo!", the trader responds, "by that it could be seen, that you are a honourable man, thenk^[3] you!" "But I ask you, master", the peasant added, "let the still stayes^[4] with me a few days more, for as ill as it is I can not return it." "Very well", the trader answers. Tensome^[5] days after, the peasant run scaredly to the trader, and told him: "Master, do you not know of the misfortune?" "Which one?", the trader asks. "The still had died." "How — 'died', no one's son!", the trader shouts, "how can a still die?" "This is how", the peasant receives, "what ever^[6] can calf, can also die." And in this way, when the trader brought the peasant to the court, the peasant gets his rationale, and takes the large still for the small one.

Notes

1. The same day next week.
2. "You" is missing in the original.
3. The original uses dialectal "фала" instead of literary "хвала", so it is translated as dialectal too.
4. The original uses dialectal "поштоји" instead of literary "постоји".
5. The original uses dialectal "дешетак" instead of literary "десетак".
6. The original uses dialectal "штогођ" instead of literary "штогод".