Két nyelven... - Bilingual from now on

Fura dolog történt a minap. Egy látogató angolra fordította a blog néhány oldalát, illetve egy teljes mesémet a Cultura.hu oldalon, a Google fordítóval. A Google fordító persze nagyon hasznos, de azért vannak korlátai. Az én mesémet eléggé összekutyulta. Ezért úgy döntöttem, inkább lefordítom a mesét magam, és felteszem ide,  hátha ismét erre jár az angol nyelvű látogató. Ugyanezért mostantól megpróbálom kétnyelvűvé tenni a blogot. :)

Az említett mese magyarul

A funny thing happened the other day. One visitor translated a few pages of the blog and a whole story at the Cultura.hu site into English. Using the Google Translator. Which is a great tool admittedly, but has its failings and limitations. As for my story, it made a real hash of it. So I decided to translate my story into English myself and upload it on the blog, should my mysterious visitor come along again. And inspired by this unexpected interest I'll try to make the blog bilingual from now on. Cheers! :)

   

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It sounds commonplace, but is it? All human beings are born free with equal dignity and rights. Buddy, the small stag-beetle likes the ground beetle, but what do the others have to say about it? This story is about us all, whatever our nationality, colour or religion might be… and about love. Luckily, it is a colourful world.

Agnes Palasthy: The Ladybird and the Ground Beetle

The two stag-beetles were walking towards the kindergarten.

‘Come on, Buddy’, urged the big one his younger brother who was stumbling behind him sleepily ‘I will be late for school’.

The little one walked faster, trying to keep up, but soon was lagging behind again. His brother sighed, and looked up at the Sun to see what time it could be. Then he slowed down a bit.

‘What’s up in the kindergarten?’ he asked trying to strike up a conversation.

The small one looked at him and his face lit up.

‘There’s this girl…’he said grinning.

The big one stopped short astonished. Then he smiled. He could clearly remember the time when he used to go to kindergarten. Of course. A girl.

‘The ladybird?’ he asked. He could faintly remember as if his brother had told him something about a ladybird.

‘No. The ladybird is no longer my friend’ Buddy stated firmly with a frown.

‘Hmmm’ said his brother noncommittally. After a short silence he asked.

‘What’s happened?’

‘There was this race, remember? When I fell. And scraped my knees, see?’ he proudly showed the bruises.

‘Ah, that’s no joke’ said his brother after seriously studying them.

‘No’ answered Buddy beaming. 

They walked on. After a while, the elder one asked.

‘So… what happened then?’

‘Then the ladybird laughed at me.’

‘That wasn’t very nice of her’ – nodded the older stag - beetle.

‘No.’

They were walking silently, each one deep in thought.

‘And then this girl came to me’ continued Buddy ‘you know, the ground beetle…’

‘The ground beetle?’ the older stag - beetle stood frozen to the spot.

‘Yes. And she asked if it hurt. And didn’t laugh at all.’

‘But… Buddy… erm… the ground beetle… erm…’

‘Yes?’

‘But she… erm… she’s… black…’

‘So you have also noticed what beautiful glossy black wings she has!’ cried Buddy beaming.

‘But… ‘croaked his brother anguished ’but… she isn’t like us…’

‘Of course she isn’t’ looked Buddy blankly at his brother ‘We are stag-beetles.’

These grown-ups can be so weird sometimes, he thought.

‘The ladybird isn’t like us either, is she?’ he went on.

‘But…’ his older brother gulped ‘don’t you like the ladybird better? She’s after all….’

‘She’s after all laughed at me. You don’t laugh at your friend, right?’ claimed Buddy firmly.

‘Right. But… erm…it’s just… the ground beetle…’

‘The ground beetle is much nicer. She is my friend. Look, there she is’ pointed Buddy.

They had just reached the kindergarten where the ground beetle was standing at the gates. Her wings were glistening in the sun as she was herding her younger siblings towards the building. When she saw Buddy her eyes lit up and she ran up to him.

‘How’s your knee?’ she asked anxiously. ‘Does it hurt?’

‘A little’ replied Buddy and started limping a bit.

‘Come on, lean on me’ offered the ground beetle ‘I’ll help you.’

They started walking towards the building. When they reached the gates Buddy turned around and waved to his brother then they slowly walked on.

The older stag beetle looked after them and felt ashamed. How much smarter his younger brother was he thought.

He threw a last glance after Buddy and his friend then turned and left jogging towards the school.