A man said to Moses, "Teach me the language of animals!"
"You'll regret it," Moses warned him, but the man insisted.
So Moses taught him.
The man then understood what the animals said.
"Cock-a-doodle-doo! Horse will die today!" shouted the rooster.
So the man sold his horse.
The next morning: "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Slave will die today."
So the man sold his slave.
The next morning, the man was shocked to hear: "Cock-a-doodle-doo! Master will die today."
The man ran to Moses for help. "Save me from this doom!"
"Go sell yourself if you can," said Moses. "There's nothing I can do."
Inspired by: The English prose version of Rumi in Tales from the Masnavi by A. J. Arberry.
Notes: This is story 89 in the book. In the original story, the rooster's words are in a dialogue with the dog: the two animals are arguing about food, so each time the rooster makes the prediction it is in the context of the dog getting something good to eat, and the dog gets angrier and angrier. I had to leave out one of the predictions; in Rumi's story, it goes horse-mule-slave-master.
No comments:
Post a Comment