This answer was so different from what he expected, that the king was much surprised. But it did not make him angry; it only made him admire the strange man all the more. When he turned to ride back, he said to his officers:
“Say what you will; if I were not Alexander, I would like to be Diogenes.”
- Corinth, Korint
- wise, moudrý
- queer ways, divné způsoby
- in a tub, ve škopku
- honest man, poctivý člověk
- in a barrel, v sudu
- spent his days, trávil dny
- lantern, lampa
- enjoying the heat and the light of the sun, těšil se teplu a slunečnímu světlu
- did not make him angry, nerozhněvalo ho
- made him admire, vzbudilo jeho obdiv
- I would like to be Diogenes, rád bych byl Diogenem
- Alexander the Great, Alexander Veliký
The Fox and the Crow.
A crow was sitting on a branch of a tree with a piece of cheese in her beak when a fox observed her and set his wits to work to discover some way of getting the cheese.
Coming and standing under the tree he looked up and said: “What a noble bird I see above me! Her beauty is without equal, the hue of her plumage exquisite. If only her voice is as sweet as her looks are fair, she ought without doubt to be queen of the birds.” The crow was hugely flattered by this, and just to show the fox that she could sing she gave a loud crow. Down came the cheese, of course, and the fox, snatching it up, said: “You have a voice, madam, I see: what you want is wits.”
- to discover some way of getting the cheese, aby vynašla, jakým způsobem by se zmocnila sýra.
- What a noble bird, jaký to vzácný pták
- without equal, nemá sobě rovné
- the hue, barva
- of her plumage is exquisite, jejího peří jest nádherná
- hugely flattered, jíž bylo nesmírně polichoceno
- snatching it up, uchvátivši jej
- I see: What you want is wits. Vidím, čeho se ti nedostává, jest důvtip.
The Crow and the Pitcher.
A thirsty crow found a pitcher with some water in it, but so little was there that, try as she might, she could not reach it with her beak, and it seemed as though she would die of thirst within sight of the remedy. At last she hit upon a clever plan. She began dropping pebbles into the pitcher, and with each pebble the water rose a little higher until at last it reached the brim, and the knowing bird was enabled to quench her thirst:
Necessity is the mother of invention.