There
once was a fisherman who lived with his wife in a small hut close by the
seaside. The fisherman used to go fishing every day. One day, as he sat in his
boat with his rod, looking at the sparkling waves and watching his line, all of
a sudden his float was dragged away deep into the water. He quickly started to
reel in his line and managed to pull out a huge fish. "Wow! This will feed us for days." Much to
his surprise, the fish started to talk and said, "Pray, let me live! I am not a real fish; I am an enchanted prince. Put
me in the water again, and let me go! Have mercy o' kind fisherman."
The astonished fisherman quickly threw him back, exclaiming, "I don't want to hurt a talking fish! Go on! Go where
you came from."
When the
fisherman went home to his wife, he told her everything that had happened and
how, on hearing it speak, he had let it go again. "Didn't you ask it for anything?" said the wife. "No, I didn't, what should I have asked for?"
replied the fisherman.
"I am surprised you don't realize what you should have
asked for. We live very wretchedly here, in this nasty dirty hut. We are poor
and I am so miserable. You should have asked for a nice cozy cottage. Now go
back and ask the fish that we want a snug little cottage," said his
wife.
The
fisherman wasn't sure about this but he still went to the seashore, sat in his
boat, went to the middle of the sea and said:
"O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My wife wants not what I want,
and she won't give up till she has her own will,
so come forth and help me!"
The fish
immediately came swimming to him, and said, "Well,
what is her will? How can I help your wife?" "Ah!" said the fisherman, "she says that when I had caught you, I ought to have
asked you for something before I let you go. She does not like living in our
little hut, and wants a snug little cottage." "Go home then," said the fish, "She is already in the cottage!" So the
fisherman went home, and saw his wife standing at the door of a nice trim
little cottage. "Come in, come on in! Look
at the beautiful cottage we have." Everything went fine for a
while, and then one day fisherman's wife said, "Husband, there is not enough room for us in this cottage, go back to
the fish and tell him to make me an emperor." "Wife," said the fisherman , "I don't want to go to him again. Perhaps he will be
angry. We ought to be happy with what the fish has given us and not be greedy."
"Nonsense!" said the wife;
"The fish will do it very willingly, I
know. Go along and try!" With a heavy heart the fisherman went to
the middle of the sea and said:
"O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My wife wants not what I want,
and she won't give up till she has her own will,
so come forth and help me!"
"What would she have now?" said the fish.
"Ah!" said the fisherman,
"she wants to be an emperor."
"Go home," said the fish;
"She is an emperor already."
So he
went home and he saw his wife sitting on a very lofty throne made of solid
gold, with a great crown on her head full two yards high. And on each side of
her stood her guards and attendants in a row. The fisherman went up to her and
said, "Wife, are you an emperor?"
"Yes," she said, "I am an emperor." "Ah!" said the man, as he gazed upon her,
"What a fine thing it is to be an emperor!"
"Husband," she said, "it is goof to be an emperor." They were
happy for a while.
Then a
time came when she was not able to sleep all night for she was thinking what
she should ask next. At last, as she was about to fall asleep, morning broke,
and the sun rose. "Ha!" she
thought, as she woke up and looked at it through the window, "after all I cannot prevent the sun from rising."
At this thought she was very angry, and weakened her husband, and said, "Husband, go to the fish and tell him I must be Lord
of the sun and the moon." The fisherman was half asleep, but the
thought frightened him so much that he fell out of the bed. "Alas, wife!" he said, "cannot you be happy with being such a powerful
emperor?" "No,"
she said, "I am very uneasy as long as the
sun and the moon rise without my permission. Go to the fish at once!"
"I don't think this is a good idea,"
said the fisherman but his wife wouldn't listen to him. "Why don't you just go and ask the fish to make me the
Lord of everything," she said.
Then the
man went shivering with fear. As he was going down to the shore a dreadful
storm arose. The trees and the very rocks shook and the sky became black with
stormy clouds. There were great black waves, swelling up like mountains with
crowns of white foam upon their heads. Unfortunately the fisherman did not have
any choice, so he got onto his boat and rowed to the middle of the sea and
cried out as loud as he could:
"O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My wife wants not what I want,
and she won't give up till she has her own will,
so come forth and help me!"
"What does she want now?" said the fish.
"I am truly ashamed of my wife's greed but
I can't do anything. She wants to be Lord of the sun and the moon."
"Go home," said the fish,
"to your small hut." And it is
said that they live there to this every day.
Adapted from Grimm Brothers, 1812. "The
fisherman and his wife"
Adopted from Bahasa Inggris Kelas XI SMA/MA/SMK/MAK Semester 1.
Kementerian Pendidikan dan Kebudayaan 2014.
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