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Click here to view Sheepsop's (Aesop's) Fables Large file (273 mbs) , may take a few minutes to load.
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My students made it in term III this school year (2005-2006). They made it in English, you know it is amazing work and amazing imajination .................... Sopyan |
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The Murder in PARIS
by Rildi |
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The Bin |
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Жил-был
старик со
старухою.
Просит
старик: |
Once there lived an old man and old
woman.The old man said, |
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Замесила
тесто на
сметане,
изжарила в
масле и
положила
колобок на
окошечко
остудить. |
She mixed the dough with sour cream, fried it in
butter, and put the bun on the window sill to cool. The bun lay and lay
there. Suddenly it rolled off the window sill to the bench, from the bench
to the floor, from the floor to the door. Then it rolled over the
threshold to the entrance hall, from the entrance hall to the porch, from
the porch to the courtyard, from the courtyard trough the gate and on and
on. |
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Катится
колобок по
дороге, а
навстречу
ему заяц: |
The bun rolled along the road and met a hare. |
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Катится
колобок, а
навстречу
ему волк: |
The bun rolled on and met |
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Катится
колобок, а
навстречу
ему медведь: |
The bun rolled on and met |
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Катится
колобок, а
навстречу
ему лиса: |
The bun rolled and rolled and met |
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Какая
славная
песенка!-
сказала
лиса. -Но ведь
я, колобок,
стара стала,
плохо слышу.
Сядь-ка на
мою
мордочку, да
пропой еще
разок
погромче. |
"What a wonderful song!" said the fox.
"But little bun, I have became old now and hard of hearing. Come sit
on my snout and sing your song again a little louder." |
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The Turnip |
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Посадил
дед репку.
Выросла
репка
большая-пребольшая.
Пошел дед
рвать репку:
тянет-потянет,
вытянуть не
может!
Позвал дед
бабку. |
Grandpa planted a turnip. The turnip
grew bigger and bigger. Grandpa came to pick the turnip, pulled and pulled
but couldn't pull it up! Grandpa called Grandma. |
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Пришла
собачка. |
The doggy came. |
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Пришла
мышка. |
A mouse came. |
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The fox and the crane |
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Подружилась
лиса с
журавлем.
Вот
вздумала
однажды
лиса
угостить
журавля и
пошла звать
его к себе в
гости. |
The fox made friends with the crane. The fox once had
a notion to treat the crane to dinner and went to invite him to her house. |
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Журавль
хлоп-хлоп
носом,
стучал,
стучал,
ничего не
попадает. А
лисица в это
время лижет
себе да
лижет кашу,
так всю сама
и съела. |
The crane went peck-peck with his bill, knocked and
knocked, but got nothing. Meanwhile, the fox licked and licked the cereal
until she had eaten it all. |
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Налил в
кувшин с
узким
горлышком,
поставил на
стол и
говорит: |
He poured it into a pitcher with a narrow neck and
put it on the table. He said, |
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-Ну, не
обессудь,
кума. Больше
угощать
нечем. |
"Don't be offended godmother. There's nothing
more to offer you." |
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pictures by Gosia Kmiec, text by Karolina
Nowak
How Greed was Punished There was once an old bishop called Gamrat, known for his wine cellar, in which the best wines of the world could be found. When Gamrat felt death was close, he called his most trusted servants and asked them a favour. He wanted them to take two barrels of the very best wine and deliver it to the nearby monastery. However, the servants did not do as their master commanded. They took the best wine for themselves and chose some of much lower quality for the gift for the monastary.
They never gave their bad deed another thought until one day, as they were sitting in the chamber drinking happily the best wine, they heard strange knocking on the door. They opened, but there was no one there. After a few minutes the situation repeated. This time they got really scared. When they heard the knocking for the third time, they were almost dead of fear. The door opened and they saw Gamrat, dressed in his bishop’s robes. He approached the table, hit it with his fist and said accusingly: “You did not fulfill the dying man’s last request. You will get what you deserve.” With these words he disappeared.
The next morning brought some interesting news from the monastery: somehow, during the night, some barrels with the world’s best wine had appeared near its walls. No one knew how that was possible. The servants could have explained it, but they were not left to live. |
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Pictures by: 1. Ania Jablonska 2. Malgosia Kmiec Saved Cracow
There was once a good, old king Krak who ruled the city of Cracow and the lands around it. He was very popular among his subjects, as a man of honour and kind, loving heart. His wife had long been dead and he had no son who would take the throne after his death, but he had a beautiful and brave daughter called Wanda. She was in love with a young prince, who ruled the lands close to the Baltic Sea. Even though they were often separated by the long miles of thick forests, the two happy people did not despair and kept making plans for the future together. Unfortunately, the time finally came when the old king died. The nobles of Cracow started thinking how to ensure the safety and stability of the land. They thought that the best way would be to marry the princess off to some brave knight who could protect the land and its people. They sent their messengers to all neighbouring kingdoms and soon a mighty knight from a fighters’ tribe, very hostile towards Wanda’s nation, came to the Cracow castle and demanded Wanda’s hand in marriage. Wanda, scared of the knight’s brutality, refused, especially that she was still hopeful to hear from her seaside prince. The knight, however, was not so easily discouraged. “I will now go back to my land”, he said, “but I will be back soon, with my numerous, well trained and well armed hosts. If you do not agree to have me as your husband, we will destroy your country with swords and fire and slay all your subjects. The choice is yours.” With these words, the knight left. Poor Wanda had never felt so lonely and helpless in her life before. Her prince gave no sign of life and day by day people came to her castle, begging her to marry the cruel knight and save her land. She knew, however, that under such a rule, her people would never again feel safe and free. Finally, the day came when the knight and his army were approaching Cracow. Wanda knew that her prince would not come in time to protect her and her land. She knew she had to save her people without anybody’s help. She put on her most beautiful dress and picked up some flowers. She went to the top of the Wawel Hill and looked around to admire her lands for the last time. “If I cannot marry the man my heart has chosen then I shall marry no one,” she said with a sad smile. “And I will never give anyone a reason to attack my country and hurt my people. If this is my destiny, let it be so.” With these words she plunged down the cliff, straight to the Wisla River.
Many miles away from the city her body was found drifting along the river. People mourned her for long months and the legend says that she looked so sweet, peaceful and pretty in her death as if she had only been asleep.
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The beginnings of Poland
Once upon a time, over a thousand years ago, when the area of today’s Poland was covered with thick and wild forests, there lived three brothers. Their names were Lech, Czech and Rus. One day they decided to leave their parents and village and, accompanied by their servants and warriors, look for a new place to settle down and start a new life. For many days they wandered together, but finally understood that they could never find a piece of land that would please all three of them. They decided to choose separate paths. Czech took the path leading to the south, Rus – to the east and Lech went westwards. Lech and his people made their way through the forests and they observed that with each day the landscapes became more and more beautiful. Finally, after many days, they came to an exceptionally charming spot. As it was getting late, he ordered the camp to be put up for the night around a huge oak tree. Suddenly, the sun started to set and covered the sky with its red flames and some strange noise could be heard, as if of the huge wings breaking the forest’s silence. The warriors raised their heads and saw a huge, white eagle approaching its nest in the oak tree. Lech understood that the place was not only beautiful, but also abundant in goods of all kinds and very safe. He thrust his sword in the ground under the oak tree and said: “Here I will build my kingdom and around this magnificent oak tree its capital will appear. Because the eagle’s nest is in the oak’s branches, the city will be called Gniezno (“gniazdo” is a Polish word for “nest”) and the symbol of our country will be the white eagle in the red sky.” |
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The story about Persefony (Persephone) submitted by Jenny, Greece A long years ago people couldn’t explain how and
why seasons change. So they found a fantastic story. In these years there
was a beautiful girl called Persefony. She liked Nature, flowers and trees
and she was very pretty. The God of Death, Athis, saw her and he wanted her
to be his wife. So one day as she was picking flowers he caught her and he
took her with him. Persefony’s mother was Dimitra (Ceres) and she
was Godess of Nature. When Dimitra lost her daughter nobody told her what
had happened except for the Sun, the God who sees everything. When she
learned what had happened she found and talked to Athis. They both loved her very much so they decided that
Persefony would stay with Athis only for four months and then she could
return to her mother. So when Persefony was with Athis she was crying.
But Nature and her mother were unhappy, so it was raining and cold. When
she went to her mother, her mother was happy and the nature was sunny and
it wasn’t raining the weather was good. When Dimitra was happy it was
spring, summer and autumn and when she was sad it was winter |
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Laura
Kozik – International Club “Phileas” THE MAN WHO COMFORTED THE HEARTS
On
5th May 1846, in the times when Poland did not exist in the
maps of Europe, having been partitioned by the three neighbouring kingdoms
(Russia, Prussia and Austria) at the end of the eighteenth century, a boy
was born in a village of Wola Okrzejska in the eastern part of the
country. His parents called him Henryk. Not
much is known about his early childhood, except for the fact that he read
a lot and that the books he read had a great influence on his dreams,
plans and way of thinking. As a young boy he dreamed about becoming a
famous soldier, a knight rescuing his bride from a cruel enemy, a
traveller experiencing unbelievable adventures. When
he was a teenager, his parents sent him to school to the capital, Warsaw.
His school reports indicate that he had clear interests: he always scored
the highest marks in Polish and history. Other marks varied. His school
essays and compositions won admiration of all his teachers. It was already
then that he started writing his very first pieces, originally read only
by his closest friends. Even
though his interest in literature, history and writing was obvious, he
yielded to his parents’ will and after graduating from secondary school
started studying medicine. Luckily, after a year his own inclinations made
him change the department at university into philology and history. He
was not an outstanding student – his poor health didn’t let him
participate in many lectures and he did not take active part in
students’ life either. Because of financial problems he had to support
himself giving private lessons and often took exams unprepared. But he
didn’t waste his time. He kept reading, writing and sending his works to
magazines, not discouraged by their refusals to publish them. His
first work that was finally published in April 1869 was a review. After
that date he managed to publish more and more pieces leading him
eventually to taking up a career of a journalist. As a reporter he
concentrated his early works on the problems of the contemporary society,
which was a popular trend in literature at that time. Such were the beginnings of one of the most famous and successful careers in Polish literature. Henryk Sienkiewicz fulfilled many dreams of his adolescence: he became famous, he travelled widely across Europe, Africa and America, and in the characters of his heroes he experienced the most fantastic and romantic adventures.
Sienkiewicz
was always faithful to his interest in social problems. One big group of
his works are stories, short stories and novels concerned with the
contemporary world. Nowadays we read them mainly to find out about the
nineteenth century reality, but few people really get fascinated by them. His
reports from world travels are much more interesting. But Polish people
have always loved him mostly for his outstanding historical novels. As he
said, he wrote them “to comfort the hearts”. Poland did not exist as a
state, Polish people were waiting to regain independence (which didn’t
happen before 1918) and Sienkiewicz’s novels gave them hope and
strength. In these novels he reminded his compatriots of the times when
Poland was a powerful kingdom and showed how it defeated its enemies.
The
huge influence the novels had on their readers can be illustrated by one
anecdote. The novels weren’t originally published in a book form, they
appeared periodically, chapter by chapter, in magazines. Once Sienkiewicz
let one of the main characters die in a fight. People immediately started
flooding the editorial office with letters of protest. As a result, he had
to alter the whole chapter and leave the hero alive. These
novels were not only popular in the 19th century. Any time
Poland was in danger people reached for them to remember that they must
not abandon hope and to comfort their hearts. During World War II many
members of the underground army chose the names of the Sienkiewicz’s
characters as their conspiracy pseudonyms. However, it was not the novel dealing with the Polish history that made Sienkiewicz famous throughout the world. In 1896 he published his most outstanding work - the novel "Quo Vadis", set in the Ancient Rome during the reign of Nero. It is an epic picture of the birth of Christianity and shows in a fabulous way the realities of those times, persecutions of the first Christians and the dramatic story of a great love between a young Christian girl and a Roman soldier.
The
novel was translated into numerous languages and brought Sienkiewicz the
Nobel Prize in 1905. It was also many times translated into the language
of the film, e.g. by the Italian, American and Polish
cinematography.
The story begins when the children were kidnapped from their fathers and kept as hostages. They managed to escape and experienced many adventures trying to survive in Africa and find their way home. They were accompanied by a black boy and girl, Kali and Mea, who had been kept as slaves by the very same people who had kidnapped our heroes. Together they travel across the continent, look for food and shelter, learn to avoid danger and gradually build fantastic, strong friendship.
In
Poland the book was filmed twice – in the seventies for the first time,
and last year for the second. Last years release of the film was the
biggest cultural event of the year for children of all ages! Everybody will find something interesting in the novel: adventure lovers will have a lot of them in the whole story, nature lovers will admire descriptions of Africa, of its wildlife and inhabitants, history fanatics will be intrigued by the political background of the events. And everyone will love the main characters and observe with fascination their struggle to come back home.
If you have a chance to read any work by Sienkiewicz in your own language, let us know about it! We would be delighted to know your opinion! |
The Legend of Sumgayit
City Takes Its Name from a Legend of Love
A
city doesn't have to be ancient to be associated with a legend. In
Azerbaijan, even comparatively new towns and settlements are named after
old stories and legends. Sumgayit, located about 30 miles away from Baku
on the northern shore of the Absheron Peninsula, is the third largest city
in Azerbaijan (after Baku and Ganja). It was built 50 years ago and has an
estimated population of 300,000. The city's name refers to the legend of
two lovers who lived by a nearby river.
The
story's setting takes place on the banks of the river near which a tribal
group had settled. Central to so many stories throughout the world is a
love story and so it is with this legend. A young man named Sum and a
young woman named Jeyran fell deeply in love with each other. Their tribe
was doing quite well, getting most of their food by fishing in the river.
However, one morning the people were horrified to see that the river had
completely dried up. Since the river had its source high up in the
mountains, the tribesmen decided to send the strongest and most courageous
man to go up and see what had happened. And so it was that Sum was chosen
for this dangerous mission.Sum climbed and climbed until he reached the
top of the highest mountain. Then he discovered what the problem was. A
terrible monster had dammed up the river with a huge boulder. A fierce
battle ensued and eventually Sum managed to overcome the beast and
strangle it to death. Then he went over to the boulder and pushed it out
of the way, but the force of the water swallowed him up and his body was
swept downstream. As the water carried him away, only his hand could be
seen sticking up above the surface of the water. That's why this mountain
where Sum carried out his heroic deed is called "Beshbarmag"
Mountain, which means "Five Fingers." Its five tall peaks look
like the hero's fingers.
But
the river began flowing again and everything returned to normal. The tribe
was saved. Everyone was happy again except, of course, for Jeyran. She
missed Sum terribly. Every day she would go down to the river and call for
her beloved to return. In Azeri, her cry sounded like, "Sum Gayid!"
(Sum, Come back). And that's how the river that Sum saved came to be
called, "Sumgayit Chay" ("chay," meaning river). And
the city that was built there shortly after WWII was named Sumgayit. It
became Azerbaijan's largest chemical and industrial center. Jeyran-Batan
But
that's not the end of the story. When Jeyran realized that Sum would never
come back, she started to cry and eventually she, too, died, drowning in
her own tears. The place where this is supposed to have happened is called
Jeyran-Batan, which in Azeri means, "The place where Jeyran
drowned." Today, there is a reservoir there which supplies the city
of Baku with water. This reservoir was created about the same time that
the city of Sumgayit was built. So the names of both places can be traced
to olden times and are bound up with the same legend. |
Daedalus and Icaros: the first men in the sky
(Submitted
by Christos: Patra, Greece) King Minoas
wanted to build a unique building. He called a famous architect, Daedalus.
Daedalus was a big inventor, too. He went to Crete and he built a
labyrinth. The king was
afraid in case Daedalus built the same building somewhere else. So Minoas
put in prison Daedalus and his son, Icaros. Daedalus wanted
to leave the island, so he made feathers for him and his son from wax, and
they flew away from the island. But Icaros was so happy to fly that he
went near the sun and the feathers melted and he fell into the sea near an
island. The island with his grave is now called Icaria and the sea Icarian sea.
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A Wild Animal In the Dark: ‘Minotavros’(Submitted by Christos: Patra, Greece) King Minoas of
Crete had a son, Androgeos. He was the winner of a fight in Athens.
Instead of giving him the prize they killed him. When Minoas heard about
it, he took a big army and he looted Athens. The looting lasted long and
the inhabitants died from the hunger. After that, all together they
decided to do peace. But to have
peace, the people in Athens had to send 7 boys and 7 girls to Crete every
year to be eaten by Minotavros. Minotavros was a monster with human body
and bull head. The great hero Thiseas, the son of Athens King Aigeas, went to Crete to kill this monster. He told to his father if he win, he will return with a white cloth on his ship, differently he will return with a black cloth. Ariathny, the daughter of King Minoas was feeling sympathy to Thiseas and she helped him. She gave him a knife and a ball of wool. Thiseas killed the monster in the labyrinth and with the wool he got out. He went away with Ariathny. But God Dionysos took Ariathny. Thiseas was sad and he forgot to put on the white cloth and when his father saw the black cloth he was feeling disappointed and he fell into the sea and drowned. That is why the sea is called the Aigean sea.
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The Dragon of Cracow
(Smok Wawelski) A very popular legend in Poland! By
Dominika Sz., Ada P. and Marlena P. Once upon a time there lived a good king in a
castle upon the Wawel hill in the place where today we can see the royal
castle in Cracow. All the people in his country loved him, because he was
just and honest and knew very well how to rule his people.
One day terrible news
shocked the whole land. An enormous dragon appeared out of nowhere and
settled down in a huge cave just under the king’s castle. Since the day
he appeared in Cracow terrible things started to happen in the
neighborhood. He needed big amounts of food every day, so he often
attacked farms and stole cattle, sheep or chickens. But that was not
enough for him. After a while he ordered the people of Cracow to bring him
every morning one beautiful, young girl so that he could eat her for
breakfast. Otherwise – as he said – he would use the fire from his
stomach to destroy the whole city. What could the people do? They had to
agree. Poor king was crying day and night seeing the terrible misery of
his people. Finally he came up with an
idea. He sent his servants to all corners of the world with a message that
the daredevil who would have enough courage to come and kill the monster
would as a reward receive half of the kingdom and the king’s beautiful
daughter as a wife.
And just than a very strange person appeared
in the castle – it was neither a soldier nor a noble, but an ordinary
shoemaker, a young boy called Dratewka, who lived and worked in Cracow.
Nobody believed him when he said he could kill the dragon, but the king
was so much in despair that he let him try. The
boy took the skin of one dead sheep and stuffed it with sulfur. Next he
stitched it very carefully and added four sticks that looked like legs.
After it had been done he took the ‘sheep’ to the cave and placed it
right in front of the entrance. When the dragon woke up in the morning he
saw the animal as if waiting for him. He was expecting the princess, but
he thought he could have that sheep as a starter. Without hesitation he
swallowed the dish. A few moments passed and suddenly something strange
started to happen inside his stomach. He felt extremely thirsty so he
rushed to the nearby river and started to drink. He was drinking and
drinking and drinking but nothing could satisfy his thirst. He drank
almost all water from the river and then – with a huge ‘boom’ he
popped like a balloon! The noise could be heard in all corners of the
kingdom.
The king was very happy. He immediately gave half of his kingdom to the
shoemaker and the princess was also delighted to marry her hero. After old
king’s death the shoemaker was crowned and ruled long and happily. |
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The Legend of Shimabara`s Earthquakes by Reina
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POLAND - submitted by Dominika S., Ada P. and Marlena P.
In
the 13th century a young Polish prince, called Bolesław, of the Piast Dynasty, decided to get married
and for his wife chose a beautiful Hungarian princess of the Arpad
Dynasty, the daughter of king Bela IV, Kinga
(or Kunegund, as she is sometimes called). When Bolesław’s proposal was accepted, the loving father asked Kinga what she would like to get from him as a wedding present, what she would like to take to her husband and the new country. Kinga replied that she wanted no gold and jewels, since they only brought unhappiness and tears. She wanted something that could serve the people she was going to live with. Her request surprised the king greatly – she asked for salt. The
king was determined to keep his promise. He offered Kinga the biggest and
most prosperous salt deposits in Hungary – the Marmaros salt mine.
However, nobody knew what Kinga could do with the treasure. On
her way to Poland the princess visited the mine. She kneeled to pray next
to the entrance and – to everyone’s surprise – suddenly threw her
engagement ring inside. She gathered a group of the best Hungarian salt
miners and told them to follow her. When
the party arrived in Poland and was approaching Kraków, Kinga stopped and
asked the miners to look for salt. They started digging and suddenly hit
something very hard. It was a lump of salt. When they broke it, everyone
saw what was hidden inside – Kinga’s engagement ring! That
is how the Hungarian princess brought salt to our country. Right
now in Wieliczka there is the most famous salt mine museum. Here is the
link to the mine’s homepage: http://www.kopalnia-wieliczka.pl/english/
To commemorate the princess, 101 metres under the ground, down in the mine
there is the world’s biggest underground chapel, dedicated to Saint
Kinga. In this picture you can see the salt sculptures from the mine showing the moment when the miners give Kinga the ring found in the salt lump.
Photo credit: http://www.kopalnia-wieliczka.pl/english/galeria.htm |
A feast at Petronius's, the main character's best friend
Stas from the first screen adaptation of the book.
Stas, Nel and Mea on an African plain.
Nel and King, the elepant the children saved from death of starvation.
