Ivana Brlić Mažuranić
Regoč
On summer evening fairies came from a cloud to play with horses. Kosjenka* was a smallest fairy among them and this was her first night out. She sat on a horse and they ran into the world. While they were running, Kosjenka admired everything, but she liked the most a place next to a forest with two golden fields, two villages and a river. They come to the ruins of a city called Legen* where Kosjenka saw a man bigger than the biggest oak, but he was sleeping. That was RegoÄ?* who lived in Legen city for a thousand years and was counting rocks.
*Kosjenka[kosjenka] *Legen [legen] *RegoÄ? [regoʧ]
When they met, Kosjenka told him about the place next to the forest. Kosjenka got a few pearls from her mother with whom she could create the stuff she needed. She threw a pearl and created a small basket so Regoč could carry her on his ear. They headed on their trip through the Underground where Kosjenka saw a castle with beautiful treasure where she played a little bit. She moved a stick and everything collapsed. It separated Regoč and Kosjenka. Kosjenka almost died but Regoč saved her.
They come to the surface where they saw little shepherds playing. Kosjenka joined them and wasted all of her pearls there. Liljo*, the smartest boy, was the only one that hasn’t been playing because he was worried. He told Regoč that their villages were in a war and that elders from his village will destroy the dam on the river Zlovoda* to sink the other village.
Liljo knew that the water will sink both of the villages.
*Liljo [liljo] *Zlovoda [zlovoda] = name of the river, it means “evil water”
Suddenly, they heard a noise and saw a Zlovoda sinking both villages and fields. RegoÄ? tried to block the hole but he couldn’t do it. Then he slammed his foot to the ground and made a hole so water went below. Children were sad because all the adults died in the flooding and none could teach them how to cultivate the fields. Then they saw a very old woman and a man who were looking through the attic window.
When RegoÄ? saw them he got scared because he never saw old people until then and he ran to Legen city. Grandpa and Grandma taught the children how to cultivate and told them to build only one village so there would be no evil and misfortune. They built a tower in the middle of the village with a garden for Kosjenka where children played in the evening.
THE END
Drawings and text prepared by class 4.a Translation in English – Filip Lalić, class 8.b OŠ Okučani, Croatia, 2016./2017.