Story II: The oilman and his parrot (1)

An oilman possessed a parrot which used to amuse him with its agreeable prattle, and to watch his shop when he went out. One day, when the parrot was alone in the shop, a cat upset one of the oil-jars.

Seorang peniaga minyak mempunyai burung kakaktua yang selalu menggembirakan beliau dengan kepandaiannya berkata-kata, dan berperanan menjaga kedia ketika dia tiada. Suatu hari, ketika kakaktua bersendirian di kedai, seekor kucing telah menumpahkan salah satu daripada balang minyak milik tuannya.

When the oilman returned home he thought that the parrot had done this mischief, and in his anger he smote the parrot such a blow on the head as made all its feathers drop off, and so stunned it that it lost the power of speech for several days.

Bila si penjual minyak kembali, dia menyangka si kakaktualah yang melakukan perbuatan itu. Dalam marah, dia menampar kepala kakaktua dengan begitu kuat sehingga semua bulunya tercabut, dan kerana terlalu terkejut, si kakaktua hilang upaya berkata-katanya selama beberapa hari.

But one day the parrot saw a bald-headed man passing the shop, and recovering its speech, it cried out, “Pray, whose oil-jar did you upset?” The passers-by smiled at the parrot’s mistake in confounding baldness caused by age with the loss ot its own feathers due to a blow.

Tetapi suatu hari, si kakaktua terlihat seorang lelaki berkepala botak lalu melintas di hadapan kedai; ia, yang tiba-tiba mendapat semula upayanya untuk berkata-kata, lalu berteriak, “Cakap, balang minyak siapa yang tuan tumpahkan?” Orang ramai yang lalu-lalang tersenyum kerana kesilapan si kakaktua menyamakan botak akibat tua dengan luruh bulunya sendiri akibat ditampar.

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(1) Masnavi-i-Ma’nawi, op.cit., Book 1, pgs., 12-13.