Gajah, Kepik, dan Burung Hantu

Suatu hari, adalah seekor gajah yang berteman dengan seekor kepik. Gajah itu ingin menjadi sekecil kepik, jadi ia bisa terbang bebas dari satu bunga wangi ke bunga wangi ke bunga wangi yang lain.

Si Kepik, di sisi lain, ingin jadi sebesar si Gajah, supaya ia bisa mengangkat batang pohon dengan belalainya.

Seekor burung hantu yang berusaha tidur siang dia sebuah cabang pohon ceri di atas mereka menyuruh mereka diam.

The Elephant, The Ladybug, and The Owl

One day, there was an elephant who made friends with a ladybug. The elephant wants to be as tiny as the ladybug, so that he can fly freely from one fragrant flower to another.

The ladybug, on the other hand, wants to be as big as the elephant so that it can lift a tree trunk with its trunk.

An owl who tries to take a nap on a cherry tree branch above them tell them to shut up.

Gadis Pemain Cello

Di dalam kebun buah ada sebuah tempat bernama Musim Gugur. Pohon-pohon di sana semuanya tertutup daun-daun dan buah-buah sewarna api. Ada satu barisan panjang pohon-pohon ginko kuning and satu bukit kecil yang penuh pohon pinus jingga. Daun-daun merah dari sulur-suluran anggur menjulur di mana-mana. Selain itu tanahnya tertutup daun-daun gugur yang sewarna api.

Si Kepik dan Gajah sedang jalan-jalan sore ketika mereka sampai ke sana, dan matahari sedang tenggelam dalam warna-warna yang menyala. Kedua hewan itu penuh dengan melankolia ketika mereka melihat senja dalam beragam warna-warna jingga, merah, jambu, nila, dan bahkan biru.

"Dulu ada seorang gadis pemain cello," Kepik memulai ceritanya. "Dan ia sedang dipeluk musim gugur seperti ini  ketika ia membuat keputusan terpenting dalam hidupnya."

***

 The girl was standing under a tree whose leaves have gone orange. The autumn shade brightened her dark face. Her black eyes had just dried from tears.

Gadis itu berdiri di bawah pohon yang daun-daunnya sudah merona jingga. Cahaya musim gugur menerangi wajahnya yang gelap.

Nah.



Kedua tangannya menggenggam leher cello itu dan mengangkatnya tinggi-tinggi. Ia telah menjual sapinya, sapinya satu-satunya untuk membeli cello ini -yang paling murah di toko musik. Cello itu telah membelikan sapinya kembali. Ia bahkan telah punya lebih banyak sapi sekarang, lebih banyak dari yang pernah ia punya, dari uang yang ia dapat lewat bermain cello. Cello itu telah memberinya ketenaran, teman-teman baru, pengalaman tak terhingga . . . dan cello itu telah membawanya ke banyak tempat di dunia yang tidak akan pernah ia datangi jika ia tidak bermain cello. Kekayaan dan ketenaran, itu lah yang telah diberikan oleh cello itu untuknya. 

Dengan wajah datar, dibantingnya cello itu ke tanah. Cello itu pecah menjadi serpihan di atas lapisan dedaunan jingga, kuning, dan merah. Dipatahkannya bow cello itu menjadi dua. Dilemparkannya di atas tumpukkan serpih kayu cello. Ia mendesah. Ia mulai berjalan ke rumah untuk memulai lukisannya. Lukisan yang selalu ia gambar diam-diam di dalam kepalanya, di tempat yang sama di mana ketakutannya bahwa tidak akan ada yang mempedulikan lukisannya bertumbuh.

Akan tetapi, ia tahu bahwa dari awal yang selalu ingin ia lakukan adalah melukis. Bukannya bermain cello.

***

"Gadis konyol,"kata si Gajah.
"Memang,"kata si Kepik. "Tetapi ia akan menjadi lebih bahagia. Ia akan menjadi tua dan bahagia."

The Wild Orchard

There was an orchard that is full with trees of fruit and flowers. Everything there is beautiful, nothing is ugly. The trees embed their roots deeply into the fertile soul and they are full with fruit. Apple, pear, persimmon, cherry, mango, durian, rambutan… everything sweet from wooden trees will never extinct from the orchard. Besides, the vines of red grapes, green grapes, and passion fruit are always heavy with leaves and fruit.

In the orchard there are also flowering trees. Trees of magnolia, frangipani, Butterfly flower, Sakura blossom, and everything fuchsia, yellow, and blue that blooms in summer try their best to blow their petals open. Besides those, there are also many kinds of flowering bushes, shrubs, hibiscus, bougainvillea, tulip, jasmine, lavender, every kind of beautiful flower that can be imagined and they grow rapidly side by side in the beautiful garden.

There are some lucky creatures that can live in the pretty orchard. There is a small elephant, who befriends with a large ladybug (Although the elephant is small, he is much much larger than the large ladybug, mind that!) and also an owl who is always sleepy and fond of taking a nap in the branches of a cherry tree. Besides, there is also a female piggy that always plays with a herd of butterflies and bees groupies. This flock is very fond of playing run and chase in the orchard, because the orchard is not only dense with vines and plants but also carpeted with green thick prairie grass with many white flowers. What is unhappy with this situation is only a coquettish caterpillar, who likes to play with her make-up, who lives in the pandan shrubs. The piggy’s playing run and chase makes the caterpillar’s mildly furred arms shaking to and fro so that her face is a mess with lipstick. The caterpillar is most happy when it is raining, because she can see her reflections in the water drops that fall unstoppably around her pandan shrub.

Besides the animals, there is also a flock of tiny gnomes that live in the orchard. They live in a colony, under a giant yew tree in the middle of the orchard. Every gnome family has their own mushroom house which is always colored red and spread in the gaps between the long and twisting yew roots.

That is the lovely wild orchard.

The Cello Girl

In the orchard there is a place called The Autumn Shade. The trees there are covered in flaming colors of fruit and leaves. There is a long row of yellow ginko trees and small hill of orange pine trees. Red leaves of long grape vines are mounted everywhere. Besides, the soil is covered with leaves in flaming colors.
The ladybug and the elephant are in their afternoon stroll when they get there, and the sun is going down in velvet colors. The two animals are full with melancholia wen they see the twilight in the orange, red, pink, violet, and even blue colors.

"There was a girl who used to play with cello," the Ladybug starts her story. "And she was standing in the autumn shade like this when she is making a decision of her life."

***

 The girl was standing under a tree whose leaves have gone orange. The autumn shade brightened her dark face. Her black eyes had just dried from tears.

Anyway.

She lifted the cello with her two bare hands on the neck. She had to sell a cow, her only cow, to afford the cello -the cheapest she could find in the music store. The cello had bought her back her cow. She even had more cows now than ever, from the money she got by playing the cello. The cello had brought her fame, new friends, experiences . . .the cello had brought her to many parts of the world she would never encounter had she not played it. Fame and fortune, were what the cello had brought her.

She smashed the cello indifferently to the ground. It falls into pieces on the floor or orange, yellow, and red leaves. She broke the bow in two. She threw it on the ground on the pile of the wooden pieces of the cello. She sighed. She turned to her house to start her paintings. The drawings she always kept in mind, where the fear that no one will respect her paintings lay.

However, she knew from the very beginning that what she wants to do is to paint. Not to play cello.

***

"Silly girl."said the Elephant.
"Oh yes,"said the Ladybug. "But she will be happier. She will grow old and be happy."

Kebun Buah yang Liar

Adalah suatu kebun buah yang penuh dengan pohon-pohon berbuah dan berbunga. Semua yang ada di situ indah, tak ada yang buruk. Pohon-pohon, yang menancapkan akarnya dalam-dalam ke tanah yang subur, berbuah ranum. Apel, pir, kesemek, ceri, mangga, durian, rambutan... segala yang manis dari pohon berkayu tak pernah habis dari taman buah tersebut. Selain itu sulur-sulur anggur merah, anggur hijau, dan markisa selalu rimbun dan sarat buah.

Di kebun buah itu juga ada banyak pohon berbunga. Pohon-pohon cempaka, frangipani, bunga kupu-kupu, sakura dan semuanya yang berwarna fuscia, kuning, dan biru dan berkembang di musim panas berlomba-lomba mengembangkan kelopaknya lebar-lebar. Selain itu juga ada banyak semak berbunga, perdu-perdu, bunga sepatu, bougenvilla, tulip, melati, lavender, pokoknya semua macam bunga yang cantik yang bisa dipikirkan manusia penuh menyesaki kebun yang cantik itu.

Ada bermacam-macam makhluk yang beruntung boleh tinggal di dalam kebun buah yang cantik itu. Ada gajah yang mungil, yang berteman dengan seekor kepik besar (walau gajahnya mungil, dia lebih besar daripada kepik yang besar itu lho!) juga seekor burung hantu yang selalu mengantuk dan senang tidur siang di cabang-cabang pohon ceri. Selain itu ada seekor babi betina yang selalu bermain dengan kumpulan kupu-kupu dan lebah. Rombongan ini senang sekali berlari-lari di kebun buah, yang selain rimbun oleh berbagai macam tumbuhan tapi juga dikarpeti rumput hijau tebal yang banyak bunga putih kecilnya. Yang sering kesal hanya seekor ulat bulu pesolek yang tinggal di rumpun semak pandan. Gara-gara si babi lari-lari, tangan si ulat yang berbulu halus, yang sedang memegang lipstik, bergoyang-goyang sehingga mukanya jadi cemong-cemong. Si ulat paling senang hanya ketika hujan tiba, karena dia bisa berkaca di tetesan air yang turun tak habis-habis di sekitar rumpun pandannya.

Selain hewan-hewan, ada juga serombongan kurcaci kecil yang tinggal di kebun itu. Mereka berkoloni di bawah pohon cemara besar di tengah kebun, setiapkeluarga kurcaci menempati rumah jamur mereka sendiri yang berwarna merah dan tersebar di sela-sela akar pohon cemara yang menjulur jauh.
Itulah kebun buah yang cantik dan liar.

(to go to the English version of "Kebun Buah yang Liar" click here  )