Rain or Sunshine?

Fables from Aesop and Turkey
translated and/or edited by

D. L. Ashliman
© 2008

Contents

1. The Father and His Two Daughters (Aesop).

2. Nasreddin Hodja and His Two Daughters (Turkey).

The Father and His Two Daughters

Aesop

"Excellently well," said she; "we have everything that we want; I have but one prayer, that we may have a heavy storm of rain to water our plants."

Off he set to the potter's, and asked his other daughter how matters went with her.

"There is not a thing we want," she replied; "and I only hope this fine weather and hot sun may continue, to bake our tiles."

"Alack," said the father, "if you wish for fine weather, and your sister for rain, which am I to pray for myself?"

• Source: Thomas James, Æsop's Fables: A New Version Chiefly from Original Sources (London: John Murray, 1848), no. 138, p. 148.

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Nasreddin Hodja and His Two Daughters

Turkey

The one said, "My husband is a farmer. He planted a lot of grain, so if it rains he will earn so much that he can buy me some new clothes."

The other one said, "My husband is a potter. He has made a lot of pots, so if it does not rain, he will earn so much that he can buy me some new clothes."

To this the Hodja said, "One of you will get what she wants; but I do not know which one it will be."

• Source: Albert Wesselski, Der Hodscha Nasreddin, vol. 1 (Weimar: Alexander Duncker Verlag, 1911), no. 51, p. 26.

• Translated by D. L. Ashliman. © 2008.

• For another formulation of this tale see George Borrow, The Turkish Jester; or, The Pleasantries of Cogia Nasr Eddin Effendi (Ipswich: W. Webber, 1884), pp. 17-18.

• Link to additional stories about Nasreddin Hodja, the Turkish Trickster.

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Return to D. L. Ashliman's folktexts, a library of folktales, folklore, fairy tales, and mythology.

Revised December 15, 2008.