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79 lines
4.4 KiB
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79 lines
4.4 KiB
Markdown
## [Bormor] The Witch
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* Author: u/melmonella *Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you**
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* URL: https://www.reddit.com/r/rational/comments/9hvgjb/bormor_the_witch/
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* Score: 75
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* Created: 2018-09-22T00:17:11
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### Post:
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Translation of a short story by P.Bormor. Original [here](https://bormor.livejournal.com/784619.html).
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___
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“In exactly sixteen years princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die!” - loudly proclaimed the old witch and turned towards the door. Stopping on the threshhold, she couldn't hold back from turning and adding an ominous “Ha-ha-ha!”
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___
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“You see, granddaughter,” she was explaining to a little witchie twenty years after, taking a walk with her in a park in late autumn, “I didn't even have to do anything myself. These idiots, good fairies, got all confused, panicked and did all the work for me. Of course, none of them could remove my curse. As if they could remove something that wasn't even there! They couldn't even find it, but instead of thinking about it, they just got all the more convinced of my fearsome powers. And applied all sorts of protective charms to the poor girl, so that she'd fall into a deep sleep on her sixteenth birthday for a hundred years. As far as I am concerned, that's a pretty good curse. And take note - all the credit goes to me.”
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“But you could have really cursed the princess, right, grandma? You could have?”
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“In principle, yes,” nodded the old witch. “But I try to avoid tangling with curses, and recommend you do the same. Price you eventually have to pay for them is too great.”
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Granddaughter was quiet for a while, thoughtfully tossing fallen leaves with her shoe, and asked:
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“And if the good fairy wouldn't have protected the princess, what then? Sixteen years would have passed, princess wouldn't have died by pricking her finger on a spindle, and everyone would have realised...”
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“That I tricked them all?” Finished the old witch and chuckled. “Why, I'd have liked that. That's our way, the witch way. But really, so you'd know, I didn't start this whole venture to ruin the life of one princess or other, with whom I wasn't even acquainted, and who couldn't have done me any wrong by the virtue of being a newborn.”
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“Then why did you?”
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“Why do you think?” Witch stopped, and stared at her granddaughter expectantly. Witchie thought as hard as she could, furrowing her brows and biting at her fingernail.
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“A whole country...” she finally managed. “A whole country, in which all spindles and spinning wheels are banned! And that means...”
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“Exactly, clever one!” Old witch nodded, satisfied. “No yarn, no strings, no local production of cloth. And that means a sharp jump in the prices of textiles, growth of imports, strengthening of political positions of leatherworkers, overflow of the local market with wool, linen and cotton and a whole set of other interesting nuances. Anyone who knew about the crisis beforehand, let alone who started it, could net a very nice gesheft from it.”
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### Comments:
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> **u/Kilbourne** [+6] (2 hours later)
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>
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> Gesheft?
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>> **u/PreFollower** [+10] (3 hours later)
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>>
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>> Jewish word for "profit". It is used in Russian since long ago to substitute the whole "123?profit" thing.
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>>> **u/Kilbourne** [+1] (3 hours later)
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>>>
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>>> Ah, I see.
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>> **u/SvalbardCaretaker** [+1] *Mouse Army* (9 hours later)
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>>
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>> Note the similarities to german "geschäft" - "to make a deal/trade".
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>>> **u/vallar57** [+2] *Unseen University: Faculty of High-Energy Magic* (a day later)
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>>>
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>>> That's because the Yiddish is a High German language.
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> **u/FeepingCreature** [+6] *GCV Literally The Entire Culture* (8 hours later)
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>
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> I like it! Very Pratchettian.
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> **u/None** [+2] (8 hours later)
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>
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> Спасибо за перевод
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> **u/hyphenomicon** [+1] *seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators* (2 days later)
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>
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> I find this much more entertaining than the other one.
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>> **u/melmonella** [+1] *Tremble, o ye mighty, for a new age is upon you* (2 days later)
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>>
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>> You are not the only one. Also which other one, I've posted three so far?
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>>> **u/hyphenomicon** [+1] *seer of seers, prognosticator of prognosticators* (2 days later)
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>>>
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>>> I saw the take on Emperor's New Clothes and thought it was kind of dumb. Yes, crowds can be dumb and wrong, but they aren't always. It would be a very terrible plan to try anything like that in reality.
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---
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