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Classic fables: the ugly duckling
One summer afternoon Mother Duck smiled as she looked at her new-born
eggs, which were soon to crack open. “Crick crack”, went the
first egg. “Crick crack” went the other eggs, one after the
other. The shells broke and five yellow balls of fur came out. “How
beautiful you are!” said their mum. But one last egg, bigger and
darker than the others, was still closed. Mother Duck was worried,
but finally it started opening too. “Pac!” went the shell as it
broke open. Mother Duck was very surprised when she saw her new baby.
“It looks nothing like the other ones!” she said. “He is so
big, and he has grey feathers and a big beak!” “How ugly he is!”
said all the other ducks in the farm. “How ugly he is!” said his
five brothers. “That’s ok. He will be handsome when he grows up!”
sighed his mum, and she brought all her babies at the lake for their
first swim.
The days went by, but for the ugly duckling they were not happy days.
His brothers would peck at him, cats would scratch him, and kids
would chase him. One afternoon, looking at the sky, the ugly duckling
saw some beautiful white birds flying towards the sun. “How
beautiful they are! I wish I could fly away with them!” he thought,
and he decided to leave everything behind and look for a better
place.
The duckling wandered the world alone for a while, feeling sad and
hungry. One day he reached a farm with a chicken and a cat. “Come
in” they said. “You can stay with us if you want”. He eagerly
accepted, but his glee did not last long.
“Can you lay eggs?” the chicken asked him.
“No” he replied.
“Can you meow?” asked the cat.
“No” he replied again.
“Then go away, you are not needed here.”
Desperate, the duckling began wandering alone again. All of a sudden,
through the leaves of a bush, he caught sight of the glittering water
of a lake. He got closer, and here he saw the same beautiful white
birds that he once had seen flying towards the sun, gracefully
floating on the lake.
The duckling could not resist, he wanted to be with them, so he ran
and dove into the lake. “I don’t care if they peck me away!” he
thought.
But nobody did. On the contrary, the beautiful birds went towards him
and welcomed him warmly. The ugly duckling lowered his head and,
catching his reflection in the water, he realised that he was no
longer ugly and odd, but he had become a beautiful white bird, a
wonderful swan! That was the happiest day of his life.
Translation by Chiara Amoretti
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