COOCOO

Translations from the (german) manuscript 'only the cuckoo knows the time' - 60 illustrated animal stories.
© wiesl from Wiesl's ARCHIVE

hippo with chewing gum
the colorful birds
the screaming pelican
the desert camel
the clean fish
the brutal butterfly
only the cuckoo knows the time

hippo with chewing-gum

a man was throwing his chewing-gum out of the airplane window.
right into the yawning mouth of a hippopotamus.

surprised by the sky's gift - hippo started to chew it. it didn't like the taste so it wanted to spit it out. but the chewing gum sticked to poor hippo's mouth.

hippo was desperate. for it couldn't reach its mouth with the thick feet in order to get rid of the gum. to find a way out of this misery it blew with all its power.
this created a huge bubble which went up in the air and made hippo fly like with a balloon. higher and higher. hippo saw the little spots in the water. his comrades seemed as little as ants. it went through the clouds towards the moon.
as soon as it left the atmosphere - the bubble burst and hippo fell towards the ground with highest speed.

the same airplane passed by. hippo fell right on it.
both fell to the ground - exactly into hippo's home lake.

 


hippo got away with a few scars and scratches. the airplane sank and the surviving humans swam to the shore. noone wanted to believe what the pilot said - that a hippopotamus had caused the accident... hippo was happy about being back swimming in the lake.

the hippos talked for a long time about this happening. the airplane wreck on the ground of the lake reminded generations of hippos of the story. the pilot looked out for flying hippos for the rest of his life.

 

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die bunten vögel

the colorful birds

one day the little sparrow was flying over the zoo.

there he also flew over the house of birds. curiosity led him to fly in there: now he could see the amount of cages with various birds trapped in them. the little sparrow was astonished by the richness of colors - each bird had a different color - wonderful splendid colors.

he thought of himself and his looks. his monotone brown feathers. he felt very poor compared to those colorful birds. sadly he flew to a hallstand to rest. right beside the hallstand was the cage of the bird of paradise. the most beautiful and colorful of all birds in this house - saw the sad little sparrow.

- why are you so sad - the bird of paradise asked.

- oh you are so lucky. you own the most beautiful feathers. you are being admired by everyone. all the humans seeing you are amazed by your beauty. but from me they look away. sometimes they drop a few breadcrumbs onto the floor - but that's about it.

- you are free! us - they trapped us in these cages. - said the bird of paradise.

- but freedom isn't a color - sobbed the little sparrow.

- i think freedom is the most beautiful color in the world. for our colors are only important for us when we are at home - where we need them as protection against our enemies and to adapt to nature. but here in the city where everything is grey - it's much easier for you to hide.

the little sparrow silently flew to the guards' cabin - sneaked into it and stole the keys for the bird cages. with enormous efforts he opened one cage after the other. as silent as possible the colorful birds flew out on top of the roof and gathered there. when the last bird was set free - the little sparrow joined them. with joyful chirping they celebrated the little sparrow as their big hero. when this was over - the colorful birds disappeared to fly home.

the little sparrow looked after them for a while and was proud to own the most beautiful color of the world.

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the screaming pelican

a long long time ago - the pelican had the same bill as the storch.
but the strong yearning for having the loudest scream - made him train his voice every day.

so his larynx grew larger and a 'sac' was formed. because of the hard efforts - the halfs of his bill broke & his look stayed like this until now. and unfortunately he also lost the power of his voice & only croaking sounds came out of his throat. these circumstances forced him to find new ways how to use this useless sac.
one day he stood at a lake and saw the fish swimming in it. never before has he tried zu catch and eat them. first he had enormous difficulties to catch the fish. but as time went on - he got better and better and became the best fish-catcher in the area.
his sac was perfect to keep his prey fresh & transporting it home to feed the children.

the pelicans were still very interested in their ancestor. they knew that their look had changed because of him & now wanted to know why their ancestor wanted to scream so loudly...


...again a pelican was born and destiny wanted him to become a philosphing pelican.
he grew up & spent lots of hours at the lake - in order to observe the fish. it was raining & sometimes the sun was shining. a rainbow was formed. because of this magic constellation - the philosopher discovered the secret of their ancestor:

he had tried to talk to the fish. as the fish have no language of their own - they didn't answer.
our ancestor pelican didn't know that fish cannot speak - so he screamed into the lake every day...

that was the story why the look of the pelicans had changed. the philospher was being admired & honored until the end of his days.
the pelicans are still happy & satisfied - as they regard fish only as food.

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the desert camel

long long time ago the area the camel lived in was a splendid green sappy land with flowers and shrubs - trees and small lakes.
but camel was discontented and trampled down each little plant. camel got more and more brutal. it pressed against the trees until they fell down. it drank so much water until the whole lake was dry. camel trampled down its own home.
the land was a steppe now and camel has sentenced itself to live in a desert.

then people visited this desert land and started searching for water. our desert camel had left a few oasises in order to allure other living beings. but the people caught the camel and tamed it to a riding animal. many more camels were born and being tamed to riding animals.

now none of the camels knew anymore that once the desert had been a blossoming land and therefore were happy and satisfied with their lives. they could get along without water for days and adjusted themselves perfectly to nature.


As those camels had so much time - they listened to the people's stories - who were talking about our desert camel. So the camels got aware of their ancestor's big mistake and decided to swap their intelligence against dumbness from that moment on.
The people seized this opportunity and often used the name camel in their language.

More people passed through the desert. When they came to an oasis they saw other people who had more and more beautiful tents. So they stormed the camp and devastated everything. This strange battle extended over the whole desert. Then over the whole continent and later over the whole world.
More and more they were devastating the whole planet earth.

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the clean fish

once upon a time a fish was swimming in the sea -
driven by the longing for losing his scales.

his fishbrain thought that if he got rid of the scales -
he would be the cleanest and tidiest  fish in the whole sea.

so he swam along the coast for quite a long time
and after months - reached the mouth of a river.
at once he felt that he would get closer and closer to his aim:
as swimming in the waters of the river-mouth he realized that
a few scales were already loosening.

the river was passing through many big cities on his journey to the sea.
and fish heard fishermen saying that the humans like everything
to be clean. at least in their homes.

fish kept on swimming upstream and the success proved that his way was right.

for the more he went upstream - the more scales he lost.
soon the aim was achieved and he owed no more scales.

but now it happened that the fishflesh was working itself loose from his fishbones.
fishbrain thought - it's getting cleaner than clean here - and being of good cheer he kept on swimming.
soon there was no more flesh on his fishbones.
the fins were fading away and soon his little brain too.

one day fish was floating lifelessly in the water.
only a skeleton was left.
fish was dead.

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the brutal butterfly

once upon a time there was a butterfly who was as big as a house.
he felt very lonely. for he was the only butterfly with this size.
restlessly he flew across the whole world. he flew over all corners of the earth - but nothing could change his lonely- & peevishness. no beautiful landscape, no animal - even elephants were too tiny - could give rise to his attention.
there was only one thing astonishing him:

the human beings he has seen in different countries were absolutely not similar to each other. they had various skin colors and their clothing differed too.

nature has decorated butterfly with all colors of the world.
but butterfly wasn't able to realize it, because noone could tell him.

butterfly had the idea - and started to collect people.

he poisoned his victims & looked for a huge grass hill. there he carved wooden posts and impaled all collected people - neatly arranged by race & clothing.


this spectacle delighted him for many many years. 
he had found his mission.
flying around from one place to another didn't seem senseless anymore.
for years he hunted up all people who were still unknown to him.

but then came the time he couldn't discover any new species. viewing those lifeless bodies no longer delighted him - and the crossness returned. he longed for movement in these dead pictures.
so one day he set all the people free.
he felt such an indescribable sense of happiness as he saw the mass of people in panic dispersed in all directions - and started howling with laughter.
because of laughing so intensively - he got smaller and smaller.

exhausted - sinking to the ground - he realized that now he had the same size as all the butterflies on the meadow.

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only the cuckoo knows the time

once upon a time a cuckoo was going on a journey.

he wanted to fly over the whole world, discover the whole earth.
it was a very long journey on which he had to realize that this earth is being destroyed -
destroyed by human beings.

they pollute the water, poison the air, destroy nature -
cuckoo got more and more desperate because he thought
that this would definitely be the end of the world.
he wanted to ask why - but didn't know who to ask...

when once again he got hungry, he knocked on a tree.
much to his surprise - the tree started talking to cuckoo:

tree: so you want to know when the end of the world comes

cuckoo was amazed: brother tree - you are talking to me

yes - said the tree - the earth has chosen me for speaking with you.

cuckoo: well then - tell me when the end of the world is going to come.

the tree answered:
nature has been created by earth, also the animals and the humans.
nature can change - for plants have no relation to death.
animals can change - for they have a natural relation to death.
the human thinks he can change nature - for he is afraid of death.
but whatever the humans do. nature stays forever.
even if earth decorates its face in different ways.
the human will no longer exist - for he didn't want the gift of being allowed to live on earth.

the tree gave a few worms to cuckoo - satisfied  he flew away.


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© wiesl
from Wiesl's ARCHIVE