The Rat and the Elephant
A free B2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A tiny rat sneers at a lumbering elephant's great size, insisting that being big and being important aren't the same thing — until the elephant's traveling companion gives him a rude awakening.
An uncommonly small rat was watching an uncommonly big elephant and sneering at the slowness of his steps.
Una rata extraordinariamente pequeña observaba a un elefante extraordinariamente grande y se burlaba de la lentitud de sus pasos.
The enormous animal was heavily laden. On his back rose a three-storied howdah, wherein were accommodated a celebrated sultana, her dog, her cat, her monkey, her parrot, her old servant, and all her household. They were going upon a pilgrimage.
El enorme animal iba pesadamente cargado. Sobre su lomo se alzaba una torre de tres pisos, en la que viajaban una célebre sultana, su perro, su gata, su mono, su loro, su vieja sirvienta y toda su casa. Iban de peregrinación.
The rat wondered why all the people should express astonishment at seeing this enormous bulk—"As if the fact of occupying more or less space implied that one was the more or less important accordingly! What is it you admire in him, you men? If it is only the weight of his body which fills the children with terror, then we rats, small as we are, consider ourselves not one grain less than the elephant." He would have said more; but the cat, bounding out of her cage, let him see in an instant that a rat is not an elephant.
La rata se preguntaba por qué toda la gente mostraba tanto asombro al ver aquella enorme mole. «¡Como si el hecho de ocupar más o menos espacio implicara ser más o menos importante por ello! ¿Qué es lo que admiráis en él, vosotros los hombres? Si lo único que llena de terror a los niños es el peso de su cuerpo, entonces nosotras las ratas, por pequeñas que seamos, no nos consideramos ni un grano menos que el elefante». Habría dicho más; pero la gata, saltando fuera de su jaula, le hizo ver en un instante que una rata no es un elefante.
