The Cat on the Dovrefell

Once on a time there was a man up in Finnmark who had caught a great white bear, which he was going to take to the king of Denmark. Now, it so fell out, that he came to the Dovrefell just about Christmas Eve, and there he turned into a cottage where a man lived, whose name was Halvor, and asked the man if he could get house-room there, for his bear and himself.

Pada suatu ketika ada seorang pria di Finnmark yang telah menangkap seekor beruang putih besar, yang hendak ia bawa kepada raja Denmark. Nah, kebetulan, ia tiba di Dovrefell tepat menjelang malam Natal, dan di sana ia singgah ke sebuah pondok tempat tinggal seorang pria bernama Halvor, dan bertanya apakah ia bisa mendapat tempat menginap di sana, untuk dirinya dan beruangnya.

“Heaven never help me, if what I say isn’t true!” said the man; “but we can’t give any one house-room just now, for every Christmas Eve such a pack of Trolls come down upon us, that we are forced to flit, and haven’t so much as a house over our own heads, to say nothing of lending one to any one else.”

"Semoga Tuhan menolongku, jika apa yang kukatakan ini tidak benar!" kata pria itu; "tetapi kami tak bisa memberikan tempat menginap kepada siapa pun sekarang, sebab setiap malam Natal segerombolan Troll datang menyerbu kami, sehingga kami terpaksa mengungsi, dan bahkan tak punya atap sendiri di atas kepala kami, apalagi meminjamkannya kepada orang lain."

“Oh?” said the man, “if that’s all, you can very well lend me your house; my bear can lie under the stove yonder, and I can sleep in the side-room.”

"Oh?" kata pria itu, "kalau hanya itu masalahnya, kau bisa saja meminjamkan rumahmu padaku; beruangku bisa berbaring di bawah kompor di sana, dan aku bisa tidur di kamar samping."

Well, he begged so hard, that at last he got leave to stay there; so the people of the house flitted out, and before they went, everything was got ready for the Trolls; the tables were laid, and there was rice porridge, and fish boiled in lye, and sausages, and all else that was good, just as for any other grand feast.

Nah, ia memohon begitu gigih, sehingga akhirnya ia diizinkan untuk tinggal di sana; maka penghuni rumah itu pun mengungsi, dan sebelum mereka pergi, segala sesuatu telah disiapkan untuk para Troll; meja-meja sudah ditata, dan ada bubur nasi, ikan yang direbus dalam larutan alkali, sosis, dan segala hal lezat lainnya, sama seperti untuk pesta besar mana pun.

So, when everything was ready, down came the Trolls. Some were great, and some were small; some had long tails, and some had no tails at all; some, too, had long, long noses; and they ate and drank, and tasted everything. Just then one of the little Trolls caught sight of the white bear, who lay under the stove; so he took a piece of sausage and stuck it on a fork, and went and poked it up against the bear’s nose, screaming out:

Maka, ketika semuanya sudah siap, turunlah para Troll. Ada yang besar, dan ada yang kecil; ada yang berekor panjang, dan ada yang sama sekali tak berekor; ada juga yang berhidung panjang, panjang sekali; dan mereka makan dan minum, serta mencicipi segala sesuatu. Tepat saat itu salah satu Troll kecil melihat beruang putih itu, yang sedang berbaring di bawah kompor; maka ia mengambil sepotong sosis dan menusukkannya pada garpu, lalu pergi menyodorkannya ke hidung beruang itu, sambil berteriak:

“Pussy, will you have some sausage?”

"Pus, maukah kau sosis?"

Then the white bear rose up and growled, and hunted the whole pack of them out of doors, both great and small.

Lalu beruang putih itu bangkit dan menggeram, serta mengusir seluruh gerombolan itu keluar pintu, baik yang besar maupun yang kecil.

Next year Halvor was out in the wood, on the afternoon of Christmas Eve, cutting wood before the holidays, for he thought the Trolls would come again; and just as he was hard at work, he heard a voice in the wood calling out:

Tahun berikutnya Halvor sedang berada di hutan, pada sore hari menjelang malam Natal, memotong kayu sebelum hari raya, sebab ia mengira para Troll akan datang lagi; dan tepat ketika ia sedang bekerja keras, ia mendengar suara di hutan memanggil:

“Halvor! Halvor!”

"Halvor! Halvor!"

“Well”, said Halvor, “here I am.”

"Baiklah," kata Halvor, "aku di sini."

“Have you got your big cat with you still?”

"Apakah kucing besarmu masih bersamamu?"

“Yes, that I have”, said Halvor; “she’s lying at home under the stove, and what’s more, she has now got seven kittens, far bigger and fiercer than she is herself.”

"Ya, masih," kata Halvor; "dia sedang berbaring di rumah di bawah kompor, dan lagi pula, sekarang dia sudah punya tujuh anak kucing, yang jauh lebih besar dan lebih galak darinya sendiri."

“Oh, then, we’ll never come to see you again”, bawled out the Troll away in the wood, and he kept his word; for since that time the Trolls have never eaten their Christmas brose with Halvor on the Dovrefell.

"Oh, kalau begitu, kami tak akan pernah datang mengunjungimu lagi," teriak sang Troll dari dalam hutan, dan ia menepati janjinya; sebab sejak saat itu para Troll tak pernah lagi menyantap bubur Natal mereka bersama Halvor di Dovrefell.