The Arrangement

A hedgehog wandered into our house!
We found it in the morning.
It sat in the corner near the stove
and sneezed because of all the dust.
We approached it, but it rolled up in a ball.
See how it's covered in overgrown needles?
But in about five minutes, it unrolled,
stuck out its paws, then its nose.
Why it came to us,
We don't have a clue:
Whether it was in a fight
or if it just wanted to live with people.
But it's not bad to live with us.
Here's the arrangement:
From now on you will be called
Thistle!
You must not fight with the cat
Or get into bed with us--
Because you're prickly
and you might scratch our skin...
Each day, you will receive
Three saucers of milk,
But on holidays its cheesecake
and four worms.
During the day, you must play with us,
At night, you must catch mice.
If you get sick, I'll tell mommy
To give you soup and iodine.
That's it. Now think it over.
Take all day if you need it...
If you like, stay--
But if not, leave now!

1909 (a children's poem by Sasha Chernyi, draft translation by me)

Comments

[Keith]

Sounds likethe arrangement we have with the oppossum.

[Kevin]

I was thinking more like Dreamy...

[elisa]

So lovely! I'll do the woodcut illustrations if you do the final translation for a children's story!

[Kevin]

Thanks, Elisa! It's going to be part of a larger book...So I have to wait to see what that really looks like before I think about illustrations...