07 December 2005
A Story From Yugoslavia, The Homeland of My Parents
Elenka met a stranger visiting from the other side. My sister died, said Elenka, how is she? Not good, said the stranger, she has no money for sweets. I have money, said Elenka. The stranger accepted Elenka’s money and left. Elenka told her husband, Simo, about the nice stranger. Simo mounted his horse and rode until he saw the stranger enter a barn. Simo dismounted and followed. The stranger came out the other side and took Simo’s horse. Simo walked home. Elenka, he said. That man who is helping your sister? I gave him our horse to take to her.
# posted by Mario @ 9:16 AM 
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Very good rendition of this old tale. What's interesting to me about seeing you redo this story here is that when you tell jokes or folk tales out loud, you always give the long version. I always shorten jokes and you lengthen them. Same with folk tales. You understand that part of the beauty of jokes and folk tales is the process of getting there, not just the ending. Yet this 100 word version works really well. Good job. More please.
My first pass on this story was about 180 words. It was a real job to whittle it down to my requisite hundred. I actually felt like I took a little too much out of it, like the magic of it was gone. Glad to hear you don't agree.
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# posted by 
: 6:52 PM
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