The river of words
by Donald Bisset
Once upon a time there was a river which was made of words. It flowed (հոսում էր) down to the sea and the sea was made of story books.
As the river flowed along, the words and the letters tumbled over each (գլուխկոնծի էին տալիս) other and hit the rocks just like ordinary rivers.
“I know,” said the river. “Let’s write a story! Once upon a time…”
“Hooray!” shouted all the other words. “That’s the way to begin a story. Now what comes next?”
This is the story the river told them.
Once upon a time there was a river made of words and it was going down to the sea and all the words were going into story books, when suddenly a little otter (ջրասամույր) swam across the river and the words got into the wrong order so that instead of writing “Once upon a time’ it wrote “on at Once up time” and it got in a frightful muddle.
“Oh, you are a naughty otter,” the river said to the otter whose name was Charlie. “Now you’ve spoilt our story.”
“I’m terribly sorry!” said Charlie. “Perhaps if I swim back again it’ll put things right.”
He swam back and then clambered on the bank and looked at the words, “time upon a Once”, he read. “Surely that’s not right!”
However the river swirled about a bit and soon got it right. “Once upon a time,” he read, “there was an otter who is name was Charlie.”
“Why that’s me! My name’s Charlie. It’s a story about me!” He got so excited and jumped up and down and then slipped and fell in the river and jumbled up the words again. Oh, the river was annoyed!
The otter got out as quickly as he could and looked at the words: “otter was Charlie time upon a Once.” Worse and worse!
“What do you expect?” said the river. “Every time we start you fall in and get it all jumbled. Now we’ve got to start all over again.”
“Once upon a time there was an otter whose name was Charlie and he lived by the river of words… Now what happens next?“
They thought and thought but couldn’t think of a story about Charlie. So he said, “I’ll help,” and got back from the river and then ran as fast as he could and jumped right into the middle of the river. Then he swam and looked at the words. (He’d jumbled them right, this time.)
“Once upon a time there was a very naughty otter,” he read, “and one day he met a pussy-cat.”
“Mieow!” said the pussycat. “Do you like ice-cream?”
“No!” said Charlie.
“Mieow! Do you like milk?”
“No!”
“Mieow! Do you like fish?”
“Yes, I do!” said Charlie.
“Mieow,” said the pussycat. “Well, if you come to my house my aunt will give you a fish tea. Brown bread and butter and fish paste.”
“That will be nice!” said Charlie. “It makes me feel quite hungry. I think I’ll go home to tea now. But before I go tell me, what are you going to do with the story?”
“It’s going to be a story in a book called Time and Again Stories,” said the river.
Charlie was pleased. “That’s nice!” he said. “Now I’m going! Good-bye!”
“Good-bye!” said the river.
The words all jumbled around and then spelt “Love and kisses to Charlie.” And tumbling and tossing they flowed on into the storybook sea
Unknown words
flow down- ներքև հոսել
flow along-երկայնքով հոսել
to tumble-գլորվել, գլուխկոնծի տալ
to shout- բղավել
to shut- փակել
otter-ջրասամույր
to be pleased- գոհ լինել
naughty-չարաճճի
frightful-սարսափելի
muddle-խառնաշփոթ
Արեն Մնացականյան 