The Cat’s Dinner

kha-yuma malla Nasraden muyyeva kha batman busra. batman ila lishan-turket batman, yane tre tla kiloye, arpa kiloye. busra muyyeva beta. ka-bakhtu merre kat khayesh vaden a busra odatle tuyate. berashe bashlatle, ana t-avili-arkhe. malla berrekhshel bar pelkhanu.

One day mullah Nasradin had brought a batman of meat. A batman is Turkish, it means two or three kilos, four kilos. He had brought meat home. He said to his wife ‘I would like you to make this meat into kebabs. Cook it in the evening, I shall have guests.’ The mullah goes about his business.

bakhta, bakh-tet malla, bekyamela jalde jalde, bashulula busra, bekrayela khaveryato, bikhaluna. berashe bitayele malla, mara bas-kele busra? busheltut yan-la? mara la, ana hal kemli mankal tapyanvala ayya katu kheltula kulle busra.

The wife, the wife of the mullah, quickly cooks the meat, invites her friends and they eat it. In the evening the mullah comes and says ‘But where is the meat? Have you cooked it or not?’ She says ‘No, before I could light the grill, that cat ate all the meat.’

malla mayele maseta. mayole mara mela katu lakhkha, ana taklenna. mayol katu betkalole. bekhzayele la, katu bush basurtela. ayya en-oya arpa-kiloye, khamsha-kiloye busra oya kheltu, gari adi esra kiloye.

The mullah brings scales. He brings them and says ‘Bring the cat here, I shall weigh it.’ He brings the cat and weighs it. He says that no, the cat is less. If she is four kilos and has eaten five kilos of meat, she must now be ten kilos.

ka-bakhtu bekyamele mkhayele al-moto. mara aten dagulet ka-diyyi. busra ganakh kheltuvat. katu en-oyava khelta, adi viteva yakke, tresta.

He gets up and gives his wife a thorough beating. He says ‘You are lying to me. You have eaten the meat yourself. If the cat had eaten, she would now be huge, fat.’