Читать книгу Stories about elephant calf Lanchenkar - Ayusha Erdyneev - Страница 9

Lanchenkar was curious by nature. It was his mother who most often answered his questions. Wisdom personified, the Queen of All Elephants tried to teach her dear son life subtleties.

Owing to Lanchenmo, the Elephant Prince grew up bright and clever, fathoming things ordinary creatures couldn’t.

Since Lanchenkar was not an ordinary elephant and not an ordinary prince, he asked difficult questions.

“Mom, please close one eye. Now tell me: is your eye closed or open?”

“Closed.”

“But I see that one eye of yours is open.”

The Queen’s eye that was open, became round with surprise.

“Don’t you see that my eye is shut?”

“Can you see me?”

“I can.”

“With just one eye?”

“Yes, of course.”

“How can it see you if you closed it?”

“No, I didn’t.”

“Then, close your eye.”

“Yes.”

“Is one eye of yours shut?”

“Shut and open.”

“How can it be both shut and open? Can a jar of jam be closed and open at once?” Lanchenkar argued.

“No, a jar of jam can never be open and closed at the same time; nor any other things,” replied the Queen.

“So you will agree that one eye is one thing, not two?”

“Absolutely.”

“Then one jar of jam can be either shut or open and there is no third way?”

“Everybody knows it.”

“So what about one eye of yours?”

“It’s neither shut, nor open.”

“That means a jar of jam is neither shut nor open and you can’t eat the jam because if you don’t close the jar, you can’t open it.”

“This makes no sense… What I mean is one jar is closed and the other open.”

“I had in mind just one jar.”

“I was wrong, there was no second jar,” the Queen conceded.

“Let’s begin anew. Is your eye closed or open?”

“It’s open.”

“Now I ask you to close your eye. Tell me is your eye closed now?”

“No, my eye is open.”

“But I see that one eye of yours is closed. No use arguing with you. You don’t honor our bargain to close one eye.”

“Very well, I’ve closed one eye,” said the Queen, and then she cried: “Oh, I can’t see anything!”