FOLKLORE STORY LOVERS PRESENT:
LUTEY AND THE MERMAID
adapted from the Cornish dialect from the book entitled:
Folk Tales of the British Isles. Moscow: Raduga Publishers. 1987.p.37-45. and preserved in its modernized version, enriched with dialogues
authoress- margaritka
CHAPTER ONE
Once upon a time, hundred years ago or so, there lived a man, near Lizar Point, called Lutey. He used to farm his field in Corantyn, as it was then called by the countrymen.
One summer day, at the sunset, when he had just finished cutting turf, which the tide left behind, Lutey was strolling at the seashore, looking for any wrecks left at the shore by the flood. For he could find nothing at the Lizard Cliffs, he started to complain:
“Why do I always have a bad luck in my life?”
Lutey was about to come back home empty-handed, when he was amazed to hear a sound, resembling the cry of a woman or a cute baby. He made some steps backwards, trying to catch sweet tunes of an old Cornish song:
Year in out, the sea spits the wrecks out,
Shipped with anchovies,
Emerged from far away Gwavas Lake,
What will happen if the north-east wind
Blows them nearer and nearer?
As the countrymen’s mouths water
To taste all of them.
For anchovies are good enough for the rich,
But Poor falks will taste them first and foremost.
. ... TO BE CONTINUED ....