O Talo de Couve

Era uma vez uma rapariga filha de gente pobre que tinha uma couve na sua horta. Todos os dias ela regava a couve com muito cuidado e ficava a olhar para o talo a ver quando a planta deitaria semente. Um dia reparou que no talo da couve havia uma escadinha por onde se podia descer para debaixo da terra. Desceu os degraus e encontrou-se de repente num palácio espléndido, com uma mesa posta com muita fartura e uma cama muito bonita.

Once there was a girl born to poor people who had a cabbage in her kitchen garden. Every day she watered the cabbage with great care and would watch the stalk waiting to see when the plant would go to seed. One day she noticed that on the cabbage stalk there was a little staircase by which one could descend underground. She went down the steps and suddenly found herself in a splendid palace, with a table laid with great abundance and a very beautiful bed.

A rapariga sentou-se à mesa e comeu com apetite tudo o que lá estava, depois subiu pelo talo e voltou para casa. Sempre que sentia fome, descia secretamente ao palácio e comia as delícias que lá encontrava. A rapariga foi engordando, para espanto dos pais, que nunca a viam comer. À noite, quando os pais adormeciam, descia a pouquinhos pelo talo da couve e deitava-se na cama magnífica do palácio.

The girl sat at the table and ate eagerly everything that was there, then climbed back up the stalk and returned home. Whenever she was hungry, she would secretly descend to the palace and eat the delicacies she found there. The girl began to put on weight, to the astonishment of her parents, who never saw her eat anything. At night, when her parents fell asleep, she crept down the cabbage stalk and lay down on the magnificent bed in the palace.