{lu «la melbi .e le ractu» li'u |“Melbi and the rabbit”}

{.i ciska fa la lalxu
|by Lake} {.i {lo lisri cu se jbera fi pa kibypapri|Story taken from this web page.}

{ni'o la melbi ku prenu
|There once was a person called Melbi.} {.i zvati le zdani
|They were in their house.} {.i zvati le sipna kumfa
|They were in their bedroom.} {.i le zdani ku cmalu
|Their house was small.} {.i ku'i la melbi ku jinvi lo du'u xamgu |But Melbi thought that was just fine.}

{ni'o pu sipna
|They’d been sleeping.} {.i ca ku ku'i, la melbi ku na sipna
|But now, they were no longer asleep.} {.i djica lo nu citka gi'e klama le citka kumfa |They wanted to eat, and went to the kitchen.}

{ni'o lu «.u'inai cizra» li'u se cusku la melbi
|“Huh, how strange,” said Melbi.} {.i catlu ro da gi'e ku'i viska no ka'e se citka
|They looked everywhere, but didn’t see anything they could eat.} {.i lu «lo se citka ku mo?» li'u preti fi la melbi la melbi
|“What happened to the stuff I was going to eat?” they asked themself.} {.i ba citka ma? |What were they going to eat?}

{ni'o ku'i la melbi ku ca tirna — ma?
|But suddenly, Melbi heard — what did they hear?} {.i xu voksa?
|Was it a voice?} {.i mutce jundi catlu ro da noi pu se catlu
|They very carefully looked everywhere again.} {.i ca facki lo du'u pa ractu ku co'a zvati le kumfa
|And now, they discovered that a rabbit had entered the room.} {.i le ractu ku bacru zo «coi» |The rabbit said: “Hey.”}

{ni'o na jimpe fa la melbi
|Melbi didn’t understand.} {.i co'a mutce cizra
|This was getting really strange.} {.i lo du'u lo ractu ku tavla, cu mutce ke mutce cizra |Rabbits talking… is really, really strange.}

{ni'o le ractu ku cusku lu «xu do djica lo nu citka?» li'u
|The rabbit said: “Did you want to eat?”} {.i la melbi ku cusku lu «go'i .i do xu pu citka ro da?» li'u |Melbi said: “Yeah. Was it you who ate everything?”}

{ni'o le ractu ku na bacru gi'e na klama gi'e na catlu la melbi
|The rabbit said nothing. It didn’t move. It didn’t look at Melbi.} {.i ba bo sutra krixa zo «go'i!» gi'e troci lo ka cliva
|Then, it quickly squeaked “yup!” and tried to run away.} {.i ku'i le ractu ku na mutce sutra
|However, the rabbit wasn’t very fast…} {.i pu dukse citka |It had eaten far too much.}

{ni'o le barda prenu ku zukte fi lo nu le cmalu ractu ku na ka'e cliva
|Melbi kept the small rabbit from being able to leave.} {.i la melbi ku cusku lu «mi ba citka ma? .i mi djuno» li'u
|They told it: “Oh, what will I eat…? I know.”} {.i le ractu ku mutce krixa .i ku'i le voksa be la ractu cu cmalu
|The rabbit squeaked a lot, but its voice was tiny…} {.i ba bo—
|And then…}

{—la melbi ku cliva le zdani gi'e citka lo drata |…Melbi left the house to go eat something else.}

{fa'o |the end}