A story from Nikolai Nosov`s `The Adventures of Dunno and his friends`
TALENT AND ADMIRERS, OR DUNNO THE POET
After Dunno failed to become an artist he made up his mind to be a poet and write poems. He`s known a poet who lived in Dandelion str. His real name was Poundling but as all poets he was fond of beautiful pen names. As soon as Poundling started writing poems he has become well known as Floweret.
Once Dunno visited him and asked to teach him to write poems.
-Have you got a talent, - Floweret asked him.
-Surely!
-Gonna verify it. Do you know what the rhyme is?
-Rime? I dunno, - Dunno said.
-Rhyme appears whenever two words have got the same endings. Duck - F.. ck, Walrus-Sirus. Grasped the idea, eh?
-Don`t just! Be sure for it!
-Tell me now what is a rhyme for the word `ring`.
-Herring.
-But I see no rhyme here.
-Why not? They end the same way.
-That`s not enough, - Floweret explained. - The words must be similar to form a smooth pair. Then only they`ll rhyme well. Attention, please! Stick - brick, stove - grove, book - brook.
-I see, I see! - Dunno shouted. - That`s great! Ha-ha-ha!
-Now invent a rhyme for the word `oakum`, - Floweret offered.
-Gokkum, soccum.
-There are not such stupid words!
-Are you kidding, dude?
-Nope! You must use the words that exist and never invent the new ones!
-What if I can`t?
-Then you`re giftless.
-Then try your best to find a rhyme for your `oakum` yourself!
- A deal! - Flowered agreed.
He began to walk around a room and look at the ceiling examining options.
-Oakum, Nockum, Flockum, Trockum. Well, this word has got no rhyme!
-So you are wrong and I am not giftless! You see?
-Gifltless or not, but I`m sick and tired of you. I feel my head gonna blast. Go and try to write poems combining a meaning and rhymes, and poems will flow as a stream.
-Duh! Gotta get a talent, the rest will come.
Dunno returned home and began to write poems immediately. At last, at dawn, he invited other residents of their Flowerburg, city of the tiny folks to listen to poems he wrote about them. Being flattered all came in.
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-First of all, I gonna recite a poem about our Know-all.
Know-all swam in the river,
He caught cold, he`s got high fever.
-What?! It`s all lies! I`m healthy!
-Of course, you are. I wrote it for the rhyme`s sake. Besides why to write about the real things? They are real all the same!
-Gonna get a sock, eh? But ... before it tell what you`ve written about the other folks.
-Bustler.
Bustler, hungry as a lion,
Can`t stop gulping a cold iron!
-Is it really so simple!
-Bros! - Bustler screamed.
-Hold me seven at once, or I give him a hiding right now! I never ever swallowed any iron, neither hot, nor cold uns`.
-You did not, I know, - Dunno explained. - I was made to do it by the rhyme! Better listen what I`ve wrote about our Perhapser.
Our Perhapser, shush! A secret!
He hides a sweet under his pillow.
Having heard it Perhapser made a quick run over to his home and back and exlaimed in anger:
-There`s no candy under my pillow! You`re a liar!
But Dunno just stated that Perhapser must have understood nothing in poetry.
-Poetry is whenever you write that something is under one`s pillow while there`s nothing under it!
-Friends! - T` was Doc Pillulenik who lost his temper at last. - Stop this outrage! Should we all stand and listen to Dunno`s lies?
-Agree! - the tiny folks shouted. - This is not poems but teasing rhymes!
But Know-all, Bustler and Perhapser disagreed. They insisted on Dunno`s going on with his mischievous ditties. The rest, however, objected to the very idea until Dunno said that he would go to other folks to read his poems about his friends.
-What? - the community gasped. - You gonna defame us! If you ever do, never come back to us again.
After that Dunno had to surrender under the condition they wouldn`t be angry with him. Since then Dunno hasn`t been writing poems any more.
THE END
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