Dongeng adalah sastra lama yang bercerita tentang kejadian yang luar biasa dan penuh khayalan (fiksi), yang tidak benar-benar terjadi. Sebagai cerita tradisional, dongeng disampaikan secara turun-temurun dari nenek moyang.
Selain untuk hiburan, dongeng berfungsi untuk menyampaikan ajaran moral (mendidik). Dalam bahasa Inggris, cerita dongeng disebut dengan fairytale story. Dongeng merupakan Narrative Text.
Berikut ini salah satu fairytale story atau cerita dongeng dalam bahasa Inggris, yang berasal dari Afrika – Western Africa, yakni cerita Why the Crab has no Head.
Cerita Dongeng dalam Bahasa Inggris
Baca Juga: ‘The Woodsman and The Crane’ – Cerita Dongeng dalam Bahasa Inggris dan Terjemahannya
Why the Crab has no Head
A very long time ago, before man came along to upset the natural balance, all animals lived together peacefully. But in those days, none of the animals had heads of their own, except the elephant, who was the King of the animals. He had a large collection of heads in all shapes and sizes, which he kept stored in a large cave.
Every time an animal wished to leave the village compound to go out into the field or the bush, he would go to the elephant first and ask to borrow ahead. On his return to the animal village, the head would be returned to the king’s store.
This worked very well for a time. The only problem was that there were not quite enough heads for all the animals. There always seemed to be one short, so at least one of the animals always had to stay behind in the village.
Eventually, some of the animals became dissatisfied that every time they wanted to go out, they had to waste time to collect ahead and then return it again. The King agreed to have a meeting and it was decided that each animal should be given its own head to keep for all time.
The King started making all the arrangements, assisted by his secretary, the crab, and when all was ready and all the heads were lined up in the village square, he sent out the cockerel, who had been given a head for this purpose, to announce that all animals should come to the square so that the King could give them ahead.
The cockerel went round the whole of the village and everybody who heard the message rushed to the square. When he thought e had informed everybody and was just making his way back to the square, the cockerel spotted the crab, without his head, meandering down a track on his way to the riverbank.
The cockerel advised him to make his way back to the square quickly, but crab just shrugged. “I am the secretary of the King”, he said, “the King will keep ahead for me, I am sure of it. I need to have a quick bath. I will see you bye and bye”. And he sauntered on his way.