a kind and good Sultan who loved his people and worked very hard to care for them. But for 3 years there had been no rain and all the fruit trees stopped giving fruit. This made everyone sad and so the wise Sultan said, “Let everyone sing everyday and play music! The trees will be filled with your joy and will give fruit again.” And so the people began to sing every day and play music.
Soon, something very wonderful happened (olmuş / حدث ). Small clouds appeared (ortaya çıktı / ظهر ) in
the sky and, day after day, sent a gentle rain to the earth. By
the time the fall (sonbahar / الخريف ) came, all the fruit trees in the land were filled with
sweet, beautiful, ripe fruit.
When this happened, one poor farmer thought to himself, “I should
show my gratitude (Şükran / امتنان ) to our Sultan for his care for us! Thanks to his
wisdom (bilgelik / حكمة ) we have all this good fruit.” So the farmer went out to his orchard (meyve bahçesi / بستان ) and found the 3 biggest oranges (portakallar / البرتقال ) he could find. They were HUGE and very, very beautiful. “These 3” said the farmer, “I will give as
a gift (hediye / هدية مجانية ) to the Sultan,” for everyone knows that 3 is a symbol (sembol / رمز ) of
perfection (mükemmellik / حد الكمال ).
So the poor farmer put the 3 oranges in a beautiful basket filled
with dark green orange leaves (turuncu yapraklar / ورقة الشجر ). He called his young son to him and
said, “You must hurry (acele / بسرعه ) to the house of our Sultan and give him this gift
from our family.”
The boy took the basket and ran off as his father told him to do. It was a very hot day and after an hour of running, the boy wanted something to drink (içmek / ليشرب ), but there was no water to be seen anywhere. The boy looked at the basket of oranges and thought, “Our good Sultan would not want me to die of thirst (susuzluktan ölmek / ليموت من العطش )! He would understand if I took just one orange and ate it.” And so the boy took the smallest orange and ate it so quickly that not one drop of juice (bir damla meyve suyu / قطرة عصير ) fell on his kaftan.
The boy took the basket and ran off as his father told him to do. It was a very hot day and after an hour of running, the boy wanted something to drink (içmek / ليشرب ), but there was no water to be seen anywhere. The boy looked at the basket of oranges and thought, “Our good Sultan would not want me to die of thirst (susuzluktan ölmek / ليموت من العطش )! He would understand if I took just one orange and ate it.” And so the boy took the smallest orange and ate it so quickly that not one drop of juice (bir damla meyve suyu / قطرة عصير ) fell on his kaftan.
After another hour of running, the boy could see the towers
and minarets (minareler / الأبراج والمآذن ) of the city and the Sultan’s large home. Even though (buna rağmen / على الرغم من ) the boy was so near the end of his journey (seyahat / رحلة ), he
thought he would die of hunger (açlıktan ölmek / يموت من الجوع ) if he didn’t eat something. The boy
looked at the basket of oranges and thought, “Surely, our good Sultan
would not want me to die of hunger! He would understand if I took just
one orange and ate it. I will give him the biggest orange and take the
smaller one for myself.” So the boy
ate the second orange and hurried off to the Sultan’s house.
When he arrived (geldi / وصل ) at the gate, he told the soldiers he had a special
gift for the Sultan from his father. The guards (muhafızlar / حراس ) went off to tell the
Sultan and then came back and told the boy to follow them.
When the
boy saw the kind face of the Sultan he began to cry (ağlamak / يبكي ) and told the Sultan
all the truth (hakikat / حقيقة ), how he ate (yemek yedi / هو أكل ) 2 of the Sultan’s
oranges. The Sultan smiled at the boy and said he was forgiven (affedilmiş / غفر ). But
then the Sultan said, “But how did you eat 2 big
oranges and not spill (dökmek / لينسكب ) even one drop of juice on your kaftan?”
“Oh, it was very easy!” answered the boy. “I did it like this! And
then he picked up the third orange from the basket and ate it in one
mouthful
(tek ağız dolusu / أكله في فم واحد ).”
(tek ağız dolusu / أكله في فم واحد ).”
The Sultan laughed very hard and told his guards to fill the
boy’s basket with pieces of gold (altın / قطع من الذهب ) to take back to his father in thanks
for the three oranges.