For this year’s World Language Week, Sacred Heart Greenwich students shared their work in French, Korean, Arabic, Spanish, and Portuguese.  As part of an Arabic project, junior Francesca Marangi wrote a fable entitled “The Young Bee and the Wise Flower.”

Translation

Once upon a time, there was a young bee living in a big green prairie.  In the prairie, there were flowers of every color: yellow and purple, and red and orange because the season was summer.

Also, there was a river.  It shined in the light of the sun.  Next to the river, under the leaves of the tree, there was a beehive.  The young bee lived in the hive with her family.  The bee’s name was Zuzu. 

Zuzu had ten sisters.  Two of her sisters left already because they were old.  Zuzu was jealous of her sisters because she wanted freedom too.  One day, Zuzu flew to another tree and talked with a bunch of new bees.  In the new hive, there was a bee named Barry. 

Barry was mean but appeared nice to Zuzu.  Zuzu wanted to be his friend. 

Soon, Zuzu became mean just like Barry because she spent all of her time with him.  Zuzu’s sisters felt sad because Zuzu was no longer as kind as she was before. 

After many days, Zuzu flew around the prairie and talked with a flower named Fiona. 

Fiona was a beautiful yellow flower and very wise because she loved to spend her free time talking with birds in the morning.

The flower watched Zuzu since she was very young and for that reason knew that Zuzu was a good bee.  Fiona asked her, “why are you mean now?”  Zuzu didn’t know why.  Fiona taught Zuzu kindness again.  Zuzu trained with the ants and the spiders and learned to love the prairie and her family again.  Zuzu’s sisters were happy because Zuzu now knew the value of kindness.  She returned to the beehive and loved her home.  And on the following day, Zuzu asked Fiona, “can you help me?” 

So Fiona and Zuzu visited Barry.  He was selfish and mean when they entered his hive.  Fiona taught Barry kindness too.  He trained with the ants and the spiders and learned to love the prairie just like Zuzu.  Now, they were ready to teach all of their friends kindness. 

Kindness is sometimes hard but it is very important in our lives. 

The King Street Chronicle thanks junior Francesca Marangi ‘24 for her contribution. 

Featured Image by Ana López del Punta ’23