Сказки дядюшки Римуса

УДК 372.8
ББК 81.2 Англ-93
 
С 42

© КАРО, 2014
ISBN 978-5-9925-0907-6

С 42  
Сказки дядюшки Римуса: Книга для чтения на английском языке. — СПб.: КАРО, 2014. — 224 с. — (Серия 
«Classical Literature»).

ISBN 978-5-9925-0907-6.

«Сказки дядюшки Римуса» — собирательное название 
ряда сказок американского писателя Джоэля Харриса, основанных на негритянском фольклоре, объединенных рассказчиком дядюшкой Римусом. Истории, в основном собранные 
непосредственно из афро-американского фольклора, были 
революционными в использовании диалектов, персонажей 
животных и описании пейзажей.
В предлагаемой вниманию читателей книге приводится 
текст в обработке Джулиуса Лестера, который сделал его более 
понятным современному читателю.

УДК 372.8 
ББК 81.2 Англ-93

Introduction

My lasting memories of my grandmother are of her 
telling me stories. I know that she told folktales and 
fairy tales from many parts of the world. I cried 
when she told Andersen’s Little Match Girl — it was 
so beautiful and so sad. But my favorites, and I’m 
sure they were hers as well, were the Brer Rabbit 
stories. I howled with laughter when Brer Rabbit 
asked the Tar Baby “and how does your symptoms 
segashuate?” My grandmother did not attempt to 
use the dialect of Joel Chandler Harris because, 
even though she had been born on a Maryland 
plantation in 1862, she did not speak the way Harris 
interpreted slave speech. Her mother had told her 
the stories and she told them to me with love and 
affection as she sat in her favorite rocking chair in 
the middle of a large, old-fashioned kitchen. It was 
a way for her to entertain me as she watched her 
cooking.
In 1917 when I was old enough to go to school 
I still wanted to hear about Brer Rabbit and Miz 

IntroductIon

4

Meadows and the gals, so I would rush home to be 
there by “pot-watching” time. “Grandma,” I’d ask, 
“tell about how Brer Rabbit tricked Brer Fox.” We 
would get comfortable1 and start down Brer Rabbit’s 
road. Small, helpless Brer Rabbit always defeated 
his adversaries — the large animals — with his wit, 
humor, and wisdom. In my smallness I related to 
the clever little hare who could always get out of 
the most difficult situations through his sharp 
wit.
I soon wanted to read these stories myself, 
which led me to the only collections available, by 
Joel Chandler Harris. They were in a dialect that 
was like a foreign language and I could not handle 
it2. I was frustrated and, although I loved the stories, 
I was too impatient to struggle with the words. 
Grandmother died and the Brer Rabbit stories were 
put into the storage of my mind.
It wasn’t until several years later, in college, that 
I learned about the importance of these stories as 
true American folklore. Dr. Harold Thompson, a 
leading American folklorist, gave a lecture on people 
from the West Coast of Africa who had been captured 

1 would get comfortable — (разг.) устраивались 
поудобнее
2 could not handle it — (разг.) не мог справиться

IntroductIon

5

and sold as slaves. Some were settled in the southern 
states where they took stories from home about a 
hare — Wakaima — and adapted them to their new 
surroundings. Wakaima became Brer Rabbit and the 
clay man became the Tar Baby. Learning about this 
made me turn to the books again, and once again I 
tried unsuccessfully to read them.
In 1937 I found myself in the 135th Street 
branch of the New York Public Library located in 
the heart of Harlem as a children’s librarian. One 
of the prerequisites of this position was to tell 
stories. I soon learned that these black boys and 
girls needed to be introduced to the humor and 
hidden philosophies of Brer Rabbit and his cohorts. 
Here was a contribution to their racial pride — to 
know that their black forefathers had first told these 
stories and, in so doing, had added to the body of 
American folklore. Many of them were sensitive to 
the slave setting that showed Uncle Remus telling 
the stories to the little white boy, so I eliminated 
that frame. It became obvious that the tales stood 
on their own as their African counterparts about 
Wakaima did.
One day a young, dynamic woman came to the 
children’s room and told me that she was a student 
in Lucy Sprague Mitchell’s Bank Street writing 

IntroductIon

6

course. She had decided that her project would be 
to retell the Uncle Remus stories. Her name was 
Margaret Wise Brown, who later became an outstanding author of books for the very young. She 
too realized that the stories could be removed from 
their slave setting without losing any of their unique 
qualities. So she eliminated the figure of Uncle 
Remus and titled her project simply “Brer Rabbit” 
and subsequently had it published under the same 
title. But she retained the phrasing and speech 
patterns of Joel Chandler Harris because she did 
not have the rhythm and natural speech patterns 
of the southern blacks. A true translation and 
interpretation would come from within the black 
experience.
Despite the drawbacks in Harris’s text, I still 
loved the stories and appreciated Brer Rabbit as a 
cultural hero and a significant part of my heritage. 
However, I was telling the stories less and less often 
because of the dialect. Then in the late forties and 
early fifties the Harlem schools along with others 
with liberal philosophies in New York City were 
asking that their classes be given lectures on black 
history1. How could I represent our African back
1 on black history — (разг.) по истории черного 
населения

IntroductIon

7

ground and the relationship between Africa and 
black America to primary grades? How could I 
show the fusion of the different African cultures 
and the cultures existing in America and the West 
Indies?
The answer came one day as I was planning a 
story hour. I would tell Wakaima and the Clay 
Man, discuss in simple terms the middle passage 
(the slaves’ experiences on slave ships), relate 
Wakaima to Brer Rabbit, and finally tell Brer Rabbit 
and the Tar Baby. Once again I would be telling the 
animal stories without a truly satisfactory book for 
the children. As a librarian and one who feels that 
storytelling is an ideal way to bring together 
children and books, my frustration grew.
In 1972 a book was placed on my desk and I 
knew immediately that I had found the answer to 
years of seeking. Julius Lester had written The KneeHigh Man and Other Tales, published by Dial. Here 
were black folktales told perfectly. Lester had used 
the voice and the language of black people. And he 
does so again in his tellings of the Uncle Remus 
stories. In the foreword to this book he calls it 
“a modified contemporary southern black English, 
a combination of standard English and black 
English where sound is as important as meaning.” 
He has preserved the story lines, the wit, the 

IntroductIon

humor — all of the attributes which have made the 
stories so much a part of my life — while making 
them accessible to readers. It is interesting to read 
the foreword to this collection, preferably before 
reading the stories. Much research and personal 
feeling have been distilled into a concise, historical, 
and chronological explanation of the Uncle Remus 
stories. This foreword is invaluable to the appreciation of the tales.
I can not emphasize enough the importance of 
telling the stories. As you listen to yourself the 
rhythm and melodic language of Lester’s telling will 
come forth1. The contemporary approach to some 
of the stories brings them into today’s lifestyle. They 
fit into the traditional and bring a modern humor 
to the stories. They must be told and I look forward 
to sharing them with children.
Augusta, Baker
Columbia, South Carolina, August 1985

Augusta Baker is former Coordinator of Children’s 
Services of The New York Public Library and Storytellerin-Residence at the University of South Carolina.

1 will come forth — (разг.) проявится в полной 
мере

THE TALES  
OF UNCLE REMUS

How the Animals Came  
to Earth

Most folks don’t know it, but the animals didn’t 
always live on earth. Way back before “In the 
beginning” and “Once upon a time,” they lived next 
door to the Moon. They’d probably still be there if 
Brer Rabbit and Sister Moon hadn’t started squabbling with one another like they were married1. The 
way it come about was like this:
The animals liked to sit out in their yards every 
evening and look at Sister Moon. They thought she 
was just about the prettiest thing they’d ever seen, 
and Sister Moon never argued with them. Well, the 

1 like they were married — (разг.) как будто они 
давно женаты

THE TALES OF UNCLE REMUS

10

animals started noticing that she was losing weight. 
To tell the truth, she was looking downright puny, 
like she had gone on a cottage cheese diet.
Brer Rabbit decided to climb over the fence to 
find out what was going on. 
“What’s the matter, Sister Moon? I don’t mean 
to hurt your feelings or nothing like that, but you 
look po’ as Job’s turkey.”
Sister Moon said, “I ain’t been feeling like myself 
of late.”
“Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Thank you, Brer Rabbit, but I don’t believe you 
the man to do what I need doing.”
Brer Rabbit was insulted. “I’m more man than 
Brer Sun who you chase all over the sky every month 
and can’t catch up to1.”
Sister Moon smiled tightly. “All right, Brer Rabbit. 
I’ll try you out. I need to get word to Mr. Man that 
I ain’t feeling like myself. I believe I done caught cold 
from being out in the night air so much. If I don’t 
put my light out and take a little vacation, I’m going 
to be in a bad way2. I don’t want Mr. Man to look up 
and see my light out one night and get scared.”

1 can’t catch up to — (разг.) не мог догнать
2 to be in a bad way — (разг.) я совсем разболеюсь