Winston had just hatched

from his egga new hairy

caterpillar born into a hairy
new world. But Winston was
smart. He would survive. No,
he would thrive. Winston had a
voracious appetite and grew
quickly.
Once in a while Winston
would stop his munching to
look around. Above the bush
where he lived was a wide
blue sky, below only dirt.
Sometimes he thought he
saw shadowy figures flitting
about, but he dismissed them
as figments of his imagination.
They clearly did not belong to
his bush-bound world.
Then one day one of those
shadowy figures alighted next
to him. A startled Winston
looked up from his munching.
"Who are you?" he blurted out.

Winston baru saja menetas
seekor ulat bulu yang baru lahir
ke dunia yang baru. Tetapi
Winston cerdas. Ia akan
bertahan. Tidak, ia akan tumbuh
dengan pesat. Winston punya
nafsu makan besar dan tumbuh
dengan cepat.
Sesekali, Winston berhenti
makan untuk melihat ke
sekelilingnya. Menaungi semak
tempatnya bermukim
terbentang langit biru yang luas.
Di bawahnya, hanya ada tanah.
Terkadang dikiranya dia melihat
bayangan terbang berkeliling,
tapi itu ditepisnya sebagai
imajinasinya semata. Bayangan
itu jelas bukan merupakan
bagian dari dunianya yang
terdiri dari semak belukar
semata.
Lalu suatu hari, salah satu
dari bayangan itu mendarat di
sisinya. Winston yang
terkejut mendongak.
Siapa kamu?
serunya.
"Don't you recognize your own kind? I'm a butterfly. So will
you be one day. You will leave your little bush behind, glide on
the wind, and see the world as it really is."
"Me? A butterfly? Nah," Winston protested. "I'm a caterpillar.
Period. Now if you will excuse me"
"It works like this," the butterfly patiently tried to explain.
"First you spin a cocoon around yourself. Then you go to sleep for
a few weeks. Then you wake up feeling tingly all over. You wiggle
your feet and discover that instead of the dozens you had before,
you're down to sixbut they're way longer! Then you start to
feel really claustrophobic in your cocoon, so you push your way
out of it. You check out your new self, flap your wings a few
times, and soon you are airborne."
Tidakkah kamu mengenali bangsamu sendiri? Saya seekor
kupu-kupu. Demikian juga kamu suatu hari nanti. Kamu akan
meninggalkan semak ini, melayang-layang di udara, dan melihat
dunia yang sesungguhnya.
Saya? Seekor kupu-kupu? Tidak, Winston protes. Aku seekor
ulat bulu. Titik. Sekarang, permisi.
Caranya seperti ini, si kupu-kupu berusaha menjelaskan
dengan sabar. Pertama, kamu menyulam sebuah kepompong
mengelilingi dirimu sendiri. Lalu kamu tidur selama beberapa
minggu. Kemudian kamu bangun dan seluruh
tubuhmu terasa gatal. Gerakkan kakimu dan
kamu akan mendapati bahwa bukannya
selusin kaki seperti sebelumnya, kamu hanya
punya enam kakitapi jauh lebih panjang!
Lalu kamu akan mulai merasa kepompongmu
terlalu sempitbenar-benar sempitmaka
kamu mendorong dan mencari jalan keluar.
Kamu mengamati dirimu yang baru,
mengepakkan sayapmu beberapa kali dan
tak lama kemudian kamu akan mengudara.
"Nonsense!" Winston
retorted. "Do you take me for
an idiot? I'm a caterpillar!"
The butterfly tried every
form of reason and
persuasion, but eventually
gave up. "Have it your way,"
he said sadly as he took flight.
In the days that followed,
whenever Winston
remembered the butterfly,
he would smirk and say even
more confidently than the
time before, "Nonsense!!"
Then one day Winston
thought he heard a whisper.
"Spin a cocoon." The voice
was coming from inside, but
it wasn't his. This is crazy! he
thought. And he shrugged it
off.
Omong kosong! sahut
Winston dengan berang.
Kiramu saya idiot? Saya
seekor ulat bulu!
Si kupu-kupu mencoba
semua bentuk penjelasan dan
bujukan, tetapi akhirnya
menyerah. Ya sudah,
terserah, katanya dengan
sedih sambil terbang pergi.
Di kemudian hari, sewaktu
Winston teringat akan kupu-
kupu itu, ia akan menyeringai
dan berkata dengan lebih yakin
lagi, Omong kosong!!
Lalu pada suatu hari Winston
merasa mendengar bisikan.
Sulamlah sebuah kepompong.
Suara itu datang dari dalam,
tapi bukan suaranya. Ini gila,
pikirnya. Dan ia menepisnya.
And that brings us to the
sad end of our story.
Winter came, the leaves
that Winston loved so
much withered and died
and fluttered to the ground,
and soon poor Winston
joined them.


Moral: Life is a series of
experiences, each one of
which makes us bigger, even
though sometimes it is hard
to realize this. We must learn
that change help us to march
onward.
Dan itu membawa kita kepada
akhir sedih dari cerita ini. Musim
dingin tiba, daun-daun yang
sangat disukai Winston
berguguran, mati dan jatuh ke
tanah. Tak lama kemudian,
Winston yang malang pun
bergabung bersama mereka.


Moral: Hidup adalah
serangkaian pengalaman,
masing-masing membuat kita
lebih besar, meskipun kadang-
kadang sulit untuk menyadari
hal ini. Kita harus belajar bahwa
perubahan membantu kita
untuk berderap maju.

Cerita untuk anak-anak
www.freekidstories.org





Authored by Curtis Peter Van Gorder; originally
published in Activated! Magazine. Used with
permission. Moral adapted from quote by
Henry Ford. Artwork by Didier Martin.