Comic about the glorious variety that is life, published weekly from Aotearoa New Zealand.

Cobblers


"When I was mushroom picking" - a Triangle person is shown finding two Penny Buns.

"Two cobblers ambled by." - the same person is now cutting the mushrooms with a pocket knife, and two scruffy people are walking past. One of them is carrying a bag on a stick, the other one is whistling. They seem thin, and their clothes are in tatters, but they seem content.

"They hardly owned a thing" - the two are showing they only own a single coin marked "1" between them. Still, they are smiling.

"Yet had a wealth of time." - the two are shrugging, while the original mushroom picker is now running, holding a ringing mobile phone with words "Boss" on the display. They are losing the mushrooms as they run.

“When I was mushroom picking” - a Triangle person is shown finding two Penny Buns.

“Two cobblers ambled by.” - the same person is now cutting the mushrooms with a pocket knife, and two scruffy people are walking past. One of them is carrying a bag on a stick, the other one is whistling. They seem thin, and their clothes are in tatters, but they seem content.

“They hardly owned a thing” - the two are showing they only own a single coin marked “1” between them. Still, they are smiling.

“Yet had a wealth of time.” - the two are shrugging, while the original mushroom picker is now running, holding a ringing mobile phone with words “Boss” on the display. They are losing the mushrooms as they run.

This is an attempt at translating a Polish nursery rhyme, which despite being quite silly has a seemingly deep underlying message that resonates all the way from preschool to here.

The rhyme goes:

Wędrowali szewcy przez zielony las,
Nie mieli pieniędzy, ale mieli czas.
Wędrowali rypcium-pypcium
I śpiewali rypcium-pypcium,
Nie mieli pieniędzy ale mieli czas.

It boils down to cobblers walking through the forest singing, not having any money but having a lot of time. Knowing nursery rhymes, I can’t quite tell if it’s supposed to be a deep life lesson, or if someone just needed to rhyme las (forest) and all they could find was czas (time).

#folk wisdom