Public-domain stories in English, German, Persian and Arabic — read each one at the level you can handle.
Come, Cupbearer
Das Eröffnungsdistichon der ersten Ghasele
Hafez · Divan of Hafez · Divān of Hafez, Ghazal 1 (matla‘)
The Erlking
Goethe · Erlkönig (1782), stanza 1
Before the Law
Kafka · "Vor dem Gesetz" (1915), opening lines
Al-Fatiha — The Opening
Verse 1–5
Quran · Surah 1:1–5
The Lord Is My Shepherd
Psalm 23, 1–3
David · Psalms (Tehillim) · Psalm 23:1–3
The Lord's Prayer
Matthäus 6,9–10
Gospel of Matthew · Matthew 6:9–10
An Answer to the Question: What Is Enlightenment?
Kant · Berlinische Monatsschrift, Dezember 1784, opening paragraph
On Group Feeling
Ibn Khaldun · Muqaddimah · Muqaddimah, Book II (on ʿaṣabiyyah)
There Is Grandeur in This View of Life
Die Schlussworte von Über die Entstehung der Arten
Darwin · On the Origin of Species (1859), closing paragraph
The Gettysburg Address
Lincoln · Gettysburg Address (1863), opening and closing clauses
The Old Fisherman
The Fox and the Grapes
Aesop · Aesop's Fables · Perry Index 15