RODICA ANCA
The Melancholy Prince
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Peregrinãrile Prinţului cel Trist
RODICA ANCA
The Thread of Wanderings and Experiences
1. We know the Melancholy
Prince and his little friends: Moshopal, the uncle Aurash, Arginviu and the
other dwarfs and we find out how they were spending the time in the Palace of Crystal in the Empire of Fogs.
2. What the Melancholy Prince
learns from the books of his forefathers and why he becomes still more
melancholy. The dwarfs are afraid of losing him and burst out weeping.
3. The dwarfs run in search of
the dragon Balaur but they do not find him. Moshopal decides to cut his beard.
4. How some dwarfs walking in
front with Moshopal find the Balaur and how, fearfully, they come near him and
arouse him putting him in the service of the Melancholy Prince.
5. To the thankfulness of the
dwarfs, the Prince smiles for the firs time. He finds in the Faithful Balaur, a
reliable companion and they both set out to face the wilderness.
6. We see how hard the road is
and how many unforeseen perils are waiting for them on the way. They arrive at
an island and the soul of the Melancholy Prince is full of bitterness.
7. What the Melancholy Prince
learned about the Trees of Steel and how he became friendly with their daughters, the small transparent fairies. The Prince wasn’t sure if he
was dreaming.
8. How on an island, on which to walk you had to draw aside the rays of sun by hand, the little golden fishes
from the violet ocean wanted to fly like birds.
9. The Melancholy Prince and the Balaur arrive at a castle. We learn about the Prince with Black Eyes and his story.
10. We arrive together with our friends on a wonderful island. The most beautiful night from the life of the
Melancholy Prince.
11. How the Frights who were living on the Wonderful Island were looking and how wicked they were. The Prince, turned into a stone by amazement forgets to defend himself and is caught and dragged before the Emperor Hain, master of that region.
12 What happened in the Gray Fortress and what a sly decision the emperor took. The Prince doesn’t know with what a heavy curse that one has cursed him and, again,
remains alone.
13. The Melancholy Prince returns unhappier then ever to the castle. The dwarfs can not comfort him with
presents, or with tales and they are full of grief as well. The
Prince learns about the Gem which had the power to give life and that punishes wrong. He again goes at the run, in search
of this.
14. How they, the Prince and the Balaur, have been
swallowed by the immeasurable Apparition. The fight with gorged
serpents on the tree in the stomach.
15. About the fight of the Prince with the Greedy Granny and how he was saved from servitude by the Rose with human voice.
16. We learn what a big deadlock came over the Spirit of Earth so that he couldn’t care for his duties. The
Prince goes in search of the Blonde Princess.
17. How the Melancholy Prince arrived right in the heart of the mountain in which the dragon Smeu was sleeping and how he was delivered of the curse. The Balaur defeats the Smeu. Happy, the Spirit of Earth gives his daughter as
wife to our Prince and, with contented heart, remains quietly
to look after his jobs.
18. How under the power of the Life-giving Gem it subdued the Elements which had tried to kill our friend before. The longing for People of the Melancholy Prince is
stronger still.
19. What unimaginable changes the Prince found on the Wonderful
Island and whom he met at
the peak of mountain.
20. The Hoary man felts what terrible happenings the people from the island passed together and how the Hain Emperor became all-powerful.
21. We learn what the multitude of stones from the island means. The Prince together with the Nephew of the Hoary Old-man go to fight the Frights.
22. We see how the spells of
the Hain Emperor have no power against Blonde Princess and Hoary oldman. The Melancholy Prince and his
companion fight heroically with countless flunkeys of the Master of the island.
23.
The Hain Emperor turns into a crow. He is caught and compelled to undo
the curse whith which he had tied the people.
24.
How the Island regained its wonderful appearance and what is being told
about the Palace
of Wizards and the
Fountain of Tears over centuries.
25.
We return with our Prince to his castle and we enjoy seeing the dwarfs
again. The Balaur descends to his cave
to take rest in anticipation of other journeys
I
We know the
Melancholy Prince and his little friends: Moshopal, the uncle Aurash, Arginviu
and the other dwarfs and we find out how they were spending the time in the Palace of Crystal in the Empire of Fogs.
Once
upon a time, long, long ago, there was an emperor of darkness of turbid waters
and of storms. No life and you would meet other moving fogs and waters which
rushed upon you inimically. The wind fowled so that your hair stood on end,
mixing the chasms of the darkness with those of the waters.
Somewhere,
far off, over hostile waters and menacing fogs appeared a wondrous rock, which
boasted its summits of flint of high ever higher up, toughing at powerless
waves which in vain were whirling and gnawing. The evil winds vainly warned
against it; the claws of storms causing merely small scratches. Vainly the
deepest fogs were gathering around to hide and frighten it: on the top of its
cliffs, the rock was carrying with pride and care a palace of crystal which was
shining like diamond and hounded out the dark abysses all around.
This
place on the rock was so beautiful, so alluring that anyone, wandering on the
turbid waves of waters, or seeing it, no matter how bereft of powers and hopes
he were, would bow down to it as to a life giving one and would gain courage to
fight the frights and the languor. But no one human soul had ever caught wigs
seeing it because nobody had ever arrived up to the foot of the majestic rock
before.
The
palace was so big and so silent that, even when, a rare, steps sounded in its
halls the echo was repeated hundreds of times, from room to room till it
gradually became weaker and weaker and lost itself who knows in what unknown
corners.
On
the ceilings and walls of halls and endless corridors are discovered thousands
of precious stones – which are clear as diamonds, others green like the eyes of
savage beasts glassily in the night, others red like blood or blue as might
were exist somewhere the sky – were spreading their light in hundreds of
sparkles and nuances pleasant to the eye.
But,
alas, no soul of man who enjoy and delight at those wonders was visible. In
hall after hall if you would run, many days, you would meet nothing else than
the silence and beautiful
lights of gems.
However, someone was living in this palace.
Otherwise why would the flint of rock fight the winds to protect him?
Yes,sometime, a pale, tall young man, with black hair and dreamy, sad eyes, was
driving away in motionless silence carrying his paces over the flags of the
palace. He was this Prince, of a strange beauty, to which nostalgia was giving
a note of unreal. He was passing the years alone in his palace, reading and
learning from the books of his forefathers, waiting for the day when he would
go to them like a sweet liberation from the chain of solitude and silence. The
Melancholy Prince didn’t know whether in the endlessness which was surrounding
him there were existing somewhere other beings, and even if he had know, what
could he do, alone, with no help, to reach them. A living desire and a longing
which he didn’t understand were calling him and he did not know this was the
longing for people like him, the longing for friends and love. How could he
know it for he had always been alone and his face was never lit by a smile.
His
only friends were the many dwarfs from the gorges of the rock, the masters of
the riches which the flint was preserving since forgotten times. The dwarfs
loved the Melancholy Prince strongly because he was good and gentle and with
love listened their tales or the small deadlocks. Moreover when he was feeling
strongly the pressure of loneliness and the tears stood ready to fall from his
beautiful eyes like two sapphires he searched for the glib old men with beards
longer then themselves and asked them either about one or the other trying to
drive away his ennui and to relieve his sadness. Then his little friends
excelled to enlighten his face with at list a smile. But as
much as they would strive, on the face of
the Prince appeared only an odd and sad simper in the corner of the mouth.
Over
the dwarfs stood Moshopal, old, old, as old as his beard had grown long of
hundred ells, but he became smaller and smaller, so small that he could sleep
in a wonderful blue flower,
not bigger then that from the ring of your
mummy. All the dwarfs listened to his advise and teachings, because Moshopal
was not only the oldest but also the wisest from them. And then, he was never
irked at the tricks of the younger ones who, to speak the truth, weren’t
babies, but, of course, much older than grandfather himself. Not merely the
younger ones played pranks. Even Uncle Aurash the Littlegold, the one who took
care that all the gold from the rock to be preserved for the coming times, even
though his beard was as white as Moshopal’s and only a little shorter,
what do you think he had done not very long
ago to the dear old thing? He had invited a few spiders and thought them how to
weave their threads in the beard of Moshopal so that he wondered how his beard
had grown so much while he was sleeping. Had he slept for a thousand years?
Nay, seeing not so well without spectacles, he was thinking that his beard had
passed over the window and fluttered like a flag in the surrounding darkness.
And he wasn’t angry at all when he learned about the hoax, on the contrary, he
laughed with more gusto than everybody.
For
so were the dwarfs of that rock: when it came to jokes and anecdotes, nobody
was as cheery as them; but when it came to work, then the big caves were
resounding with their songs while they kept the rhythm with their hammers. And
each of them, according to his name was busy with a particular gem or metal.
The riches were amassing heap: here only diamonds big as hen's eggs, there
rubies, there sapphires, near which are raised full knolls of gold and silver.
So many and beautiful rarities I would never know and can scarcely remember.
But more precious than all these treasures were the friendship and diligence of
the span long old things and looking at them how cheerful they are, and what
loving souls they have, behave as if you wanted to be like them also, not
bigger than a finger, to have a little hammer as big as yourself and to mix
among them at play and at work. It is true that some are like lean Arginviu,
quicksilver who gathered from the cracks of stones the grains which were
running among the fingers, and who was as giddy, fast and chargeable as the
busting drops which he had to take care of. This Arginviu got angry sometimes.
And once Arginviu got most irked either with his playful pearls, or with some
dwarf hire who was drowning with laughter watching him spitefully as he was
making himself thinner, obstinately after the ones which didn't get caught. But
he quickly forgave, for Arginviu had a good cheerful heart and couldn't be
angry more than a few seconds.
Their
life was flowing silently now with tales, then with jokes and songs and I think
our dwarfs would have been very happy if their good Prince were cheerful, and
they didn't hear him sighing out with so much sadness.
X
We arrive
together with our friends on a wonderful island. The most beautiful night from
the life of the Melancholy Prince.
Now
their strange voyage followed easier because many things had to say each other, many dreams that had
brightened their solitudes, many hopes which empowered them to fight sadness
and . Hardships of way seemed to them easier and this not because waters would
have been less inimical or winds more
gentle, but because the cheerfulness in their souls helped them to pass through all plagues with serenity and
trust.
They both stood now on through the shrouds of
darkness to lightnings full of mystery wich appeared sometimes in the distances, trying to imagine what kind of beings would
have been living there, hoping always that somewhere on an island with clear
skies and flowers of all colors,
in the end, will meet many, many of their
fellow men, who they will know and with whom they wil befriend. Thus, nor did they know when they
arrived in the vicinity of a Island that
seemed to be just that at which they had dreamt.
The waters around it were quiet and blue. On
the azure sky in the wind breeze ran rolls of white clouds. Its shores, as eyes
could see, were covered by golden sand and farther it lengthened the green
carpet of grass on which the most different flowers bloomed. Among trees all
kinds of birdies flew, singing one more beautiful than other.
Getting
down on the shore and seeing so much beauty and harmony, they said that on this
island definitely they will meet those searched for, for too much the things
were inviting and wonderful around them.
After
they deliberated a while, they decided that the Melancholy Prince go and
research the island, and his friend remain wit the Balaur on shore until he
will return and will tell them what he found out.
And
thus the Prince started alone toward greened forest which heightened further.
Ever going and looking around him, he saw some details which, in first minutes,
escaped to him: he saw how the small and beautifully singing birdies were
watched by others big and black; saw how, by place, the beautiful flowers were
invaded by high brambles, which were taking all their light and water. And he
told himself that this island, between good and evil, between beautiful and
ugly, it was carried a struggle on life and on death, a struggle which he,
stranger for places from here, only looking with great attention, had observed.
Ever
going and wondering, the night was falling and our Prince saw for the first time
how on the clear sky shimmered billions of stars, far, far away, and he
lengthened on grass, and lost his sights in the wonderful depth over him,
trying to understand mysterious tremblings of the stars, which as if talked to
him. And it was silence around him, only springs soughs and night wafts were
heard.
Thus
it started the most beautiful night in Prince's life, charmed night, in which
the soul was full of edgeless enchantment, as never he had lived.
But
over short time, when over the see the pale and magic face of moon arose, the
Prince felt how everything around him takes life and quiver as possessed by
spell. The trees, flowers, grass , all and everything seemed plated with silver, water of spring near by him had
turned into quick silver, flowing far away, in the sea, following the light
path which the moon had couched on the trembling little waves of waters.
And
when the moon arrived toward middle of vault, from somewhere risen, full of
never heard beauty, the magic song of a bird so little, that it got lost among
leaves of trees. But what charm was spread
from its trills! The heart of Prince started to sing as well, feeling
how all fairy play from around gathers
in its chalice, and to reverse out of it after, full of heat which has filled
his soul, and his eyes bathed in tears of delight, seeing such edgeless beauty
and peace.
After
a while, the stars and moon started to fade, the sky started to en-light itself
in horizon, and the dawn found the Prince still dizzy, by the night delight,
night in which he merged with all grass and trees, with stars and sea, with
spring water and wind breeze; night in which he had sung in nightingale song,
had shinned in stars gleam, had ran
toward moon with silvery waves of waters, quivered in wind with leaves and
bathed his face with the silvery rain in moonlight at once with the flowers.
By
day, the mirage from around spilled, but that in his soul remained there for
all life.
XI
How looked
like the Fright who lived on the Wonderful
Island and how they were
mischief. The Prince, hardened himself, forgets
to fend off and is caught and dragged in front of the the Hain Emperor, lord of that land.
At
dawn, the Prince hit the road, amid a
delightful forest. The trees, old and lordly, were charged with green leaves,
squirrels and and songbirds who saw
their affairs at shelter of the thick foliage. Some of the more curious,
flashed with wonder their small heads
among the twigs.
The playful squirrels accompanied him jumping from a tree to another, along the
path which winded hidden in the pleasant shadow of the forest. In the glades full of sunshine and
flowers met creatures he had never seen before: deers, bucks, bunnies, foxes,
bears and many others which were living in the shelter of that forest cover.
But no man!
When
he got out of the forest in which the deers had kept him comradeship and shown
him the path, in front of his eyes a
wide plain opened, covered with boulders
and strange shapes. At the edge of horizon the gray walls of a city arose. He
went and went among those stones lying everywhere, some alone, others gathered
several together, wondering what can be with that multitude of boulders, when,
suddenly, he just saw before him, perched on a stab, an apparition which almost
tousled his hair on head! It was a
misshape who, at body looked somehow cracked, but, you see, it seemed
like a man, but instead of head he had a big fist, which kept pressed a pole as
all days, which he was rotating threateningly toward our Prince. This remained nailed to place in amazement and rubbed his eyes , not being
able to believe that what he saw was really.
The apparition howled as high as his fist kept him, crying to him rough
words and calling his comrades to do him for. For, the apparition said, he
would have come to steel food and from
their richness, or maybe even with the thought to kill His Highness the
Emperor.
At his outcries other few apparitions
came, one stranger and noisier than other. Some of them looked like the first
one, others, however, had not at all head, but just on their swollen bellies
opened a big mouth, shouting that they want him, to eat it alive. Only that
these, with all their mouths as penthouse, could not do big thing alone, for
they were like some swollen barrels, put on two thin legs, like of stork –
barely could keep them up! - that you wondered how don't they break under the big weight of bellies as barrels.
As about hands, what to speak any more that they were long and sapless, and weren't
able to work anything else, but only to throw always in unsaturated mouth,
mouthful after mouthful.
Other fearful apparitions had one
foot on the shoulders and believed
themselves so clever with such pates,
demanding to the others, which seemed to be a kind of bosses, to catch on the
Prince and bring him to the trial in front of Emperor, accusing him that was walking with♪
heads by down, for they said that the two
legs of the Prince would be his heads,
and that it was murder of les-Majesty to have someone more than just a head,
while they, so big councilors of His Highness, had only one, and kept it in
high esteem, on shoulders and not
derided it leashing it through
the dust! How walked they? Well, they didn't walk! They had two thin scrawny
legs of frog, hopping hither and
thither, of more laughter!
The Prince
couldn't believe to his eyes, seeing such misshapes, evil and ugly, just on the
island which charmed him so much with beauty and peace of its nights. But after
he saw that the apparitions gather around him, ready-ready to strike him down
with stones and bats, and to fasten him
with ropes, opened his moth to tell them how did he arrived there and he has no
thought to cause them any trouble. But as if he had to whom to speak! Nobody
listened to his words, but each searched how to flap him better with the stone
or to throw the noose of rope. And look at our poor Prince, who, by amazement,
had forgotten even to defend himself, or to take the run toward forest,
fastened tightly and full of blood because of stones.
After making this job, the
apparitions, which were enough numerous, sat on boulder to draw their souffle,
for powers didn't helped them so much. And, while taking rest, they started to
argue, who out of them to take the prisoner in charge. Those with hands on
shoulder said that he is theirs, that one of them had seen him the first, and
hardly waited to seize with their big fists, which kept place of heads, and to
tear him up. Those with moths on the
belly said that he is theirs, for they are more numerous and that without
them they would never have caught, and their slobbers flown of appetite. Those who believed
themselves most intelligent, for, see you God, they had the legs on the
shoulders, with which to judge, and which, I believe, were the proteges of the
Emperor, because finally all the other apparitions listened of them, said that
he must be carried and judged by His Highness, who will decide also what
punishment will be applied to him.
Meanwhile the Prince asked himself repeatedly for which guilt want they to judge and punish him, because he
didn't know himself guilty for wrong deed and nor of a bad thought and needed
much time until to understand that this was the nature of the Apparitions from
the Wonderful Island: full of rapacity, of wiliness and of wickedness.
The Apparition sat up taking each
from where they could the ropes which kept tied the Prince, and, mostly
dragging him and drawing him into all parts, directed themselves limping along
toward the gray palace.
XX
The
Hoary man felts what terrible happenings the people from the island passed
together and how the Hain Emperor
became all-powerful.
Long ago, on the island, there were living
lots of people, strong, beautiful and good. They were living in peace,
everybody watching after his own affairs: some plowing the earth, some grazing
the cattle, some were building houses, all the things to make life easier. And
so, many centuries passed in happiness and peace. But one day, from the depth
of a distant marsh a bad and ugly Shtima has come together with her
sniper-snapper, an apparition of a child, big of head, feeble of body, and so
bad and cleaver that only his mother outstripped him. This deformed and
soulless sorceress wanted to make her son an emperor over the Wonderful Island.
First
she hid in the depth of the forest, in a cave, and from here the dame simulated
beggar going to the houses of people allegedly to gain a crust of bread, but in
fact with another scheme in mind. She ran day after day, ever praying here and
there and met all sorts of people. Many manly men gave her some food, and some
cloth to cover herself in the cold. More, some of them told her that she could
remain with them, that they would take care of her and she would miss nothing.
But you see, the dame knew what she needed. As much as the people showed
themselves as pitiful and soulful the more the which hated them with her black
heart. Very rarely, she found herself at houses where she wasn't received: the
master was driving her away with the dogs, and with the pole fearing she must
steal something from the courtyard; another as soon as he saw her coming
started rapidly swallowing un-chewed all the dainties from the table, greedy
for even a cramp of bread which might be asked by the old woman. And the proxy
did meet some others stupid like sheep but who were boasting about their
cleverness, others pretended, liars and fluttering ones; others so quarrelsome
that you wondered their neighbors didn’t have peace.
But
I must tell you that there were only a few such men at that time. And even they
weren’t very sinful. You see, as soon as the old woman came close to them all
the wrong hidden in their souls came to the surface about which even they
didn’t know till then. The sorceress remembered them and came again and again
although those men didn’t try at least to stifle the bad propensities, all the
time becoming worse and worse.
In
the night, the old woman was going to her cave where her misshapen son was
asking her when will she put at last emperor and how much longer will keep him
hidden in that underground
cave. The dame was starting magic and
spells and on the next day went right to those whom she liked and was dropped
on the gate of each a few drops from the boiled and spelled
venom.
And
as today, so tomorrow those men with faults fall more attracted by this old
woman and searched trying to enter in her will that the magics had taken
possession of them. And they begun to follow day after day till the old plague
gathered all of them into her cave. They have gone after her, women and men no
one worse and more rascal then the other, leaving children and houses and
lands, wanting no more to know about anything but the cheating of the dime who
promised falsely to one- power, to another – food and drink, but to others –
immeasurable riches flurrying the minds of all that they held on to her word.
When she brought the last scoundrel in the cave the dame invited all of them to
dinner, trifling them that now they will see the one whowill fulfill all their
lusts and so take care not to miss anything.
I
forgot to tell you that the dame had prepared before a charmed drink which she
poured in their food, when they stayed at the table and started to feast they
turned in to all sorts of mishaps as bad as the defects in them souls to some
in lieu of a head; appeared fist, as big as a club for others only the belly
remained; to others who were pretending to be wise she put a leg instead of a
head; what more, not even one was looking now like a man. And instantly, what
smattering of goodness and honesty had still remained in them now disappeared
and only the evil was master over their souls.
When
the sorceress brought her son telling them that from now onwards they were his
servants, who is their emperor and of whose orders they must listen all of them
fell down on their
knees in front of him and no one remembered
that sometime he was a free man and didn’t know any master other than his own
will. Each tried to outdo the other in flattering to obtain the
mean desires of their souls.
The
emperor was overjoyed! Immediately rowed them four by four and begun to order
them like a general. He wanted to go with his army just then to destroy all the
living and the good and to take the whole island in possession.
Then
the sorceress charmed once again to make them always victorious and always
obedient to her son and all of them left the cave.
They
found a marvelous place, in which the wheat, dense like the brush was rocking
in the breath of the wind and when the dame muttered a charm the land turned
into a desert full of stones where no living thing moved.
Here
the fresh emperor set his servants to build a big palace but around it were
rising, stately, the houses of the dignitaries and the more miserable ones, of
the lay servants. They have
surrounded all with a strong wall and all
around was turned intostone and ash.
Once
installed among his servants, the emperor started to learn from his mother all
the evil bringing charms and spells. He went on learning till the dame told
him, ready, now he knows all and she has nothing more to teach him. Then her
son watched her till she went asleep, and with his devilish power poured on her
a venom which turned the sorceress into a little heap of black ashes.
Translation by George Anca
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