🧚 Opening, part 6

“Lead us, shepherd,” said the father, “where you broke off the bulrush.”1 So they followed the shepherd into the wood and to the knoll, and they were amazed at the beautiful flowers, ruby-red, sky-blue, that grew there.2

Then they began to dig up the knoll and discovered the dead body.3 The father clasped his hands, groaned as he recognised his unfortunate daughter, saw her lying there slain, not knowing by whom she had been buried.4 And all the good folks asked who had been the slayers, who had been the murderers.5 Then the pipe began playing and speaking of itself.6 “O my light, my father, my sisters called me to the wood: they killed me here to get my saucer, my silver saucer, and my crystal apple.7 You cannot raise me from my heavy sleep till you get water from the Tsar’s well.”8

The two envious sisters trembled, paled, and their soul was in flames.9 They acknowledged their guilt.10 They were seized, bound, locked up in a dark vault at the Tsar’s pleasure.11 But the father set out on his way to the capital city.12 The road was long or short.13 At last he reached the town and came up to the palace.14 The Tsar, the little sun, was coming down the golden staircase.15 The old man bowed down to the earth and asked for the Tsar’s mercy.16 Then the Tsar, the hope, said, “Take the water of life from the Tsar’s well.17 When your daughter revives, bring her here with the saucer, the apple, and the evil-doing sisters.”18

The old man was overjoyed, bowed down to earth and took the phial with the living water, ran into the wood to the flowery knoll, and took up the body.19 As soon as ever he sprinkled it with the water his daughter sprang up in front of him alive, and hung like a dove upon her father’s neck.20 All the people gathered together and wept.21 The old man went to the capital city.22 He was taken into the Tsar’s rooms.23 The Tsar, the little sun, appeared, saw the old man with his three daughters, two tied by the hands, and the third daughter like a spring flower, the light of Paradise in her eyes, with the dawn on her face, tears flowing in her eyes, falling like pearls.24

The Tsar looked and was amazed, and was wroth with the wicked sisters.25 He asked the fair maiden, “Where are your saucer and the crystal apple?”26

Then she took the little coffer out of her father’s hands, took out the apple and the saucer, and herself asked the Tsar, “What do you want to see, O Tsar my Emperor?27 Would you like to see your powerful cities, your valorous hosts, your ships on the sea, or the wonderful stars of the sky?”28 And she let the crystal apple roll about on the silver saucer, and on the saucer one after the other all the towns appeared in their shape; all the regiments with their banners and their arquebuses standing in warlike array, the leaders in front of the lines and the colonels in front of the platoons and the sergeants in front of their companies.29 And the guns fired and the shots flew, and the smoke wreathed and writhed: it was all visible to the eye.30 Then again the apple rolled about on the saucer, the crystal on the silver, and the sea could be seen billowing on the shore, and the ships swimming like swans, flags flying, issuing from the stern, and the noise of guns and cannon-smoke arriving like wreaths, all visible to the eye.31 Then again the apple rolled on the saucer, the crystal on the silver, and the sky was red on the saucer, and little sun after little sun made its round, and the stars gathered on their dance.32 The Tsar was amazed at this wonder.33

But the fair maiden was lost in tears and fell down at the Tsar’s feet and begged for mercy, saying, “Tsar, your Majesty,” she said, “take my silver saucer and crystal apple if you will only forgive my sisters, and do not destroy them for my sake.”34

And the Tsar was melted by her tears and pardoned them at her request.35 She for sheer joy shouted out and fell upon her sisters.36 The Tsar looked round, was amazed, took the fair maiden by the hand, said to her in a kindly voice, “I must for your goodness love your beauty: will you be my wife and the Tsarítsa of my fair realm?”37

“Tsar, your Majesty,” answered the fair maiden, “it is your imperial will, but it is the father’s will which is law amongst the daughters, and the blessing of their mother.38 If my father will, if my mother will bless me, I will.”39

Then the father bowed down to earth, and he sent for the mother, and the mother blessed her.40

“Yet I have one word more for you,” said the fair maiden to the Tsar: “Do not separate my kin from me, let my mother and my father and my sisters remain with me.”41

Then the sisters bowed down to her feet, and said, “We are not worthy!”42

“It has all been forgotten, my beloved sisters,” she said to them; “ye are my kin, ye are not strangers.43 He who bears in mind an ill bygone has lost his sight.”44 And as she said this, she smiled and raised her sisters up.45

And her sisters wept from sheer emotion, as the rivers flow, and would not rise from the ground.46

Then the Tsar bade them rise and looked on them kindly, bidding them remain in the city.47

There was a feast in the palace: the front steps glittered and glowed as though with flame, like the sun enwreathed in his beams.48 The Tsar and the Tsarítsa sat on a chariot, and the earth trembled, and the people ran up crying out, “Long live the Tsar and Tsarítsa!”49

THE FOUNDLING PRINCE50

Once upon a time there was a Tsar and Tsarítsa who had only one son.51 The Tsar one day had to leave home, and in his absence a disaster befell them; the Tsarévich disappeared.52 They searched and searched for the Tsarévich, dragging the ponds.53 Not a breath nor a sound could be heard of him.54 So fifteen years went by, until at last the Tsar received news that in a certain village a peasant had found a child who was a wonder for his beauty and his cleverness.55

So the Tsar ordered the peasant to be brought to him as soon as possible: he was brought, and the Tsar began asking him where he had found the boy.56 The peasant explained that he had found him fifteen years ago in a corn-kiln, with strange and rich clothing on him; and by every sign he was the Tsar’s own son.57

So the Tsar told the peasant, “Tell your foundling that he is to come to me neither naked nor dressed, nor on foot nor on horseback, neither by day nor by night, neither in the courtyard nor in the street.”58

So the peasant went back home, wept and told the boy.59 How on earth was it to be done!60

But the boy replied, “That is easy enough: I can guess this riddle.”61

So he took and undressed himself from head to foot, put a net on himself, came on a goat, came up to the Tsar at twilight, and mounted the goat at the gate, leaving the fore-feet of the goat on the courtyard and the hind feet in the street.62

When the Tsar saw this, he became convinced and said, “This must be my son!”63

THE SUN AND HOW IT WAS MADE BY DIVINE WILL64