Lowaicue
英語在香港
Forenote: A few weeks ago a lady for whom I do some occasional work asked me to take a permanent position in her organisation. I did not have the heart to refuse but I knew that it would have been impossible for me. I didn't want to lose contact and I wanted to continue to work for a few hours per week at this keyboard (cos I am a lazy and selfish sod!)
I awoke one morning and knew how I would tell her so she still valued my small contribution.
She is the Princess in this story and I suppose I am the skylark.
The lady understood the story and the message it had been so difficult for me to tell her. If you dont like soppy fairy stories, dont read it. If you do then please be my guest.
The Princess and the Skylark
Once upon a time a beautiful princess looked out of her chamber window. The sky was quite blue and the warm spring breeze gently brushed her soft cheek.
‘What a beautiful day it is, to be sure,’ she thought to herself.
Stretching, as far as the eye could see were woodlands and hills and singing streams.
‘The world is more beautiful than I had ever imagined,’ she thought.
High above she saw the skylark and the song it made was the most beautiful sound the little princess had ever heard.
Later when, with her ladies in
waiting, she went for a walk in the palace garden, she watched a blackbird singing to the sun as she sat on a bough of a small lilac tree. ‘Surely’, she thought, ‘of all the sounds of the world that is the most beautiful.’
And then she remembered the skylark.
She walked on and eventually came to a small bubbling stream. The water ran and played over the rocks and pebbles of its bed.
‘What a beautiful sound the stream makes as it rushes and giggles its way to the sea. Surely that must be the most beautiful sound in the whole world.’
And then she remembered the blackbird and then the skylark.
The next day while walking with her ladies in waiting she came, once more, to the babbling, giggling stream.
‘There can be no doubt’, she said to her attendants, ‘that this little stream makes the prettiest sound in all the world’, and she bade her maid summon one of the palace footmen. ‘This little stream’, she told him, ‘makes the prettiest sound in all the world. I would like to be able to listen to it all the time. I would like the sound to wake me every morning and to soothe me to sleep every evening. I would like to hear it when I am happy but most of all when I am feeling sad and lonely.’
For as we all know beautiful princesses are always lonely.
The footman summoned the foreman and the foreman summoned the gardeners.
‘The princess is in love with the sounds of this stream. We must move it to within the princess’s private chambers inside the palace.’
When the beautiful princess saw and heard the stream she was very happy. However the stream had nowhere to go and so it stopped playing and giggling over the rocks and pebbles and became quiet.
The princess summoned the footman and the footman summoned the foreman.
‘The stream is silent’, she said. ‘I have no desire to have it within my chambers.’
And so the foreman summoned his workers and the stream was taken back into the garden where it immediately started babbling and giggling as it played among the rocks and pebbles.
‘The blackbird has a beautiful song’, said the beautiful princess to her ladies in waiting. And they all agreed. The blackbird sat in the lilac tree and sang to the sun during the day and in the evening sang to bring the moon into the night sky.
Day after day the princess listened to the song of the blackbird.
‘Bring me the bird’, she said to her footman, ‘that I may listen to its sweet song when I awake and when I retire and during the day whenever I so desire.’
The footmen instructed the foreman who instructed the palace builders, to build a beautiful bird cage and to place the blackbird within so she could always hear its sweet song.
A bird cage was constructed of the finest gold encrusted with all manner of precious stones.
The footmen summoned the palace bird keeper and told him to go into the garden and catch the blackbird and place it in the cage so the princess could wake every morning to its song and retire each evening with its beautiful sweet song filling the air.
The palace gardeners found the juiciest, fattest worms and gave them to the footman. The footman examined each worm to ensure that only the best were chosen and with these he fed the blackbird.
The blackbird was most content and sang and sang for the beautiful princess. She was very happy.
‘Have you seen the princess?’ They would say. ‘Surely she has never been happier nor has she smiled so much.’
The courtiers were all happier because the princess was happy. The ladies in waiting went about their duties singing in tune with the blackbird.
Soon the blackbird’s song became a little subdued. The princess summoned the footman.
‘There is clearly something wrong with the worms you are feeding the blackbird.’
The footman promised to collect even fatter and tastier worms for the blackbird. But the blackbird’s song did not improve. The princess lost her happiness and the blackbird stopped its song.
‘Build it a bigger cage and attach more jewels,’ said the footman to the palace builders. The blackbirds song improved but not for long. The blackbird wanted to tell the princess how much he enjoyed singing for her but he needed to be with other birds sitting on the bough of the lilac tree. He sang and sang but the princess did not understand. In one last desperate effort to tell the princess he sang all morning and he sang till the sun whispered goodnight. He sang all night and the moon, who understood these things, shed a tear in sympathy. He sang for his brothers and sisters, he sang for the birds of the fields and hedgerows. He sang for the albatross skimming the cold waves of the Atlantic and he sang for all the birds kept in cages in all the houses and palaces of the world.
As dawn spread her silvery wings the blackbird sang a much weaker song and when the princess awoke and looked toward the cage she saw the little blackbird lying in the bottom of the cage.
The poor bird had sung his heart out for the beautiful princess.
And as she looked upon this little bundle of feathers a tear squeezed itself from the corner of her eye and ran slowly down her rosy cheek. Then another and another until she threw herself upon the silken couch and sobbed until she thought her heart would break. The footman took away the bird and buried it in a small grave beneath the lilac tree. The princess told him to have the golden cage melted down and to be given to the school where there were no books for the children and the jewels were to be given to the poorest families in the land.
One day not long after the blackbird had died and the school had bought the books it needed and the poorest families had bought shoes and new clothes, the beautiful princess was standing gazing from her chamber window. The breeze whispered in the branches of the lilac tree and the perfume from the lilac flowers filled the air, the princess heard the skylark.
‘It is wonderful,’ she said to her lady in waiting, ‘how the skylark sings still. The stream stopped its playfulness and the blackbird sang until its poor heart broke but the skylark is as beautiful today as when I first heard it. Clearly it is because it is free. One cannot capture beauty and keep it for oneself. One cannot capture the sounds of freedom for then they cease to be free. ‘
The skylark sang in the sky, it hovered, it dived, it flew and soared and sang. Oh! how it sang. Every day the princess would go to the window to watch the skylark and to listen to its song.
The skylark noticed the beautiful princess for skylarks will see beauty wherever it is hidden, and occasionally it would swoop down to gaze at the princess. One day the princess smiled and sang a sweet little song to the skylark. This made the skylark very happy.
Now the skylark would fly down to the chamber window every day and sing to make the princess smile. Soon the princess would leave tit bits for the skylark and the skylark would sing even louder and longer. All summer long the skylark would sing for the princess and all summer long she would feed the bird from her milk white hand.
The beautiful princess called her courtiers and her ladies in waiting; she called her footmen, her gardeners and her builders.
When they were all gathered together she said, let it be known that throughout this realm that the birds and the animals shall be free and never become servants of man and the flowers and trees, the rivers and hills shall behave according to natures plan. For I have learned that happiness cannot be caged it must be free to come and go from our lives as it will.
I awoke one morning and knew how I would tell her so she still valued my small contribution.
She is the Princess in this story and I suppose I am the skylark.
The lady understood the story and the message it had been so difficult for me to tell her. If you dont like soppy fairy stories, dont read it. If you do then please be my guest.
The Princess and the Skylark
Once upon a time a beautiful princess looked out of her chamber window. The sky was quite blue and the warm spring breeze gently brushed her soft cheek.
‘What a beautiful day it is, to be sure,’ she thought to herself.
Stretching, as far as the eye could see were woodlands and hills and singing streams.
‘The world is more beautiful than I had ever imagined,’ she thought.
High above she saw the skylark and the song it made was the most beautiful sound the little princess had ever heard.
Later when, with her ladies in
waiting, she went for a walk in the palace garden, she watched a blackbird singing to the sun as she sat on a bough of a small lilac tree. ‘Surely’, she thought, ‘of all the sounds of the world that is the most beautiful.’
And then she remembered the skylark.
She walked on and eventually came to a small bubbling stream. The water ran and played over the rocks and pebbles of its bed.
‘What a beautiful sound the stream makes as it rushes and giggles its way to the sea. Surely that must be the most beautiful sound in the whole world.’
And then she remembered the blackbird and then the skylark.
The next day while walking with her ladies in waiting she came, once more, to the babbling, giggling stream.
‘There can be no doubt’, she said to her attendants, ‘that this little stream makes the prettiest sound in all the world’, and she bade her maid summon one of the palace footmen. ‘This little stream’, she told him, ‘makes the prettiest sound in all the world. I would like to be able to listen to it all the time. I would like the sound to wake me every morning and to soothe me to sleep every evening. I would like to hear it when I am happy but most of all when I am feeling sad and lonely.’
For as we all know beautiful princesses are always lonely.
The footman summoned the foreman and the foreman summoned the gardeners.
‘The princess is in love with the sounds of this stream. We must move it to within the princess’s private chambers inside the palace.’
When the beautiful princess saw and heard the stream she was very happy. However the stream had nowhere to go and so it stopped playing and giggling over the rocks and pebbles and became quiet.
The princess summoned the footman and the footman summoned the foreman.
‘The stream is silent’, she said. ‘I have no desire to have it within my chambers.’
And so the foreman summoned his workers and the stream was taken back into the garden where it immediately started babbling and giggling as it played among the rocks and pebbles.
‘The blackbird has a beautiful song’, said the beautiful princess to her ladies in waiting. And they all agreed. The blackbird sat in the lilac tree and sang to the sun during the day and in the evening sang to bring the moon into the night sky.
Day after day the princess listened to the song of the blackbird.
‘Bring me the bird’, she said to her footman, ‘that I may listen to its sweet song when I awake and when I retire and during the day whenever I so desire.’
The footmen instructed the foreman who instructed the palace builders, to build a beautiful bird cage and to place the blackbird within so she could always hear its sweet song.
A bird cage was constructed of the finest gold encrusted with all manner of precious stones.
The footmen summoned the palace bird keeper and told him to go into the garden and catch the blackbird and place it in the cage so the princess could wake every morning to its song and retire each evening with its beautiful sweet song filling the air.
The palace gardeners found the juiciest, fattest worms and gave them to the footman. The footman examined each worm to ensure that only the best were chosen and with these he fed the blackbird.
The blackbird was most content and sang and sang for the beautiful princess. She was very happy.
‘Have you seen the princess?’ They would say. ‘Surely she has never been happier nor has she smiled so much.’
The courtiers were all happier because the princess was happy. The ladies in waiting went about their duties singing in tune with the blackbird.
Soon the blackbird’s song became a little subdued. The princess summoned the footman.
‘There is clearly something wrong with the worms you are feeding the blackbird.’
The footman promised to collect even fatter and tastier worms for the blackbird. But the blackbird’s song did not improve. The princess lost her happiness and the blackbird stopped its song.
‘Build it a bigger cage and attach more jewels,’ said the footman to the palace builders. The blackbirds song improved but not for long. The blackbird wanted to tell the princess how much he enjoyed singing for her but he needed to be with other birds sitting on the bough of the lilac tree. He sang and sang but the princess did not understand. In one last desperate effort to tell the princess he sang all morning and he sang till the sun whispered goodnight. He sang all night and the moon, who understood these things, shed a tear in sympathy. He sang for his brothers and sisters, he sang for the birds of the fields and hedgerows. He sang for the albatross skimming the cold waves of the Atlantic and he sang for all the birds kept in cages in all the houses and palaces of the world.
As dawn spread her silvery wings the blackbird sang a much weaker song and when the princess awoke and looked toward the cage she saw the little blackbird lying in the bottom of the cage.
The poor bird had sung his heart out for the beautiful princess.
And as she looked upon this little bundle of feathers a tear squeezed itself from the corner of her eye and ran slowly down her rosy cheek. Then another and another until she threw herself upon the silken couch and sobbed until she thought her heart would break. The footman took away the bird and buried it in a small grave beneath the lilac tree. The princess told him to have the golden cage melted down and to be given to the school where there were no books for the children and the jewels were to be given to the poorest families in the land.
One day not long after the blackbird had died and the school had bought the books it needed and the poorest families had bought shoes and new clothes, the beautiful princess was standing gazing from her chamber window. The breeze whispered in the branches of the lilac tree and the perfume from the lilac flowers filled the air, the princess heard the skylark.
‘It is wonderful,’ she said to her lady in waiting, ‘how the skylark sings still. The stream stopped its playfulness and the blackbird sang until its poor heart broke but the skylark is as beautiful today as when I first heard it. Clearly it is because it is free. One cannot capture beauty and keep it for oneself. One cannot capture the sounds of freedom for then they cease to be free. ‘
The skylark sang in the sky, it hovered, it dived, it flew and soared and sang. Oh! how it sang. Every day the princess would go to the window to watch the skylark and to listen to its song.
The skylark noticed the beautiful princess for skylarks will see beauty wherever it is hidden, and occasionally it would swoop down to gaze at the princess. One day the princess smiled and sang a sweet little song to the skylark. This made the skylark very happy.
Now the skylark would fly down to the chamber window every day and sing to make the princess smile. Soon the princess would leave tit bits for the skylark and the skylark would sing even louder and longer. All summer long the skylark would sing for the princess and all summer long she would feed the bird from her milk white hand.
The beautiful princess called her courtiers and her ladies in waiting; she called her footmen, her gardeners and her builders.
When they were all gathered together she said, let it be known that throughout this realm that the birds and the animals shall be free and never become servants of man and the flowers and trees, the rivers and hills shall behave according to natures plan. For I have learned that happiness cannot be caged it must be free to come and go from our lives as it will.
