Translated from
Lithuanian by Gloria O’Brien
Seniai seniai gyveno
turtingas ūkininkas ir turėjo vieną dukterį
.......
Long, long ago, there lived a
prosperous farmer who had only one daughter. Both father and mother did their
utmost to indulge and pamper their only child. She grew to be so beautiful that
her fame spread far and wide.
One day, a young prince heard
about the beautiful girl, and decided he wanted to cast an eye upon her. And
when he saw her, he wanted nothing more than to speak with her, and gaze upon
her lovely face. He asked her parents to allow him to marry her and take her to
his castle far away.
The parents joyfully agreed.
Of course they would – a prince! – not
some ordinary plowman! It would be an honor to have such a son-in-law.
They married and rode off to
the prince’s distant castle, beyond ten forests, beyond hills and many
rivers.
The first year, the young
pair lived together like lovebirds: always caressing each other while cooing
loving phrases. Life was happy for the girl, and she never even thought of her
parents.
But by the second year, the
prince began to think it was a shame that he, a prince, should have a wife from
such a poor background. Her parents were farmers, and she herself, ordinary and
uneducated. Soon, he was not so loving towards his
wife, and forgot all those tender words he used to say.
And the third year, the
prince no longer loved his wife at all. He began to dislike her, complaining that he was ashamed of her, threatening
to throw her into the castle’s dungeon. If she should die there, then he
could marry again, a woman of the nobility, not such a simple creature as she
was.
Day and night the unhappy
princess wept, so that her eyes reddened and her face became pale, her little
hands jaundiced. She begged the prince to allow her to leave so she could visit
her parents, and not to keep her by force.
“No!” said the
prince. “I will not permit you to leave here! I will shut you in the
dungeon, so you will die soon!”
She realized that her husband
truly wished for her death, and so she stole away from the castle, wishing to
reach her home, to see her father and mother once again. She walked through the
dense woods, weeping and lamenting, remembering those days, when her husband
valued her and spoke kind and loving words to her.
She lost her way completely,
and stopped beneath an aged tree to consider what she should do. Suddenly she
saw a bear approaching her.
“Perhaps it’s
better to be eaten by a bear, than to die of hunger in these woods”, she
thought, and began to pray.
“Where are you going,
princess?” asked the bear with a human voice.
“I am going to visit my
parents”, answered the amazed princess. “I cannot stay in the
castle, as my husband hates me and wants to kill me.”
Shaking his big head, the
bear replied, “You will not reach your home, poor child. It is very far
away, and you travel on foot. If you wish, I can change you into a bird, and you
can fly to your home within a month. When you reach your home, fly to your
mother’s shoulder and place your little beak in her mouth. That very
minute, you will change back into a human”.
The princess agreed and
thanked him warmly. The bear transformed her into a small gray bird, and showed
her the direction to reach her home. She flew unceasingly, a week, then two,
and soon a full month had gone by, but still she had not reached her parents.
Finally, one morning she saw her home, and, weary, she sat in a cherry tree. It
was spring, and all the cherry trees were wearing their snow-white
blossoms. She looked down, and saw her father, walking alone, seeming sad
and deep in thought.
He saw an unfamiliar small gray bird, and musing, said, “Oh, little bird,
if only you could fly to my daughter and tell her, that her dear mother closed
her eyes forever, just last week. And now I am left alone in this world and
yearn for my dear daughter”.
The princess, hearing that
her mother had died, knew that fate had left her to spend the rest of her life
as a bird, flying through the sky. She wanted to shout “It is I, Father,
the princess!” but those words instead became “Ku-ku! Ku-ku!” She spread her wings, and calling
“Ku-ku! Ku-ku!” she flew off into the forest.
People named the new bird
“gegute” (cuckoo). Each spring, she returns, flying hither and yon,
calling “Ku-ku! Ku-ku!”, trying to tell
her sad story.
Source:
Stories told by Pranas Sasnauskas
in “Lietuvių Sakmės” - “Lithuanian Tales”
Published by “Vaiga” in
© English
Translation - Gloria O’Brien 20006
This article was printed in Bridges May 2006