There was a merchant setting out for India.
He asked each male and female servant
what they wanted to be
brought as a gift.
Each told him a different exotic object:
A piece of silk, a
brass figurine,
a pearl necklace.
Then he asked his beautiful caged parrot,
the one with such
a lovely voice,
and she
said,
"When
you see the Indian parrots,
describe my cage. Say that I need
guidance
here in my separation from them. Ask how
our friendship can
continue with me so confined
and them flying about freely in the meadow
mist.
Tell them that I remember well our mornings
moving together
from tree to tree.
Tell them to drink one cup of ecstatic wine
in honor of me
here in the dregs of my life.
Tell them that the sound of their quarreling
high in the
trees would be sweeter
to hear than any music."
This parrot is the spirit-bird in all of us,
that part that
wants to return to freedom,
and is the freedom. What she wants
from India
is herself!
So this parrot gave her message to the merchant,
and when he
reached India, he saw a field
full of parrots. He stopped
and called out
what she had told him.
One of the nearest parrots shivered
and stiffened and fell
down dead.
The merchant said, "This one is surely kin
to my parrot. I
shouldn't have spoken."
He finished his trading and returned home
with the presents
for his workers.
When he got to the parrot, she demanded her gift.
"What
happened when you told my story
to the Indian parrots?"
"I'm afraid to
say."
"Master,
you must!"
"When I spoke your complaint to the field
of chattering
parrots, it broke
one of their hearts.
She must have been a close companion,
or a relative, for
when she heard about you
she grew quiet and trembled, and died."
As the caged parrot heard this, she herself
quivered and
sank to the cage floor.
This merchant was a good man.
He grieved deeply for his
parrot, murmuring
distracted phrases, self-contradictory -
cold, then
loving - clear, then
murky with symbolism.
A drowning man reaches for anything!
The Friend loves this
flailing about
better than any lying still.
The One who lives inside existence
stays constantly in
motion,
and and whatever you do, that king
watches through the window.
When the merchant threw the "dead" parrot
out of the cage,
it spread its wings
and glided to a nearby tree!
The merchant suddenly understood the mystery.
"Sweet singer,
what was in the message
that taught you this trick?"
"She told me that it was the charm
of my voice that kept me
caged.
Give it up, and be released!"
The parrot told the merchant one or two more
spiritual
truths. Then a tender goodbye.
"God protect you," said the merchant
"as you go on your new
way.
I hope to follow you!"
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Modern Languages / Anthropology 3043: Folklore &
Myth. |
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