Vũ Đàm Linh
(Mazerlin)
New Member
Please read this wonderful and we'll share the feeling. It was written by a Kafka's fan.
Once upon a time there was a little girl who was the princess of a vast kingdom. The kingdom was rich and powerful, and all the people that lived inside of it, including the princess, were happy and healthy. Her parents, the king and the queen, loved her very much. The princess was happy most of the time, living in the kingdom. But, without having any brothers and sisters, she got lonely at times, not having anyone to play with. There were lots of other children in the kingdom, the children of her parents' subjects, but her parents didn't like her to play with those children too much. It wasn't that her parents didn't like those children, but they thought, since she was a princess, that she needed to be protected and educated. Which was true, because one day, the princess would be the ruler of the kingdom.
The princess would have been happy anyway, even without having other royal children to play with, if she could spend time with her parents. Since they were running the kingdom, though, they seldom had time to play with her. They were always having official duties to perform. After all, they were the king and the queen. So even though they loved their daughter and were sad they couldn't see her much, they were still bound to their positions, for the sake of the kingdom. In addition to loving their daughter the princess, they loved each other very much, too. In fact, they loved each other so much that anytime they appeared at a royal function, they always did so together. If the king was holding court with his counselors, the queen was by his side in her throne. And, if the queen was presiding at a luncheon for the duchesses of the kingdom, the king was sitting next to her at the head table. Because they were so busy, and because they wanted the princess to be well-cared for and educated, they appointed Old Dorthea to be her guardian.
Old Dorothea was a woman who lived in the kingdom as long as anyone could remember. No one could remember where she came from or who her family was because she was older than everyone else in the kingdom. She had lived in the kingdom long before the princess' father ascended to the throne, and knew every grownup and child there. Everyone knew her, too, and liked her because she was wise and kind. And everyone called her Old Dorothea.
The princess especially liked her, because Old Dorothea was always able to answer her questions. And the princess, being an extremely curious girl, asked a lot of questions. When they were walking through the fields one day, the fields of grass that stretched out flat and wide as far as the eye could see, the princess looked up into the sky. She then turned around and around, looking at the way the sky curved down to the ground in every direction. She wondered about the sky, and then asked Old Dorothea, "why is the sky blue?" Old Dorothea quickly replied "the sky is blue because if it wasn't, we'd never know where the ground left off and the air began." And another time, when the princess was learning how to climb trees in the royal forest, she asked Old Dorothea "why are trees so tall?" Again, Old Dorothea answer quickly that "trees are tall because if they weren't, we'd confuse them with bushes." Even though the princess liked hearing Old Dorothea answer her questions, she sometimes thought that Old Dorothea wasn't always telling the truth.
The princess and Old Dorothea spent almost everyday together, because the king had placed Old Dorothea in charge of teaching the princess everything she would need to know about the world, and also of making sure she grew up to be a good princess. Each day was different, though, which always filled the princess with a little bit of excitement when she woke up in the morning. She never really was sure what Old Dorothea would do with her that day. There was so much for her to learn. Some days Old Dorothea would instruct her in mathematics or history in the princess' room, out of books that looked as old as Old Dorothea. Sometimes they would take walks through the kingdom, where Old Dorothea would teach her about science and nature and animals. Sometimes, Old Dorothea would have the princess sit quietly next to her in the back of the throne room while the king was holding court, so the princess could learn about how the government and her kingdom worked. Sometimes the would go and sit in the garden, while Old Dorothea would read poems and stories to the princess, and then they would talk about the situations and characters. And sometimes they would go to the princess' special section of the royal forest where the princess got exercise and learned how to swim and climb trees.
In this special section of the royal forest, only four people in the entire kingdom were allowed to enter. Those were the royal family (the king, the queen and the little princess) and Old Dorothea. The kingdom hard vast tracts of forest all over, but this particular section had been reserved especially for the royal family for as long as the kingdom's records reached back into history. Everyone knew this, and didn't think much of it. "A king is entitled to his own forest," the people thought. And so it was, and there were even guards posted at the forest's entrances to make sure no one but the royal family and Old Dorothea went in- the guards themselves couldn't even go in.
The princess didn't think too much about this, though, because she was too young to know. All she knew is that Old Dorothea took here there quiet often. And the princess liked being in the woods, too, because she liked the trees, all the different kinds of flowers, see all the animals walking around and eating. The princess especially liked playing in the forest, of course, but Old Dorothea was there to make sure she was learning, and not just playing. One trick that the princess came up with, though, helped her play her favorite game while Old Dorothea thought she was learning. The princess, after reading with Old Dorothea from one of her books, would go and lay on the banks of the river that flowed through the forest. She would tell Old Dorothea that she was "thinking and figuring out what they just read about," but really what she was doing was looking at all the bubbles that passed by her in the river. This way, she could lay for hours, watching the bubble go past, and Old Dorothea (when the princess peeked at her) would be smiling, thinking the princess was an excellent pupil.
The princess wasn't quite sure what it was that she liked about all the bubbles in the river, but she knew she liked them. Some were big, some were small, some floated by all by themselves, and some went by in great big groups. Sometimes the sunlight glinted off of their surfaces, and other times they seemed very deep and dark. Once in awhile, when the bubbles came close to her, she could almost see her own reflection in them. But it wasn't her proper reflection, because the bubbles' surface was curved. She could see a face in the bubble, but it didn't always look like her. Her face could look very wide and fat, or tall and narrow, or just shaped in a funny way. The sunlight also bounced off of the bubbles in different ways, which made some of the faces on the bubbles look different colors- all the colors of the rainbow.
The princess never knew where the bubbles came from, or where they went to, but every time she went to the river, there the bubbles were; passing by her in a never-ending stream. Sometimes close by her, sometimes way on the other side of the river, but always moving by. The princess thought that was what she liked most about the bubbles- that they were always there. No matter what else was going on, she knew that she could always lay by the river and the bubbles would be floating by. She felt that this river was very special because of this.
Sometimes, when Old Dorothea wasn't really watching her, the princess would try to catch some of the bubbles on leaves, or herd them near the bank with sticks. It was fun to see how many bubbles she could collect, and then let go back down the river. Once in awhile, though, when she wasn't feeling very interested in anything in particular, she would gather up a pile of small pebbles and toss them at the bubbles, trying to pop them as they floated by. As the years went by, this became her favorite game, and more and more often she would burst the passing bubbles with pebbles.
Time passed, and the princess grew older. And smarter, too, thanks to the guidance of Old Dorothea. For the princess, it seemed like life never changed much- she still read with Old Dorothea in the garden, or learned about math from her math books, or lay in the royal forest by the river. Things were changing in the kingdom, though. The princess wasn't ever quite sure what was going on outside the castle she lived in, but every so often she would her people talking. There were rumors of much sadness in the kingdom. There seemed to be a great illness within the kingdom, which made many people very sick. When the people were sick, they were unable to work at their jobs and support their families. Many people were even dying, which scared the princess when she heard it. And since this terrible plague was sweeping over the entire kingdom, almost everyone was getting sicker and poorer, and worried about what was happening to them.
When the princess asked Old Dorothea about the rumors, Old Dorothea only said "the business of running the kingdom is your father's. You just mind your studies, and you'll know everything about the kingdom when your time comes."
So the princess continued with her studies, learning about all kinds of things. It was different now, though, because no matter what she was learning about, all she could think about was what was happening to the people of the kingdom. They went almost everyday now to the royal forest, and the princess would always lie next to the river. She wouldn't just be playing with the bubbles anymore, though. Now, she actually was thinking, but not about her lessons. She just kept thinking about the plague; what might be causing it, and how might it end. While she lay there, though, she still did toss her pebbles at the passing bubbles. She liked more than ever the fact that, no matter what was going on outside, there were always bubbles floating down the river. It seemed to her that there were less than there used to be, but it didn't bother her, because there was always some coming down the river. And she was getting better at throwing the pebbles- she hit a bubble almost every time.
The more bad news she heard about the kingdom, the more she felt she wanted to go to the river. She always felt a little better being by the river, and Old Dorothea always seemed willing to let the princess "think about her lessons" so much. The plague in the kingdom worried the princess, though, and it angered her, too. It made her angry that it was hurting so many people, but there was nothing she, or her parents, could do about it. Deep down she knew this, but she was also sort of mad at her parents for nothing being able to do anything. "They are the king and queen, after all," thought the princess, "the must be able to do something."
Everything just seemed to be out of their control. Maybe this is why the princess came up with a new game. She had gotten so good at hitting the bubbles with her pebbles, that she pretended that she was the controller of the river, and it was up to her to decide which bubbles were allowed to pass and which ones weren't. Maybe she would see a group of four bubbles coming along, which looked to her like a nice, happy family, and she'd decide to let them pass. If, though, she saw one bubble by itself that looked like it was trying to sneak through, she would throw a pebble at it and burst it. She enjoyed this game quite a bit, and played it everyday, which took her mind off how bad things were going in the kingdom. Whenever she was in the castle and heard someone talking about how many people had died the day before, she would think of the bubbles in the river, and new reasons to let certain ones pass.
She hadn't seen her parents for a very long time, because they were very busy with the kingdom's affairs. Old Dorothea told her, when the princess asked what they were doing, that they often took tours of the countryside to try to encourage the people of the kingdom, and also traveled to other kingdoms to ask for help from the kings and queens there. The princess didn't like this, though. She still thought that there was something her parents could be doing to stop the people in her kingdom from getting sick and dying. She was still angry with them, too, for going off to other places and not helping the people.
The next day, while the princess was player her new game at the river, two bubbles came floating along the side, right near her. They were close enough for her to see her reflection in them, but, as always, it wasn't her real reflection. The bigger bubble made her reflection look large and broad, while the smaller bubble made her reflection look round and dainty. And to her surprise, when she saw that her princess' crown was shining at the top of each of the bubbles' faces, she noticed how those two bubbles looked exactly like her parents, the king and queen. At first she was happy to see them, because she hadn't seen them in so long. But then she thought, "well, since you can't help the people in your own kingdom, king and queen, you don't deserve to float along with the rest of these nice bubbles." And with that, she threw a pebbles as hard as she could, and popped both the king and the queen bubbles in one shot.
Soon it got dark, and Old Dorothea told her they had to return to the castle. When they got there, an unusual thing happened. A few of the queens handmaidens whisked the princess away to her room, while others took Old Dorothea immediately to the main courtroom. Even though the princess demanded to know what was going on, none of the handmaidens would tell her. In fact, they didn't say anything to her- they just all looked like they were crying.
After a little while, Old Dorothea came to the princess' room. The princess let her in and again demanded to know why she was locked in her room. After they were both seated, the princess on her bed and Old Dorothea at a chair by the window, Old Dorothea told her. "Princess," Old Dorothea began, "I've just learned of terrible news. While the king and queen were touring the countryside today, they contracted the plague that's been affecting our kingdom and died. This means that you are now the queen."
At first the princess didn't want to believe her, and called Old Dorothea a liar. The princess knew that Old Dorothea would not lie, though, and threw her face down into her pillows and wept and wept. Old Dorothea remained seated by the window, and when the princess' sobs slowed, she continued. "Now that you are the ruler, there are things you can now know, that you weren't allowed to know before. You have done well in your studies, and I feel you are fully ready to run the kingdom business. Still, there are other things, which you cannot learn about in books, that I now need to tell you.
"The first of these is that the royal forest isn't guarded just because the king wanted to keep people out. It is protected from all but the royal family because it is a magical place. The trees there are not just trees, the animals there are not just animals, the river is not just a river..."
At the mention of the river, the princess sat bolt up. While she was still crying, she asked "Why isn't the river just a river?" Old Dorothea looked very serious, but also with a strange smile on her face. It was the same smile she got whenever the princess realized she had just learned something important.
"The river is the most special part of the magical forest," Old Dorothea said. "The river represents the entire life of this kingdom. All of the bubbles that float down the river represent every man, woman and child that live in the kingdom. If you look closely at the bubbles, you can see the face of each person, in that person's bubble. The bubbles trace the path of each of their lives- who they are close to, where they move within the kingdom, and where they end."
Old Dorothea paused here, and the princess asked "What do you mean, 'where they end'?"
"By 'where they end'," Old Dorothea replied solemnly, "I mean where that person's life ends. You see, the bubble is their life. Every bubble comes from the same place, but no one knows where that is. This is the person's birth. It floats along the river, while the person is living in the kingdom. But when a bubble pops, that is when that person dies."
Once upon a time there was a little girl who was the princess of a vast kingdom. The kingdom was rich and powerful, and all the people that lived inside of it, including the princess, were happy and healthy. Her parents, the king and the queen, loved her very much. The princess was happy most of the time, living in the kingdom. But, without having any brothers and sisters, she got lonely at times, not having anyone to play with. There were lots of other children in the kingdom, the children of her parents' subjects, but her parents didn't like her to play with those children too much. It wasn't that her parents didn't like those children, but they thought, since she was a princess, that she needed to be protected and educated. Which was true, because one day, the princess would be the ruler of the kingdom.
The princess would have been happy anyway, even without having other royal children to play with, if she could spend time with her parents. Since they were running the kingdom, though, they seldom had time to play with her. They were always having official duties to perform. After all, they were the king and the queen. So even though they loved their daughter and were sad they couldn't see her much, they were still bound to their positions, for the sake of the kingdom. In addition to loving their daughter the princess, they loved each other very much, too. In fact, they loved each other so much that anytime they appeared at a royal function, they always did so together. If the king was holding court with his counselors, the queen was by his side in her throne. And, if the queen was presiding at a luncheon for the duchesses of the kingdom, the king was sitting next to her at the head table. Because they were so busy, and because they wanted the princess to be well-cared for and educated, they appointed Old Dorthea to be her guardian.
Old Dorothea was a woman who lived in the kingdom as long as anyone could remember. No one could remember where she came from or who her family was because she was older than everyone else in the kingdom. She had lived in the kingdom long before the princess' father ascended to the throne, and knew every grownup and child there. Everyone knew her, too, and liked her because she was wise and kind. And everyone called her Old Dorothea.
The princess especially liked her, because Old Dorothea was always able to answer her questions. And the princess, being an extremely curious girl, asked a lot of questions. When they were walking through the fields one day, the fields of grass that stretched out flat and wide as far as the eye could see, the princess looked up into the sky. She then turned around and around, looking at the way the sky curved down to the ground in every direction. She wondered about the sky, and then asked Old Dorothea, "why is the sky blue?" Old Dorothea quickly replied "the sky is blue because if it wasn't, we'd never know where the ground left off and the air began." And another time, when the princess was learning how to climb trees in the royal forest, she asked Old Dorothea "why are trees so tall?" Again, Old Dorothea answer quickly that "trees are tall because if they weren't, we'd confuse them with bushes." Even though the princess liked hearing Old Dorothea answer her questions, she sometimes thought that Old Dorothea wasn't always telling the truth.
The princess and Old Dorothea spent almost everyday together, because the king had placed Old Dorothea in charge of teaching the princess everything she would need to know about the world, and also of making sure she grew up to be a good princess. Each day was different, though, which always filled the princess with a little bit of excitement when she woke up in the morning. She never really was sure what Old Dorothea would do with her that day. There was so much for her to learn. Some days Old Dorothea would instruct her in mathematics or history in the princess' room, out of books that looked as old as Old Dorothea. Sometimes they would take walks through the kingdom, where Old Dorothea would teach her about science and nature and animals. Sometimes, Old Dorothea would have the princess sit quietly next to her in the back of the throne room while the king was holding court, so the princess could learn about how the government and her kingdom worked. Sometimes the would go and sit in the garden, while Old Dorothea would read poems and stories to the princess, and then they would talk about the situations and characters. And sometimes they would go to the princess' special section of the royal forest where the princess got exercise and learned how to swim and climb trees.
In this special section of the royal forest, only four people in the entire kingdom were allowed to enter. Those were the royal family (the king, the queen and the little princess) and Old Dorothea. The kingdom hard vast tracts of forest all over, but this particular section had been reserved especially for the royal family for as long as the kingdom's records reached back into history. Everyone knew this, and didn't think much of it. "A king is entitled to his own forest," the people thought. And so it was, and there were even guards posted at the forest's entrances to make sure no one but the royal family and Old Dorothea went in- the guards themselves couldn't even go in.
The princess didn't think too much about this, though, because she was too young to know. All she knew is that Old Dorothea took here there quiet often. And the princess liked being in the woods, too, because she liked the trees, all the different kinds of flowers, see all the animals walking around and eating. The princess especially liked playing in the forest, of course, but Old Dorothea was there to make sure she was learning, and not just playing. One trick that the princess came up with, though, helped her play her favorite game while Old Dorothea thought she was learning. The princess, after reading with Old Dorothea from one of her books, would go and lay on the banks of the river that flowed through the forest. She would tell Old Dorothea that she was "thinking and figuring out what they just read about," but really what she was doing was looking at all the bubbles that passed by her in the river. This way, she could lay for hours, watching the bubble go past, and Old Dorothea (when the princess peeked at her) would be smiling, thinking the princess was an excellent pupil.
The princess wasn't quite sure what it was that she liked about all the bubbles in the river, but she knew she liked them. Some were big, some were small, some floated by all by themselves, and some went by in great big groups. Sometimes the sunlight glinted off of their surfaces, and other times they seemed very deep and dark. Once in awhile, when the bubbles came close to her, she could almost see her own reflection in them. But it wasn't her proper reflection, because the bubbles' surface was curved. She could see a face in the bubble, but it didn't always look like her. Her face could look very wide and fat, or tall and narrow, or just shaped in a funny way. The sunlight also bounced off of the bubbles in different ways, which made some of the faces on the bubbles look different colors- all the colors of the rainbow.
The princess never knew where the bubbles came from, or where they went to, but every time she went to the river, there the bubbles were; passing by her in a never-ending stream. Sometimes close by her, sometimes way on the other side of the river, but always moving by. The princess thought that was what she liked most about the bubbles- that they were always there. No matter what else was going on, she knew that she could always lay by the river and the bubbles would be floating by. She felt that this river was very special because of this.
Sometimes, when Old Dorothea wasn't really watching her, the princess would try to catch some of the bubbles on leaves, or herd them near the bank with sticks. It was fun to see how many bubbles she could collect, and then let go back down the river. Once in awhile, though, when she wasn't feeling very interested in anything in particular, she would gather up a pile of small pebbles and toss them at the bubbles, trying to pop them as they floated by. As the years went by, this became her favorite game, and more and more often she would burst the passing bubbles with pebbles.
Time passed, and the princess grew older. And smarter, too, thanks to the guidance of Old Dorothea. For the princess, it seemed like life never changed much- she still read with Old Dorothea in the garden, or learned about math from her math books, or lay in the royal forest by the river. Things were changing in the kingdom, though. The princess wasn't ever quite sure what was going on outside the castle she lived in, but every so often she would her people talking. There were rumors of much sadness in the kingdom. There seemed to be a great illness within the kingdom, which made many people very sick. When the people were sick, they were unable to work at their jobs and support their families. Many people were even dying, which scared the princess when she heard it. And since this terrible plague was sweeping over the entire kingdom, almost everyone was getting sicker and poorer, and worried about what was happening to them.
When the princess asked Old Dorothea about the rumors, Old Dorothea only said "the business of running the kingdom is your father's. You just mind your studies, and you'll know everything about the kingdom when your time comes."
So the princess continued with her studies, learning about all kinds of things. It was different now, though, because no matter what she was learning about, all she could think about was what was happening to the people of the kingdom. They went almost everyday now to the royal forest, and the princess would always lie next to the river. She wouldn't just be playing with the bubbles anymore, though. Now, she actually was thinking, but not about her lessons. She just kept thinking about the plague; what might be causing it, and how might it end. While she lay there, though, she still did toss her pebbles at the passing bubbles. She liked more than ever the fact that, no matter what was going on outside, there were always bubbles floating down the river. It seemed to her that there were less than there used to be, but it didn't bother her, because there was always some coming down the river. And she was getting better at throwing the pebbles- she hit a bubble almost every time.
The more bad news she heard about the kingdom, the more she felt she wanted to go to the river. She always felt a little better being by the river, and Old Dorothea always seemed willing to let the princess "think about her lessons" so much. The plague in the kingdom worried the princess, though, and it angered her, too. It made her angry that it was hurting so many people, but there was nothing she, or her parents, could do about it. Deep down she knew this, but she was also sort of mad at her parents for nothing being able to do anything. "They are the king and queen, after all," thought the princess, "the must be able to do something."
Everything just seemed to be out of their control. Maybe this is why the princess came up with a new game. She had gotten so good at hitting the bubbles with her pebbles, that she pretended that she was the controller of the river, and it was up to her to decide which bubbles were allowed to pass and which ones weren't. Maybe she would see a group of four bubbles coming along, which looked to her like a nice, happy family, and she'd decide to let them pass. If, though, she saw one bubble by itself that looked like it was trying to sneak through, she would throw a pebble at it and burst it. She enjoyed this game quite a bit, and played it everyday, which took her mind off how bad things were going in the kingdom. Whenever she was in the castle and heard someone talking about how many people had died the day before, she would think of the bubbles in the river, and new reasons to let certain ones pass.
She hadn't seen her parents for a very long time, because they were very busy with the kingdom's affairs. Old Dorothea told her, when the princess asked what they were doing, that they often took tours of the countryside to try to encourage the people of the kingdom, and also traveled to other kingdoms to ask for help from the kings and queens there. The princess didn't like this, though. She still thought that there was something her parents could be doing to stop the people in her kingdom from getting sick and dying. She was still angry with them, too, for going off to other places and not helping the people.
The next day, while the princess was player her new game at the river, two bubbles came floating along the side, right near her. They were close enough for her to see her reflection in them, but, as always, it wasn't her real reflection. The bigger bubble made her reflection look large and broad, while the smaller bubble made her reflection look round and dainty. And to her surprise, when she saw that her princess' crown was shining at the top of each of the bubbles' faces, she noticed how those two bubbles looked exactly like her parents, the king and queen. At first she was happy to see them, because she hadn't seen them in so long. But then she thought, "well, since you can't help the people in your own kingdom, king and queen, you don't deserve to float along with the rest of these nice bubbles." And with that, she threw a pebbles as hard as she could, and popped both the king and the queen bubbles in one shot.
Soon it got dark, and Old Dorothea told her they had to return to the castle. When they got there, an unusual thing happened. A few of the queens handmaidens whisked the princess away to her room, while others took Old Dorothea immediately to the main courtroom. Even though the princess demanded to know what was going on, none of the handmaidens would tell her. In fact, they didn't say anything to her- they just all looked like they were crying.
After a little while, Old Dorothea came to the princess' room. The princess let her in and again demanded to know why she was locked in her room. After they were both seated, the princess on her bed and Old Dorothea at a chair by the window, Old Dorothea told her. "Princess," Old Dorothea began, "I've just learned of terrible news. While the king and queen were touring the countryside today, they contracted the plague that's been affecting our kingdom and died. This means that you are now the queen."
At first the princess didn't want to believe her, and called Old Dorothea a liar. The princess knew that Old Dorothea would not lie, though, and threw her face down into her pillows and wept and wept. Old Dorothea remained seated by the window, and when the princess' sobs slowed, she continued. "Now that you are the ruler, there are things you can now know, that you weren't allowed to know before. You have done well in your studies, and I feel you are fully ready to run the kingdom business. Still, there are other things, which you cannot learn about in books, that I now need to tell you.
"The first of these is that the royal forest isn't guarded just because the king wanted to keep people out. It is protected from all but the royal family because it is a magical place. The trees there are not just trees, the animals there are not just animals, the river is not just a river..."
At the mention of the river, the princess sat bolt up. While she was still crying, she asked "Why isn't the river just a river?" Old Dorothea looked very serious, but also with a strange smile on her face. It was the same smile she got whenever the princess realized she had just learned something important.
"The river is the most special part of the magical forest," Old Dorothea said. "The river represents the entire life of this kingdom. All of the bubbles that float down the river represent every man, woman and child that live in the kingdom. If you look closely at the bubbles, you can see the face of each person, in that person's bubble. The bubbles trace the path of each of their lives- who they are close to, where they move within the kingdom, and where they end."
Old Dorothea paused here, and the princess asked "What do you mean, 'where they end'?"
"By 'where they end'," Old Dorothea replied solemnly, "I mean where that person's life ends. You see, the bubble is their life. Every bubble comes from the same place, but no one knows where that is. This is the person's birth. It floats along the river, while the person is living in the kingdom. But when a bubble pops, that is when that person dies."