Anecdotes of Destiny and Ehrengard Read Free Page A

me, “after I left Shiraz, makes no story at all.
    “I am famous amongst men,” he said, “because I am capable of staying at the bottom of the sea longer than they. This capacity, if you will, is a small heritage from the Softa of whom you have told me. But that makes no story. The fishes have been kind to me, and they betray nobody. So that makes no story.
    “All the same,” he went on after a longer silence, “in return for your tale, and so as not to discourage a young poet, although it makes no story, I shall tell you what happened to me after I left Shiraz.” He then began his narration and I listened to him.
    “I shall leave out the explanation of how I got away from Shiraz and came here, and take up the account of my experiences only where it will please the men of business and their wives.
    “For when I first went down to the bottom of the sea, in search of a certain rare pearl of which at the time I thought much, an old cowfish with horn-rimmed spectacles took me in hand. As a very small fish she had been caught in the net of two old fishermen, and had spent a whole night there, in the bilge water of their boat, listening to the talk of these men, who must have been pious and profound people. But in the morning, when the net was lifted ashore, she slipped through the meshes and swam away. Since then she smiles at the other fishes’ distrust of men. For really, she explains, if a fish knows how to behave herself, she can easily manage them. She has even come to take an interest in the natureand the customs of man, and often lectures upon these to an audience of fishes. She also likes to discuss them with me.
    “I owe her much, for she holds a great position in the sea, and as her protégé I have been received everywhere; I owe to her also much of the wealth and fame which have made me, as you have been told, a happy man. I owe her more than that, for in our long talks together she has imparted to me the philosophy which has set me at rest.
    “This is what she advocates:
    “ ‘The fish,’ she proclaims, ‘amongst all creatures is the one most carefully and accurately made in the image of the Lord. All things work together for the good of her, and from this we may conclude that she is called according to his purpose.
    “ ‘Man can move but in one plane, and is tied to the earth. Still the earth supports him only by the narrow space under the soles of his two feet; he must bear his own weight and sigh beneath it. He must, so I gathered from the talk of my old fishermen, climb the hills of the earth laboriously; it may happen to him to tumble down from them, and the earth then receives him with hardness. Even the birds, which have wings to them, if they do not strain their wings are betrayed by the air wherein they are set, and flung down.
    “ ‘We fish are upheld and supported on all sides. We lean confidently and harmoniously upon our element. We move in all dimensions, and whatever course we take, the mighty waters out of reverence for our virtue change shape accordingly.
    “ ‘We have no hands, so cannot construct anything at all, and are never tempted by vain ambition to alter anything whatever in the universe of the Lord. We sow not and toil not; therefore no estimates of ours will turn out wrong, and no expectations fail. The greatest amongst us in their sphereshave reached perfect darkness. And the pattern of the universe we read with ease, because we see it from below.
    “ ‘We carry with us, in these our floatings about, an account of events excellently suited to prove to us our privileged position and to maintain our fellow-feeling. It is known to man also and even takes up an important place in his history, but in accordance with his infantile conception of things in general, he has but a muddled understanding of it. I shall record it to you.
    “ ‘When God had created heaven and earth, the earth caused him sore disappointment. Man, capable of falling, fell almost immediately,