Sunday, April 13, 2008

പടിഞ്ഞാറന്‍ പൂന്തോട്ടത്തിലേയ്ക്ക്....Towards the West Park

Narcissus







I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.







Continuous as the stars that shine
and twinkle on the Milky Way,
They stretched in never-ending line
along the margin of a bay:
Ten thousand saw I at a glance,
tossing their heads in sprightly dance.



The waves beside them danced; but they
Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,
in such a jocund company:
I gazed - and gazed ... but little thought
what wealth the show to me had brought:



For oft, when on my couch I lie
In vacant or in pensive mood,
They flash upon that inward eye
Which is the bliss of solitude;
And then my heart with pleasure fills,
And dances with the daffodils.


(The Daffodils, by William Wordsworth)




The Alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who daily knelt beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell
into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story. He said that when Narcissus died, the Goddesses of the Forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

"Why do you weep?" the Goddesses asked.

"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."

"But..... was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.

"Who better than you to know that?" the Goddesses said in wonder, "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!!"

The lake was silent for some time.

Finally it said:

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought.

(The Prologue from the book, The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho)


2 comments:

Kaithamullu said...

അംബി,
ഫോട്ടോസ് ഇഷ്ടായി.
(Daffodils പണ്ട് കോളെജില്‍ പഠിച്ചിരുന്നതാ...)

Alchemist ഒന്ന് കൂടി വായിക്കാന്‍ തോന്നുന്നു.

വിഷു ആശംസകളോടെ

മൂര്‍ത്തി said...

നന്നായിട്ടുണ്ട് അംബി.

വൈകിയാണെങ്കിലും വിഷു ആശംസകള്‍..