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Translator: Tanya Cushman Reviewer: Peter van de Ven

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I'm going to make your eyes work a little harder than they're used to,
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used as they are to little more light than that of a torch,
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but the story that I bring to you today is from ancient times:
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from times when storytellers still existed
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and they were honored with many roses;
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times when scientists, such as yourself, were still considered magicians.
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They were honored with even more roses
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if they were lucky.
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For you as well as I may very well know that these times, these ancient times,
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knew only two types of scientists:
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beloved ones and dead ones.
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And storytellers weren't better off.
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Their stories were boring, then their heads were off.
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So, please, bear with me
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because the story I bring to you today
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from these ancient times
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will require your attention.
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So, please, make your ears work as hard as your eyes have to
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in the light of this torch.
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Let's begin.
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Once upon a time,
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a lady told a great story to a king.
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Of course, this was after giving him the services she was obliged to give him.
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One referred to this as renewing the conjunction of Venus and the Moon.
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We can all imagine what that was, hmm?
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And this is the story that the lady told to the king.
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This story, my king, is about a king fit for kingship
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and his three kingly sons, equal in quality.
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And the king ruled a great empire in which the sun never set.
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And the seat of the king's throne was in Serendip,
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a place we now call Sri Lanka.
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And he was of a rare breed, this king of ours, my king,
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for when he wanted to gladden his heart,
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he did not call for more women or wine.
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Instead, he amassed wisdom from all of his land.
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He plucked
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all in whose heart he perceived more than the usual share of knowledge
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and chose them as a companion.
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And he was a very lucky king, this king of ours,
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as three of the brightest men in his vast empire
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happened to be his sons.
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They were bright in every field that we can imagine
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and also in every field that we cannot imagine,
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as their imagination was not limited to ours.
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And one day, the king sent for his sons to test their kingly abilities.
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And his first, and oldest, son kneeled in front of him,
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and the king told him that he was becoming old,
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that his mighty cypress was turning into a violet,
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and time for change had come.
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"Hail to the king, my father," said his oldest son.
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"How could one speak of kingship with the king himself?
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As long as the king lives, kingship does not suit anybody else.
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And without you, I cannot imagine how to live.
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A mere ant like me,
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even if it ascends to the throne,
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can never become a throne-conquering Solomon."
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Now, the king, in his heart, was happy and glad,
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yet outwardly he looked harsh and sent his child away.
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And he also sent for the second and the third son
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and gave them a similar exam.
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The second replied,
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"The burden of the head should be carried by the shoulders."
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And the third simply said,
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"It doesn't suit small children to keep watch."
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The king buried his nose into the dust
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out of gratefulness and servitude to his god.
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Yet he knew that the test of his offspring was not yet completed.
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In order to finish their journey to manhood,
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they had to explore all the world's countries
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and all of the world's knowledge.
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He called for them and said,
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"Go away.
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Cross my borders before the sun sets,
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or you will be dispatched from this terrestrial earth."
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And in deep sorrow, the sons obeyed
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and crossed the many countries of this earth.
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Some were big, others quite small.
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Some were wet and green and others arid and gray.
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And due to the nature of our bright sons -
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scientists they were, of course -
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they never left anywhere without experimenting,
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looking at everything with the sharp eye of the youngest one,
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questioning it with the cunning of the middle one,
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and comparing it to other knowledge with the wisdom of the oldest.
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And so it happened that during their peregrinations,
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a black, tar-faced negro came running towards our three bright brothers.
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Now, in these times,
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negroes did not yet consider themselves to be a minority,
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and thus could be called by any name.
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"Old travelers with a pleasant face,"
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he said to them,
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"has one of you seen a camel coming from this direction?"
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Now, none of them had seen such an animal that day
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as dawn had only just broken.
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However, one of them opened his mouth and said,
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"This lost animal that went astray,
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was it loaded with oil on one side and honey on the other?"
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"Does a woman ride on it?" said the second.
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"And is she pregnant?" said the third. "Heavily pregnant?"
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Stunned by the correctness and accurateness of these observations,
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the camel driver opened his mouth to ask, "Which way?"
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"That way," the three brothers answered in unison,
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and without hesitation, the came driver vanished,
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in quest for his lost animal.
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And as the warmth of midday approached
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and the youths sought refuge under a large tree
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that cast its shadow over a small spring,
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they splashed water over their tired faces
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as the camel driver came running back
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with a tongue like a dagger of steel.
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"This way I ran, as far as two marathons,
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and I did not stop running,
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but I did not see a speck of dust of my animal."
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His angry words and his high-pitched voice
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rushed the village crowd towards the little oasis.
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"These people are robbers and thieves with their fraud and cunning.
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They laid their ambush to steal and thieve the golden donkey and camel
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of sedentary people and travelers alike."
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All the villagers had their separate opinions.
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And because no consensus was reached about the matter,
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it was decided to take the brothers to the ruling king.
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As when knotty questions confused the crowd,
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the ruler will give solution.
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This was the ruling opinion.
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And there were our three brothers,
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rubbing their noses in the dust to pay their respect to the local despot.
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"May you rule as long as black and white will be.
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We travel this land on this terrestrial world,
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and on all places we went, we took no profit but our observation.
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We admit our crime because we are guilty.
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We deceived our black camel driver.
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We answered him with what was deducted out of our observations,
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not knowing that these deductions concurred with the truth."
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"Ha! Away with these!" the arbitrating king responded.
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"How can you think your words can change the truth now?
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An arrow that has left the thumb will not return."
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And the tyrant had them thrown into chains
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as if they were criminals,
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in a cold cellar, tied to the wall,
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sitting between ugly and smelling criminals.
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They saw the sun set and rise again.
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Their knowledge and their cunning,
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their wisdom and sharp eye
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had brought them nothing but a cold night in cuff links
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due to the swiftness of their tongue.
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But just as the crow cawed for the third time,
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they heard the heavy locks of their cell creaking.
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Released they were.
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The big doors opened and let the light in
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as trumpets marked the entrance of the ruling king.
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Pale-faced and nervous, the ruling despot entered their cell,
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his crown now looking too large for his head.
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"Gentlemen," said the tyrant,
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"I am most discomfited.
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This night, a man came from the desert with a camel loaded with oil and honey,
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a pregnant woman riding it.
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He said he had found it, his noseband entangled in a tree.
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So, here I stand before you,
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three innocents that spent a night in jail.
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You must tell me your story, complete and in detail.
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I must know how it can be
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that one can tell the essence of something that he did not see."
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The three bowed in loyalty,
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eager to share their knowledge in exchange for their freedom.
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The youngest said, "It was very simple.
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My eyes showed me the evidence.
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My readiness of mind explained it to me.
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On one side of the road an army of ants marched.
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On the other side, flies were in turmoil.
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When ants march, they march for oil,
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as oil is what armies march for.
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Flies do not turmoil unless there is honey for them to stick their tongues in.
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So much became clear to me by my reasoning."
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"I," the second said, "had studied the prints on the road.
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They showed me the camel had kneeled and a person had stood next to it.
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Between the footprints, the sand was moist,
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so I touched the moist and sniffed,
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and my soul was set aflame.
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A wave of desire engulfed me:
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these heavenly fluids are feminine.
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A clear thought took shape:
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the rider is a woman, not a man."
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And the third youth said,
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"After we agreed on the sex of the rider, I looked closely to the prints again.
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In front of her footprints, I saw handprints.
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This woman had trouble raising herself,
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so she had to become four-footed to get on her two feet.
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My sagacity whispered to my mind,
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'This woman is pregnant and rather heavy.'"
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The ruling king was convinced by these stories.
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The sons of Serendip had showed him
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how they could tell the essence of something that they did not see.
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He offered them his friendship and companionship
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and along with that, of course, the wine, the wheat and the women.
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So it happened that on a certain night, our three brothers sat together,
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eating, drinking and telling tales for their amusement.
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"This wine," the oldest said, "is not pure wine.
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It consists of human blood."
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The second had tasted the roasted lamb
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and deducted, "This lamb is even more impure.
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It must have been fed with the blood of a dog."
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Expectantly,
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they looked upon the youngest,
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hoping that his cunning eye had seen the most impure of impurities around them.
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"The king that rules here is not the descendant of a king.
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He is the offspring of the loins of a mere cook."
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They all nodded, pleased with their knowledge.
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Yet what they did not know
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is that the ruling tyrant had been listening in a nook in the wall,
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eager to learn more from our bright youngsters,
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but now his curiosity had brought him knowledge
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that he did not want to know.
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Pale-faced and nervous,
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he left the palace to find out if the brothers had, once again,
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touched the truth without seeing it.
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The wine merchant was the first one he found.
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The ruling king put a dagger to the poor man's throat.
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With a trembling voice, due to fear and the dagger,
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the merchant explained:
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"This field had been a graveyard since the beginning of history,
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and your vizier only recently transformed it into a vineyard.
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The grapes might have sucked the essence of the graveyard blood,
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making the wine impure and of bad taste."
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And the second to find a dagger to his throat was the shepherd.
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"That lamb was like all other lambs."
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"Nonsense!" the tyrant barked.
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The shepherd mewed in fear:
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"All right, all right, it's true: it's nonsense.
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But you must understand, I was in despair.
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I had a sheep with a beautiful lamb,
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but a wolf killed the mother while the lamb was still a suckling.
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So I thought all was lost.
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Until I remembered that my dog had little cubs too.
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And with tender words and calm attention,
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I gained the dog's trust and could make her feed my lamb.
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And it worked."
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"Don't you think what a sin it is to suspect me in my old age,"
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his mother said to him
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after the tyrant had rushed to her with weak knees from fear of the truth.
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"I will dispatch you from this world if you do not speak the truth,"
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the tyrant told his mother,
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putting his hand to the hilt of his sword.
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And she too yielded in fear, confessing her sin,
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that she had given herself to a cook as lust had taken control of her body.
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The ruling tyrant -
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or shall we say cook-in-chief? -
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was so overwhelmed by the truth that his anger vanished.
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Slow paced,
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the wrinkles in his face as knotty as the questions in his head,
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he went to the young bright ones,
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and they gave him his explanation,
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but not before the king had promised to leave them in peace -
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and not in pieces.
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And with their lives safe, the young ones traveled home,
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their arrival bringing tears of happiness to the eyes of their old father.
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And after joyous years, their father passed away,
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the oldest son being given the throne.
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A wise and consistent king he would be,
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not afraid to tell the truth and act upon it.
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His younger brothers sat left and right of the throne,
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being his chief advisors,
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and wisdom ruled the old country of Serendip.
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Now, this story,
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dear ladies, gentlemen,
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is a fairy tale.
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But why?
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Well, usually when one would tell a truth
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that was against the ruling opinion,
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which is to say the opinion of the ruler that ruled the opinion,
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it would turn one from a beloved scientist into a dead scientist.
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He would be put from the light into the dark.
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But he who stands today lit only by the light of a torch,
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telling a truth against the ruling opinion,
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might someday stand in the full light and rule the opinion.
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Thank you.
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(Applause)