Every evening the young Fisherman went out into the sea, and threw his nets into the water.
One evening in the network found a small siren asleep.
was beautiful, and the young Fisherman pulled him and held her in his arms.
She let out a cry "Please, let me go because I am the only daughter of a King, and my father is elderly and alone."
"You must promise me that you will come to sing for me, because the fish love to hear the song of the People of the Sea, and so my nets be full," said the fisherman.
And she promised.
Every night she sang for him and stuck out from the water. And when his boat was fully charged, the Siren slipped back into the sea, smiling.
But he was not close enough that he could never touch it.
So sweet was his voice, that in time he forgot his nets, and neglected his work. And one night he said: "Little Mermaid, I love you. Take me as your husband. "
But the siren shook his head, "You have a human soul, - he answered - if you leave your soul, then I love you."
And the young Fisherman said to himself: "What do I need my soul? I can not see it. I can not touch it. I do not know. Of course the stray. "
But he did not know how. So he went to the priest's house. And the priest you beat your chest, and replied: "Ah, you're crazy. There is nothing more precious than a human soul, and nothing on earth can be compared. Worth all the gold in the world. "
young Fisherman's eyes filled with tears at the words of the Priest. "In my network I captured the daughter of a king to his body I would give my soul, and give up his love for the sky. Tell me what I ask you, and let me go. "
"Go," cried the priest.
And the young Fisherman went into the marketplace, but the merchants mocked him, saying: "What we need the soul of a man? Not worth a piece of silver. "
"What is strange this! The priest tells me that the Soul is worth all the gold in the world, and the merchants say it is not worth a piece of silver, "he thought the Fisherman.
decided to go to the red-haired witch.
"What do you miss? - She cried - Tell me your wish, and I will give, and you pay me a price, pretty boy. "
"Whatever your price, I will pay I want my soul away from me," said the young Fisherman.
The Witch turned pale: "Nice guy - he murmured - this is a terrible thing to be."
"I do not care of my soul," said the young Fisherman.
"If I tell you how he asked The Witch "in return you have to dance with me. This night you must come on top of the mountain. - Whispered - is a Holy Day, and He will be there. "
"Who?" Asked the Fisherman.
"Never mind. - She said - When the moon is full we will dance together on the grass. "
"And tell me what I want?" He asked.
"I swear" he said.
A whirling dance until midnight to the Fisherman began to turn heads. He saw the shadow of a rock was a figure who was not there before.
Without knowing why, Fisher made the sign of the cross, and invoked the holy name. Witches squeaked like hawks and flew away, but he managed to grab the red-haired witch.
"You must tell me the secret and keep the promise."
"Both," she murmured. It took off from a wall boxcutter from the handle of green viper's skin, and gave it to him.
"What men call the shadow of the body is not the shadow of the body but the soul body. Stay on the seashore with his back to the moon, and cut away from your shadow walk, which is the body of your soul, and 'your soul to leave, and she will. ... I would not have told you, 'and he clung to his knees crying.
He pushed her away from him and left her lush grass. With the knife in waist down from the mountain. He stood on the sand with the moon behind.
And his Soul besought him not to, but to no avail, and finally said, 'If you really need from you, do not send me away without a heart. The world is cruel, give me your heart to take with me. "
"With what could I love my love if I give my heart to you?" He said.
"I could not love me too?" Asked his Soul.
"Go away, because I do not need you," cried the young Fisherman, and took the boxcutter and cut away the shadow from the feet and the shadow stood up in front of him, and looked at him, and it was exactly the same him. The young Fisherman backed
with uncertain step, she put the knife in his belt, and a sense of dismay invaded.
"Once a year I come here, and I will call you," said the Soul.
the young fisherman dived into the water, and the little mermaid came up to meet him, put her arms around his neck and kissed him.
And after a year the Soul came down to the seashore and called the young Fisherman. "Come closer, so I can talk to you, because I have seen wonderful things. When I left I headed to the East and I have traveled. From the Orient is all that is wise.
There I found the Mirror of Wisdom. Let me back inside you, and Wisdom is yours. Let me come with you, and no one will be wise like you. "
But the young Fisherman laughed. "Love of Wisdom is better she said," and the little Mermaid loves me. "
"There is nothing better than Wisdom, 'said the Soul.
"Love is better," said the young Fisherman, and he dived into the deep, and the Soul went weeping.
At the end of the second year the Soul came down to the shore of the sea, "Come closer, so I can talk to you, because I have seen wonderful things. When I left, I headed south and traveled. From the South is all that is precious. There I found the Ring of Riches. One who has this Ring is richer than all the kings of the world. Come and get it, and the world's riches will be yours. " But the young Fisherman laughed
"Love is better than riches" she said, "and the little Mermaid loves me."
"There is nothing better than Riches, 'said the Soul.
"Love is better," said the young Fisherman, and he dived into the deep, and the Soul went away crying.
At the end of the third year the Soul came down to the shore of the sea, "Come closer, so I can talk to you, because I have seen wonderful things."
And Soul said: "In a city that I know there is a girl whose face veiled that he danced in front of us. Her feet were bare. I've never seen anything so wonderful, and the city is a day trip from here. " The young Fisherman
remembered that the little Mermaid had no feet and could not dance. It took him a great desire.
And his soul cried with joy, and ran, and went inside him, and the young Fisherman saw stretched before him on the sand that shadow of the body which is the body of the Soul.
And his Soul said to him, 'Do not delay, let us go soon, because the gods are jealous of the Sea, and showed that obey their orders. "
traveled a long journey and during the Soul led the Fisherman to do many evil deeds, even to kill a man to rob him.
"I hate everything that you made me do," cried the young Fisherman, "And I hate you too. Why have you done with me in this way? ".
And his Soul answered him, "When you have sent me into the world not have given me heart, so I learned to do all these things and to love them."
"No," he cried, "I do not want to have anything to do with you, so you will cast away, right away." And he turned his back to the moon, and with green leather-handled boxcutter Viper struggled to cut away from his feet that shadow of the body which is the body of the Soul.
But his Soul said to him 'He to whom is returned to the Soul, should keep her forever, and this is his punishment and his reward. "
But the young Fisherman answered not his Soul, and returned to the place from which he came up to the little bay where she, her love, she used to sing. In a split of the rock he built himself a house. And every morning called the Mermaid, and every noon he called again, and every night he pronounced his name. But she never rose from the sea to meet him, nor in any place of the sea he could find none.
Soul begged him to come into his heart.
"Alas," cried his Soul, "I can not find entry, so this is surrounded by the love your heart."
And as he spoke there came a loud cry of pain from the sea, the cry that men hear when someone dies of the People of the Sea. And the young Fisherman leapt up, and left his house of reeds, and ran down the beach. And the black waves were fast to the shore, supporting a burden than white silver. The young Fisherman saw the body of the little Mermaid: lay dead at his feet.
Crying like those affected by the pain he fell to the ground next to it, and kissed the cold red of the mouth. He fell next to it on the sand, crying if he clutched his chest. And at the dead thing he made a confession. In the shells of his ears he poured the harsh wine of his story. Amara was his joy, and full of a strange happiness was his pain.
"Escape," said his Soul "because the sea is coming and will kill you if you wait. Fly, for I am afraid, seeing that your heart is inaccessible to me because of the greatness of your love. Escape to a safe place. You do not want to send me some heartless in another world? "
But the young Fisherman listened not to his Soul, but called to the little Mermaid and said, 'Love of wisdom is better and more valuable than wealth, and more beautiful feet the daughters of men. The fires can not destroy it, nor water quench. I called you, and you did not answer my call. Why cruelly I left you, and my damage went away. But your love never faded into me, has always been strong, and nothing could prevail against him, though I have met has known good and evil. And now that you are dead, I certainly will die with you. " And his Soul
asked him to leave, but he refused, so great was his love. And the sea came closer, and tried to cover it with its waves, and when he realized that the end was near kissed with mad lips the cold lips of the Mermaid, and the heart that was inside him snapped. And when her heart crashed through the fullness of his love, the Soul found an entrance and entered it, and it was one with him as before. And the sea covered the young Fisherman with its waves.
And in the morning the priest came to bless the sea, because he was agitated. And when the priest reached the coast he saw the young Fisherman lying drowned in the surf, and clasped in his arms was the body of the little Mermaid. And he drew back and cried: "Do not bless the sea nor anything that is in it. Accursed be the Sea People, and cursed are those who trade with it. Take his body and the body of his lover and bury the corner of the Fullers Field, and do not place any signs on them. As has been cursed in life, and will also be cursed by the dead. "
And people did as ordered.
At the end of the third year, during a holy day, the priest went to the chapel, to show people the wounds of the Lord, and tell them of the wrath of God on the altar
But there were strange flowers never seen before: troubled him their beauty and their scent was sweet to his nostrils, and felt happy and did not understand why it was.
"What flowers are the ones on the altar, and where they come from?"
"What flowers are not as we know, - said to him - but they range from the corner of the Fullers'. And the Priest trembled, and returned to his home and prayed.
At dawn he went to the seashore, and blessed the sea, and all the wild things that live there. He blessed all the things in the world of God and the people were full of joy and wonder.
But never in the Field of Fullers grew flowers of any kind, but the field remained barren as before. Neither the Sea People were more in the bay, as he went to another part of the sea.
Oscar Wilde
