The Silent Lover

A long time ago, when the world was young, there lived a very bashful

young man. Not far from his house there lived the most beautiful young

woman in the world. The young woman had many suitors but rejected all,

wishing only for the love of the bashful young man. He in his turn

was accustomed to follow her about, longing for courage to declare his

love, but bashfulness always sealed his lips. At last, despairing of

ever making his unruly tongue tell of his passion, he took a dagger

and, following her to the bathing place on the river bank, he cut

out his own heart, cast it at her feet, and fell down lifeless. The

girl fled, terrified, and a crow pounced upon the heart, and carried

it to a hollow dao-tree, when it fell from his beak into the hollow

and there remained. But the love for the girl was so strong in the

heart that it became reanimated and clothed again with humanity in the

form of a little child. A hunter, pursuing the wild boar with dogs,

found the child crying from hunger at the foot of the dao-tree and,

being childless, took it home, and he and his old wife cared for it

as their own. The young woman, knowing now the love of the young man,

lived for his memory's sake, a widow, rejecting all suitors.

But from the child was never absent the image of his loved one, and at

last his love so wrought on his weak frame that he sickened. Knowing

that his end was near, he begged of his foster mother that, after his

death, she should leave him, and not be surprised if she could not

find him on her return. He also asked that on the third day she should

take whatever she should find in a certain compartment of the great

chest and give it to the girl without price. All this she promised,

realizing fully that this was not a natural child.

At last he died, and when his foster mother left the body, his great

love reanimated the body and it crept into the chest, becoming there

transformed into a beautifully carved casket of fragrant wood.

Obedient to his wishes, on the third day the old woman carried the

casket to the girl, giving it to her without price.

When the girl took the casket into her hands, its charm fascinated

her, and she clasped it tight and covered it with kisses. At last the

spell was broken by the magic of her kisses, and the casket whispered

softly to her, "I am thy true love. I was the heart of him who killed

himself for love of thee, and I was the youth who died for love of

thee, but at last I am contented. In life and death we shall never

more be separated." And it was so, for the woman lived to a great

age, carrying the casket always with her, inhaling its fragrance [17]

with her kisses, and when she died it was buried with her.