Kay Lu - Andersen's Fairy Tales

Nightingale, the little bird of the night

Children..

As you know, the emperor of China is Chinese. The people around him are also Chinese. I want to tell you a story about what happened many years ago before people forget it and forget it.

The palace of the Chinese emperor is the most unique palace in the world. The entire palace is built of porcelain. Although porcelain is very valuable, it is so fragile that it is almost impossible to touch it.

The garden is full of the most beautiful flowers. The most stunning thing is that all of these flowers have small silver bells hanging from them. When the flowers are in the wind, they make a pleasant sound, and everyone who passes by cannot help but look. Yes. The garden of the great emperor is well-maintained from the beginning. The garden is so large that you don't know where the garden ends. After walking to the end of the garden, you will come to a beautiful forest with very tall trees. If you go beyond the forest, you will reach the sea.

The forest was so deep and blue that ships could not sail under its branches. It was said that a nightingale would sing sweetly among the branches. Her song was sweeter than the song of the poor fisherman who sang while fishing. So the fisherman would stop at night when he was hauling in his nets and listen to the song of the nightingale. He would praise her, saying, “Oh, what a beautiful song.” When he had finished, he would go on with his work and forget about the nightingale. In the following nights, whenever the nightingale sang, the fisherman would say, “Oh, what a beautiful song.”

Travelers from all over the world visited the Emperor's capital. They praised the city, the palace, and the gardens. But those who had the opportunity to hear the nightingale's song said, "This is the best." When such travelers returned home, they always talked about the nightingale. Among these travelers were journalists who wrote books about the Emperor's city, the palace, and the gardens. They did not ignore the nightingale at all. They wrote especially about the Emperor's city, the palace, and the gardens. Moreover, poets wrote the most beautiful verses about the nightingale in the forest by the sea.

These books spread all over the world. Finally, one of them came into the hands of the Emperor. He sat in his golden chair and read the book over and over again. He nodded his head as he read. He was greatly pleased with the magnificent descriptions of the city, the palace, and the gardens. “But the most interesting of all was the Nightingale,” the book states.

“What on earth is this?” muttered the Emperor. “A nightingale? I don’t know him at all. I’ve never heard of him, and he’s not even in my garden. How can such a bird exist in my empire? Books can give people some knowledge, right?” So he called his old minister. The minister was so high-ranking that none of his subordinates dared to speak to him. If anyone dared to ask him a question, his only answer was “I’m joking.” A word that had no meaning.

“They say there is a very wonderful bird here, called the Nightingale,” said the King. “They say that its song is more valuable than anything else in my kingdom. Has no one ever told me about it?”

“I have never heard of it either,” the minister said. “The story of that little bird has never reached the palace.”

“I want that bird to sing before me this very evening,” the Emperor decreed. “Why is it that the whole world knows that this bird is in my possession, but I myself do not know it?”