Tenth Tale Of a Wealthy Merchant and a Poor Man #5
The young man was the most capable of them for he had been there the longest. He would bring them meat and they would eat.
They would burn wood, which in that settlement 117 was more precious than gold.
The young man would insist, It is good to live out your years here.
Compared to how people live in the so-called civilized world, it is far better here. Here you can live out your lives.
They asked him, What was it like for you before, such that it is better for you here?
He replied, telling them the facts of what had happened to him: from how he was a merchant’s son to how he had come to be there. Whatever good things he once had as a merchant’s son, he had good things now as well. And he kept insisting to them that it was good to live out their lives there.
The emperor asked the young man, Have you heard of the emperor? He answered that he had. He then asked him about the beautiful daughter and whether he had heard of her? He answered, Yes.
When they spoke of the emperor, whom the young man was unaware he was addressing, he began gnashing his teeth and said angrily, That bandit!
The emperor asked, Why is he a bandit?
The young man replied, It is because of his cruelty and arrogance that I came to be here.
He asked him, How is that?
The young man decided that he had no one to fear here, so he told him the whole story of what had happened to him.
The emperor asked him, If the emperor were here within your reach would you take your revenge on him?
Being a merciful person, the young man replied, No. Instead I would provide for him the way I am providing for you. 118
Remembering how his beautiful daughter was lost and how he himself had been banished, the emperor began to sigh and groan, and said, What a foul and bitter old age the emperor must have!
The young man replied, It is through his cruelty and arrogance that he brought about his own loss and that of his daughter, and that I ended up here. It is all because of him!
The emperor asked him again, If he were to come within your reach, would you not take your revenge on him?
The young man answered, No. I would provide for him precisely the way I am providing for you.
The emperor then revealed to him that he was that emperor, and explained everything that had happened to him. The young man fell at his feet, then hugged and kissed him. The emperor’s daughter was listening to everything the two of them had been saying to one another.
It was the young man’s daily habit to go and put a sign on three trees in his search for the scroll.
Since there were legions of trees, he would put a sign on the three trees that he searched at a time so that the next day he would not need to look in those trees.
He did that every day in case he might eventually find the scroll.
Whenever he returned, his eyes were full of tears, for he would weep at having searched and having been unable to find it.
The other two asked him, What are you looking for among the trees that you always return with tears in your eyes?
He told them the whole story, about how the emperor’s daughter had sent him a letter, he had hidden it in one of the trees, and a gale had knocked down all of the trees. Now he was searching for it. 119
They said to him, Tomorrow, when you go looking, we shall come with you. Perhaps we might find the scroll.
So it was. They went out with him, and the emperor’s daughter found the scroll in one of the trees.
She opened it up and saw that it was in her own hand.
She reflected, if she revealed right away that she was the emperor’s daughter, then when she took off those sailor’s clothes and returned to her former beauteous state, and was once more a beautiful woman as before, he might collapse from the shock and die.
But she wanted their wedding to be in accordance with the law and could not marry him in the wasteland, as she needed the wedding to be bona fide.
So she went and returned the scroll to him, telling him only that she had found it.
He fell instantly in a faint. They revived him, and there was much rejoicing among them.
Later, the young man said, What good does this scroll do me? How will I be able to find her? Having been abducted and sold, as the emperor related, she will surely now be with some king. So what good is this to me? I am going to live out my years here.
So he went and returned the scroll to her and said, Here, you take this scroll and see if you may marry her.
As she set about preparing to leave she asked him to go with her, saying, As I shall surely marry her, all will be well with me, so I shall give you a portion of my property.
The young man saw that this sailor was a wise man and that he would surely find and marry her.
So he agreed to accompany him. The emperor, however, chose to remain by himself because he was afraid to return to his country.
The sailor, that is the emperor’s daughter, also asked him to accompany them as 120 he would surely marry the beautiful woman, saying, You have nothing to fear, since your luck will return when she is found and you will be called upon to return.
All three of them went together until they hired a ship and travelled to the country where the empress dwelt.
Arriving in the city where she resided, they moored the ship.
The empress’s daughter reflected, if she revealed right away to her mother that she had come, her mother might die from the shock of it.
So instead she sent word to her mother that there was a person who had news of her daughter.
Then she herself went to the empress and told her what had happened to her daughter, recounting the whole story.
At the end she said, And she is here, too!
Then she revealed the truth: I am she!
She informed her that her intended groom, the merchant’s son, was also there.
But she told her mother that she did not want anything but that her father, the emperor, be allowed to return to his place.
Her mother did not want that, for she was still very angry at him because all of this had been his fault.
But she had to oblige her daughter. They wished to return.
The emperor was sought in the place he was meant to be banished, but he could not be found there.
The princess revealed that the emperor, too, was with her and her intended.
The wedding took place, and the rejoicing was fulsome. The merchant’s son and the beautiful woman took their place on the throne of the empire, and they reigned over the world.
Amen and Amen