Читать книгу Writers on... Death (A Book of Quotes, Poems and Literary Reflections) - Amelia Carruthers - Страница 21
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woman in long black garments, and she said to the mother, “Death has been with you in your room. I saw him hastening away with your little child; he strides faster than the wind, and never brings back what he has taken away.”
“Only tell me which way he has gone,” said the mother; “tell me the way, I will find him.”
“I know the way,” said the woman in the black garments; “but before I tell you, you must sing to me all the songs that you have sung to your child; I love these songs, I have heard them before. I am Night, and I saw your tears flow as you sang.”
“I will sing them all to you,” said the mother; “but do not detain me now. I must overtake him, and find my child.”
But Night sat silent and still. Then the mother wept and sang, and wrung her hands. And there were many songs, and yet even more tears; till at length Night said, “Go to the right, into the dark forest of fir-trees; for I saw Death take that road with your little child.”
– Hans Christian Andersen (1805 - 1875), a Danish author best remembered for his fairy tales. Andersen's popularity is not limited to children however; his stories, called eventyr in Danish, deal with themes that transcend age and nationality. The extract above is taken from the opening lines of Andersen's short yet heart-rending fable, The Story of a Mother (1848).
