The Singing Pomegranates

Long ago a sultan had an only son. His father guarded him like the apple of his eye and granted at once every wish that passed through his heart. One night a dervish appeared in the prince's dream and showed him the World's Most Beautiful Maiden. From that day the prince was a different person. He could neither eat nor drink. Sleep brought him neither comfort nor rest, and all at once he grew pale and withered.

They called doctor after doctor, wise man after wise man, but none of them could understand what his illness was. At last the prince said to his father: "My lord father, no doctor and no wise man can help me; don't tire them in vain. The cause of my illness is the World's Most Beautiful Maiden; either she will be my life, or I will never be free of this sorrow." The sultan was frightened: "Even to think of it is dangerous, my son." But his son wasted away a little more every day. At last the sultan thought, "If I don't let him go he will waste away anyway; going can't make it worse," and said, "Go, my son, go after your beloved, and may God help you."

The next day the prince set out. He crossed mountains and plains, endless deserts and rugged wildernesses. At last he came to a seashore and saw a little fish flapping on the sand. The fish begged him to throw it back into the sea. The prince pitied the fish and put it back into the sea. The fish gave him three scales: "If you are ever in trouble, burn these scales."

He went on his way and came to a great desert. On the ground before him he saw a lame ant. The little ant said it was going to a wedding but could not keep up with its friends because they went so fast. The prince picked up the ant and carried it to its friends. As they parted, the ant gave him a little piece of its wing: "If you are ever in trouble, burn this."

Weary and sorrowful, the prince set off again. When he reached the edge of a great forest, he saw a little bird struggling with a huge snake. The bird asked for his help; with one blow the prince drove the snake away. The bird gave him three feathers: "If you are ever in trouble, burn these feathers."

The prince took up his staff and went beyond the mountains and seas until he came to a great city. This was the land of the father of the World's Most Beautiful Maiden. He went straight to the palace and asked the sultan for his daughter's hand in God's name. "No," said the sultan, "first you must do three tasks for me. Only then may you open your heart to my daughter." He took a ring and threw it into the sea: "If you don't find it in three days, you will lose your head."

The prince thought and thought, and at last he remembered the three scales and burned them. At once the little fish appeared before him: "What is your command, my sultan?" "The ring of the World's Most Beautiful Maiden has been thrown into the sea, and I want it back." The fish dived and could not find it; it dived again and still could not find it; the third time it went down to the bottom of the seventh sea, found a fish that had swallowed the ring and got the ring out of its mouth. The prince gave the ring to the sultan, and the sultan gave it to his daughter.

Near the palace there was a cave full of gravel mixed with grain. "My second task," said the sultan, "is that you separate the grain from the gravel." The prince went into the cave and burned the ant's wing. In an instant the cave was swarming with ants, and they all set to work in great haste sorting the grain. Before the day was over the task was done.

"The third task remains," said the sultan. "In my palace a servant girl has lain gravely ill for years and is on her deathbed. If you cure her, you shall have my daughter." The prince left the palace deep in thought and remembered the bird's feathers. As soon as he burned them, the bird appeared before him before he had even called. The prince told it his trouble. The bird had friends among the peris; it flew up and soon returned with a little jug of water in its beak. "I have brought you the water of paradise, which brings back to life even those close to death," it said. The prince went into the palace and sprinkled the water on the girl's face, and she rose from her bed as healthy as if she had never been ill.

All this reached the ears of the World's Most Beautiful Maiden, and she had the prince brought before her. She lived in a little marble pavilion; in front of it was a golden basin fed by four streams. In the garden there were great trees, fragrant flowers and singing birds; to the prince it seemed like the gate of paradise. Suddenly the door of the pavilion opened, and the garden was flooded with such light that the prince's eyes were dazzled. This light was the glow of the two cheeks of the World's Most Beautiful Maiden, who had appeared in the doorway. The maiden came closer and spoke to him, but as soon as the prince saw her he fainted.

When he came to, they brought him into the maiden's pavilion. Her face was like the face of a houri. "O prince," said the maiden, "you can help me in a great trouble of mine. In the endless garden of the Autumn Demon there is a branch of singing pomegranates. If you bring it to me, I will be yours forever." The prince gave her his hand in loyal friendship and set off far, far away.

For months he crossed deserts where no human foot had trodden and mountains without paths. "O my Creator, will you not show me the right way?" he sighed, and each morning he rose from the place where he had collapsed in exhaustion the night before and went on his way. At last the road brought him down to the foot of the mountains. There it was as if the end of the world had come. There was such a din and clatter that all the hills and rocks were trembling. This noise came from the talismans at the gate of the Autumn Demon's little garden.

The prince reached the gate of the little garden and saw its guardian. He told him his trouble. "Aren't you afraid of this noise?" asked the guardian. "The talismans are so restless because of you. Even I am afraid!" But the prince kept asking about the singing pomegranates. "It's hard to get there," said the guardian, "but if you're not afraid, perhaps you can get them. Three months' journey from here there is another place of talismans like this one; there is a garden there too, and the guardian of that garden is my mother. Give her my greetings, but don't tell her your trouble unless she asks."

The prince set off for the second garden, and after three months' journey such a din broke out that the earlier noise was nothing beside it. This was the Autumn Demon's great garden. The prince lay down at the foot of a rock, and after waiting a while he saw something coming towards him. As it came closer he saw it was a little old woman of ninety winters, her hair white as snow, the rims of her eyes red, her eyebrows like arrows, her nails long, leaning on her stick as she walked, coughing and sneezing at every step. "Oh dear, oh dear!" she groaned, shuffling along in her big slippers.

The old woman came up to him and asked what he was looking for here. The prince gave her her son's greetings. "Ah, that rascal," said the old woman, "he sent you here because he knew I would take pity on you." Then she called, "Hey, Earless!" Something came running, and before the prince knew what was happening he found himself on its back. When he looked down he saw beneath him a creature like a shrunken toad with neither eyes nor ears. This was Earless. When he first saw it, it was as small as a worm, but as soon as the prince climbed on its back it leapt so far that every three leaps crossed a whole ocean.

Suddenly Earless stopped: "Whatever you see, whatever you hear, don't speak, or everything will be lost," it said, and vanished. Before the prince, in the rippling water, a great garden lay like a dream. This garden had neither beginning nor end; in it were trees, flowers and sweet fruits that human eyes had never seen. Wherever you turned you heard the soft rustle of wings and the songs of nightingales; the whole garden was like an endless song.

The prince entered the garden. But suddenly he heard such a mournful wailing that his heart nearly broke, and he remembered the pomegranates. He looked everywhere but could not find them, until at last he reached the middle of the garden. There was a fountain and a little pavilion made of flowers, and the pomegranates hung from the pavilion like shining lamps. The prince broke off a branch, but as soon as he did a terrible cry rang out and a voice shouted: "A child of man has taken from us; by a child of man we are undone!"

The prince barely escaped from the garden. "Quick, run!" cried Earless, who was waiting at the gate. The prince jumped on its back, and in two leaps they were beyond the ocean. Only then did the prince look at the pomegranate branch. On the branch there were fifty pomegranates, and each had its own voice, and each voice its own song; it was as if all the music in the world had been gathered in one place.

Meanwhile they reached the old woman of ninety winters. "Guard the pomegranate branch well," said the old woman, "never let it out of your sight. If on your wedding night you and your bride can listen to their song all night long without falling asleep, the pomegranates will love you, and after that you will have nothing more to fear; they will protect you from every harm." Then they went from the old woman to her son, and he too told him to keep his mother's words in mind. And the prince set off towards his one and only beloved, the World's Most Beautiful Maiden.

The maiden was waiting for him impatiently, for she too loved the prince dearly and spent her days afraid that some harm might come to him. Suddenly she heard music: fifty pomegranates singing fifty different songs with fifty different voices. The maiden ran out to meet the prince, and as they embraced in joy, the pomegranates rang out with a melody so sweet that its like is not found in this world.

The wedding lasted forty days and forty nights. On the fortieth night the prince and the World's Most Beautiful Maiden sat and listened to the pomegranates' song all night long without sleeping at all. When the day dawned again, the pomegranates rejoiced in their love. Then they set off for the prince's land. There the celebrations began all over again, and in his joy the old sultan gave his throne to his son. From then on everyone called him the Sultan of the Pomegranates. Three apples fell from the sky: one for the one who told the tale, one for the one who listened, and one for the prince who was kind to a little fish, a lame ant and a bird, and went to the end of the world.