Texts for Translation 2011:
  Michael Kerins

THE KING WHO NEEDED AN HEIR

Michael Kerins

Once, in a land far from here, there was a great and noble King his name was Bumon, a warrior and fearless man. His country was at war, it was both a military war with soldiers and a naval war with sailors and the whole country, for some generations, had been in great turmoil.  There was poverty because all the money from the people was being spent on this war. Taxes crippled the honest citizens and they hungered for peace. 

Most of the citizens did not know why the war was going on but the war went on. The cause was thought to be Mushiya-Wu, an evil and blood thirsty dragon. Dragons are all powerful in that part of the world. 

It happened that King Bumon had a fine son, Prince Masuo he was healthy and strong. In time he grew up to take over his father’s kingdom. He took his duties and responsibilities very seriously. As the future King he worked hard at his studies, he was an intellectual. Masuo was a clever boy who understood his tutors very well. He also understood thought, philosophy, music and some of the science that supported both mathematics and geometry. He always visited the staterooms when foreign ambassadors were paying homage to his father. When he heard a traveller say that “only the dead see the end to war.” He resolved to bring the conflict to an end, as soon as he was King. 

Well, King Bumon said to his son that he should think about looking for a wife but the boy said 

“Father I am only fourteen years old and far too young to be married”. 

His father agreed and said 

“Yes my beloved son, maybe you are too young to be married but you should be thinking about the kind of princess you are looking for. Choose wisely and choose well because the right wife will make you very happy”.  

The young prince said to his father 

“I understand, my most honourable father. I should now think of both my future and the part I must play.”  

His mind turned to thoughts of stopping the war, of not feeding the evil dragon Mushiya Wu with the blood and lives of his subjects. 

Times changed quickly and before he was 15 years old Masuo was no longer the Crown Prince but he was King.  His father had died in one of the military battles that had cursed the country for several generations.  The boy King was lost in sadness and bereavement for his late father.

Now it happened that the new King had a lot of advisors who came and offered service and advice. Their advice was really self-centred. Their plans were to make things better for themselves and not necessarily for the King and certainly not necessarily for the country. Two of these advisors spoke frankly about the importance of the war, and how it was essential to the country’s standing in the region. King Masuo grew up quickly.  He listened with great attention to what his advisers said. He figured out what they omitted and when he spoke he was clever and wise said 

“The situation is quite clear, I am not making any decisions on this that or the next thing until I know just exactly what is required for the people and we must think about a peaceful solution with our neighbours and stop this endless violence, this waste of money and the destruction of ordinary lives of ordinary people”. 

He continued and held such great presence in the council chamber 

“War costs money and the money comes from the taxes and fines imposed on the people.” 

He paused and then 

“War costs much more than money and taxes, war costs the lives and happiness of my beloved people.” 

The King sent a small band of negotiators led by an ambassador, who was a peaceful minded man, to his neighbours and declared that they were ready for peace. The neighbouring Kingdom too was exhausted, nearly bankrupt and desperate for a solution to this seemingly endless chaos. Within a month, the tides had turned and a treaty was agreed and everybody was delighted and said to the new King 

“King Bumon, your majesty you must be happy, you are just such a young boy King and wiser than many, many adults”. 

The soldiers and sailors were happy that they too were no longer fighting and the war was over. 

The King said 

“No. I am not happy, certainly I am glad that this problem which had lasted so long has now, for the time being, been resolved,”

He turned to the wider audience and said 

“ Happiness is not the easy it will not come to me as a result of the declaration of peace.” 

He thought and he wondered if he would ever know happiness. How would happiness would find him. 

For happiness he needed to have not just peace but also a tranquillity and inner satisfaction that lives somewhere within his own soul”. 

“Then it is time for a wife” said the ambassadors, ministers, and advisers.  

“My niece can help you, and has healthy happy sisters who have all produced children,” said one 

“My cousin can assist, and another cousin’s daughter are both most worthy of your consideration”.  Whispered the Plenipotentiary most recently returned from China.

The young King was thinking that the reason to marry a woman is not because she is related to one of the advisors, or even a member of a neighbouring Royal Family. He decided that he would take the advice he was given. He also determined that he would look for his own wife.  He took all the advice and saw all the girls. Some were tall, some were small, some were round, some very thin, some were fat, some were plain, some were pretty but he never let any choices overwhelm him. He just decided that he would pick the right princess.

In time he made his own choice, these were anonymous from Royal circles but each girl was to be introduced to the court some where local others from neighbouring countries and one from a far and distant land. Influential men were no longer able to use family members who were related to the potential brides.  The people said 

“Oh your majesty what a great decision” They thought that it was very clever to abandon privilege and self-seekers. Each family had to think carefully about positioning their charges. Overselling the princess whom they had been charged to support could and indeed would put their own relatives at risk of failure. Greed and patronage lost, and honesty and truth won through. For they were all designed to be anonymous.  It was a master stroke said His Prime Minister “Oh majesty what a great choice, she is a noble and wise woman. She is of great birth and she will be a great Queen. You must be happy”.  He said “No I am not happy that the war is over, I am not happy about the Queen but I am glad and satisfied that the right decisions have been chosen, the right choices have been made and it gives everybody the opportunity to get on with the next part of their lives because one of the King’s duties is to produce an heir”.

Well, within a year or so, a baby was on its way and everybody said, “Oh majesty you will get a fine, handsome son and he will be strong and you will be happy”.  Indeed within a year a son did come and he was fine, strong and handsome and when people said “Oh your majesty, now you must be happy”. 

He said, “I am not happy. I am glad I have sorted out the war, I am glad I have a lovely and loving wife and I am glad I have a fine strong, healthy son but I am not yet happy for we must have power over the dragon. The way to control the dragon is to put water before the dragon.” The King gave the Queen her new Royal title she was to be known as Her Royal Highness Queen Shan-Shui, her name means “mountain water" – a free flowing landscape. She was to be part of the water before the dragon. 

Now this sounded like a riddle and some of the advisers said, “Your majesty, we know we have not studied as much as you,”

They continued with tentative caution.

“So therefore we do not fully understand what you mean “

“water before the dragon?”  Once they had voiced the riddle they repeated “water before the dragon?”  

There is no real riddle “ said the King “Mushiya-Wu return will come with drought for the dragon can only be held at bay by water.”  

The King continued to explain that the dragon is the symbol of all power but it must be contained and the way to contain the dragon is with water. So he decided that he would call the new son Pian-Lo which in their language meant source. He is the very source of the river and Pian-Lo will be a great and noble King and one day he will take over this kingdom. Mushiya-Wu would be waiting and a strong prince would be needed to defeat such evil deeds. 

Pian-Lo was indeed a fine and happy and healthy boy. He was contented and good-natured and soon he had another brother. Pian-Lo which means source had this other brother who was called Pian-Say which is a brook and he was a lively, bubbly boy. He was jumpy, not nervous but excitable and vivacious and lively. He had a capricious nature and he was walking a tightrope before he was even 3 or 4 years old. He was not exactly a circus performer but he loved to do tricks and he was bubbling like a little brook. 

The two brothers – Source and Brook, soon had a third brother and they called him Stream and his parents loved him very much. This too was to give power over the dragon.  The boy’s whose name was Stream was not as lively as his brother but bigger and stronger. Stream brought great wisdom and skills to the Palace and Court and even though he was just a little boy no more than 5 or 6 years old he could do things that a boy twice and three times his age could not do. 

He could race horses and he was a great chess player, skilful, thoughtful and his instinct was just to move when it was time. He would often say to himself even out loud two words “not yet” and when he said not yet he meant not yet for he was calculating and ready.

In a while there was a fourth boy and they called this boy River – Pian-Le-La. Pian-Le-La was indeed probably the mightiest of all the sons and like a river he came before the dragon to control the might and power of the kingdom. As time passed the King had grown fully to maturity, he now had four sons, a loving and good wife, the country was prosperous, rich, and successful and the people soon began to forget that the war had caused such great misery. They began to forget that the war had cost so much money and they began to forget all of the tragedies that had gone on before. King Bumon knew Mushiya-Wu was not dead – the war Mushiya-Wu wanted was only hibernating. 

Pian-Le-La was the very best of boys but he was more than just the best of boys. He was probably the King’s greatest and strongest ally in matters of the Court.

Not long after he was born there was a fifth boy – five glorious sons!  The fifth son would grow to become one of the greatest explorers of his age. His father called him Pian-Say-Wa which means Delta like the mouth of a river and Pian-Say-Wa was open and ready for all kinds of work but he was interested most in exploration. He was interested most in the ideas of travel and finding out about the whole world.  He went about the world in the easiest and most simple ways.

He loved his father, he loved his mother and he loved his brothers but his greatest love of all was to go travelling and bring back news of other cultures and other lands and other places.

His greatest adventure, his truest adventure was just to be out in the world, out in the ocean, the power over the water and take his boat to far and distant lands where there were people who looked quite unlike the population from his native land. There, in these strange places, he brought back other foods, other vegetables, fruits and flowers, great riches in silks and spices and the wisdom and the beauty of the art of other cultures.

Everybody would say “Oh majesty five sons, each one giving power over the dragon with Source and Brook and Stream and River and Delta” – Oh majesty there is no war and you have a loving wife, you must be the happiest man alive”. The King said that he was not happy; he was just glad, simple and pure to be able to serve his people the way a good and noble, wise and loving King should.

No more children came and people thought that the King could be regarded as ungrateful for his gifts, his intellect, his physical appearance, his power, his marriage and his five sons all given water names. These Royal children whose names put them in a position to fight the dragon Mushiya-Wu, Water before the dragon reduces and weakens its power gave him contentment. Happiness eluded him.

After two or three years his wife said that she thought she was pregnant once more and indeed she was. Out came the most perfect, the most wonderful, and the most beautiful little girl Yui, the Princess Rain.  

The King who had wondered for a long time if happiness would ever come to him. Looked at the tiny child, The Princess Yui and he know happiness cannot be given it has to be found, or received or given.   He called the little girl Rain because this was the greatest power over not just the land, not just the rivers, and not just the dragon but that the rain will come from the sky. 

The King told his servants to get the trumpets ready – The was going to be a declaration.

From the castle walls with the whole court in attendance, he felt more than the baby when he held her aloft. 

“This is Princess Yui, her name means rain. Rain is indeed a gift from God above. Let us be thankful and be happy when rain pours from heaven. It will fall and freshen the earth with every drop, it will feed and fertilise the land. Fish will be fed in free flowing oxygen enriched waters. My people will move safely in the rivers. Water is a fundamental gift from God. Water will subdue the dragon Mushiya-Wu.” 

He held the child higher – and bellowed 

“Let tomorrow be a holiday and day of feasting for everyone”

He left the castle walls

His heart was full and he knew things, happiness is a different quality from gratitude and at that moment the King understood more fully his role in this world.

He never found happiness. 

The King had become a great peacemaker, a skilled philosopher, a loved monarch, a father of five sons . Stories about his wisdom and judgements where told for generations after his death. He never found happiness.  

Happiness found him, in the size and shape of his last- born child. 

The lovely Princess Rain.  

THE END

(C) Michael Kerins 2011