A Tale by Oscar Wilde
Every afternoon, the young fisherman went to the sea and cast his nets, but in vain as he caught nothing or very little at best. Then there came a black-winged cruel wind, and the stormy waves rose up to meet him. What little he would catch he sold in the marketplace.
Every afternoon he went out to sea, and on one of those days his net was so heavy that he could barely raise it up into the boat.
Using all his strength, he managed to pull the net out of water. There were no fish in it, but only a mermaid that lay deeply asleep.
So beautiful she was that when he saw her he became full of wonder; he leaned over the side and encircled her with his arms. And upon touching her, she let loose a scream like a frightened seagull, looked at him in a terrified fashion, and struggled intently to escape. But he did not let her go. She began to cry and told him that she was the only daughter of a king who was very sick and old. He offered to release her only if she promised to come whenever he called her and to sing because the fish liked the songs of the people of the sea and in this way he could fill his nets.
She agreed and he released her from his arms and allowed her to depart.
Said and done! Every afternoon upon calling her, she came and would sing for him. And while she sang all the tuna rose from the depths to listen and he threw his nets and caught them. When his boat was well filled, the mermaid submerged into the sea, smiling at him.
However, she never came so close that he could touch her. When he tried, she dove into the water and did not come back to see him that day. But one day, when he could no longer restrain himself, he said, “Little Mermaid, Little Mermaid, I love you. Accept me as your love because I love you.” The Little Mermaid shook her head and said, “You have a human soul, the people of the sea don’t have souls. Only if you part company with your soul could I love you.” And the fisherman said, “I’ll part company with my soul.” But thinking more carefully he said, “But how do I part company with my soul?”
The next morning, the fisherman went to the home of the priest and presented his problem as follows, “Father, I love a daughter of the sea and my soul keeps me from achieving my desire. Tell me what I can do to part company with my soul, which in truth I don’t really need. What good is my soul? I can not see it. I can not touch it. I do not know it.” After hearing this, the priest said that the soul was the most beautiful, important and sublime part of man. The fisherman responded, “Father, this daughter of the sea is more beautiful than the morning star. I would give my soul for her body and for her love, the sky.” The angry priest threw him out of his house.
With his spirit down cast, the fisherman went to the marketplace and those who worked there asked him, “What are you selling?” The young man replied, “I am selling my soul, for I am tired of it.” And the merchants replied, “Why do we need your soul? It is not worth even a common silver coin.”
The young fisherman thought to himself, “What a strange thing! The priest told me that the soul was worth more than all the gold in the world, and the merchants tell me that is not worth a common silver coin.”
Next he decided to go where there was a witch and when there he told her his problem. She told him that to give up his soul they had to dance that same night in the light of the moon. That night they met in the place she had indicated to him and they began to dance in the light of the moon. Across from the dancers came the racket of a horse galloping, but no horse could be seen. Then he noticed that beneath the shadow of a rock was a figure that was not there before; it was a man wearing a black velvet suit. The young fisherman watched him as if he had fallen into a spell. Finally, their eyes met, and from where the witch had wished him to dance, it seemed to him as if that other man’s eyes were fixed upon him. Suddenly a dog barked and they stopped dancing; they ventured toward the man, and the fisherman, without knowing why, made the sign of the cross and invoked the holy name. When the fisherman did this, the strange man disappeared and the witch tried to flee as well, but the fisherman did not allow it. Then she said, “Let me go, for you have named what should not be named and made the sign that cannot be looked upon.” He told her that if she did not fulfill what she had promised, he would kill her as a false witch. She gave him a small knife with a handle made of green snakeskin and said to him, “What men call them on the beach, with back to the moon and cut the shadow, which is the body of the soul, from around your feet, bid it to abandon you and it will do so.”
His soul, which resided within, called out to him and said, “Look! I have lived with you for all these years and I have been your servant. What harm have I done you?” “You’ve done me no wrong, but I do not need you,” the fisherman responded. He added, “The world is wide and contains within it both heaven and hell and this dark purple dawn that stretches between them. Go wherever you wish, but do not bother me because my love calls me.” He went about cutting away the body of the soul, when his soul said to him, “If you really have to cast me away from you, don’t leave me without a heart. The world is cruel, and without a heart I will suffer much, I fear.” The fisherman responded, “With what could I love my mermaid if I give you my heart?” And grasping the knife that the witch had given him, he cut his shadow from around his feet. Before departing, his soul said to him, “Once every year I will come to this place, and I will call you. You may need me.”
He plunged into the water and the mermaid came to meet him. Circling her arms around his neck, she kissed him on the mouth. The soul, standing on the lonely beach watched them as they disappeared into the sea and walked away weeping through the marshes.
At the end of one year, the soul came to the shore of the sea and the fisherman came out, approached him, and stretched out over the water with his head leaning on his hand to listen.
The soul told him about his trip through the East. He said that at a day’s journey he had hidden the Mirror of Wisdom. The soul said to the fisherman, “Let me enter you, and you will be the wisest man in the world.”
“Love is better than wisdom,” exclaimed the fisherman, “and the mermaid loves me.” He dove into the depths and the soul went away crying through the marshes.
The second year passed, and the soul called again to the fisherman and told him about his trip through the South. The soul told him, “In one place, just one day from here, I have hidden the ring of wealth. Let me enter you, and you will be the richest man in the world.” Laughing, the fisherman said, “Love is better than wealth and the little mermaid loves me.” He plunged into the depths and the soul walked away crying through the marshes.
The third year passed, and the soul called to the fisherman and told him that he had encountered an inn in which a beautiful girl danced on bare feet. When the fisherman heard this, he recalled that the mermaid did not have feet and could not dance. And he accepted. Laughing, he strode towards the shore and extended his arms to his soul. The soul gave a cry of joy and upon meeting, reentered him.
They walked all night. When they reached a city, the fisherman asked his soul if this was the city where the girl danced with bare feet, to which his soul replied that it was not, but they would enter anyway. Being inside, they passed through a street where there were many jewelers and the fisherman saw a silver cup he liked. Then his soul said, “Take that silver cup and hide it.” The fisherman did so and both rushed out of the city. But then the fisherman reproached his soul, “Why did you tell me to take that cup if you knew it was wrong?” his soul answered, “Calm down, calm down!”
On the next day and another day more they entered two cities looking for that girl. And in these two cities, in addition to not finding the girl, the soul led the fisherman to hit a child and kill a man in order to steal his money. And the fisherman did so but later reproached his soul. One day his soul said, ‘’When you cast me into the world, you gave me no heart, so I learned to do bad things and to love them.” The fisherman having heard this said, “You’re evil, you have made me forget my love, you have attracted me to temptations, and have set my feet upon the path of sin,” and turning his back to the moon tried to cut away the body of his soul with the knife he had been given by the witch.
His soul responded, “The witch’s spell will not help you; once in life can a man get rid himself of his soul, but if re-admitted he must keep it forever, and this is your punishment and reward.”
Comprehending his situation, the fisherman collapsed on the ground weeping bitterly. When it was day, he said to his soul, “I’ll tie my hands and close my lips so they cannot obey you.” Then he went to the sea, untied the rope from his hands, took the seal from his lips, and called the little mermaid, but she did not come to his call.
In a cleft in the rock, the fisherman built himself a hut of wattle, where he lived for a year. In the morning, afternoon, and night, the fisherman called the mermaid but she did not come to meet him.
Meanwhile his soul, whenever he could, tempted the fisherman with evil, but he could not defeat him, so great was the power of his love.
With the passing of another year, the soul thought to himself, “I have tempted my master with evil and his love is stronger than me. I will tempt him now with good and perhaps he will come with me.” And the soul said to the fisherman, “I have spoken of the joys of the world and you have not heeded. Let me now talk about the suffering of the world, and you might want to listen to me. For in truth, suffering is the Lord of the world and no one escapes from its nets.” He spoke of all the sufferings of mankind and added, “Come, let’s redress those things. Why do you keep calling her if she does not answer your supplications?”
The young man said nothing, but every day, morning, noon and night, from the shore of the sea, he called his little mermaid, so great was his love. She never came to meet him.
The second year passed, and the soul said to the fisherman, “I’ve spoken to you about good and evil, but you do not listen to me. I will not tempt you more. All I ask is that you let me into your heart.” The fisherman agreed, but when the soul came to his heart he cried, “Alas! I can not find a place to enter. Your heart is so full of love.” “Nevertheless, I would like to be able to help you,” said the fisherman to his soul, and suddenly came a great cry of mourning from the sea. The young fisherman ran to the seashore and saw spread out at his feet the body of the little mermaid. She lay dead at his feet.
Crying like someone deeply moved by grief, he threw himself upon her, kissed the cold redness of her lips, and caressed the sharp amber of her hair.
The black sea approached, and feeling scared his soul said, “Withdraw, for you may die.”
The young fisherman calling to the little mermaid said, “Love is greater than wisdom and wealth; fire cannot destroy it nor can water extinguish it. I have called you many times but you did not answer me because I cruelly abandoned you. And now you’re dead, and I wish, in truth, to die with you.”
When he knew it was his end, he kissed with maddened lips the cold lips of the mermaid, and his heart shattered within. And because of this, the fullness of his love shattered his heart, and the soul found an entry and penetrated into it and, as before, was with him. And the sea covered the young fisherman with its waves.
The next morning the priest went forth to bless the sea, since it had been very agitated, but upon seeing the fisherman and the mermaid dead on the seashore said, “I will not bless the sea or anything within it! And regarding he who for love forgot God, grab his body and that of his lover and bury them in the corner of the Fullers’ Field, and do not put above them any marker, so that nobody can know the place where they rest. For accursed they were in life and accursed will they be also in death.”
And the people dug a deep hole and placed in it the two bodies.
The third year passed, and a holiday in which the priest had to say mass found the altar covered with strange flowers, which made him feel happy without knowing why.
He planned to talk that day about the wrath of God, but the beauty of the white flowers troubled him and other words came to his lips without knowing why.
When he finished speaking, the people cried, and watching them he asked what flowers were these that had been put on the altar. The people replied that they did not know what sort of flowers these were, but they came from the corner of the Fullers’ Field.
Upon the arrival of morning, the priest went to the seashore and blessed the sea and all the indomitable creatures within it. He blessed as well the fauns and the small beings that dance in the forest. He blessed all of the world’s creatures, and the people were filled with joy and wonder. However, no flowers of any type ever returned to grow in the corner of the Fullers’ Field, nor did the children of the sea return to the bay as they by custom had done. The fish went to another part of the sea.
