"The Emperor and the Nightingale" is my nomination for the most-nearly-perfect short story everwritten.
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| Jenny Lind-- wikimedia commons |
This story is spiritually refreshing in many ways—the cleverbut gentle satire, the sheer beauty of the imagery, but most of all because inthe end, Death is defeated.
A while ago I acquired the complete DVD set of Shelley Duvall’s Faerie Tale Theatre. The Nightingale is one of the best episodes of this brilliant series, and but for some unnecessary but harmless embellishments is faithful to the original. Mick Jagger as the world-weary Emperor hits just the right note, if you’ll pardon that pun….
The Logismoi blog features a post about the Elder Porphyrios and his encounter with a nightingale. The elder relates:
After a while the silence was broken by a sweet, intoxicating voice singing and praising the Creator. I looked. I couldn’t discern anything. Eventually, on a branch opposite me I saw a tiny bird. It was a nightingale. I listened as the nightingale trilled unstintingly, its throat puffed out to bursting in sustained song. The microscopic little bird was stretching back its wings in order to find power to emit those sweetest of tones, and puffing out its throat to produce that exquisite voice. If only I had a cup of water to give it to drink and quench its thirst!
Tears came to my eyes—the same tears of grace that flowed so effortlessly and that I had acquired from Old Dimas [an old Rus
Tears came to my eyes—the same tears of grace that flowed so effortlessly and that I had acquired from Old Dimas [an old Rus
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