Final Version English
STORY OF THE
BEAUTIFUL TREE
Twice upon a time long long ago in a
country very far away there lived a very beautiful tree in a big forest. It was
surrounded by all sorts of lovely plants, and birds, and animals. When the tree
was very young she (since the tree was a girl) did not think of herself as being
beautiful. In the forest where the tree grew up there were no other trees like
her. Therefore she (since the beautiful tree was a girl) neither knew what she
looked like, nor her name. All the other trees and the plants, the birds, and
the animals had never seen a tree like her either. In fact they all thought that
she was quite ugly; that she didn't fit in.
As the years passed, and as she grew up,
storms came and knocked down other trees. But she was young and bent with the
wind and thought it was all very exciting. As each year passed, bigger and
bigger gaps from the storms appeared in the forest around
her.
Soon she was able to see the sky for the
very first time in her life. The first time she saw the sky she thought it was
white. She sighed like a strong young tree and waved here branches around her
head and wept for joy at such a wondrous sight.
The very next day after her first view of the
sky she got a very big surprise! The sky started out looking very red and then
quickly turned to blue. And then she saw in the distance a young fiery god
wandering slowly towards her. Such was her life for many many years. The colours
of the sky and the appearance of the god were very very pleasing until the day
of the great FIRE.
At first she was surprised
by the noise and the smell. Then the sky turned blackish before her eyes. All
her friends who could move screamed and fled.
One very close old friend of hers was a big
DEER. He stopped to say how much he enjoyed her shade. He said he liked the way
she looked and then great tears rolled down his cheeks and he said no more. For
he knew that she could not move, that she would surely die soon. So after being
hugged by the branches of the beautiful tree, who did not know what death is,
the big DEER slowly slowly went away in the forest which was burning.
The beautiful tree had never seen such
wonderful fireworks before. She was not afraid at all! This was an exciting
time! So, the beautiful tree stood there in the forest and watched the lovely
fireworks. After the sky darkened completely and the sky could no longer be seen
she notices that there were some trees in the distance, not very far from her,
who started turning red. As she watched them dance with joy in the fiery blaze
she thought how lucky they were to be enjoying such a wonderful thing and she
wondered if it ever would be her turn.
She
waited patiently. More and more turned red and then she thought she saw that
those which had once been red were now very very black. She became a little
anxious for all those whom she considered to be her friends, trees just like
her, but very very different. Now she began to see that perhaps this red fire
was not so good for a tree.
At last the fire
reached her. It shot up through her branches and all her leaves. It was a
wonderful experience – in the burning embrace of the fire the beautiful
tree knew what it was to be alive. The fire roared around her. Great trees split
and fell charred and burnt. All around her was smoke and destruction and now she
could see ...death. But to her big surprise she burned and yet did
not.
Days later the fire had burned itself out
and she could see in the distance other trees still standing, just like her, and
they seemed to her to be very beautiful and to be very strong and she thought to
herself: “Are we not all the same these trees and I? Are we not
fire-dancers?”
While she was thinking
such pleasant thoughts, she saw a big bird fly towards her from a tree still
standing far away. The bird was definitely coming towards her. She waited and
waited and then when it landed in her branches, it opened its beak and said:
“I have a message for you most beautiful tree. It is a message from your
mother over there, whom you can now see, waving at you. She told me to say who
you are… “
− How
beautifuuuuuul... –the beautiful tree whispered - the waving of Mom after
such an experience... Here she is, over there, smiling at me! I never could have
imagined… all these years we were so
close...“
− Your mother said - the
big bird continued - that you are one of the great fire-dancers of this world.
You are one of many who must go through the fire regularly in life to live
...
− What world is this? - the
beautiful tree asked.
The big bird said to
her:
− This world is called Australia
by very small walking trees of two branches. These little trees call you
Eucalyptus.
− Eucalyptus...
The most beautiful tree smiled and smiled and
smiled. She never knew that she had such a beautiful name. Now she knew that she
was a very special tree. She was a fire-dancer. And because she had such a
beautiful name, she knew that she must be a very beautiful tree.
Posted: Thu - August 18, 2005 at 06:16 p.m.