(MYTH & LEGEND)
A FAIRY TALE READ TO MY FATHER
HC HSU
A FAIRY TALE READ TO MY FATHER
HC HSU
Once upon a time, there was a handsome but cruel prince. He was a tyrant in his kingdom, and frequently amused himself with the misfortunes of his people.
It’s not he was greedy or particularly enjoyed the sounds of torment uttered from the people’s mouths. He was simply bored, and lonely.
One day he went into the forest to hunt. When he was cutting the antlers off of a hind, an elf suddenly fell out of the dead animal’s mouth. It was a wood elf. In order to repay the prince for rescuing it from being swallowed by the hind with the detritus, the elf offered to go back with the prince to keep him company.
The elf gave the prince advice on how to rule his kingdom, and slowly, the prince, having someone to talk to and listen to him, became kinder. The people began singing praises of their benevolent ruler, and the kingdom prospered.
By the prince’s side and assisting him with his affairs, the elf became an ordinary person, aged and, after many years, eventually died. The prince, now an old king, went to see his companion for the last time, but when he got to the room, he could find nothing, except a pair of golden antlers.
*
You say I understand you, but sometimes I don’t really think I do. Maybe you think I understand you better than you understand yourself. Maybe neither of us understands the other at all. I stand in your room, forgetting what I was looking for. But you—what, if anything, have you found?
Author's Note: My father was a captain in the Taiwanese coast guard from 1949 to 1991, when he retired. His ship was called Fishing Vessel No 1, since Taiwan couldn't militarize. He was away a lot. When he was around, he would tell me Andersen fairy tales, like 'The Little Mermaid,' from memory.
I wrote this shortly after his death in 2011.
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HC Hsu is author of the short story collection Love Is Sweeter (Lethe) and essay collection Middle of the Night (Deerbrook), which has been nominated for the Housatonic Award, CALA Award and Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Memoir competition winner and The Best American Essays nominee, he has written for Pif, Big Bridge, Iodine, nthposition, 100 Word Story, China Daily News, Epoch Times, Words Without Borders, and many others. He has served as interpreter for the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and his translation of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo’s biography Steel Gate to Freedom was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2015.
I wrote this shortly after his death in 2011.
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HC Hsu is author of the short story collection Love Is Sweeter (Lethe) and essay collection Middle of the Night (Deerbrook), which has been nominated for the Housatonic Award, CALA Award and Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. Memoir competition winner and The Best American Essays nominee, he has written for Pif, Big Bridge, Iodine, nthposition, 100 Word Story, China Daily News, Epoch Times, Words Without Borders, and many others. He has served as interpreter for the US Congressional-Executive Commission on China, and his translation of 2010 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Liu Xiaobo’s biography Steel Gate to Freedom was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2015.