Thrushes and Starlings
Once upon a time, two lovers were sitting by the shore of a lake. Suddenly, two birds began to sing loudly above them. The young man and the young woman listened closely.“What a wonderful voice these birds have!” said the young woman.
“Your voice is even sweeter,” replied the young man. “No thrushes could ever compare to you.”
“You meant starlings, didn’t you?”
“Of course, starlings, if that’s what you prefer,” said the young man.
Who in his place would have answered differently?
“No, no,” the young woman quickly said. “If you say they’re thrushes, then let them be thrushes.”
At that moment, they looked at each other and forgot about the thrushes, the starlings, and everything else in the world.
Soon, the lovers got married and lived in perfect harmony.
Exactly a year passed since their wedding day. To celebrate the occasion, the wife decided to bake a pie. While the pie was baking, the husband went out to have a glass or two of grape wine. But as soon as he reached the wine shop, he ran into an old man covered in cages, where colorful birds hopped on thin perches.
“How convenient,” thought the husband. “I’ll surprise my wife with a gift.”
And he called out:
“Hey, bird seller, how much for the pair of birds in the green cage?”
The birds cost four soldi. But the seller replied:
“Six soldi, sir.” That’s what sellers do.
“Two soldi,” said the husband.
That’s what buyers do. Of course, they settled on four.
“Take them, sir. These birds will bring happiness to your home,” said the seller, handing the cage to the husband.
The husband took the cage, drank a glass of wine, and headed home.
Meanwhile, the wife had cleaned the house and put on her best dress. Just as the pie was ready, the husband opened the door and called from the threshold:
“Look, my dear, what a gift I’ve brought you. Aren’t these thrushes wonderful?”
“Wonderful,” replied the delighted wife. “But they’re not thrushes, they’re starlings.”
“No, thrushes!” argued the husband.
“No, starlings!” argued the wife.
“Thrushes!” insisted the husband.
“Starlings! Starlings! Starlings!!!” stomped the wife.
“Oh, if they’re starlings, then I’ll go sell my thrushes at the market!” shouted the exasperated husband.
At that, the wife grabbed the cage.
“The starlings aren’t yours, they’re mine! You gave them to me.”
“But I gave you thrushes,” replied the husband, pulling the cage toward himself.
The cage creaked and fell apart. The birds flew out the window and disappeared. The wife burst into tears.
“Why did you let my starlings escape!” she cried.
“If it weren’t for you, the thrushes wouldn’t have flown away!” shouted the husband.
They only made up by evening, when their wedding anniversary celebration had ended.
For three hundred and sixty-four days, they couldn’t get enough of each other.
A year flew by, and their second wedding anniversary arrived.
This time, the husband gave his wife a bouquet of flowers. The wife put the flowers in water, kissed her husband, and they sat down at the festive table.
“Remember,” the wife said with a smile, “how a year ago we quarreled over a silly little thing—a pair of starlings?”
“A terribly foolish argument,” replied the husband. “But still, my dear wife, those were thrushes, not starlings.”
“Starlings!” said the wife.
“Thrushes!” said the husband.
“No, starlings!” argued the wife.
“No, thrushes!” argued the husband. And it all started again.
And so it became their tradition: they lived in perfect harmony all year, but when their wedding anniversary came around, they inevitably quarreled.
Time in the story passes quickly. Wrinkles appeared around the wife’s eyes, and the husband’s temples turned silver.
On their twentieth wedding anniversary, the wife said to her husband:
“Today, I won’t bake a pie. It’s such a beautiful day—let’s go for a walk.”
They left the house and wandered wherever their feet took them. They walked and walked until they reached the very same lake, the very same spot where they had sat twenty years earlier.
“Shall we rest?” asked the husband.
“Let’s rest,” replied the wife.
And they sat under the very same tree. Suddenly, two birds began to sing above their heads. Maybe not the same ones, but just like them.
“Remember,” said the wife, “how before our wedding we listened to the starlings here?”
“How could I forget those wonderful thrushes!” replied the husband.
They looked at each other and laughed. It turned out it wasn’t so hard for the wife to yield to the husband, or for the husband to yield to the wife.
From then on, they never quarreled again, not even on their wedding anniversary.
More fairy tales
- The Learned Cat
- Lake Gandzirri
- Bread, Wine, and Salt
- The Shepherd Boy - A Tiny Sprout
- Lazy Broccolina
