In a city of Russia lived a very wealthy merchant with his wife. They had an only son, a smart kid named Ivan. A nice day Ivan sat down to eat with his
parents, and near the window was a cage with a nightingale. The nightingale began to sing with wonderful trills and the merchant heard his song, and then said:
“How I’d like to understand what the songs of the birds mean! I would give half of my wealth to anyone who could explain to me all the chirping of birds.”
These words were engraved in Ivan’s memory, and wherever he went, whatever he did, he kept thinking how he could learn the language of birds.
Shortly afterwards Ivan was hunting in the woods. Suddenly it got windy, the sky clouded, accompanied by lightning and thunder, pouring with rain. Ivan went under a big tree and he saw a nest on its branches. Inside the nest were four small birds. They were alone, neither the mother nor the father were there to protect them from the cold and rain. The good Ivan felt sorry for them, he climbed up the tree and covered them with his coat. The storm passed, and a large bird came and sat on a branch near the nest and spoke to Ivan.
“Ivan, thank you. You protected my kids from the cold and rain, and I want to do something to reward you. Tell me what you want”.
Ivan replied: “I don’t need anything, I have everything in my life. Teach me however the language of birds”.
“Stay with me three days, and you will learn it”.
Ivan stayed in the forest for three days. He learned quickly what the bird taught him, and returned home knowing the language of birds.
Shortly later, on a beautiful day, he sat with his parents to eat, and the nightingale was singing in its cage. The song was so sad, though, that the merchant and his wife felt sorrow, and their son, the good Ivan, who was listening with great attention, yet he felt greater sadness and tears started rolling down his cheeks.
“What’s wrong?” his parents asked. “Why are you crying Ivan?”
“My dear parents”, he replied, “I’m crying because I understand the singing of the nightingale, and what it says is so sad for all of us.”
“What does it say? Tell us the whole truth. Don’t hide anything”, said his father and his mother.
“It’s so sad!” replied Ivan. “It would’ve been better if I hadn’t been born!”
“Don’t scare us”, said his parents. “If you really understand what the song says, tell us immediately”.
“Don’t you hear it? The nightingale is saying: “the time will come when Ivan, the son of a merchant, will become son of the king, and his own father will be serving him as a simple servant.”
The merchant and his wife were puzzled and began to lose confidence in their son. So one night they dropped a sleeping pill in his drink, and when he fell asleep they took him on a boat, set sail, and pushed the boat offshore.
For too long the boat was carried away by the waves, and eventually approached a large freighter and hit on it so hard, that Ivan was awakened. The ship’s crew saw him and felt sorry for him, so they decided to take him with them.
One day they saw high in the sky flying cranes. “Watch out”, said Ivan to the sailors. “I hear the birds saying that a storm is coming. Let’s go into a port, otherwise we will go through great danger and the ship will get damaged. All the sails will be torn and all the masts would break.”
But no one paid attention, and they continued their journey. Soon a storm was blowing, and the ship was nearly wrecked, and they struggled with difficulty to repair the damage. When they finished the repairs, they saw some wild swans flying over them and talking to each other.
“What are they saying?” asked the sailors, this time with interest.
“Be careful”, Ivan told them. “They’re saying that pirates are approaching, terrible bandits of the sea. If we don’t go immediately to port, they will catch us and kill us.”
The crew instantly followed his advice and soon as the ship entered a port they saw pirate ships passing and conquering quite a few unprepared commercial ships. When the danger was over, they left the port and continued their journey.
Finally the ship anchored near a city, large and unknown to most merchants. In that place reigned a king who was much disturbed by three black crows that sat continuously close to his window and would not allow him quieten with their screams. No one had managed to disperse or kill them. The king had ordered to put notices on all crossroads and large buildings, and the notices said that whoever managed to relieve the King from pesky birds will marry the youngest daughter of the King. But whoever tries and does not succeed, he would cut his head off.
Ivan read the statement once, twice, and then once more. Finally he crossed his fingers and went to the palace. “Open the window, he said to the servants, “so I can hear the birds”.
The servants opened it and Ivan listened to the birds for a while. Then he said: “Take me to your king”.
When they took him to the throne hall, Ivan bowed deeply and said:
“There are three crows, a father crow, a mother crow, and a son crow. The problem is that they want your royal decision about whether the son should follow his father or his mother”.
The king replied: “the son should follow his father”.
When the king announced his decision, the father crow with the son crow flew to one direction, and the mother crow to the other, and no one ever heard again the noisy birds since then. The king gave half of his kingdom and his youngest daughter to Ivan, and then began a happy life for him.
Meanwhile his father, the wealthy merchant, lost his wife, and was slowly losing his fortune. There was no one to take care of him, and the old man was forced to beg under the windows of bleeding hearts. He was going from one window to another, from one village to another, from one city to another,and one fine day he arrived to the palace where Ivan lived, to beg. Ivan saw him and recognized him. He ordered to bring him in, gave him food to eat and good clothes to wear, and said to him:
“My dear old man, what can I do for you?”
“If you can be kind enough”, replied the poor father, without knowing he was talking to his own son, “let me stay here to serve you along with your other faithful servants”.
“My dear father!” said Ivan. “You doubted the song of the nightingale, but now you see that our fate was to meet as the nightingale had predicted a long time ago”.
The old man was frightened, and kneeled down in front of his son, but Ivan was kind as always. He embraced his father and they wept together.
Several days passed, and the father found the courage to ask his son:
“Tell me my son, how did you not drown with the boat?”
And Ivan laughed.
“I guess”, he replied, “it was not meant for me to drown, but to marry the king’s daughter, my beautiful wife, and to sweeten my beloved father’s old age.”
Legend from the depths of Russia
