Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13
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Library of the World's Best Literature, Ancient and Modern — Volume 13
Literature -- Collections
Rapidly one thought followed upon another in his mind. Now he came to
think upon the crown princess, who had made a royal entrance into the
capital just at this time. He had received permission to accompany his
superiors and stand in the festal pavilion when she landed. That was a
glorious moment. The poet's gifts of his youth were not far from
awakening again in the exaltation of the moment; and had he still been
the young applauding poet of earlier days, instead of the neglected
government clerk, he would probably have written a festal poem and
sent it to the Post.
For it was fine to be the Princess Victoria at that moment. It was one
of the occasions that life has not many of. To be nineteen years old,
newly married to a young husband, loved and loving, and to make a
ceremonious entry into one's future capital, which is in festal array
and lies fabulously beautiful in the autumn sun, to be greeted with
shouts of joy by countless masses of men, and to be so inexperienced
in life that one has no presentiment of the shadows which hide
themselves back of this bright picture--yes, that might indeed be an
unforgettable moment; one of those that only fall to the lot of few
mortals, so that they seem to belong more to the world of fable than
to reality! Had the magic charm, "Open Sesame!" conjured up anything
more beautiful?
And yet! yet!--The government clerk had neared his home and stood in
front of his own door. No, the crown prince was surely not happier
when he led his bride into his rejoicing capital, than was he at this
moment. He had found again the long-lost magic charm. The little knob
there on the door--that was his "Open Sesame!" He needed only to press
upon it, when the mountain would again open its treasures to him--not
weapons and gleaming armor as in his childhood--not honors and homage
and social position as in his youth--no, something better than all
these. Something that forms the kernel itself of all human happiness,
upon the heights of life as well as in its most concealed
hiding-places--a heart that only beat for him, his own home, where
there was one who longed for him--a wife! Yes, a wife whom he loved,
not with the first passion of youth, but with the tenderness and
faithfulness of manhood.
He stood outside his own door; he was tired and hungry, and his wife
waited for him at the midday meal; that was, to be sure, commonplace
and unimportant--and yet it was so wonderfully new and attractive.
Gently, cautiously as a child who had been given a new plaything, he
pressed upon the little knob on the door--and then he stood still with
restrained breath and listened for the light quick step that
approached.
It was just as though in his childhood he stood outside the mountain
and called, first gently and half in fear, and then loudly and with a
voice trembling with glad expectation, "Sesame, Sesame! Open Sesame!"
Translated for 'A Library of the World's Best Literature'
by William H. Carpenter
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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