Friday, March 17, 2006

The legend of Narcissus & the lake


"The alchemist picked up a book that someone in the caravan had brought. Leafing through the pages, he found a story about Narcissus.

The alchemist knew the legend of Narcissus, a youth who knelt daily beside a lake to contemplate his own beauty. He was so fascinated by himself that, one morning, he fell into the lake and drowned. At the spot where he fell, a flower was born, which was called the narcissus.

But this was not how the author of the book ended the story.

He said that when Narcissus died, the goddesses of the forest appeared and found the lake, which had been fresh water, transformed into a lake of salty tears.

"Why do you weep?" the goddesses asked.

"I weep for Narcissus," the lake replied.

"Ah, it is no surprise that you weep for Narcissus," they said, "for though we always pursued him in the forest, you alone could contemplate his beauty close at hand."

"But...was Narcissus beautiful?" the lake asked.

"Who better than you to know that?" the goddesses said in wonder. "After all, it was by your banks that he knelt each day to contemplate himself!"

The lake was silent for some time. Finally, it said:

"I weep for Narcissus, but I never noticed that Narcissus was beautiful. I weep because, each time he knelt beside my banks, I could see, in the depths of his eyes, my own beauty reflected."

"What a lovely story," the alchemist thought."


From Paulo Coelho's International bestseller "The Alchemist".

10 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for stopping by my blog and I enjoyed reading your post.

Rose said...

This is a great post. Enjoyed reading about this legend.

Chen said...

Nice story. Thanks for sharing :)

black feline said...

what an irony...the lake was also a narcissist...im waiting for the movie..:)

Hasan Mubarak said...

ruben: you are most welcome!

rose: welcome back...

chen: thanks for liking it...

black feline: It would be quite interesting to watch the movie...

Asad Raza said...

That was beautiful! Truly amazing. I haven't read anything wish so much depth in it in a long time.

Bart Treuren said...

thanks for this... it's a lovely story and one i appreciate :D

here in the netherlands, the daffodil is called "narcissus", probably for the same reasons you already described

it's still yet a little to early in the season (its been very cold this winter) but very soon the daffodils will be blooming around the country in a blaze of brilliant yellowness, so beautiful...

keep well...

kathi said...

I loved this story! What a reflection of truth! I'd like to share this, if you don't mind. Thank you :)

Dak-Ind said...

i had never heard this before, but what a tale of truth.

what a great post!

HappySurfer said...

Nice story, Hasan.

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