Warmest greetings to my dear friends who love reading. It fills me with joy to be back with you all in this wonderful community, bringing you a truly beautiful piece. On this occasion, I bring you a story that invites us to reflect on love, compassion, detachment and solidarity: ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’ by Oscar Wilde
In the story ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’, the author tells the tale of a young student who weeps because he has no red rose in his garden for his beloved, who will only dance with him at the Prince’s ball the following night if he brings her a red rose. The young student weeps inconsolably because he fears he will lose his beloved’s love.
The Nightingale knows the young man, as he sings to him every day at his window, hears his sobs and realises that he is deeply in love with his beloved. Seeing all this, the Nightingale thinks that love is something wonderful, far more so than all the money in the world that could buy the most expensive jewels.
All the other creatures in the garden think the young student is being very dramatic. Why on earth would he cry over a red rose? The Nightingale is the only one who believes the young student’s tears; he does not see him as ridiculous and understands him.
To show solidarity with the student’s painful secret, he takes flight. Spotting a rosebush, he stops to ask for a red rose, offering to sing his sweetest song in return. The rosebush cannot help him, as its roses are white. The Nightingale continues flying in search of another rosebush, but its flowers are yellow. Until he reaches the third rosebush, which tells him that its flowers are red, but that winter has frozen its veins and it will bear no more flowers that year.
Seeing the Nightingale’s persistence, the rosebush tells him that if he wants to get a red rose, there is something he can do to obtain it. It explains that he must make it with music in the moonlight and dye it with the blood of his heart, plunging a thorn into his chest until it pierces through.
The Nightingale begins to ponder the high price he must pay for a rose, but remembering the young student’s tears leads him to reflect that love is better than life itself, and that his bird’s heart is worth nothing compared to a man’s heart.
Having made his decision, the Nightingale flies back to where the student is and tells him to rejoice because he will have his red rose. He promises to sing all night long until the rose is stained with the blood of his heart, and asks only that the student be very happy in return. The student listens to the Nightingale, but cannot understand him, for he knows only how to read books.
All the other creatures living in the garden could not understand the Nightingale, who would give his life for a red rose, and they asked him to sing one last song. The student, upon hearing him sing, wrote a critique of the Nightingale’s music, saying that his melody lacked both style and sincerity.
When night fell, the Nightingale flew to the rosebush, thrust his breast onto the thorn and sang all night long, whilst blood flowed from his body and, with it, his life.
At midday, when the student opened his window, he saw a red rose in his garden. He plucked it and ran off to his beloved’s house. He told her they would dance all night because he had found the red rose she had asked him for. But he was taken aback when his beloved told him that the chamberlain’s nephew had sent her jewellery and that she would be dancing with him at the prince’s ball.
The student accused her of being ungrateful, stormed out and threw the rose into the street, where it was crushed by the wheels of a carriage, and went home thinking how stupid love is. He went inside, picked up a book and began to read.
Whilst the Nightingale sacrificed itself for the sole sake of love itself, the Student takes the opposite stance by dismissing love as futile. It is clear that the Nightingale’s loving sacrifice was in vain when the Student reaffirmed his belief in the futility of love. Love is distinguished from the materialistic logic by which many in the world are guided. The futility and vanity with which they view the loving sacrifice is precisely where its beauty lies.
I hope you enjoyed the book I brought you today, ‘The Nightingale and the Rose’. I look forward to seeing you next time when I bring you another of my favourite books.
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