I wrote last week about Oscar Wilde. So it is a good chance to introduce my favourite of his stories. Here is an edited extract from, “The Fisherman and his Soul”. I have simplified the language to make it easier for non-native speakers.
A young fisherman falls in love with a mermaid he catches in his fishing net. He wants her to become his lover, but she refuses. She cannot love him because he, like other men, has a soul. She agrees to be his lover only if he sends his soul away. I once dated a girl like that too.
Anyway, the fisherman visits a priest to ask him to send his soul away from his body.
Edited extract from, “The Fisherman and his Soul,” by Oscar Wilde:
“I am in love with one of the sea-folk, and my soul is hindering me from having my desire. Tell me how I can send my soul away from me. For in truth I have no need of it. Of what value is my soul to me? I cannot see it. I cannot touch it. I do not know it!” said the fisherman.
And the priest answered, “What’s this? You are mad! Or you have eaten a poisonous herb! For the soul is the noblest part of man, and was given to us by God so that we nobly use it. There is no thing more precious than a human soul! It is worth all the gold that is in the world, and is more precious than the rubies of the kings. Therefore, my son, do not think any more of this matter! For it is a sin, that may not be forgiven. And as for the sea-folk, they are lost. They do not know good from evil.”
The young fisherman’s eyes filled with tears when he heard the bitter words of the priest. And he rose up from his knees and said to him, “Father, let me be like a deer, running in the forest. How does my soul profit me if it stands between me and the thing that I love?”
“The love of the body is vile,” cried the priest, knitting his brows. The sea-folk are lost, I tell you. They are lost. For them there is no Heaven or Hell.”
“Father, cried the young fisherman. “You do not know what you say! Once, in my net I snared the daughter of a king. She is fairer than the morning star, and whiter than the moon. For her body I would give my soul! And for her love I would surrender Heaven. Tell me how to send away my soul and let me go in peace.”
“Away! Away!” cried the priest. “Your love is lost, and you shall be lost with her!”
And he gave him no blessing, but drove him from his door.
So the young fisherman went down into the marketplace. When the merchants saw him coming, they began to whisper to each other. And one of them came forth to meet him, and called him by name, and said to him, “What do you have to sell?”
“I will sell you my soul,” he answered. I beg you – buy it off me. For I am weary of it. Of what use is my soul to me? I cannot see it. I cannot touch it. I do not know it.”
But the merchants mocked him, and said, “Of what use is a man’s soul to us? It is not worth a copper coin. Sell us your body, as a slave! But do not talk of the soul! For to us it is nothing. Nor has it any value for us.”
And the young fisherman said to himself, “How strange a thing this is. The priest tells me that the soul is worth all the gold in the world, and the merchants say that it is not worth a copper coin.”
Vocabulary:
to hinder someone from doing something – to make it more difficult for someone to do something
noble – having or showing good morals or fine qualities
precious - valuable
a sin – an immoral action; something disliked by God
vile – morally bad or wicked; dirty or nasty
to knit one’s brow – to frown; to let a negative emotion show by changing the shape of your face around your eyebrows
to snare something – to capture something in a trap
to surrender something – to voluntarily give something up
weary - tired
to mock someone – to make fun of someone; to laugh at someone
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