 sj |
||
|
||
Story: The Magic Drum
|
|
|
||||||
|
Story: The Magic Drum |
|
|||||
|
Subject: Story: The Magic Drum From: Auxiris Date: 27 Jun 01 - 09:55 AM THE MAGIC DRUM (Translated from a French language collection of Senegalese stories and legends published by Fernand Nathan, editor, © 1963)
The sun slowly sinks below the horizon, throwing its last flamboyant rays on the vast tamarind growing in the middle of a poor fishing village. Several tumbledown huts bear silent witness to the misery of their inhabitants. Of all the fishermen, Seydou is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, the poorest, since the pirogue that he inherited from his father has leaks everywhere, in spite of all the work he has done patching it up and springs a few new leaks each day.
That evening, Seydou has nothing to eat and his stomach complains loudly. At the edge of the river, a tree whose branches hang out over the water is home to numerous birds who have built their nests in it. Seydou thinks for a moment, "Why not climb the tree and gather a few of their eggs, since I have nothing else to calm the discomfort of my empty stomach?"
In a flash, he decides to do exactly that. His coupe-coupe (machete) clenched between his teeth, Seydou climbs the trunk of the tree. When he gets to the first branches, as he tries to use the coupe-coupe to cut them off so he can get by, his knife slips out of his hand and falls into the river. What a stroke of bad luck! Seydou climbs back down and, even though he is well aware of the presence of caimans, he dives into the river courageously, because his family has the gift of being able to speak to caimans and command their respect.
As soon as the fisherman disappears underneath the water illuminated by the rays of the setting sun, he suddenly has an extraordinary feeling of ease and lightness. He dives deeper and deeper, with no effort, in the soft underwater light. At first he swims in the midst of vegetation that is at first aquatic and then terrestrial. The varieties of fish he knows so well are transformed into brightly coloured birds before his eyes and river reeds become a magnificent forest.
Seydou is now walking on a shady path and eventually arrives in a wealthy village where the aspect of the dwellings radiates properity and happiness. He is brought before the headman of the village, who asks him:
"Why have you come here, stranger? There is no place in our village for useless or lazy people."
And so it was. Seydou quickly became the best shepherd in the village. Now, every day he has his ration of honey and curdled milk and he is happy. Nevertheless, the vast plains without any water sadden him. One day, he picks up his walking stick and leaves the village to search for a river. Seydou walks for a long time, day after day, night after night and finally arrives in a village perched on top of a hill and shaded by lemon trees. He has the impression of a very happy place which is also so rich that the King and his subjects live a perpetual state of feasting, music and pleasure.
"I've come to look for work", says Seydou to the King.
Seydou, who is humble and modest by nature, chooses the smallest drum.
As no one seems to pay much attention to him, Seydou becomes bored—strange as it may seem, dear friends—in the village full of joy, because dancing and singing all day is even more tiresome than herding cattle or paddling a pirogue on the river. So, Seydou takes to the road again with his little drum under his arm, on his way to other places. . . END OF PART I
Hello, everyone. . . if the end of this doesn't get cut off once again, it's the end of part one simply because I haven't finished translating the rest of the story yet. I hope to have finished it before I go off for the weekend. Now, maybe a bit more blah, blah, blah, patati and patata, blah blah blah, etc., etc., and more patati and patata and once again it will be all right if this silly machine c |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: Auxiris Date: 27 Jun 01 - 11:21 AM And by the way, what happened to all the rest of you who were telling stories once in a while?? cheers, Aux
|
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: KingBrilliant Date: 27 Jun 01 - 11:37 AM Is he on the way to a session? Because if he is then he'd better know how to play that drum by the time he gets there. Looking forward to the rest of the story, you are telling it very well - its very vivid. Kris |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: Auxiris Date: 28 Jun 01 - 03:36 AM Thanks, Kris; even if no one else is all that interested in this particular story (maybe the title makes them think it's about bodhráns!), I promise I'll post the second part for you. Translation should be done later today. cheers, Aux
|
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: jeffp Date: 28 Jun 01 - 08:18 AM I suspect everyone's been caught up in the Spaw saga. I for one am waiting eagerly for the rest of the story. jeffp |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: MMario Date: 28 Jun 01 - 01:06 PM ditto - Aux - I just didn't want to clutter up the story line with cr*p |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: Lonesome EJ Date: 28 Jun 01 - 03:11 PM Good story as always Auxiris. |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: Auxiris Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:48 AM Thanks, all. Second part posted as of today; sorry for the lag-I had to go off for the weekend and hadn't finished the translation. cheers, Aux
|
|
Subject: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: Auxiris Date: 02 Jul 01 - 03:54 AM THE MAGIC DRUM, part II (Translated from a French language collection of Senegalese stories and legends published by Fernand Nathan, editor, © 1963)
One evening, he sees a huge lake glittering under the reflection of the moon. He is so overcome with joy at the sight of so much water that he leaps into the lake immediately. As soon as he begins to swim, he is irresistably pulled by the current. Like his first voyage, he is pulled down to the bottom of the lake softly lit by moonlight. His friends, the caimans, come to greet him and the birds who were around him become fishes again. Now he sees the reeds, the familiar tree on the riverbank and there, stuck in the mud, is his coupe-coupe, which he picks up. Seydou pierces the surface of the river and finds himself home again, with the little drum under his arm, his only souvenir of his marvellous voyage.
He sits on the ground in his poor, broken down hut and, not really knowing what else to do, begins to play his little drum mechanically. All of a sudden, his hut, which was crooked, straightens up and covers itself with new straw. Seydou continues to play. Calabashes full of millet, beans and even rice and meat appear before him! Seydou plays louder and louder and rich robes and lengths of cloth pile up around him. Everyone in the village comes running to see what is happening and, since the moon is full, a feast is organised. All the poor fisherfolk are amazed to see so much wealth.
The feast continues each night, to the point where the King, who has heard of all these strange festivities and is jealous of this rich and generous fisherman, comes to ask Seydou to explain his sudden prosperity. The fisherman tells the King the story of his marvellous voyage in detail. Well, dear friends, as you might imagine, the King doesn't hesitate a second. He takes Seydou's coupe-coupe and goes to the riverbank, climbs the trees and lets the coupe-coupe fall into the river, plop!. The King dives into the river without a care for his flowing robes embroidered with silver and gold. Just as was Seydou, he is transported and accomplishes a marvellous voyage. He arrives in the shepherd's village, tired and hungry:
"Give me something to eat", says he to the village headman.
The King leaves, annoyed and furious, but still hungry. After a long, tedious trek, he finally comes to the village of drums, still feasting and overflowing with food and all kinds of riches. After having satisfied his hunger, he goes to see his equal, the King of the village of drums.
"Greetings, my brother", says the King of the village of joy and perpetual feasting, "Choose the drum that pleases you the most and return to your own country, for when there are two crowns in a kingdom, there is one too many. "I thank you, my brother", said the King, "I'll promise you that I'll leave this very evening.
Needless to say, only the biggest drum was enough to satisfy his vanity. Indeed, it was so big he had trouble carrying it away on his head.
Running in spite of his heavy load, the King sets off happily, thinking of all the riches he'll have thanks to his big drum as Seydou's little drum was already so generous. He comes to the lake, plunges into the water and takes the return path in the depths of the lake. At last he sees the riverbank, the tree overhanging the river and Seydou's coupe-coupe, which he pushes even deeper into the mud:
"We'll never need to use you again, miserable instrument of sweat and toil!"
When he reaches his palace, he invites all his subjets to a grand celebration that very night. When all the people are assembled, the King starts to play his enormous drum, which produces gloomy and frightening sounds. Immediately, all the evil river spirits, djinns of the plains and forest demons come rushing at the people, not sparing the nobles any more than the farmers and fisherfolk, poking, stabbing, burning and hitting the dancers with thorny branches, all the while wailing about how all vain people deserve to die by fire!
Fortuantely, Seydou arrives in the middle of all this uproar. He starts to play his little drum and all the spirits, djinns, demons and assorted devils disappear by magic, singing as they go about how courageous Seydou is and that he would make a much better king than their present ruler.
The villagers didn't hesitate an instant: they drove away their bad King and put Seydou on the throne. With his magic drum, he was able to satisfy his subjects' needs and reigned wisely for over a hundred years.
This is the story the griot thought of in the instant when he was about to be lost at the bottom of the ocean. There you go. . . now, as usual, I'll have to type in a few useless lines of garp to keep the machine from slicing off the bottom of the story and blah, blah, blah, patati and patata, etc., etc., and so on and so forth and blah, blah |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: Lonesome EJ Date: 02 Jul 01 - 04:13 AM Wonderful, Auxiris. Thanks for the Magic! |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: jeffp Date: 02 Jul 01 - 09:04 AM Thanks, Auxiris! I love these stories. jeffp |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: Auxiris Date: 02 Jul 01 - 10:41 AM Hello. . . glad you liked it. Have got another one that's REALLY long, but haven't even started translating it yet; maybe I should post a few short ones for a while. Or maybe one of you would like to take over for a bit? cheers, Aux
|
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: hesperis Date: 03 Jul 01 - 02:00 AM Is it in a seperate thread or something? |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum From: Auxiris Date: 03 Jul 01 - 04:14 AM Yes, entitled The Magic Drum, part II. Aux Messages from multiple threads combined. |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: GUEST,KingBrilliant Date: 03 Jul 01 - 09:36 AM That was great!! On the question of long or short - for myself I prefer short (because I'm reading at work....) Plus a long one sounds like a lot of work for you! Someone else take over??? Not me!! I'm a crap story-teller (sorry). I just love reading them though. Kris |
|
Subject: RE: Story: The Magic Drum, part II From: RichM Date: 03 Jul 01 - 04:55 PM This story sounds like a shamanic journey.Interesting how folklore preserves the stories of alternate realities. Rich |
| Translate Thread |