The Shadow

In the hot lands, the sun burns really hard! People there become as brown as mahogany, and in the very hottest places they even become black like tar. A learned man from a cold country had come to these hot lands. He thought he could go out and run around just like at home, but he soon found out he was wrong.

He and all sensible people had to stay indoors. The window shutters and doors were closed all day long. It looked as if the whole house was asleep, or as if no one was home.

The narrow street with the tall houses was built in such a way that the sun shone there from morning till evening. It was truly unbearable.

The learned man from the cold lands was a young man and seemed clever. He sat in a room that felt like a glowing oven. It made him become quite thin, and even his shadow shrank, because the sun affected it too. It was only towards evening, when the sun went down, that they began to feel better again.

In warm lands, every window has a balcony, and people come out on all the balconies in the street. Everyone needs fresh air, even if they are used to being mahogany brown! It was lively up and down the street. Tailors, shoemakers, and all kinds of people moved out into the street.

Chairs and tables were brought out, and candles were lit. Yes, over a thousand lights were burning. People talked and sang, walked along, church bells rang, and donkeys went dingle-dingle-dong because they had bells too. Street boys screamed and hooted, shouted and shot off firecrackers and bangers.

There were funeral processions with psalms and hymns, and the noise of carriages driving and company arriving. Yes, it was certainly lively enough down in the street. Only in the single house opposite the one where the learned foreigner lived, it was quite still.

And yet someone lived there, because there were flowers in the balcony. They grew so well in the sun's heat, and that could only happen if they were watered. Someone must water them, so someone must be there.

The door opposite was also opened late in the evening, but it was dark inside, at least in the front room. Further in, one could hear the sound of music. The learned foreigner thought it was wonderful.

But maybe he only imagined it, because he found everything wonderful out there in the warm lands, if only there had been no sun. The stranger's landlord said he didn't know who had taken the house opposite. No one was seen around, and as for the music, he found it extremely tiresome.

"It's as if someone sits there playing a piece he can't master, always the same piece. 'I will master it!' he says, but he never does, no matter how long he plays."

One night the stranger woke up. He slept with the balcony doors open. The curtain before them was lifted by the wind, and he thought he saw a strange glow coming from the opposite neighbor's house.

All the flowers shone like flames in the most beautiful colors, and in the middle of the flowers stood a slender, graceful maiden. It was as if she also shone. The light hurt his eyes. He opened his eyes wide. Yes, he was wide awake.

With one leap he was on the floor. He crept softly behind the curtain, but the maiden was gone. The flowers no longer shone, but there they stood, fresh and blooming as ever. The door was ajar, and far inside, the music sounded so soft and delightful that one could melt away in sweet thoughts.

Yet it was like enchantment. Who lived there? Where was the real entrance? The whole ground floor was a row of shops, and people couldn't always be running through them.

One evening the stranger sat out on the balcony. The light burned in the room behind him, and so it was natural that his shadow fell on the opposite neighbor's wall. Yes, it sat directly opposite, between the flowers on the balcony. When the stranger moved, the shadow also moved, because that's what shadows always do.

"I think my shadow is the only living thing one sees over there," said the learned man. "See how nicely it sits between the flowers. The door is half open. Now the shadow should be clever and go into the room, look around, and then come back and tell me what it saw. Come now! Be useful and do me a service," he said jokingly. "Have the kindness to step in. Now! Are you going?" And then he nodded to the shadow, and the shadow nodded back. "Well then, go! But don't stay away!"