The Princess Who Would Never Cry

para Oscar Wilde

Once upon a time, many and many years ago, there was a castle on the top of a hill. It was a huge castle with many towers, made from rocks from all over the kingdom. In one of the towers lived a princess. She was extremely gorgeous, blonde and shiny as the sun and with eyes as blue as the sea. The princess used to wear very colourful dresses, being then as happy as she was. She was known as the Princess Who Would Never Cry.

Her father, the King, thought the fact of his daughter never finding something worthy of her tears interesting, but somewhat sad. Even when his wife, the Queen, died, his daughter did not show any reaction of sorrow or despair, as it would be expected in a situation like that. Indeed, during the funeral ceremonies, she could barely contain her joy, trapped in an immutable smile. It does not mean that she did not knead the mother, because, of course, she loved her very much, but she was so happy that she could not pretend that she was sad by something as obvious as death. Also she was sure that her mother wouldn’t like her crying.

During the wars that the kingdom fought against other kingdoms, the princess used to hide in her tower, watching the knights fight. Sometimes she was specially cheering for someone, but generally she was only observing the whole act. The roar of the bows and arrows lighted up her dancing. She was not crazy, as many readers may think, but she was only too happy.

The King was concerned, because everyone in the kingdom was happy in some moments and sad in other moments, as any normal human behaviour, except his daughter. He knew that the two emotions were supposed to complete and balance each other; as a pendulum that goes from right to left, a person should go through bad and good moments in life. In spite of all his thinking, he ended up concluding that there was no serious reason for all that concern, since the princess never caused any sort of evil to anyone, not even to herself with her infinite happiness. The King only thought about his daughter’s future life. Someday she would have to cry. That unshakable happiness was not normal. It was hard for the King, considering that she was not doing anything bad, but all this joy was not good, either.

One day, the princess was playing in the woods near the palace. She was picking up the autumn leaves and throwing them to the sky and then standing under them as if she was under the rain. The princess was also singing. She instinctively knew how to sing, because she had never had classes or teachers that could tell her how to do it. Sometimes the birds came around to hear her. Those ones who tried, impolitely, to sing along were quickly silent by their peers. Some other animals also attended that show of joy and beauty.

While singing, the princess did not realize that a man had listened to her singing and had been looking for her. He came closer and closer, faster and faster. He hid himself behind the trees, completely astonished by the beauty and grace of the princess. Some animals noticed his presence and tried to warn her, but she was so busy singing her own happiness that such warnings were not taken into consideration.

The princess sang happily, even when her voice was delicately joined by another voice, a more serious and stronger voice, a sound that she had never heard before. Both remained in the duet that was perhaps the most beautiful song ever sung under those trees, in three hundred years. The princess was worried at the beginning, but she was taken by the melody. As singers do when an aria is finished, the two suddenly stopped, breathless. The man came out from behind the large tree he was hidden. He was tall, strong and undeniably handsome.

The two youngsters fell in love at that exact moment. He was a prince, coming from a very distant region. He had come to fight for the King’s Army and his slaves had heard about the Princess Who Would Never Cry. He had asked around about her, even having to sometimes disburse gold coins, so much that he had discovered her magic hideout. He did not regret. The two went to the palace, together, hand and hand.

The princess was deeply in love. The prince loved her and did not accept losing her. The King was very happy to know that his daughter had chosen a husband; even more being he an ally. The preparations for the wedding began.

But Sadness, which, for several years, had tried to enter the princess’ life, prepared its hardest trick. On the week before the marriage, a war started in the country of the prince and he, being a member of the Royal Family, had to go back and help his father and his brothers to defeat the enemies. Many battles were fought to save the honour of the kingdom, but a struck took the young man’s life. In a treacherous fight, the opponent struck the prince with his cruel sword. He, so beautiful and so loved, could not fight against the inexorable power of death and fell down, closing his eyes forever.

The news were slow to arrive; the messaging systems were all compromised due to the war. The messenger that took the news was thinking of the least shocking way to make everyone aware of the tragic loss. He told it to the King with his eyes looking at the ground and His Majesty said that he was going to solve everything. The marriage had become a funeral. The Princess received the news of the death of her future husband with a smile on the face. She thought it was a joke. It was not.

She ran wildly to the forest and stopped, sitting on a stone. She felt her heart strongly beating in her chest, showing that she was still alive. Her eyes began to burn. Her heart jumped. The tears came to her eyes. In that single moment, the Princess Who Never Cried finally cried. Hours and hours she wept. All the sadness that had never existed to her filled the eyes of the princess. The poor girl cried so much that the tears started to form a pond which became a lake, then a river. When she got tired, she returned home and locked herself up in her room for years, leaving it only to eat. She became then a sad princess.

Some years later, the princess decided to leave her room. She observed the fall of the sun from the top of the mountain. She went down the steps of the palace, without telling anyone. She ran to the edge of the hill. She knew what she wanted: to see the fall of the sun. The princess had a sudden reverie. She saw her lost lover calling her. She ran to him and to death. She fell from the top of the hill. The whole kingdom cried for the Princess Who Never Cried.

In one of my trips, I went to that kingdom and sat next to the river. The wind was calm and seemed to sing. Without realizing it, I lay myself under a tree, which was next to a stone. That tree was the very first one to grow by the river and was at that exact place where the Princess Who Never Cried cried for the first time. I prayed for her and her lover. I gathered my tools and equipment, rode my horse, towards the infinite. The sun followed me, as I went down to the mountains.