BR2-13 The Happy Prince

The story is about volunteer spirits and a friendship between a prince and a swallow. The Happy Prince is a statue stands on a tall column high above a city. He is very much admired by the citizen of the town because before he died he was a good prince. Furthermore, the statue is decorated with some beautiful jewels and gold.

One day, a swallow flies over the city on the way to Egypt. He decides to have a rest between the feet of the statue. He prepares to go to sleep. But just as he is putting his head under his wing, a large drop of water falls on him. He thinks it started to rain. But there is no single cloud in the sky. Then another drop falls on him. He looks up and see the statue weeping. He gets filled with pity because the statue looks so beautiful in the moonlight. He asks the statue why he is weeping. The statue says ‘After his death, his courtiers have set him up there so high that he can see all the ugliness and all the misery of his city. And though his heart is made of lead yet he cannot choose but weep.’

The prince asks the swallow to bring his ruby to a poor family out of his sword hilt. The swallow is reluctant because he wants to fly to Egypt soon. But he feels sorry for the prince. He accommodates his request. The swallow is supposed to leave the city the next day. But the prince requests him to bring another jewel to a poor person. The swallow fulfills his request again. Everyday, the prince requests the swallow to bring his jewels and gold to poor people. At first, the swallow is reluctant but as he doing so again and again, the swallow becomes enjoying carrying out the prince’s requests.

After the prince gives all his jewels and gold, the swallow decides to stay with the statue as long as he can. Winter comes and the swallow dies. The next morning, the mayor finds the statue no longer beautiful and pulls down and melts it. But the lead heart of the statue doesn’t melt. The mayor throws it away on a dust-heap where the dead swallow is also lying. Then angels appear and bring them to God because they are the most precious things in the city. Then the swallow and the prince live happily in God’s garden of Paradise forever.

My first encounter of this story was about one year ago in a lecture meeting of the principal of the school for the deaf in Kumamoto. I had to attend the meeting to get a teaching certificate. The principal quoted The Happy Prince in his speech. I was so moved by his speech so I chose this book for the book review this time. In his speech, he told us that he wasn’t supposed to be a principal of the school as he wasn’t professional on the field of child welfare. But he was requested to be the principal so he accomplished his job with a volunteer spirit like the swallow in The happy prince. Now he enjoys his job. He has devoted himself to his job. I think to be a teacher at a public school, you must have the swallow spirit. Because teachers can’t choose students and have to be able to educate any students even if they are very bad. It’s not easy to have a volunteer spirit, but I’ll try to be able to think like the principal and the swallow.
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