A Fable
During the Han Dynasty, in a small village located in U Province, there lived two boys who were extraordinary friends. Their names were Fan Yan and Pin Szy. Fan and Pin spent their days exclusively in each other’s company, and although they usually had nothing to say to each other, they were never bored. They did not fight or quarrel, as is common among children. They shared an extremely strong bond of friendship and a secret, wordless understanding. This was because they shared a common fascination – butterflies. From dawn to dusk, they could run after them in the meadows or lie on the grass and watch in awe at their graceful, aerial twirls. They were not perturbed by the mocking smiles of the villagers, the mischievous jokes of their peers or the complaints of their parents that fate had dealt them a child without brains. Without a doubt, they were the best friends in the world. However, this was not always the case…
Once upon a time, a boy called Pin had the idea to make a butterfly net and catch a few for himself. He was very pleased by the thought, so he immediately shared it with his friend. Fan thought the idea was silly, which caused the boys to have their first disagreement. From that day on, they avoided each other, as neither of them wanted to admit the other was right. Pin, as he thought of it, made a net and increased his collection day by day. He was now not happy with the butterflies that flew around the meadow. He only rejoiced in the ones he caught himself. Fan also could not enjoy the sight of flying butterflies as he used to. He often sat by the lake and gazed for hours at its unmoving surface. As he sat there motionless, almost lifeless, he was thinking of his friend, who at that time was carelessly catching butterflies.
One day his gaze, sunk in the watery depths, suddenly brightened. He realised what he should do. Soon he went to visit a friend. Pin, seeing him on the doorstep of his house, was very happy, forgetting the dispute that had separated them. He was happy because they were together again, but also because he could finally show his friend his collection.
– ‘This is a yuan ben de butterfly,’ said Pin, not containing himself with joy, pointing his finger at one of the multi-coloured butterflies pinned to the mat, ‘and this one is a ge ren de,’ he continued proudly with his collection.
Fan did not share his feverish joy. He knew his friend as well as he knew himself, so he immediately noticed that Pin’s joy had a different colour. His eyes had changed their gentle expression to a cold and hard one; they were now cloudy, impenetrable… He himself, in turn, was behaving differently from before. But Pin seemed to know nothing of the changes that had taken place in himself. Fan, in spite of the fact that the friend so close to him before now seemed like a stranger, acted according to his own idea.
– I see your finger and I see the pins pinned into the mat, but I don’t see any butterfly here,’ he replied calmly.
– It is a butterfly! – Replied the amused Pin – And this is a butterfly, and this too … How can you not see them?
– So they are butterflies? – Asked Fan – If so, show me how these butterflies fly.
Fan Yan’s words puzzled Pin. Perplexed, he replied that his request made no sense, as these butterflies could not fly, and that… But Fan did not listen fully to his friend’s answer. He silently walked out of his house. As he looked at the departing boy, Pin was overwhelmed by a chill-piercing feeling of inner emptiness and loss.
Once again, the days of separation between the two friends had come to pass. But now Pin was not concerned with the butterflies, for he no longer enjoyed any of them – either the free ones or the ones caught. He wondered about his friend’s strange words. He did this constantly. Day and night, awake and dreaming, he was immersed in his meditations, as if his life depended on understanding the content of these words. For their friendship was more precious to each of them than their own lives.
Finally, one day, Pin understood what Fan wanted to convey to him, and in doing so he had the feeling as if he had woken up from a dream. He gently unhooked the butterflies he had caught from the mat and, having lit a small bonfire not far from his home, arranged them on the shoulders of the flames. Without hesitating, he went to the lake. Fan was waiting for him, but did not ask anything when Pin arrived. The boys looked into each other’s clear and sparkling eyes like a sky full of stars, laughed and, as before, without a word, ran to the meadow to admire the butterflies.