
Translator: Mohammad Ali Asefipoor
Source: Rasekhoon.net
Source: Rasekhoon.net
Once upon a time, in ancient times there were three sisters living together whose mother and father had died and they were very poor. The oldest and middle – aged sisters were wicked, but the youngest sister was very good – natured and kind – hearted. One day the oldest sister said: "O sisters! We are very hungry. Let's go to the nearby dustbin to search for some bits of bread to eat." In this manner the three sisters went toward the dustbin and searched throughout the garbage. As they were searching, the middle – aged sister said: "Let everyone states her biggest wish to see which one is more interesting than others." The oldest sister said: "If the lawyer of the king marries me, I will cook some potage that will be capable to satisfy an army and yet remaining." The middle – aged sister said: "If the minister of the king marries me, I will weave a carpet that if all the army of the king sit on it, there will remain yet empty spaces for sitting." The youngest sister said: "If the king marries me, I will give birth to a son for him whose half of head will be of gold and the other half of silver and whenever he laughs, flowers will pour out of his mouth, and whenever he cries, he will shed pearls instead of tears from his eyes, and whenever he walks, the ground under his feet will become gold and silver bricks."
By chance, at the rear of that dustbin, was the stable of the horses of the king and when the sisters were stating their wishes the king had come there to verify the horses and heard the speeches of the sisters. After hearing their speeches, the king ordered the guards of the palace to bring him those sisters. When they came to the king, he asked them: "How confident are you saying these? Don't you know if you cannot do these things, I order to cut off your heads?" The sisters answered: "King to be healthy! You fulfill our wishes. If we did not do that, then this is our neck and the sword of the king." The king ordered and his lawyer married the oldest sister. As his order too, the middle – aged sister married his minister. Also the king himself married the youngest sister. After these three weddings, every one of these sisters was to fulfill her claim in turn.
The oldest sister cooked some pottage in an eggshell and made it such saline that no one could even taste it. In this manner all the army of the king who wanted to eat it could not eat it and it remained uneaten. The middle – aged sister weaved a carpet and embedded on each knot a pin. When the weaving of the carpet finished, the king ordered the army to sit on the carpet. Everyone who sat on the carpet was annoyed due to the sinking of pin into his body and immediately left there. So all the army went on the carpet and yet it had empty spaces. Now, it was the turn of the little sister to prove her. The two sisters were watching that their sister had become the king's wife and the queen of the country, and were firing from jealousy and were worried about this probability that she could prove her speech and became dearer than them. Therefore, near the time of childbirth, they gave the special midwife of the palace a good bribe and reward and wanted her to take the baby of their sister and put a puppy instead of him.
At the time of childbirth, kind God gave the little sister just the same boy she had wished. The disbelief midwife took the baby and put a puppy instead of him, and took the baby with herself. Since the sisters had ordered her to kill the baby, she put the baby in a wooden box and dropped the box onto the sea.
On the other hand, the king was informed that he had been disgraced because the girl who was to give birth to a son with a head of gold and silver now had given birth to a puppy. When the king heard so, he got furious and ordered to jail his wife into a dark prison with the same disease of her. When the little sister was said that she had birth to a puppy, she became unwell seriously.
Now hear about the little prince whose one side of his head was from gold and the other side was from silver. The wooden box holding him was wondering on the surface of the sea. At last, near the sunset, the waves of the sea reached it to a corner of the beach. At that corner, there was an old man whose job was plucking thorn and managed the life of himself and his wife and his seven daughters with little money earned by selling the plucked thorns. They had a hard life since he was becoming older and weaker little by little and could not pluck thorns well. In the sunset of that day too, he was sitting in the beach to rest after he had gathered a bundle of thorn. He was watching the waves that suddenly he saw a small box was coming toward the beach. Surprisingly, he jumped and took the box and opened it at once. Astonished and stunned, he saw a one – day aged baby sleeping calm and quiet in the box and sucking his finger. He said himself: "Maybe God wants this baby to be the means of happiness of me and my wife and children." He wrapped the baby in his old cover and lifted the bundle and got going toward the home. By seeing the baby, his wife and daughters began to nag and protested him why he had brought the baby while he did not cope with the livelihood of them. But the old man wanted them to be patient and said them that maybe that baby was a means for their prosperity. Just at that time, the hungry baby began to cry. The surprised old man and the wife and the daughters saw that some transparent beads were shedding out of the eyes of the baby instead of tears. They happily gathered all of them and gave a few of them and bought some milk of cow from the shopkeeper of the village. They baked the milk and feed the baby with it. After eating it, the baby was well and began to laugh. He continuously was laughing and this time the surprise of the old man and the wife and daughters was several times more than before as they were watching bunches of flowers coming out of the mouth of the baby as he was laughing. The daughters of the old man bunched the flowers happily and fastened them to their heads and breasts.
/J