Do You Think the Prince Will Stay a Fish Forever

The Enchanted Fish

    There once was a fisherman who lived with his wife in a small hut shut by the seaside. The fisherman used to go angling every 24-hour interval. One mean solar day, as he sat in his boat with his rod, looking at the sparkling waves and watching his line, suddenly his float was dragged away deep into the water. He quickly started to reel in his line and managed to pull out a huge fish.
“Wow! This will feed the states for days.”
Much to his surprise, the fish started to talk and said,
“Pray, let me alive! I am not a existent fish; I am an enchanted prince. Put me in the water again and let me go! Accept mercy o’ kind fisherman.”
The astonished fisherman rapidly threw him back, exclaiming,
“I don’t want to hurt a talking fish! Go on! Go where yous came from.”

    The fisherman wasn’t sure nigh this simply he still went to the seashore, sabbatum in his boat, went to the middle of the sea and said:
  “O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My wife wants not what I want,
and she won’t give up till she has her own will,
and then come up forth and help me!”

The fish immediately came swimming to him, and said,
“Well, what is her will? How can I aid your wife?” “Ah!”
said the fisherman,
“she says that when I had defenseless yous, I ought to have asked y’all for something before I let you get. She does not like living in our little hut, and wants a snug little cottage.” “Go home, then,”
said the fish,
“She is already in the cottage!”
And so the fisherman went home, and saw his wife standing at the door of a nice trim lilliputian cottage.
“Come in, come on in! Expect at the beautiful cottage nosotros have.”
Everything went fine for a while, so one day the fisherman’south wife said,
“Husband, in that location is non enough room for us in this cottage, go back to the fish and tell him to brand me an emperor.” “Wife,”
said the fisherman,
“I don’t want to become to him again. Perhaps he will be aroused. Nosotros ought to be happy with what the fish has given u.s. and non be greedy.” “Nonsense!”
said the wife;
“The fish will do it very willingly, I know. Go along and endeavor!”
With a heavy middle the fisherman went to the eye of the bounding main and said:
    “O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My wife wants not what I want,
and she won’t give up till she has her own will,
and so come forth and help me!”

    What would she have now?”
said the fish.
“Ah!”
said the fisherman,
“she wants to exist an emperor.” “Go home,”
said the fish;
“She is an emperor already.”

So he went dwelling and he saw his wife sitting on a very lofty throne made of solid gold, with a nifty crown on her caput full ii yards loftier. And on each side of her stood her guards and attendants in a row. The fisherman went up to her and said,
“Wife, are you lot an emperor?” “Yes”,said she,
“I am an emperor.” “Ah!”
said the man, equally he gazed upon her,
“What a fine thing information technology is to exist an emperor!” “Husband,”
said she,
“it is adept to be an emperor.”
They were happy for a while.

    So a time came when she was not able to sleep all night for she was thinking what she should ask adjacent. At concluding, as she was about to fall asleep, morning broke, and the sun rose.
“Ha!” “thought she, as she woke up and looked at it through the window, “later all I cannot foreclose the sun from rising.”
At this thought she was very angry, and wakened her hubby, and said,
“Married man, go to the fish and tell him I must be Lord of the lord’s day and the moon.”
The fisherman was half comatose, but the thought frightened him so much that he fell out of the bed.
“Alas, married woman!”
said he,
“cannot you exist happy with beingness such a powerful emperor?” “No,”
said she,
“I am very uneasy every bit long as the sun and the moon rising without my permission. Go to the fish at once!” “I don’t think this is a proficient thought,”
said the fisherman but his wife wouldn’t listen to him.
“Why don’t yous just get and ask the fish to brand me the Lord of everything?”
she said.

    Then the man went shivering with fear. As he was going down to the shore a dreadful tempest arose. The trees and the very rocks shook and the sky became black with stormy clouds. There were dandy black waves, swelling upwardly like mountains with crowns of white foam upon their heads. Unfortunately, the fisherman did not take whatsoever selection, so he got onto his boat and rowed to the heart of the sea and cried out as loud every bit he could:
    “O enchanted beautiful fish!
Hear my plea!
My married woman wants not what I want,
and she won’t surrender till she has her own will,
so come up forth and help me!”

    “What does she want now?”
said the fish.
“I am truly ashamed of my wife’s greed just I tin can’t do annihilation. She wants to be Lord of the sun and the moon. “Go home,”
said the fish,
“to your small hut.”
And it is said that they alive in that location to this very day.

(Adopted from Grimm Brothers, 1812.
“The fisherman and his wife”)

Read the questions carefully. Note down your opinions and reactions to the questions. During the word with your teacher and classmates, offer your personal reaction and agreement of the text.

Do you think the prince will stay a fish forever?