Song for a Princess

Once a Prince wrote a song for his wife as a declaration of his love for her, a song about her eyes and how they shone like the stars; about their love and how it would continue to blaze as long as the light of heaven.

 

But then, one day an evil magician kidnapped his wife and took her away to his palace upon the other side of the world and, so that she would not try to escape, he removed her memory so that she forgot all about her husband or that she had been kidnapped.

 

In its place the evil magician put a memory of them both falling in love and becoming married.

 

But the magician was not a nice man; he was cruel and ruthless and the Princess would think to herself,

 

“He could not always have been so, for surely I would have seen it and I would not have married him”.

 

But the Prince never forgot his Princess, in fact he asked his family to watch over his throne while he searched for her and, disguising himself as a wandering minstrel, he travelled the world, playing the song that he had written for the princess, hoping that she would hear it and would remember it.

 

And, one day, the Prince was wandering past the house where the magician lived singing the song and, hearing it, the Princess thought that it sounded familiar.

 

“I’m sure I have heard that song before”, she thought, “But I can’t remember when or where?”.

 

And, hoping that he might be able to identify it, she called the magician,

 

“Husband, please come and listen to this song. Perhaps you know where I might have heard it. It seems so familiar”.

 

But the Magician, coming to the window of the Princess’s room and listening, recognized the voice of the Prince and, looking down and seeing the Prince standing in the street below, thought to himself.

 

“I must get rid of him before the Princess starts to remember him”.

 

And so the Magician ordered his guards to arrest the Prince and to seal him in a cave and, seizing and smashing his mandolin they dragged the poor prince off to a cave in the desert and pushing a rock infront of it sealed him inside.

 

But then looking around, the Prince saw that the cave was full of old lamps and because, as a child he had loved tales from The Arabian Nights and especially Aladdin, he was certain that, if he rubbed them all, one of them would contain a genie.

 

So he started to rub them, one after another but not one genie came out of any of the lamps.

 

“Oh well”, he sighed sadly, “Perhaps Genies only exist in fairy tales”.

 

So then, so that he could look around the darkened cave, he lit one of the lamps and then, by the flickering light of the lamp he saw a harp with these words written upon it,

“Whoever plays upon this harp and sings their wish, it shall come true”.

 

And so the Prince played upon the harp and he sang of the wish to see his true love again.

 

And as he sung, to his wonder and amazement, the Prince saw the cave round about him begin to melt and change and, suddenly he realised that he was no longer in the cave but in the quarters of his Princess within the home of the Magician.

 

And when he saw the Princess he called out to her.

 

But the Princess didn’t remember the Prince,

 

“Who are you?”, she asked, frightened because a strange man was in her quarters.

 

Realising that she didn’t recognise him, the Prince lied,

 

“A Musician”, he said, “Hired to entertain you”.

 

Then the Prince started to play the harp again and this time he sang a wish that the Princess would remember him.

 

And, as he played the harp and sang, suddenly, it was as if a veil was lifted from the Princess’s mind and, looking at the Prince, suddenly, she remembered him and the life they had had together.

 

“Oh my Prince”, she said, “I remember, I remember everything”.

 

Overjoyed, they ran into each other’s arms.

 

But then the Prince told the Princess to hold on tightly to him while he played the harp and then, with her arms wrapped around his waist, he played the harp and sang a wish to be home again in their Palace.

 

Not long, afterwards, however, the Magician discovered that the Princess was gone and, angrily vowing to get her back, he turned himself into a gigantic dragon and flew to the palace of the Prince and Princess, then landing outside of it bellowed in a voice like a raging desert storm for the prince to come out and face him.

 

Now, playing upon the magic harp again, the Prince wished for a way to defeat the dragon and, as he was singing, suddenly, the harp changed into a golden bow and all of its strings turned into arrows.

 

So then, putting the arrows into a quiver and slinging it upon his back the Prince climbed upon a white stallion and, carrying the golden bow in one hand rode out to meet the dragon.

 

And, each time he fired an arrow from his bow, he heard the sound of a musical note ring out, so as he fired the bow he sang a song; he sang a wish for the arrows to find their target.

 

And when the dragon clawed the air trying to snatch the arrows out of it, suddenly, to the Prince’s astonishment, he saw the arrows turn into dancers dressed in silk robes of every colour that leapt and whirled and skipped upon the air as if to the music of a ballet so that, even when the dragon grew a thousand long arms, it could not catch them for the arrows would keep evading its grasp until, their aerial ballet done, the dancers became arrows again, flying swiftly and burying their sharp heads deeply into the dragons evil heart.

 

Now, the evil magician vanquished, the Prince happily rode back to his princess and that night, beneath the stars he sang the song that he had written for her long ago;

 

“

1.

 

See how the stars so bright;

they seem to pierce the night;

a silver quiver shot

from the moons crescent bow.

 

They’re like your loves bright darts

that deeply pierced my heart;

love that forever hot

as heavens fires will glow.

 

Chorus:

 

To heaven above

or hell below;

there’s no place, my love,

I would not go.

 

To mountains on high

and oceans deep;

I’d never say die

and I would not sleep

till I proved my love for you.

 

2.

 

And those bright lights above,

I’d bring to you, my love.

To heaven, I would fly;

and, all the stars, I’d steal.

 

I’d make a crown from them

to match the twinkling gems

of your beautiful eyes,

to prove my love was real.

 

Chorus:

 

To heaven above

or hell below;

there’s no place, my love,

I would not go.

 

To mountains on high

and oceans deep;

I’d never say die

and I would not sleep

till I proved my love for you”.