הנסיך קוקייה: סיפור מאת נל זינק
סוויטה לתזמורת או לשישה נגנים מאת בוריס יופה
מאנגלית: אני
טקסט מלא (אנגלית): למטה
PRINCE CUCKOO
Suite for orchestra or six players by Boris Yoffe
Fairy tale by Nell Zink in German or English, Hebrew by Avner Shats
1. Overture
Once upon a time there was a handsome prince. He was ruggedly good-looking, plus he had big, beautiful wings and could fly like a bird.
He said to himself, wow, with my wings I am totally cool. I’m going to be the best king ever. Every day I’ll fly back and forth over my kingdom and look down to see if my people are happy. Nobody else here can fly, so everybody loves me, because I have wings. When I turn twelve my father the king will retire, and then I’ll be king and I’ll be the best king ever.
Then it was his twelfth birthday. His parents the king and queen came and said, hi prince, how are you, we’re awfully sorry, but you can never be king. The reason is that you’re not related to us. We have no wings, and neither does grandma, and neither does grandpa, and neither did great-grandma, and neither did great-grandpa, and so on all the way back to Adam and Eve. None of them had wings.
We don’t know where you got these wings, but you can’t possibly be our son with wings like that. Wings are hereditary. They run in families. So you must be from some totally different family. Please, you are old enough to leave us now! Go and find your true family!
The prince said, I’m like a cuckoo-bird, the bird that grows up in the wrong nest. From now on just call me Prince Cuckoo.
2. Kuckuck
His parents said, go and find your true family. They gave him ten dollars and said, goodbye, our dear cuckoo-bird! It was nice knowing you!
Prince Cuckoo was very, very sad.
He started to walk. He walked and walked, on an on, far away into the distance. He met all sorts of different people. He asked them all, are you my father? Or are you my mother? But no one knew him at all. It was very sad.
He could have flown with his wings, but then he wouldn’t have found any people to ask, because all the people were on the ground. There are no people in the air.
He walked a long, long way.