Fairy tale by Nell Zink in German or English, Hebrew by Avner Shats<\/strong><\/p>\n <\/p>\n
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1. Overture<\/p>\n
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Once upon a time there was a handsome prince.\u00a0 He was ruggedly good-looking, plus he had big, beautiful wings and could fly like a bird.<\/p>\n
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He said to himself, wow, with my wings I am totally cool.\u00a0 I\u2019m going to be the best king ever.\u00a0 Every day I\u2019ll fly back and forth over my kingdom and look down to see if my people are happy.\u00a0 Nobody else here can fly, so everybody loves me, because I have wings.\u00a0 When I turn twelve my father the king will retire, and then I\u2019ll be king and I\u2019ll be the best king ever.<\/p>\n
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Then it was his twelfth birthday.\u00a0 His parents the king and queen came and said, hi prince, how are you, we\u2019re awfully sorry, but you can never be king.\u00a0 The reason is that you\u2019re not related to us.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 None of them had wings.<\/p>\n
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We don\u2019t know where you got these wings, but you can\u2019t possibly be our son with wings like that.\u00a0 Wings are hereditary.\u00a0 They run in families.\u00a0 So you must be from some totally different family.\u00a0 Please, you are old enough to leave us now!\u00a0 Go and find your true family!<\/p>\n
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The prince said, I\u2019m like a cuckoo-bird, the bird that grows up in the wrong nest.\u00a0 From now on just call me Prince Cuckoo.<\/p>\n
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2. Kuckuck<\/p>\n
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His parents said, go and find your true family.\u00a0 They gave him ten dollars and said, goodbye, our dear cuckoo-bird!\u00a0 It was nice knowing you!<\/p>\n
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Prince Cuckoo was very, very sad.<\/p>\n
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He started to walk.\u00a0 He walked and walked, on an on, far away into the distance.\u00a0 He met all sorts of different people.\u00a0 He asked them all, are you my father?\u00a0 Or are you my mother?\u00a0 But no one knew him at all.\u00a0 It was very sad.<\/p>\n
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He could have flown with his wings, but then he wouldn\u2019t have found any people to ask, because all the people were on the ground.\u00a0 There are no people in the air.<\/p>\n
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He walked a long, long way.<\/p>\n
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3. Gavotte<\/p>\n
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Then he came to a place where everything was completely different.\u00a0 All the people had wings!\u00a0 They were all flying around through the air.\u00a0 They all had the same big, beautiful wings as Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 It was fun to fly around and look down at the houses.\u00a0 Everything looked different there.\u00a0 No one had a car, because they could all fly.\u00a0 Even the little babies could fly.<\/p>\n
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4. La Folia<\/p>\n
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He asked the people with wings, are you my mother?\u00a0 Are you my father?\u00a0 But they all said, we never saw you before.\u00a0 Who are you, anyway?\u00a0 We haven\u2019t lost track of any children.\u00a0 They\u2019re all right here, where they\u2019re supposed to be, and we even have our own prince.<\/p>\n
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Prince Cuckoo was extremely sad.\u00a0 He flew down to the ground and sat down on a tree stump.<\/p>\n
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An old man came walking by.\u00a0 He had no wings.<\/p>\n
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4. Freilachs<\/p>\n
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Are you my father? asked Prince Cuckoo.<\/p>\n
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No, said the old man.\u00a0 I am a dream-reader.\u00a0 I can tell you what your dreams mean.\u00a0 You only have to tell me about what you dreamed last night.<\/p>\n
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Prince Cuckoo said, my life is a mess.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been looking for my family for ages and ages.\u00a0 I\u2019m so lonely and always by myself, and when I go to sleep, I always dream the same dream.<\/p>\n
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Tell me about your dream, said the old man.<\/p>\n
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I can\u2019t tell you about it, Prince Cuckoo said, because in the dream, nothing happens.\u00a0 It\u2019s only music.<\/p>\n
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5. Dream Music (oboe)<\/p>\n
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The old man said, I understand your dream already and I can tell you all about it.<\/p>\n
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You understand? said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 He was amazed.<\/p>\n
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6. Dream Music (viola) while the old man speaks<\/p>\n
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The old man said, you dream only music, and you will find your mother and father.\u00a0 Everything is completely different from what you think.\u00a0 You are not a human being with the wings of a bird, but a bird with the body of a human being.\u00a0 You are not a person with wings, but a bird with arms and legs.<\/p>\n
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You are a bird, and that\u2019s why you dream only music.\u00a0 Music is your mother tongue.\u00a0 It\u2019s much too complicated to explain, but if you just go home, you\u2019ll find your family right away.\u00a0 Plus you owe me ten dollars for reading your dream.<\/p>\n
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Here\u2019s ten dollars, said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 Now I\u2019ll fly home and meet my parents!\u00a0 He still had ten dollars from the king and queen because the whole way he had saved money by eating crumbs and worms like a bird.<\/p>\n
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7. Siziliana<\/p>\n
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He was about to take off and fly away home when he saw a little tiny bird sitting on the ground.\u00a0 The bird was very sad.\u00a0 It was extremely small and helpless.\u00a0 It tried to fly away, but it couldn\u2019t fly.\u00a0 Every so often little bunny rabbits came up and punched it, because it couldn\u2019t defend itself.\u00a0 The little bird looked very unhappy.<\/p>\n
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Who are you? Prince Cuckoo asked the little bird.<\/p>\n
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I am Princess Rock, said the little bird.\u00a0 They call me Princess Rock because I can\u2019t fly any more than a rock.\u00a0 I was supposed to be queen of the birds, but they kicked me out for not flying.<\/p>\n
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I am Prince Cuckoo, said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 I was supposed to become king of the human beings, but they kicked me out because I am a bird trapped in the body of a human being like a bird in a cage.\u00a0 I can fly just fine.<\/p>\n
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Let\u2019s be friends! Princess Rock.\u00a0 I would love to fly, just once.<\/p>\n
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Then come and sit on my shoulder! Prince Cuckoo said.\u00a0 I\u2019m on my way home to meet my parents for the first time.<\/p>\n
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8. Toccatta<\/p>\n
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Prince Cuckoo flew fast through the air.\u00a0 In just ten seconds he was at home in the royal castle.<\/p>\n
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The king and the queen were very surprised.\u00a0 They said, hi there, cuckoo-bird!\u00a0 We thought about you and wondered how you were doing!<\/p>\n
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Hello king and queen, said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t find any family, but I have a girlfriend now, Princess Rock.\u00a0 We\u2019re going to get married now so we can start a family, since we don\u2019t have one yet.\u00a0 You can come to the party if you bring along something to drink.<\/p>\n
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And then Prince Cuckoo and Princess Rock celebrated a fabulous party so they could get married.<\/p>\n
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9. March<\/p>\n
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At the party there were two tiny little birds.\u00a0 They were extremely small and old.\u00a0 The little birds came up to Prince Cuckoo in a shy way and asked him in a soft, squeaky voice, Paul, is that you?<\/p>\n
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Who are you? said Prince Cuckoo.<\/p>\n
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We are the little tiny birds of the royal castle garden, the Duke and Duchess of Mikoyan-Gurevitch.\u00a0 We have been searching for our lost son Paul for years and years.\u00a0 He was a giant baby with arms and legs and a body like a human being.\u00a0 Are you perhaps our lost son Paul?<\/p>\n
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No way, said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 I have great big wings, and you only have little tiny baby wings.\u00a0 Wings are hereditary.\u00a0 I am from a totally different family.<\/p>\n
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Then the tiny elderly birds began to weep because they hadn\u2019t found their son.\u00a0 It was so sad to see them cry that everybody at the party started crying.\u00a0 Pretty soon everybody was doing nothing but crying.<\/p>\n
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Then Princess Rock said, Prince Cuckoo, don\u2019t be such a jerk.\u00a0 Everybody\u2019s crying because of you!\u00a0 You\u2019re spoiling my wedding.<\/p>\n
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I\u2019m sorry, said Prince Cuckoo.\u00a0 Dear little old birds, you can be my parents if you want.\u00a0 You can teach me about music.\u00a0 I\u2019m a bird, but I never learned how to sing.\u00a0 Sing me a song!<\/p>\n
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The tiny, elderly birds started to sing, and it was the music from his dream.\u00a0 He could sing along right away.\u00a0 He was very happy.<\/p>\n
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Then they all danced until the party was over.<\/p>\n
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10. Minuet<\/p>\n
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