A long time ago there lived a certain donkey who was the property of a trader who dealt in salt. The donkey was patient and enduring - he carried vast loads without complaint. He waited only for the end of each day when he could be alone with his dreams. Then, by night, he filled himself not with food but with thoughts of the world above the earth - he felt himself flying among creatures which had never lived on the ground: strange, fantastical, beautiful shapes whose wings only sometimes brushed the soil. These beings had never tasted salt, the donkey was sure, and he wanted to be one of them - to grow true wings of his own.
The salt grew heavier and heavier. The trader bought it from desert nomads who in turn bartered for it from a slave kingdom in the south. Nothing was good about it, except that it seasoned the meat of soldiers who were garrisoned in the town and who longed for the shaded avenues of their home. The donkey knew that one more sack on his back would break his spine. The trader contemplated bringing more but saw that the donkey would not reach town in time for him to do his rounds of the wealthy houses. Everything was calculated to within a grain of breaking point.
Although he had been doing the same work for many months since he had grown to his full size the donkey was still described as 'the ass's colt', as if he were just a foal or a newcomer to the stable. Generally the older animals who could not work any more went for meat but this donkey's mother stayed in a shed in the garden. The trader's daughter rode on her back every day and the good-natured animal listened to the birds singing in the evening. Nobody, man, woman or child, had ever ridden the colt himself.
The donkey couldn't be sure if time was speeding up or slowing down. There was so much business to do in town. The work never stopped, the roads were dusty and dry; each day was too short to do as much as the trader wanted to do; each day stretched like a hurried eternity before the donkey. He wanted the trader to sell as much as he could because then his load would be lighter. But most of all he wanted to stop and dream of the golden creatures flying in the sun.
His mother told him this: "Son, dreams are like butterflies - they mean much more than what they seem to be. But only the butterfly knows what its life is for. Will a donkey ever fly? Let me tell you this - the soldiers you take salt to must suffer their lives; the rich people you visit will lose their sons and daughters like anyone else. The nomads are cursed by freedom and the slaves die other people's deaths for them. Look and see. If you are lucky you will carry a trader's daughter in a pretty courtyard and listen to the birds in the evening. If you are lucky your back will not break. Listen to me. Once there was a donkey just like yourself who worked like a slave. But he looked at people as only a donkey can. He saw that their own lives made them slaves of themselves. They could not carry their burdens. He alone was able to bear the weight on his back and at the same time to see how people suffered. He endured beatings and curses and hunger. One day he looked down at his hoofs and saw that a little rim of gold, like the edge of the sun, had formed on each foot. No man could see that, he knew. And as he drank he saw the reflection of his tongue in the trough. It was coated in silver, like the light of the moon. His master would never know it. And now when he worked he felt his spirit inside lifting up with every step. Wherever he went he spoke, in his own words, the sorrow he saw. Son, is this not flying? Can a donkey not be equal to a butterfly and know its own life? Is a dream not what you become with your life?"
The donkey listened and looked after this. Sure enough the nomads, the slaves, the soldiers and the rich people suffered and fell more than he did himself. He saw this now. Their lives were like disguises for their souls. Wealth and strength, freedom and servitude meant very little. Had they dreamed truly? Had they become what they dreamed? The donkey felt sorry for people. And every day he looked at his hoofs, and at the reflection of his tongue in the trough, to see what was forming there.
One day the donkey stood by the well while the trader drank. There was a feast coming up and he wanted to make sure every house in town had all the salt it needed. The donkey knew what that meant for him. The trader went inside. Suddenly two men appeared as if from nowhere.
"This is the one," said the first man, looking at the colt. "We'll take him now."
"We should tell someone," said the second man. He looked inside the gate.
"There's no time," replied the first. "We need to go."
At that moment the trader walked out.
"What do you think you're doing?" he demanded, when he saw the two men preparing to lead his donkey away.
"The master sent us," replied the man.
"The master?"
"Yes, you know who I mean. He's returning to the city and means to ride in."
"I know your master," pondered the trader. "He spoke to my daughter. She's never forgotten it. I need this animal for work today. But I have another in the back. She's his mother and very sweet tempered. She would do the job well."
"No," answered the second man, "he specifically asked for the colt we would find tied to the gate. The colt with the sun in his feet and the moon on his tongue. I don't know what that means."
The trader looked at the donkey. The words affected him for some reason.
"It might be this is the right one," he said slowly. "Take him then. For the sake of my daughter you might as well take the old one too. But bring them back safely. You know what they are planning to do to your master."
He went to the shed in the courtyard and led out the colt's aged mother. The men set off briskly with the ass and her colt behind them. Once, when they stopped for a moment, the old donkey said to her son, "This is the day when you will bear the world upon your back." The colt could not think what she meant. He only imagined that he would be expected to carry a greater load than ever.
A group of men and women were waiting at the city gates. To the donkey's eye they seemed different to the nomads and traders, the merchants and the soldiers. The donkey could not find a hint of slavery about them and with his practised eye he could tell they were able to carry a burden if they had to.
In the middle of the group there was one man in particular who had a special lightness about him. The donkey could see that this man carried all his own weight in an effortless kind of way. The man looked at the mother and son, the ass and her colt in such a way that the colt felt he had all the evenings of his life to spend listening to the birds.
"This one has completed her work," said the man, stroking the older donkey. He turned to the colt. "This fellow is the one with the sun in his hoofs and the moon on his tongue." He patted the colt, who felt a blissful sensation coming over him. "No human soul has ridden this beast before," went on the man, "but he knows how to carry the world!"
The man climbed up onto the colt's back. The colt felt as if all the salt he had ever carried had been shifted away. If tears could have fallen from his eyes they would have. Is this what it meant to carry the world? If it was then he would gladly do it every day of his life!
Now all the people in the group set off in procession through the town. The colt walked in the middle with the man on his back. Many people came to greet them. The donkey knew them - where they came from and what pains they suffered. The people shouted and threw down branches in front of them as they passed. And each branch was like a heavy weight being lifted.
Suddenly the donkey had the strangest sensation. Instead of there being a burden on his back he felt he was carrying all his dreams: the creatures who lived above the ground; the fantastical, beautiful shapes whose wings hardly brushed the soil. They were all there - he was carrying them all. He was part of their world and would never be separated from them again.
Now when they reached the temple the man climbed down. He stroked and patted the colt in thanks. He turned to the colt's mother and thanked her for bringing her son into the world and making this journey possible. "You are the very soul of wisdom!" he said. In that moment the donkey felt that every donkey who had ever walked on the earth was there with them, and all their burdens slipped away. He saw that slaves, nomads, merchants and soldiers alike would one day be released from the loads they were forced to carry.
The man disappeared into the temple. The donkey and the mother were returned to the trader's yard where they resumed their normal life. The greatest feast of the year was nearly upon them and the town was crowded. The donkey and the trader had work to do. But in his own mind the ass's colt was preparing for a completely different feast.
It came five days later. A thick darkness fell over the town during the day. The birds stopped singing. The colt's mother stood very still indeed. The donkey felt his back tingling. He looked down and the only thing he could see in the darkness was the light coming from the rims of gold on his hoofs. He found the trough and peered into the still water. A silvery, moonlike glimmer reflected from his tongue.
The darkness passed and the world was changed. An invisible feast had taken place even while the townspeople hurried to prepare for their usual one. The donkey knew that nothing he carried would ever feel the same again.
Two days later a strange thing happened to his dreams. Among all the beautiful, flying creatures he so much wanted to join, the donkey saw the figure and face of the man he had carried. From that point on he knew that the world he lived in and the world of his dreams would be one and the same.
Jay
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