Dendeng, In Search Of His Wife
Dendeng was very vain. His wife’s death made him angry; she dared leave him without warning.
He wanted her back. He would break into the City of Peace. A caretaker of that place tried to stop him at the gate, saying:
“If you steal from death you rob your own soul.”
But the caretaker was pale, and scrawny, and spoke softly. So Dendeng paid them no heed.
On the outskirts of the City of Peace he came upon two soldiers. Their spears clashed like hearts beating. Dendeng demanded they stop to show him the way.
The first soldier said: “We desire war. More and more! Give us your shield. Give us your sword.”
The second soldier asked: “What is more precious? The strength of your hand? Or your wife’s touch?”
Dendeng did not like tests. He was mighty, and not in battle only. So he gave the first soldier his sword, and he gave the second soldier his shield. The soldiers led him to a palace by the River of Hours. At the door there he was greeted by two maidens. Their hair hung like wisps of mountain mist. Dendeng smiled to seduce them.
The first maiden said: “We desire beauty. That which we have lost! Give us your hair. Give us your skin.” The second maiden said: “What is more precious? The love of others? Or your wife’s loyalty?”
Dendeng considered their words. He decided he was through with lustful needs. So he gave the first maiden his hair, and he gave the second maiden his skin.
The maidens announced Dendeng at the Court of Silence. There sat a prince upon a dais. The prince’s stillness was like a jade figurine; he did not move. Dendeng understood that the prince was mute.
Dendeng asked himself: What was more precious? His loud voice? Or his wife’s laughter?
Knowing the answer, Dendeng offered his tongue to the prince. This the prince accepted, and swallowed, and in Dendeng’s own voice the prince called out: “Come, beloved.”
So Dendeng’s wife appeared.
But she did not run to Dendeng’s arms. Instead she stepped onto the dais, and sat by the prince’s side. For now she was the prince’s wife.
“O Dendeng, who was my husband,” she said. “In life I loved you. Yet you beat me, and went with other women, and treated me as property. Your words were as torture to me. So in death I will do differently.”
At her command soldiers drove Dendeng from the Court of Silence with his own shield, his own sword. And Dendeng fled the palace and the River of Hours.
Finally Dendeng stood before the gate of the City of Peace. There he was unable to leave. He was voiceless, skinless, weak and stumbling – as low as the caretakers of that place.
Dendeng was too ashamed to face the living world again. None of his vanity remained.
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