Dongeng Bahasa Inggris tentang Kembang Melati dan
Kupu-Kupu Emas (The Golden Butterfly). Selamat membaca...
KEMBANG MELATI, a beautiful young princess, lived with
her old nurse and many serving-women in a palace on the bank of a great river.
Rajah Banjir, the monarch of the rains, lived in his
rainbow-colored palace on the other bank of the river. He could cause floods to
appear at his will, and his tears made brooks and rivers swell. From his
windows he could see the little princess weaving her bridal dress, and he could
hear her singing a song for luck. But the princess never looked toward his side
of the river.
The monarch of the rains kept gazing at her with great
sad eyes. Because he was so sad, he wept many tears, and the river swelled and
the wind sighed softly through the high trees around the palace. The princess
heard the sighing of the wind, and saw the river rising higher and higher. But
she did not know that it was her future husband who was weeping and calling to
her.
For many days the monarch of the rains yearned for the
princess. Finally, to be near her, he changed himself into a golden butterfly
and flew back and forth before her window until at last the princess saw him
and opened the window so that she could admire his dazzling wings.
^ Then the golden butterfly lighted on Kembang Melati’s
little hand, kissed her finger tips, and flew out of the window.
A few days later the butterfly returned and perched on
Kembang Melati’s right ear and whispered to her, "Weave your bridal dress
quickly, princess, for soon your bridegroom will come."
The princess heard only the word "bridegroom."
She asked, 'Where is my bridegroom?" The butterfly did not answer her, for
he had flown out of the window.
But someone else had heard her question. That was
Nasiman, the wicked son of the princess's old nurse. He went to his mother at
once. "Mother," he said, "I was standing outside the princess's
window and I heard her ask, 'Where is my bridegroom?' I want you to go to her
and tell her that I am her bridegroom."
'That you can never be, son/' the old woman said,
"because you are not of noble birth."
"Nevertheless, I wish to marry the princess,"
he answered.
"Go to her, Mother, and tell her that her bridegroom
has come”
Nasiman was wicked and cruel, and his mother was afraid
of him. So she went to the princess and told her of the bridegroom who had come
to claim her hand. Just then the golden butterfly flew back and whispered in
the princess's ear, "The real bridegroom has not yet come, princess. The
one who is now under your roof is a wicked man. His name is Nasiman, and he is
the son of your old nurse, Sarinah. Do not many him. . . . Wait till the true
bridegroom comes!"
When the golden butterfly had flown away, the princess
said, "I will wait, nurse, till the true bridegroom comes/'
"This is the true bridegroom/' the nurse insisted.
She clasped her hands and begged, "Oh, princess, dear princess, marry him
at once, for if you do not, we shall both die!”
The princess did not want to die. So finally she said to
her nurse, "Tell the bridegroom who has come that I must have seven days
to think it over. Tell him to wait on the bank of the river and I will send him
my answer there/'
Nasiman found this idea good, and agreed. He took a big
basket, filled it with food to last him seven days, and had it carried to a
spot on the bank of the river.
On that same day the monarch of the rains called to him a
white crow, one of his best and biggest messenger-birds, and gave her a little
chest full of costly ornaments and a letter.
"Take these immediately to the Princess Kembang
Melati," he ordered, "and make sure that you don't lose
anything."
"Don't worry, master," the crow replied.
"I myself will take everything to the princess."
The white crow flew off with the little chest bound fast
to her back and the letter between 'her claws, and winged her way to the
opposite bank of the river. There she saw Nasiman eating the last of a
delicious-looking fish. The white crow, who loved fish, flew over swiftly, and
cried, "Oh, how good that looks! May I have a little bite?"
"How do you dare ask me that?" Nasiman demanded
crossly. "Who are you, and where do you come from, with a letter in your
claws and a chest on your back?"
"Well," the crow answered smugly, "I
happen to be the messenger of the great magician, the monarch of the rains! And
I am to take this letter and this little chest to the Princess Kembang Melati,
as my master ordered. What's more, I am to give them to her myself."
"Hmm/' Nasiman said with a false little laugh.
"In that case, Til let you eat some of my fish. Put down your letter and
take the chest from your back, and fall to!"
The white crow didn't have to be invited twice. She laid
the letter and the little chest in the grass, and began to eat greedily of the
delicious bit of fish.
Nasiman lost no time. He opened the chest, took out the
beautiful golden ornaments and in their place put some "big spiders and
some gruesome-looking scorpions. Then he hurried to his mother with the letter.
"Mother/ 7 he said, "I can't read, but I imagine that this letter
must be full of lovely words. Now I want you to change them, at once, into ugly
words. Meanwhile I'll hide these ornaments."
The white crow was so busy eating that she did not notice
what was going on. She ate the fish, down to the last scrap. Then she went to
get a drink at the spring. The spring murmured to her, "Ah, white crow,
why didn't you take the letter and the little chest to the princess as Rajah
Banjir said?"
But the white crow didn't hear. She didn't hear the wind,
either, sighing to her, "Ah, white crow, something dreadful will happen
because of your greediness!"
And something dreadful did happen. When the princess saw
the white crow come, bearing the letter and the little chest, she believed that
the bird came from her true bridegroom, and in great excitement she decided to
read the letter first. As her eyes flew over the words, she could hardly believe
what she read: "You are very ugly," the letter said, "and what
is in the little chest is foul and old. That goes, too, for your green hair and
your blue skin."
She was so angry that she tore the letter into shreds and
tossed the little chest, without opening it, through the window. The spiders
and the scorpions swarmed over the garden to the great astonishment of the
white crow who could not understand how her master could have sent such
horrible things to the lovely princess.
But Nasiinan laughed to himself. Now the princess would
marry him, he thought
But the princess had no thought of marrying anyone now.
She was bitterly grieved by the ugly letter. Weeping, she paced back and forth
in her chamber. No one could comfort her, and she cried, "Take away my
weaving stool! I will never weave again on my bridal gown!"
Toward evening of that sad day the golden butterfly came
back and flew through the open window. He lit on the princess's ear.
"Darling princess," he whispered, "why don't you wear the
beautiful ornaments that your bridegroom sent you?"
At that the princess hit at him with an angiy hand. The
great monarch of the rains thought surely she was only teasing him. He
whispered in her ear again: "Beloved little princess, would you like to
see your bridegroom tomorrow morning? He will take you to his rainbow-colored
palace where the golden rays of the sun are magnified a thousand times into the
most wonderful colors, and where you shall see woven cloth so fine, so
dazzling, that it is like moonbeams! Come, darling princess, finish weaving
your bridal gown, for tomorrow your bridegroom comes!"
The princess grew even angrier. She called her serving
women to her and bade them chase the golden butterfly away and never again to
let it come inside. When the great magician heard the princess say these words
he became so angry that he caused a mighty flood to come over the land that
very night. Everything that was not submerged drifted away, torn loose from the
land. The palace with Princess Kembang Melati and her nurse and the wicked
Nasiman and all the others who lived in it, drifted on the floodwaters.
The palace drifted farther and farther, until it came
near the other bank where the palace of the great monarch of the rains stood.
The king was in his doorway, watching, but when he saw the princess's palace
floating toward him he pretended not to see it. The princess cried piteously
for help, but he pretended not to hear.
They were drifting out of sight when the nurse cried out
in despair, "It's my fault! I bear the blame! It was I who changed the
beautiful words of the letter into ugly ones! And my son, Nasiman, filled the
little chest with spiders and scorpions while the white crow was eating the
fish 1 /'
When he heard the nurse's confession, the monarch of the
rains understood everything. He leaped down and dragged the princess and all
the others out of the drifting palace and brought them into his own. Only her
old nurse and the nurse's wicked son were not permitted to enter,
"May great waves engulf you!" he thundered. And
at his words mighty waves, as high as the heavens, rose in the water and
swallowed up the nurse and her son.
The white crow was punished, too, for her greediness. She
was changed into a black bird which could never speak again.
All she could say was, "Kaw . . . kaw . . . kaw . .
. kr - kr. . . ." It meant "gold . . . gold/' But though the crow
searched, she never could find the gold and jewels with which the little chest
had been filled.
When the evildoers were punished, the monarch of the
rains caused the flood to subside. In a short time, the whole world was dry
once more, and when he had accomplished that he turned to the princess and told
her that he was the son of a nobleman and that for days and nights he had
yearned for her.
Kembang Melati took pity on him. She knew that he was
truly her bridegroom from the way he spoke to her. So she married him and lived
the rest of her happy life with him in the rainbow-colored palace on the bank
of the river.
But, strange to tell, no mortal has ever found the spot
where that palace stood.
Contribution for humanity and for this blog
Bank bri unit kajuara watampone
at sintia aulia
Rek no. 5102-01-000005-52-8
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