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The Emperor’s Dream
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The Emperor of China has such a vivid dream of his true love, that he is able to describe her to an artist who paints her portrait. A courtier then takes the picture of the Emperor’s dream girl, and goes out in search of her in the real world.
Although this story is set in China, it actually comes from Persia. Bertie found it in a book called “Flowers from a Persian Garden and Other Papers by William Alexander Clouston” (1890) and he thought it was an exceptionally charming story. He’s rewritten his own version in modern English.
Read by Elizabeth. Duration 8.57. Storynory version by Bertie.
The Emperor of China was in love with a dream, or to be more precise, with a girl whom he had seen in his dreams, but never in real life. Every night when he fell asleep, he saw her walking in a garden, wearing the most beautiful silks. He could hear her soft voice singing to herself. He could see her pick a cherry from a bowl and pop it into her delicate mouth.
He was so entranced with his dream girl that he asked the court painter to create a portrait of her. He described her elegant feet, her rounded nose, and everything about her, including the exact way she shook her head with a playful frown on her forehead – like so. And as the artist was very skilled, he turned the Emperor’s words into their perfect likeness in paint.
Although the Emperor was pleased with the picture, his courtiers understood that he would be even more delighted by a living copy of the dream, made out of flesh and blood. One of them, realizing that he would receive a rich reward for discovering this beauty in real life, swore on oath to the Emperor that he would find her within a year. The Emperor agreed to let this young man take the portrait with him, and he set out in search of her.
He travelled through villages and cities, along rivers and over mountains, and wherever he went, he showed the portrait of the dream-girl to those whom he met. Often, a cunning stranger, hoping to connect his family to the Emperor, would lead him to his or her own daughter. He found several young women who indeed were very like the portrait, but none who bore an exact likeness to it. Eventually, as the year drew to a close, he began to fear the Emperor’s anger when he confessed that he had failed in his quest. He wondered if it was safe to return to the Imperial court without the dream girl. But as he was riding along the bottom of a deep ravine, he met an old hermit. He showed him the picture, and the hermit immediately recognized it as the portrait as Princess Rúm.
The young man hurried as fast as he could to the palace belonging to the father of the Princess. The father confirmed that the picture was the exact likeness of his daughter. The young man was allowed to glimpse her walking in the garden, and he saw that it was true. He had found the object of his quest. In great excitement, he told the Prince that The Emperor wished to marry his daughter. But the Prince replied:
“Unfortunately, my daughter has a great aversion to all men. On her sixteenth birthday she had a dream in which she saw a peacock and his family. He was a vain bird who liked to puff out his chest and make a great display of his plumage. All the females were greatly impressed by him. But when a polecat came into the garden, the proud peacock ran and hid behind the sheds while his wife and children were attacked and eaten. Ever since that dream, the Princess has taken the view that all men are selfish and good for nothing. She has resolved never to marry.”
The young man was greatly disappointed with this news. He returned to the Emperor’s palace, expecting to be punished for failing to live up to his boastful promise to bring back the real-life likeness of the picture. He fell down before the Emperor, told him of his discovery, and begged for mercy.
But the Emperor was not angry. In fact he was pleased, because it had turned out that the girl, like himself, was a great dreamer. He told the young man to return to the Princess’s father, to beg an audience with the young woman, and to relate to her the following story:
One morning in spring, a family of deer were nibbling grass on the river bank when suddenly a flood of melted snow flashed down from the mountains. The fawn was carried away by the water. The doe, in terror for her life, fled away from the banks. The stag, however, jumped into the water and struggled to save the fawn, until he himself was swept away and drowned.
The young man returned to the palace of Princess Rum. He knelt before her in the garden and said:
“Your Highness. One who dreams of your hand in marriage has asked me to tell you the following story…”
At the mention of “marriage”, young girl shook her head with a frown, but the messenger continued resolutely to relate the Emperor’s dream:
“One morning in spring, a family of deer were nibbling grass on the river bank when suddenly a flood of melted snow flashed down from the mountains. The fawn was carried away by the water. The doe, in terror for her life, fled away from the banks. The stag, however, jumped into the water and struggled to save the fawn, until he himself was swept away and drowned…. until he caught up with the fawn further down the stream and saved him”
The Princess listened to the story and was impressed by how closely it resembled her own dream, although one could draw a very different conclusion from it. She thought how remarkable it was that life had brought a reply to a concern that had existed only in her head. She told the messenger to wait while she walked around the garden and thought things over. Eventually she came back to the anxious young man and said:
“You may return to your master, the dreamer, and tell him that I accept his proposal of marriage. “
Seven weeks later, Princess Rum was married to the Emperor of China, and the couple lived and dreamed happily together to the end of their days.
I LIKE ELIZABETH .I THINK SHE HAS A GREAT NARRATIVE POWER!
Good story
nice…………..
I enjoyed
Nice, but I think there are some errors.
what’s a reaky story
This story is great. But PLEASE have more Katie’s stories.
This story is great but i like Natasha! Where is she? And who is Elizabeth? I hate her.
boring but helps to improve english
I loved the story
Thank you for the website
???? means I LOVE YOU
happy to see chinese character
happy to see the Chinese charater
It was a fantastic story.
well done , you people made a good effort to help us to learn english , what we would do without these wonderfull way, i appreciate thank u
this story is boring
thank u for ur website
i think it is the best because it helps me to improve english , improve listening and improve to enjoy learning english
thank u
parastoo from iran
it was weird.
i read again but not good much
well you are awsome thank you
wel i think u r awsume
i love your story’s
i like your story’s
i love your story’s
I liked the story. It was little wierd but
but it was goor time for time pass.
you need to be fun
way good
I love this story and think that natasha is probably the best story telling person in the world
Hi Edward, Lovely to hear from you. I really look forward to seeing you in June. Best wishes Bertie
Hello Bertie!
I haven’t forgotten you and have been here, as you can see, to download stories for my students. Loads to tell you so I will write soon and see you in June!
Great work and some of my students have really taken to the storynory website. A knock on the door during lunch usually means somebody wants me to download a story for them!
Edward
The Emperor’s Dream is a Beutiful and Romantic Story
I love Elizabeth voice!!!!!
I study english following Elizabeth’s voice
Natasha voice……….is hard folloiwng;;;;
so fast
so I love Elizabeth~~~
Thank you
and I love you~!
uk’s prone is pretty much nice!!!thank you veeeeeeeeeeeeeeery much
great story tanx a lot
Hi Zahra, I would be really interested to know if you have heard this story anywhere before.
hi bertie this story is really nice and i love it because it comes from my country.(im half iranian)
very good
Sally, Natasha read last week’s Katie story and will be reading the next story this weekend too.
hay you have myy name iv had this name in 2008
hi Birtie
I like this story but I like Natasha reading the stories when is she coming back?
good story…. Amazingly I saw someone else with my name…. although this name is very uncommon and rare…..
Good job Elizabeth! Im beginning to get used to your voice, as much as Natasha’s. Bravo! :)
Michelle, the stories are still coming in once a week, but the last couple of week’s we published on Monday instead of Sunday.
is it me, or are stories coming in more slowly? Well, it doesn’t matter, the ones that are coming are super duper cool. I love this enchanting story!
Nice Job Elizabeth, you have a very nice voice. Ill have to listen to this a few times : )
I love this story!!
i love it
yes
Tell me if you can hear me “THE STAR CHILD”‘ you are very good, Thanks
i like this story and listening everyday.
Dear Rachel, Natasha is back. She has read two stories for us recently
http://storynory.com/2010/05/04/katie-and-the-invisible-umbrella/
http://storynory.com/2010/03/27/bertie-and-the-merchant-of-palmyra/
And you will be hearing her voice next week.
how many sories till natasha back?!?
Dear Emily, I think it is was written in Persia because I found it the original a book of Persian stories.
Emily did you catch last week’s Katie story? We will have more Katie stories but we can’t turn them out too often because we need to keep the quality high. I’m very glad you like them though
Thank you Alexa and Brittney for your lovely message . We will have plenty more Natasha over the coming months, and I believe that the two stories that we have recorded and which are coming up are good ones.
Elizabeth has a really hard job because the audience loves Natasha so much, but I think she is doing well. I believe and hope that Natasha will always be a big part of Storynory but life never quite stays still and we need slightly bigger talent pool now to keep all bases covered, which is way we have Richard and Elizabeth on board.
great story
(Kayla) Excellent quality for a simple, short story. Love it,love it, LOVE IT. I bet the dreams about the selfish mom and dad made the princess realise that it was just a dream. Am I right? I also hope that you will create a new story soon.
Hi Bertie and Hugh,Nasrasha and Elizabeth. My daughter Brittney just loves your stories here on Storynory and I am glad to hear Nastasha is still around and in good health.
YOu see my daughter has been asking me where Nastasha was as when I played this story, she told me right away it wasn’t Nastasha. I explained to her she is on holiday and that she will read more stories soon.
I love your site it’s a wonderful thing to have this for my child as well as the stories here on Story Nory are very good and well read and Nastasha and Elizabeth have nice soothing voices.
Anyways i just wanted to say hi and say thank you for aving this site!! Also i am glad to see that there will be another story with Bertie as Brittney has listened to each story on here we could hear and she really enjoys Bertie and Tim and she says she will listen to Bertie stories as much as she can so Bertie can be reunited with Princess Beatrice,
From one writter to another I really emensely enjoy your stories,original as well as the ones you have written. I think that your imagry as well as detail is perfect.
Blessed Be and continue to do a wonderful job..
Alexa And Brittney
Men……………………………………………………………………………Is this a Chinese story?
:) :) :) :) ;) :0
Oh please make more Katie the witch series!!!!! :) :()
Dear Dilly Tate, I’m sorry I can’t answer your question about the picture, because it is showing on my computer. It’s here http://storynory.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/china_girl_2.png
Micki we will do some more monkey stories, but none are written at the moment. I have some ideas though.
that was lovely elizebeth you have a grate voce;-) :-D :-)
Wow! This is a GREAT story! I luv it!
Bertie,
Why does the picture on the story page keep saying ‘null’?
Reply.
4th comment bertie are there going to be more monke stores PLEASE REPLY ;-D :-) ;-)
Natasha is around and on top form – did you hear her read last week’s Katie the Witch story? – and she will be back with more soon. We have recorded two more stories with her – Bertie and the Boot Camp and Dido and Aeneas – both of which will be coming to this spot soon .
Hope you like this story. I think it’s a lovely one, and that Elizabeth read it beautifully.
WHERE IS NATASHA ??????? PLEASE reply Bertie !!!!
first comment !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YES ME !!!!!