【明報專訊】There was once a fisherman who lived on the wetlands of Mai Po. While returning from fishing one day, he saw a plump goose with one wing spread awkwardly across the sand. It was injured.
The fisherman carried the goose home and nursed it back to health. On a beautiful summer morning, he released it back into the wild.
Soon afterwards, he went home to find a pretty woman mending his nets. He invited her in. Soon they were married.
At first his wife was happy, but gradually her cheeriness turned into seriousness, and their conversations, silence. When the fisherman set off early one morning, he noticed a big black hawk circling his home. On his return, he found his wife crying.
The next morning, the hawk swooped down on him, cawing and pecking. The fisherman grabbed a brush and chased the bird away. His wife was watching. When he tried to comfort her, she cried more loudly. "Forgive me for not telling you," she said, "but I'm not human. I once turned myself into a goose but got injured. That's when you found me, I came to be your wife to repay your kindness. But now we are in great danger because my father didn't agree with me. He has turned himself into a hawk to peck us to death."
The following morning, the fisherman caught the hawk and tried to kill it. It flew away and stopped coming. His wife started to go outside to enjoy the sunshine again.
But one night the fisherman returned home to find it empty. With a heavy heart, he walked down to the beach. There, spread over the sand, was the crumpled body of a goose.
The poor old fisherman never smiled again.
(text edited)
■Pun Choi: a hotchpotch of Chinese folk and fairy tales
Author: Jane Houng
Thanks: The Commercial Press, Hong Kong
■Glossary
awkwardly (adv) 彆扭地
set off (phr v) 出發
swoop (v) 俯衝
crumpled (adj) 癱倒的
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