Servant and the Statue

A nobleman had a very beautiful wife. She was so beautiful that the nobleman's devoted servant fell deeply in love with her, but, of course, he would never dare to take his lord's wife, and she would never dare to betray her husband. The devoted servant could only admire her secretly.

But one day, the beautiful wife received a gift from the Empress—a statue, carved from marble, resembling her exactly. The beautiful statue stood in the expansive garden of the estate.

The devoted servant soon found himself gazing at the beautiful statue. He could look at it much more often, could compliment it, touch it, and not hide his affections, doing everything he could not even conceive of doing with his lord's beautiful wife.

Time passed. The beautiful but cold statue could not return the devoted servant's love. He could only grieve for his love. One day, walking on the edge of the forest, the devoted servant sighed, thinking no one could hear him:

"How I wish for a wife who looks like her!"

He didn't dare even voice the desire to bring the statue to life—that was simply unthinkable.

Then, from the depths of the forest, came a voice:

"Did I hear correctly that you would like to create a wife in someone's likeness?"

A crow flew out of the forest and perched on a branch opposite the devoted servant. He wasn't flustered: his father was a respected court magician, and the devoted servant decided that another sorcerer, having transformed into an animal, was playing a trick on him.

"How did you get here? Crows as large as you don't live in our forests."

"True. My home is very far from here. I live in the domain of a cantankerous old man, and recently we quarreled severely. I decided to take a walk until he calms down. So what do you desire? For some reason, I think I can help you."

The devoted servant sighed and told the crow about his beloved, though without specifying whose likeness she was created in. Then the crow asked what the statue was made of and tilted its head upon hearing the answer.

"Then it will be more difficult than I imagined! But don't worry about that—I will do everything to breathe life into her."

"How will you do that?" the devoted servant asked.

"What makes you think I will sit here and describe the intricacies of my work in detail? That would take a long time and be unbearably boring. Go home and return here in the evening. Everything will be done."

The devoted servant obeyed the crow and returned to his lord's estate. He didn't sleep all night and couldn't settle all day, and in the evening, he came to the forest edge. There, a girl, exactly resembling the statue he had fallen in love with, was waiting for him. The devoted servant and the beautiful girl embraced and showered each other with kisses.

The beautiful girl came to live in a small house that once belonged to the devoted servant's father. He visited her often, telling his lord that he was visiting his sick mother.

During these same years, a terrible illness struck the lord's domain, and the devoted servant visited his beautiful girl less and less, though his love did not weaken.

In the second year of the terrible illness, the devoted servant returned to the house and found it empty, with only a basket containing two blue-eyed children on the table.