Chapter 44 The Immortal Soul
Facing the puzzle, Aurora's head became hot.
The witch's blessing only gave her the speed of learning and memory, which didn't seem to be of much help when dealing with difficult problems that required improvisation.
"This treasure cannot be seen or touched. It should be incorporeal!"
"An intangible treasure. Is it courage? Or other qualities such as kindness?"
"No, that's not right. Mermaids also have these qualities!"
Suddenly, the mermaid princess Ariel’s frown suddenly opened, she raised her hand and said:
"I, I know!"
What? Ariel actually guessed it.
Aurora was very surprised: this quiet and elegant mermaid princess was obviously not a knowledgeable wise man.
Could it be that the answer to the puzzle is something that is difficult for ordinary humans to think of, but that Ariel, the mermaid princess, values very much because of her own special experience?
"The answer, the answer is..." Ariel was about to shout the answer.
"Stop!"
Unexpectedly, the sea ghost woman scolded:
"Princess, this is a riddle for two human children. You are not allowed to answer or remind them."
Ariel had to stop talking, she was so worried.
I don’t know when she started to recognize these two human friends, and she was worried about their gains and losses!
Aurora tried to tell the answer:
"Love! Is the answer to love? I mean, human love for mermaids."
She deliberately emphasized that it is the love between humans and mermaids. Doesn’t that mean that humans have it but mermaids don’t?
The moment she shouted this answer, the blonde girl felt happy.
Yes, love cannot be seen, but it is praised by countless poems; it cannot be touched, but it can be polluted and washed. Because love has no entity, it is lighter than wind and softer than fog! At the same time, love is indeed a treasure more precious than gold, and because love can be recorded and passed down, it can last through the years and never die.
Moreover, didn’t Ariel fall in love with a human prince recently?
"Humans' love for mermaids" is indeed "I can't think of it immediately, but the mermaid princess Ariel has been craving for it recently".
Right!
The sea hag was stunned.
A few seconds later, she announced without emotion:
"Wrong answer."
In an instant, Aurora suddenly understood and remembered the last sentence of the puzzle:
"This treasure is more important to the dead than to the living!"
Love doesn't qualify.
How to answer this? Aurora frowned.
At this moment, the clear and high-pitched young voice sounded:
"The Immortal Soul."
The silver-haired boy Rhine, who had not answered, suddenly raised his chin and repeated the answer word by word:
"The immortal soul."
Ariel's mouth opened wide, and she first looked at Rhine with wide eyes, then smiled and breathed a sigh of relief for her two new friends.
She knew that her human friend had the right answer.
"Ah? What does this mean?" Aurora didn't understand at first.
Does this answer fit the question?
Rhine slowly explained:
"The eternal soul is the answer to this riddle.
"No one can see the soul, but there are countless poems and articles praising it;
"No one can touch the soul, but the soul can be polluted and washed - we often say that despicable teachings will pollute the soul, while holy scenes will wash the soul.
"The soul has no weight, so it is lighter than the wind; the value of the soul is immeasurable, so it is more precious than gold.
“The soul is softer than fog, but because it is eternal, it will never die even after passing through the years.
"The most important thing is that the immortal soul is of course more important to the dead than to the living! Just because the body will perish, the immortality of the soul is meaningful."
After listening to Rhine's explanation, Aurora felt vaguely that something was not right.
Did the teacher deliberately ignore [one of the sentences] about the puzzle question?
"But, the mystery doesn't mean..." Aurora opened her mouth to ask the teacher, but Rhine seemed to know what she wanted to ask.
Rhine said calmly:
"Yes, Aurora. As the puzzle says, humans have immortal souls, but mermaids and other non-human intelligent beings do not."
The mermaid princess Ariel on the side lowered her head and said nothing.
"Your answer is correct." The sea hag smiled and laughed:
"Human, I really didn't expect you to know. Even in this country in the sea, only a few wise elders know this secret."
The old sea witch said again:
"The lifespan of human beings is much shorter than that of mermaids and other intelligent creatures in the sea. "But what we humans have, but what we don't have, is the shining immortal soul.
"Some say that when the body dies, the immortal soul will fly to the clear sky, to the shining stars, and ascend to the kingdom of heaven; or, in particularly bad cases, fall infinitely, sinking lower than the seabed. , the deepest part of the earth.
"In short, it is to go to another world, to a world we can never see.
"Some people also say that the immortal soul will return to the human world and reappear in the form of a newborn baby.
"When an old man dies and his relatives cry for him for the first time, somewhere in the world, another baby will cry out with the same loud cry. Death and rebirth are conjoined twin sisters. Always embrace each other and never separate.
"No one has ever truly died since the beginning of history."
Speaking of this, the sea hag laughed a little crazy:
"All the above statements are just beautiful poems unique to you humans.
"And we, the intelligent non-human beings, once we pass away, we will only turn into a ball of foam and a pool of slime and disappear without a trace.
"Because unlike you, we do not have an immortal soul."
It really is like this... Lai Yin sighed softly in his heart.
Even if you already know the answer, actually being in this situation is a completely different feeling.
In some adapted and simplified versions of the story "The Daughter of the Sea", or in the adapted story called "The Little Mermaid", the story between the mermaid princess and the prince is just a love story that is easy for children to understand.
The little mermaid wanted to become a human out of love for the prince.
She finally turned into foam and died in the morning sun, and was regarded as sacrificing her life for love.
And this story officially ends with the poignant scene of the Little Mermaid's body melting into foam.
Live for love, die for love.
But in Andersen's writing, this story seems to have more profound theological connotations and religious implications.
The little mermaid wants to marry the prince, and a crucial reason is that she is pursuing the immortal soul. She wants to gain an immortal soul by falling in love with a human and getting married.
This religious connotation also extends to the end of the work: after turning into foam, the Little Mermaid seems to have heard the voice of an angel and transformed into the daughter of the sky.
The light of God is hidden in the text of the story.
God... Rhine's thoughts were racing.
He also noticed that there was a huge difference between what the sea hag in front of him said about the immortal soul and what the original work said!
In the original story, the "immortal soul" was only described as ascending to heaven.
According to the sea hag's narration, although the wise men in the sea know the existence of the "immortal soul", its whereabouts are still a mystery.
It may rise, it may fall, it may even be reincarnated:
"When an old man dies and his relatives cry for him for the first time, somewhere in the world, another baby will cry out with the same loud cry. Death and rebirth are conjoined twin sisters. Always embrace each other and never be separated.”
Rhine is convinced that this statement is not even a word identical to the original work,
Its core connotation is also completely different from the thought of Christian scholasticism. It does not imply the existence of a unique god. Instead, it is somewhat similar to the reincarnation of Buddhism, which dilutes the original theological charm.
Does this mean that in this fantasy world, "the human soul is eternal" is just an objective natural law, no more special than "water flows from high to low" and "the sun rises from the east and sets from the west"?
The immortal soul of mankind is not a gift from the gods.
In this fantasy and magical world, there is probably no omniscient and omnipotent God!
Thinking of this, Rhine quietly breathed a sigh of relief.
The sea ghost woman snorted coldly:
"But don't forget, it's meaningless just to solve the first puzzle. You still have to answer the next two questions."
"It is worthy of the price demanded by the sea hag!" The mermaid princess sighed in her heart, and felt a little uneasy:
After Rhine and Aurora, she will also pray to the sea hag to grow human legs, go to land, and be with the prince.
So, what will the cost be?
"The next question is, listen up, humans."
The sea ghost said loudly:
"Human beings, you already know the answer to the first question: the eternal soul.
"So, please tell me, how long is eternity?
"Is eternity a hundred years? Is it a thousand years? Or ten thousand years?
"O wise human being, please tell me the length of eternity."
(End of chapter)