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The Phoenix Birdby

Hans Christian Andersen

(1850)

N the Garden of Paradise, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, bloomed a rose bush. Here, inthe first rose, a bird was born. His flight was like the flashing of light, his plumage was

 beauteous, and his song ravishing. But when Eve plucked the fruit of the tree of knowledge ofgood and evil, when she and dam were driven from Paradise, there fell from the flaming swordof the cherub a spark into the nest of the bird, which bla!ed up forthwith. The bird perished in theflames" but from the red egg in the nest there fluttered aloft a new one#the one solitar$ Phoeni% bird. The fable tells that he dwells in rabia, and that ever$ hundred $ears, he burns himself todeath in his nest" but each time a new Phoeni%, the onl$ one in the world, rises up from the redegg.

The bird flutters round us, swift as light, beauteous in color, charming in song. &hen amother sits b$ her infant's cradle, he stands on the pillow, and, with his wings, forms a glor$around the infant's head. He flies through the chamber of content, and brings sunshine into it,and the violets on the humble table smell doubl$ sweet.

But the Phoeni% is not the bird of rabia alone. He wings his wa$ in the glimmer of the (orthern )ights over the plains of )apland, and hops among the $ellow flowers in the shortGreenland summer. Beneath the copper mountains of *ablun, and England's coal mines, he flies,in the shape of a dust$ moth, over the h$mnbook that rests on the knees of the pious miner. +n alotus leaf he floats down the sacred waters of the Ganges, and the e$e of the Hindoo maid gleams bright when she beholds him.

The Phoeni% bird, dost thou not know him The Bird of Paradise, the hol$ swan of song-

+n the car of Thespis he sat in the guise of a chattering raven, and flapped his black wings,smeared with the lees of wine" over the sounding harp of celand swept the swan's red beak" on/hakspeare's shoulder he sat in the guise of +din's raven, and whispered in the poet's ear0mmortalit$-1 and at the minstrels' feast he fluttered through the halls of the &artburg.

The Phoeni% bird, dost thou not know him He sang to thee the 2arseillaise, and thoukissedst the pen that fell from his wing" he came in the radiance of Paradise, and perchance thoudidst turn awa$ from him towards the sparrow who sat with tinsel on his wings.

The Bird of Paradise#renewed each centur$#born in flame, ending in flame- Th$ picture,in a golden frame, hangs in the halls of the rich, but thou th$self often fliest around, lonel$ anddisregarded, a m$th#0The Phoeni% of rabia.1

n Paradise, when thou wert born in the first rose, beneath the Tree of Knowledge, thou

receivedst a kiss, and th$ right name was given thee#th$ name, Poetr$.

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