The palace of China’s Emperor
Was a splendid place indeed
But ever more splendid his garden was
With flowers and magical things
Infinitely, his garden stretched
Its end, the gardener knew not
If you walked far enough, you’d see
The Nightingale’s perching spot
In a beautiful forest, on the branches of trees
Overlooking lakes deep and blue
The Nightingale sang its lovely song
And stopped all who passed through
Poor fishermen with busy jobs
Each time, would pause to listen
Remarking, “Oh, how pretty it is,”
Before returning to their business
Word of the lovely Nightingale’s song
Spread out far and wide
Travelers wrote poetry
Describing its delight
Now, the Emperor hadn’t known of it
Before a book detailed
That, “The Nightingale is best of all,”
In his garden of infinite scale
So he sent his Marshal out in search
Of the heavenly Nightingale
And demanded that he bring it to him
Or die if he failed
The Marshal inquired about the Nightingale
Searching the palace outside and in
But, like the Emperor, no one knew
Save a poor little girl in the kitchen
“Oh, the Nightingale? I know it well,
It sings beautifully indeed,”
And she led the Marshal with the court
To the Nightingale by the sea
They came across the lowing of cows
And the croaking of frogs like bells
“Lovely,” declared the Marshal, of both
But they were not the Nightingale
At last, they reached a place and stopped
When a little gray bird began to sing
“That’s it, do you hear it?” asked the girl
“Like little glass bells ringing.”
“Little Nightingale, will you sing tonight
For our gracious Emperor?”
“With pleasure,” said the Nightingale
And through the greenwood, they traversed
Back at the palace, servants prepared
For the arrival of the bird
They ran around, shouting, to and fro
No one could make out a word
In the center of the great hall
Sat the Emperor and a perch
Upon which the Nightingale
Was to sing its lovely verse
The gray bird sang so beautifully
Tears streamed from everyone’s eyes
The Emperor offered the gray bird gold
But the gray bird politely declined
“I’ve brought tears to my dear Emperor’s eyes,
My song has touched your heart,
To me, that is a treasure enough,
To know you loved my art.”
The Nightingale now remained at the court
Entertaining them all day and night
And while the gray bird was an honored guest
It longed for its freedom of flight
The Nightingale’s cage was a beautiful cage
But a cage that confined nonetheless
It was only allowed out three times a day
And the gray bird enjoyed none of them
One day a parcel arrived for the Emperor
From the Emperor of Japan
“My Nightingale’s poor next to yours,” read the note
Inscripted on a band
The Emperor of Japan had sent
His artificial bird
Meant to look and sing like the Nightingale
Jewel eyes embedded in silver
"Charming!" said the court as they made
The fake and the real bird duet
But the real bird sang its own song
While the fake bird's song was set
Then the artificial Nightingale
Was made to sing alone
Thirty three times, the same melody
And still it was not worn
They only stopped rewinding it
When the Emperor thought
That the live Nightingale should now get
To sing it’s lovely songs
But where had it gone? No one had noticed
The Nightingale fly away
The machine bird’s song had the whole court’s focus
While the real Nightingale escaped
They called the Nightingale ungrateful
And exiled it from their realm
“We still have the best bird of all,
The artificial Nightingale.”
“It sings a song we can predict
Unlike the real bird’s tunes,
And besides, it’s prettier to look at,
A silver bird inlaid with jewels.”
The artificial Nightingale
Was showcased to the public
Where the poor fisherman who had heard
The real Nightingale commented:
“It sounds pretty enough,
And it looks similar too,
But there’s something lacking,
It’s just not as true.”
Soon everyone knew by heart
The metal Nightingale’s song
From street-boys to the Emperor
Everyone sang along
Until the fateful day that
Something in the machine bird snapped
And no longer could it sing
Anything exact
The bird was fixed
But never the same
And only once a year
Could it be played
