LeSSoN 8

THE GIRL IN THE PORTRAIT (Traditional Baltic Tale)

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The natives of many cultures thought that if someone made a portrait of them, they were robbing their soul. Could there be some truth to this?

A young sailor found a phantom ship adrift. When he went on board, he came across a series of useless objects... except for the portrait of a mysterious girl who seemed to look at him from the bottom of her soul. The sailor hung the painting in his house and from then on no longer felt so alone, because the girl, apart from looking at him, made the food and the housework when he was away. Then the sailor visited a witch: <<If you want the girl to stay with you, wait until she steps out of the painting, and then keep the empty frame, under lock and key, in the basement>>.

The sailor followed the advice and a few days later he married the girl. In nine months they had a son who also became a sailor. They lived happily for many years until the sailor, who was old, died. That night, when the woman was preparing the shroud, she found the key to the basement,where she discovered the frame and returned to the painting where she had always been.

When the son came home after a long voyage, he looked for his parents everywhere, even in the basement, where he found the portrait of his mother when she was much younger. Then he understood everything: he hung the portrait in his ship and in that way his mother returned to the sea.

Maybe portraits don't have a true soul, but they do have something that unsettles and attracts us.