Once there was a king
Who was so fond of his servant,
He wished to make the servant
Superior to all his ministers.
He recognized the great,
Unfailing love within his servant’s heart.
But it was not kinglike
To promote a person
All at once
For no apparent reason.
Rather, the proper manner for a king
Is to disclose his reasons to all,
Revealing his profound wisdom.
What did the king do?
He appointed his servant
To guard his very own castle.
He also told one of the ministers,
A gifted comic,
To pretend he was a rebel
Against the kingdom,
And to attack the castle
When the king’s guards were unprepared.
The minister did as he was told.
With great resourcefulness and shrewdness
He pretended to assail the king’s castle.
The servant, now guarding the castle,
Risked his life and saved the king.
He fought the minister
With unrelenting bravery
Until all could plainly see
His love and loyalty
To his king.
Then, the minister removed his costume
And all laughed with glee
(As the servant had fought with all his might
Only to discover it was all
Imaginary and completely unreal).
They laughed even more
When the minister told
Of his imaginary character,
Deeply cruel at heart,
And of the great fear
He was sure he had seen.
And every detail
In this dreadful struggle
Brought a round of laughter and great joy.
But even so,
The servant was still a servant,
And unschooled, as well.
How could he be made superior
To all the king’s ministers and servants?
The king pondered this question,
And as before, commanded the same minister
To pretend he was a robber and a murderer
And wage a bitter war against him.
The king was certain
That in the second war,
He would reveal to his servant a wondrous wisdom,
Enough to make him worthy
Of leading all the ministers.
And so the king appointed the servant
To guard the kingdom’s treasure.
And that same minister dressed up
As a vicious murderer
Set out to steal the king’s secret riches.
The poor guard
Fought once more with all his might
And with complete devotion
Until his quota was filled.
Then the minister took off his costume
And there was great joy
In the king’s palace,
Even more so than before
As the details of the minister’s tricks
Brought about great laughter.
Since now he had to exhibit
Even further wisdom and craftiness.
Because it was now evident
That there was no cruelty whatsoever
In the kingdom,
And those they thought were cruel
Were only jokers.
In fact, that minister needed great ingenuity
To convincingly appear as a villain.