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    Red Sails (a Russian tale*)

Red sails, a symbol of hope.
It was Alexander Grin, a Russian writer who lived during the Russian Revolution, who gave them this good omen meaning.
Red sails, just like the title of his novel, Assol and her red sail dream's story.



When Assol was nothing but a child she lived with her father in a house near the sea.
Her father used to make little models of ships and sell them at the town market.
One day he decided to make a little model for her daughter, but while he was going to put sails on it, he found out that all the white material was finished. How could he finish the little ship for his adored daughter? He thought and thought, then he found out a red material and decided to use it.

The following day the little ship was ready for a happy and smiling little Assol to receive it. She took the little ship and ran towards the sea; she put it in the water and began to play joyfully. She didn't notice that the ship was flowing away from her. So she was forced to run after it 'till the little ship stopped at the feet of a very tall and old man.

Assol looked up surprisingly while the old man took the little ship in his hands. The little child didn't know that she had just run into the powerful wizard of the city.
He looked at her, at the little ship and gave a faint smile pronouncing a few words that little Assol would never forget.

He told her that one day she'd see a ship with red sails and on it there would be a beautiful man she'd fall in love with and who would love her in return.
She'd leave with him, marry him and… the wizard stopped talking, Assol was looking at him confusingly, deeply fascinated by the inner quietness of that old man. He gave the little ship back to Assol and went on on his solitary walk on the seashore.

From that day on little Assol began to go to the seashore and sit there, looking towards the sea, waiting for her ship with red sails...
Time passed, little Assol became a young girl, but she never stopped going to the seashore and sitting there, looking at the sea. People looked at her pitifully, "Poor girl", they murmured, "she's completely crazy. How can she wait with such a blind faith for something that's rather impossible to be meant to happen?!", they shook their heads and passed on, busy with their own daily business.

Young Assol didn't listen to their sceptical words and kept on waiting sure that her ship with red sails would come, and with it, her love. The words of the old wizard which had been pronounced a long time ago had come straight to her heart and hit her imagination.

She waited and waited, lots of ships with white sails came and went in that sea, but no ship with red ones. 'Till a day another ship with white sails entered the port and a beautiful young captain landed in the city of young Assol. He was walking along the seashore when saw Assol asleep on the sand and fell in love with her.

He asked to some people who that girl was and they told him that she was just a crazy girl who was waiting her charming prince on a red sail ship since she was a child.
He couldn't believe that beautiful and lovely girl could be crazy, he couldn't believe it because he already loved her and so decided to buy a red material and change the sails of his ship.

So the beautiful young man Assol had been waiting for since she was a child came, she fell in love with him and left with him on his red sail ship.
The people of her city looked at them astonished, but each of them with a sweet smile upon their lips. That day, they had witnessed that dreams come true if you believe in them in spite of sceptical words and negative appearances.
Dreams could come true and people began to believe in dreams.


*Taken from Alexander Grin's lovely novel, red sails became a symbol of hope in Russia.
And every year, as a tradition, in June, when school finishes and all exams are over, schoolchildren go for a walk down the city during white nights, walk along the river and a ship with red sails appears on the horizon. A symbol for children who become adult, who dream about something...

 

INFO AUTHOR

The story was inspired by Anna's tale about Alexander Grin's novel "Red sails".

 

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