Here are excerpts from Book of the wisdom of the world.
world wisdom book
A widow has seven sons. She is poor. She is even the poorest of all her village. One year, famine raged in the country and the poor, already so poor, reached the bottom of their misery. His seven sons decide to go and earn a living across the wide world. They leave with leaden feet, desperate to leave their beloved mother behind.
***
They travel a long time going from city to city but do not find work. They are too young, too numerous, too thin. Day by day, they are more and more hungry and more and more tired. They sleep on empty stomachs in the woods, in ditches or on the side of roads.
***
Un matin, que le temps est particulièrement mauvais, que la pluie tombe à verses, qu’un vent glacé souffle entraînant à sa suite des nappes de brouillard, qu’ils sont transis de froid, mouillés de la tête aux pieds et tellement désespérés d’être en si mauvaise posture, ils se trouvent juste devant les murs délabrés d’un château. Ils frappent à la porte mais personne ne vient leur ouvrir. Ils poussent le vantail et se trouvent dans une cour vide.
No guard dogs, no horses in the stables, no light behind the broken windows. They head towards what appears to be the main building. They call but only the echo returns their calls. They visit all the rooms. They are dirty, covered with dust and big cobwebs hang from the ceiling.
***
Arrived at the last room, they stop stunned. The room is tidy, clean. In its center stands a table admirably furnished with seven silver plates, meat dishes, steaming sauces, the most varied vegetables, seven crystal glasses, seven silk napkins, fresh bread in the bread basket , candlesticks with red candles. In the fireplace logs are just waiting for the spark to spread their soft warmth throughout the room.
***
The hunger is so strong that they enter the room, sit down at the table and eat heartily. The eldest even dares to light the fire. They are good. In the middle of their meal, they hear a plaintive voice saying to them:
– Plus de lumière, encore plus de lumière !
They look at each other without speaking. After a while, silence returned and our seven boys took their glasses to drink. As they approach their lips to the glasses, the voice moans again:
– Plus de lumière, encore plus de lumière !
The eldest takes his courage in both hands, lights a torch and says:
– Je vais voir ce qui se passe.
– Nous t’accompagnons, disent les frères.
They go out into the hallway, up the stairs. The moon illuminates the steps. Arrived upstairs, they visit the rooms without finding anything. Everywhere the same dust, the same cobwebs. They climb another flight of stairs and reach a final door at the very top of the tower. They push the door open but recoil. The room is occupied by an old man with a long white beard, so long that it touches the ground, and immaculate hair. His face is very pale.
He's sitting on an old, sagging chair behind a rickety table. Behind the chair stands a huge painting that depicts a black cat with emerald green eyes that shines with an eerie light and stares at the seven boys. Despite their courage, they tremble under this gaze.
***
The old man did not seem to see the seven brothers. He is immersed in a huge book and seems to have difficulty deciphering. He starts moaning.
– Plus de lumière, encore plus de lumière !
The legs of the seven brothers are shaking more and more. The eldest is undoubtedly the bravest. He approaches the old man, taken with pity, he raises his torch above the book while saying to him:
– Voici de la lumière.
***
The old man lowers his head and resumes reading feverishly. He swallows the yellowed pages rather than reading them as if he fears the light will go out before he's finished. On the last page, he heaves a sigh and closes the volume bound in old leather with silver corners darkened by age.
The man raises his head and looking at the elder says:
– Je te remercie, mon garçon. Je vous remercie tous les autres de m’avoir libéré. Quand j’étais encore en vie, il y a très très longtemps, je n’aimais personne et mon cœur ne connaissait pas de pitié. Les gens me fuyaient. Je fut condamné à rester dans cette pièce sombre jusqu’à ce que j’achève la lecture de ce gros livre.
He speaks of wise and good people. He describes the sufferings, the pains, the tears, the injustices that strike these people. It also details all the misdeeds of which I am guilty, my selfishness, my cruelty. In these pages, there are the tears of mothers watching over their sick children, the pain of sons who cannot help their parents, the despair of mothers whose sons have left them forever. I started reading this a hundred years ago and I still hadn't finished it. Only he who would enlighten me could save me. You rescued me; as a reward, I give you this castle.
It is quite dilapidated but if you dig in the cellar, you will find seven pots of gold; they are for you. As he utters his words, a current of air suddenly blows over the torch. The youngest goes to look for another one but when he returns, the old man, the book and the cat in the frame had disappeared.
***
Les sept frères descendent dans la cave et trouvent les pots remplis d’or comme le vieillard le leur avait dit. Ils font venir leur mère, remettent en état le château, nettoient toutes les pièces et redonnent à la bâtisse son lustre d’antan. Jamais plus ils ne connurent ni la misère, ni la faim. Jamais ils n’oublièrent le vieillard ni le contenu de son livre qui n’était autre que le livre de la sagesse du monde.
