Alexander Kuprin.

The Blue Star

The story has been published for the first time under the name “The Uncomely Princess” in the collection “New Tales and Stories” in Paris in 1927.

The same year, under the name “The Blue Star” it was included in the collection “The Brave Runaways” which was published in Paris.

In Russia, it was included in the six tome collection of Kuprin’s works which came out in 1958.

A long time ago, since times immemorial, there lived upon a high mesa a peaceful nation of shepherds, separated from the rest of the world by sheer cliffs, deep chasms and dense forests. History neither knows nor remembers how long ago it was that ironclad, strange, strong and tall men who came from the south, climbed upon these mountains and came into the land.

The harsh warriors liked very much the newly discovered country, with its peaceful people, mild climate, sweet water and rich soil. So, they decided to remain there forever.For that there was no need to conquer it, for the inhabitants knew neither evil nor warfare. All of the conquest was merely that the knights removed their heavy armor and married the prettiest of the local girls, and in the head of the state, they put their leader; the noble, brave Ern, who was given royal power; hereditary and unlimited. In those distant and naïve times it was still possible.

About a thousand years have passed since. The descendants of the warriors have intermingled through marriages with the locals to such an extent that no difference was observable between them anymore, neither in speech nor in appearance; the outer look of the ancient knights has been completely absorbed by that of the Ernoterran people, and has dissolved in it. The ancient tongue, almost forgotten even by the kings, was only used at the court, and even there only during the grandest events and ceremonies or occasionally for expressing the noblest feelings and concepts. The memory of Ern the First, Ern the Great, Ern the Saint, remained eternal as a beautiful, everlasting legend, created by an entire people, similar to the amazing legends the Indians created about Hiawatha, the Finns about Väinämöinen, the Russians about Vladimir the Fair Sun, the Jews about Moses, the French about Charlemagne.  

It was him, the wise Ern, who taught the people of Ernoterra tilling, gardening, and ironworking. He revealed to them the writing and arts. He also gave them the rudiments of religion and law: the religion was limited to reading the God’s Prayer in an

unknown tongue, and the main law was but one: In Ernoterra no one dares to lie. The men and women were recognized by him as completely equal in their rights and responsibilities, and all kinds of titles and privileges were erased by him since the first day of ascending the throne. The king himself only carried the title of “The First Servant of the People”.

Ern the Great has also established the law of succession, by which the throne was inherited by the firstborn, whether a son or a daughter, marrying solely by their own attraction. Finally, it was he, Ern the First, fully aware of the temptations, depravity and evil reigning there, below, in the educated countries he left, who ordered to destroy and make forever impassable the terrible mountain path which he and his glorious knights have climbed with such unbelievable effort.

And thus, under the fatherly, wise, and kind rule of the Erns, Ernoterra has flourished splendidly, and lived an innocent, full, marvelous life, knowing neither war, nor crime, nor want, for a thousand years.

In the ancient, thousand year old royal palace, some things which belonged to Ern the First while he lived were kept as relics; His armor, his helmet, his sword, his lance, and a few mysterious words which he carved with the point of a dagger on the wall of his hunting trophy room. These days, none of the Ernoterrans could have lifted the armor from the ground by so much as an inch, nor swing the sword, even when gripping it with both hands, nor read the royal writing. Also, three images of the king himself remained;

one – a profile, laid in the finest mosaic; the other – full face, drawn in paint; the third – carved in marble.

And it should be noted, that these three images, done with great love and great talent, were the source of constant grief for the people, who loved their first monarch. From them, there was no doubt that the great, wise, just, saint Ern, had an exceptionally, outstandingly unsightly, almost ugly face; which, however, wasn’t in any way malicious or repulsing. And the Ernoterrans have always been very proud of their national beauty, and were only ready to overlook the first king’s unsightly appearance because of the legendary beauty of his soul.

The law of inherent similarity has its strange whims. Sometimes, a baby is born resembling not his mother and father, nor even grandparents and great-grandparents, but suddenly, one of his distant ancestors, separated from him by many generations. Thus, in the dynasty of Erns, the chroniclers have recorded the birth of most unsightly sons, although as history went on, such occurrences became more and more uncommon. It should be noted, however, that these ugly princes had, as if on purpose, exceptional qualities in matters of soul: kindness, intelligence, jolliness. Such a just mercy of fate toward the unlucky ugly royals has appeased the Ernoterrans, extremely demanding in matters of beauty of lines, forms and movements.

The good king Ern XXIII possessed outstanding beauty and was married a passionate love-match to the prettiest girl in the kingdom. But they had no children for a very long time; ten years since the wedding. You can imagine the rejoicing of the people, when on the eleventh year they finally heard the long awaited news, that their beloved queen was about to become a mother. The joy was double – both for the royal pair, and for the fact that the glorious family of the legendary Ern was once again restored by direct lineage. In six months they heard with delight about the safe birth of princess Erna XIII. That day, there wasn’t a single person in Ernoterra who didn’t drink a full cup of wine for the health of the infanta.

The only place without joy was the palace. The court midwife, as soon as the baby was delivered, shook her head and smacked her tongue sadly. And the queen, as soon as she was shown the daughter, clasped her hands and cried out:

- Oh, God, what an uncomely girl – and started weeping. But only for a minute. Then, reaching out, she said:

- No, no, give me my baby, quickly, I will love her twice as much for being so unsightly, the poor thing.

The royal sire was most upset as well.

- Why did the fate have to be so cruel! – He said. – We heard about ugly princes in our dynasty, but this is the first time an uncomely

princess has appeared in the ancient family of Erns! Let us pray that her bodily unsightliness be balanced out by beautiful gifts of her soul, heart and mind.

The same was repeated by the loyal people, once they heard about the unsightly appearance of the newborn infanta.

Meanwhile, the girl grew bigger every day and uglier every hour. And, being unaware of her unsightliness, she slept soundly and without worry, ate with appetite, and was a most joyful and most healthy baby. By the age of three, it was obvious for the entire court how much she resembled the portraits of Ern the Great. But even in this tender age she was showing her beautiful inner qualities; kindness, patience, gentleness, attention toward others, love of people and animals, a clear, lively, precise mind, and constant affability.

Around that time, the queen came to her husband and said:

- My sire and dear husband. I came to ask of you a great favor for our daughter.

- Ask, my beloved wife, although you know yourself that I can refuse you nothing.

- Our daughter is growing, and it seems God has given her a quite exceptional mind, which outstrips the growth of her body. Soon the fateful day will come, when the kind, darling Erna will realize, through comparison, how extremely unsightly her face is. And I

fear this awareness will bring her a lot of grief and pain; not only now, but throughout her future life as well.

- You are right, my dear wife. But by what mercy of mine do you think to avert or ease this inevitable strike, about to hit our beloved daughter?

- Be not angry, sire, if my thought will seem foolish to you. It must be done so that Erna will never see her reflection in a mirror. This way, even is some malicious or careless tongue will tell she is unsightly – she will never know the full extent of her ugliness.

- And for that you would like?

- Yes… That not a single mirror is to remain in Ernoterra.

- The king reflected for a while. Then he said:

- It will be a great loss for our kind people. Thanks to the law of our great ancestor about the equality of genders, the men and women of Ernoterra are equally coquettish. But we know the deep love towards us and the tried loyalty of our people to the royal house, and are certain that they will make this small sacrifice willingly. No later than today, I will issue and make known through heralds our decree about the total confiscation and destruction of mirrors, both glass and metal, throughout our kingdom.

The king was right about his people, who were, at those happy times, one close family with the royal house. The Ernoterrans have, with great compassion, realized the delicate motivations of the royal decree, and have readily given to the royal guard all the mirrors and even the mirror shards. A few jokers, of course, couldn’t resist a jolly demonstration, passing near the palace with messed-up hair and faces smeared with dirt. But when the people are laughing, even with a hint of satire, the monarch can sleep peacefully.

The sacrifice delivered to the king by the subjects was all the more significant due to the fact that all the mountain creeks and streams in Ernoterra were very rapid, and thus did not reflect objects.

The princess Erna was on her fifteenth year. She was a firm, strong girl, and so tall she towered a head over the tallest male. She was equally artful both in embroidering fine fabrics and in playing harp… She had no match in throwing a ball, and climbed mountain cliffs as a mountain goat. Kindness, sympathy, justice, compassion, were flowing out of her like sun rays, giving those around her light, warmth and joy. She never grew tired of helping the sick, old, and poor. She could treat wounds and knew the effect and nature of healing herbs. A true gift of the King of Heavens was in her marvelous arms; by laying them on the scrofulous and the epileptics, she cured these illnesses. The people idolized her and blessed her wherever she walked. But often, all too often, the

sensitive Erna caught passing glances in which she sensed pity, hidden condolence…

“Maybe I am unlike all the others” – the princess was thinking, and was asking her maids of honor:

- Tell me, dear friends, am I beautiful or not?

And since no one lied in Ernoterra, the court girls answered her honestly:

- You can’t be called beautiful, princess, but you are, without doubt nicer, smarter and kinder than all the girls and ladies in the world. Believe us, the man who is fated to be your husband will say the same. And we, women, are poor judges of other women’s charms.

And it was true; judging Erna’s appearance was very difficult for them. Neither in size, nor in body, nor in constitution, nor in features – in nothing was she even remotely like the women of Ernoterra.

The day Erna turned fifteen – the time of a girl coming of age by the country’s laws, - was celebrated in the palace by a magnificent lunch and a splendid ball. And the next morning, the kind Erna gathered in a basket some rare delicacies left over from the feast, and, putting it on her arm, went into the mountains, some four

miles away, to visit her wet nurse she loved dearly. Unlike other times, the early walk and the clear mountain air gave her no joy. Her thoughts constantly revolved around the strange observations she made at yesterday’s ball. Erna’s soul was as clear and innocent as the eternal mountain snow, but a woman’s instinct, a sharp eye, and the blooming age have told her a lot. The languishing stares cast at each other by the dancing young men and women did not escape her. But not one such meaningful stare was cast at her; only obedience, loyalty, sublime politeness she saw in the respectful smiles and the low bows. And always, this inevitable, this horrible tinge of pity. Am I truly so ugly? Am I a freak, a disgusting monster, and no one dares tell me that?

In such sad reflections, Erna has reached the wet nurse’s house and knocked, but receiving no answer, opened the door, (they didn’t know locks yet in that country) and entered, to wait for the wet nurse; she has done that before if she didn’t find her at home.

Sitting near the window, resting and thinking sad thoughts, the princess cast her absent gaze at the familiar furniture and utensils, when she noticed the nurse’s secret box, in which she kept all sorts of small things which had to do with her childhood, girlhood, her first steps of love, her marriage and her life in the palace; colored pebbles, brooches, embroideries, bands, seals, rings and other naïve and cheap baubles; since she was a little girl, princess loved going through these souvenirs, and although she knew their intimate histories by heart, she always listened to them with great pleasure. It only seemed weird to her that the box stood in the open; the wet nurse has always kept it in a secret place, and when, as it often happened, her foster daughter looked through

everything, she wrapped it in a piece of fine cloth and hid it carefully.

“She must have been in a hurry; left the house for a minute and forgot to hide it.” – the princess thought, sat at the table, put the box on her knees nonchalantly and started going through the familiar things, throwing them upon her dress one by one. Thus Erna has reached the bottom, and suddenly has noticed an oblique-angled, large flat shard. She took it out and looked at it. From one side it was red, from the other – silvery, shiny, and seemingly deep. She looked, and saw the corner of the room with a leaning broom... She turned it a bit – the old narrow wooden chest of drawers was reflected; a bit more… and such an unsightly face emerged that the princess could have never even imagined it.

She raised her eyebrows – the unsightly face does the same. She bowed her head – the face repeated it. She drew her hands across her lips – and the shard reflected that movement. Then has Erna suddenly realized that it is her own face looking at her from inside the strange object. She dropped the little mirror, covered the eyes with her hands, and, in grief, dropped her head on the table.

That minute, the returning wet nurse has entered the room. She saw the princess, the forgotten box, and understood everything immediately. Dropping on her knees before Erna, she started saying gentle, consoling words. The princess, however, stood up quickly, straightened; dry eyed but with a furious stare, and gave a short order:

- Tell me everything.

And she pointed at the mirror. And such an unexpected, but indomitable will has sounded in her voice, that the simple-hearted woman dared not refuse, she told the princess everything; about the ugly and kind princes, about the grief of the queen who bore an uncomely daughter, about her touching care, with which she tried to lead the heavy strike of fate away from her daughter, and the royal decree to destroy the mirrors. The wet nurse cried as she talked, ripped at her hair and cursed the hour when she, to the harm of her beloved Erna, hid, because of stupid female weakness, a shard of a forbidden mirror in the secret box

Hearing her out to the end, the princess said with a sad smile:

- In Ernoterra no one dares to lie.

And she left the house. The worried wet nurse wanted to follow her. But Erna has ordered harshly:

- Stay.

The wet nurse has obeyed. And how could she refuse? In that single word she heard not the usual gentle voice of the little Erna she once nursed, but an order of the proud princess, whose ancestors have ruled over her people for a thousand years.

Poor Erna walked the steep mountain roads, and the wind was blowing about her long blue dress. She was walking at the very edge of a sheer cliff. Underneath her feet the dark blue haze of the abyss was visible, and the dull roar of the falls, as if hanging from above in white ribbons, was sounding. The clouds wandered under her feet as thick gloomy mists. But Erna, gliding above the abyss on her accustomed light feet, neither saw nor wanted to see anything. And her tumultuous feelings, her anguished thoughts on that lonely road? Who could have understood them and described them in detail? If only perhaps another princess, another daughter of a mighty monarch, whom the blind doom has struck a blow just as sudden and as undeserved…

Thus she reached an abrupt turn, under which the long since collapsed rocks were piled in a menacing disorder, and suddenly stopped. Some unusual sound was reaching her from below, through the roar of a waterfall. She bent over the cliff and listened. Somewhere deep under her feet, a groaning and calling human voice sounded. At this point, forgetting her grief, Erna started descending into the abyss, jumping from ledge to ledge, from rock to rock, from scar to scar as lightly as a young deer, until she reached a small ledge a bit wider than a millstone. There was no way to descend further. Nor was there any possibility to climb back, but Erna, eager to help, didn’t even consider that.

The groaning man was somewhere very close, under the ledge.

Lying upon the rock and hanging her head down, Erna saw him. He was half lying-half hanging off a peak of a rock, gripping it with one arm, and the thin trunk of a crooked mountain pine with the other; his left leg was set in a crack, the right one had no support. From his clothing, he wasn’t an Ernoterran, since the princess never saw before neither silk, nor lace, nor chamois leggings, nor leather boots with spurs, nor belts decorated with gold.

She shouted out to him:

- Ahoy! Stranger! Hold fast, I’ll help you.

The stranger, groaning, raised his pale face, the features of which were indiscernible in the semidarkness, and nodded his head. But how could the selfless princess help him? Descending further was both unthinkable and pointless. If only she had a rope!.. A height of only two large men separated the princess from the traveler. What could be done?

And them, like lightning, Erna was struck by one of these thoughts that appear during danger in the heads of brave and strong people. She quickly removed her beautiful blue dress, made from the strongest and prettiest linen; with her hand and teeth, she ripped it to wide long strips, spun them into thin ropes and tied them together. And, lying upon the coarse rocks, scratching her arms and legs on them, she lowered down the self-made rope, and laughed happily, seeing there was not merely enough of it, but plenty to spare as well. And, upon seeing that the stranger, barely managing to keep balance between the crack and the pine trunk,

managed to tie the end of the rope to his buffalo hide belt, Erna began to carefully pull the rope up. The stranger aided her in that, clutching at every roughness of the rock and pulling his body up. But as soon as the head and the chest of the stranger cleared the edge of the rock, his strength left him, and it was only through great effort that Erna managed to pull him onto even ground.

Since the ledge was too small for both of them, Erna was forced, sitting, to pull the stranger’s head upon her chest, and her arms around his weakened body.

- Who are you, oh marvelous creature? – The young man whispered with his white pale lips. – An angel, sent to me from heavens? Or a good fairy of these mountains? Or are you one of the beautiful pagan goddesses?

The princess did not understand his words. However, the gentle, grateful and admiring look of his black eyes spoke a clear language. But that very moment, his long eyelashes closed, deathly paleness spread upon his face, and the stranger fainted upon Princess Erna’s chest.

And she was sitting, forced to be still, not letting him out of her arms, and not diverting the blue stars of her eyes from his face. And, secretly, Erna was thinking:

“He is as unsightly, this poor traveler, as myself, as my glorious ancestor Ern the Great. It seems all three of us are people of the same strange breed, the physical ugliness of which differs so

sharply and badly from the classic beauty of the people of Ernoterra. But why was his gaze, directed at me, so entrancingly sweet? How pitiful it makes the touching gazes cast yesterday by our youngsters at the girls they were dancing with? They were like a flickering of a candle before the shine of a hot midday sun. And why does the blood rush so fast in my veins, why do my cheeks burn, and my heart beats, why is my breath so deep and joyful? God! It is your will that you made me unsightly, and I blame you not. But just for him, I would love to be prettier than all the girls in the world.”

Then, voices sounded above them. It took a while for the wet nurse to come out of the shock caused by the imperious order of the princess. But as soon as she recovered, she ran after her beloved daughter. Seeing Erna leaping down the rocks, and hearing the groans coming from the abyss, the smart woman realized immediately what the matter was and what should be done. She returned to the village, roused her neighbors, and soon forced them all to run to the precipice with poles, ropes and ladders. The unconscious traveler was recovered from the abyss without harm, but before the princess was pulled out, the wet nurse used a rope to lower to her the best clothes she had. After that, the strange youth was carried to the palace by Erna’s order and put in the best room. Examination has shown a few heavy bruises and a dislocated arm; also, he was running a fever. The princess herself undertook the tasks of caring for and treating him. Nobody was surprised; everyone at the court knew her compassion toward the sick and respected her medical knowledge. Also, the sick youth, while most unsightly, made the impression of a noble lord.

Should we tell in length and detail what happened next? How, thanks to Erna’s constant care, the stranger has finally woken up from his unconsciousness, and recognized his savior with delight. How he started to recover quickly. How impatiently he awaited each visit of the princess, and how difficult it was for Erna to leave him each time. How they learned from each other the words of a foreign tongue. How once, the stranger’s gentle voice said the sweet word “aime”, and how Erna repeated it in a timid whisper, blushing from happiness and shame. And is there a single girl in the world who will not understand that the word “aime” means “love”, especially if this word is followed by a first kiss?

Love is the best teacher of language. By the time the youth, having left the bed, could walk the alleys of the royal garden, they knew about each other all they needed. The stranger Erna saved turned out to be the only son of a powerful king reigning over a rich and beautiful state – France. His name was Charles. A passionate love for travels and adventures brought him into the inaccessible and dangerous mountains of Ernoterra, where his cowardly guides have left him once, and he himself, falling off a cliff, almost lost his life. He also remembered to tell Erna about the horoscope composed for him at his birth by the great French foreteller Nostradamus, which, among others, contained the following phrase:

“…and in the wild mountains to the north-east you shall first see death, then a blue star; it shall shine for you all your life”.

Erna has also, as much as she could, told Charles the history of Ernoterra and the royal house. Not without pride, she showed him once the armament of the great Ern. Charles looked at them with appropriate respect; easily performed a few fencing moves with the heavy royal sword, and found that the images of Erna’s forefather are depicting a man equally gifted with beauty, wisdom and grandeur. Upon reading the writing carved by Ern the First upon the wall, he smiled a merry and sly grin.

- What are you laughing at, prince? – The worried princess asked/

- Dear Erna – Charles answered, kissing her hand, - I will certainly tell you the reason for my laugh, but a bit later.

Soon, Prince Charles asked the king and the queen for their daughter’s hand; her heart belonged to him for a long lime already. His proposal was accepted. Any Ernoterran girl of age was completely free to choose her husband, besides, the young prince, in all of his behavior, has shown certain sign of civility, nobility and dignity.

On the account of the betrothal, there were many holidays both for the court and the people, where both the old and the young rejoiced. The queen-mother alone remained quietly sad in her rooms. “Poor beings!” – She thought. - “What ugly children will be born to them!..”

One of those days, looking along with her fiancé at the dancing couples, Erna has told him once:

- My beloved! For you, I wish so much I resembled even the ugliest woman of Ernoterra.

- God spare you from such a misfortune, oh my blue star! – Charles objected in fear. – You are beautiful!

No, - Erna objected sadly in return, - Do not console me, my dear. I know all my defects. My legs are too long, my feet and hands are too small, my waist is too high, my eyes are too big, and are of ugly blue, rather than wonderful yellow color, and my lips, instead of being flat and narrow, are curved like a bow.

But Charles was kissing without end her white hands with blue veins, and told her thousands of refined compliments, and, looking upon the dancing Ernoterrans, was laughing like mad.

Finally, the holidays have ended. The king and the queen have blessed the happy couple, showered it with rich gifts, and saw them off (before that, the kind people of Ernoterra spent a month building mountain roads and temporary bridges across streams and chasms). And a month later, Prince Charles was already entering with his fiancée into his ancestors’ capital.

It is well known that good news travel faster than the fastest horses. All the people of the great city of Paris came out to greet the crown prince, whom everyone loved for his kindness, innocence and generosity. And there was not a man that day, nor even a single woman, who didn’t recognize Erna as the first beauty in the kingdom, and therefore on all Earth. The king himself,

meeting his future daughter-in-law at the gates of the palace, has embraced her, kissed her forehead and said:

- My child, I dare not say which is the best in you; your beauty or your virtue, for they both seem perfect to me…

And the modest Erna, accepting these honors and endearments, was thinking:

“It is very good that fate brought me into a kingdom of the ugly; at least I will never have a reason to be jealous.”

And she held that opinion for a very long time, despite the minstrels and troubadours praising all over the word the beauty of her face and soul, and all the knights of the kingdom wearing blue in honor of her eyes.

But a year has passed, and the serene bliss of Charles and Erna’s marriage had another wonderful joy added to it; Erna bore a very healthy and very noisy boy. Showing him to her beloved husband for the first time, Erna said bashfully:

- My love! I am ashamed to admit, but I… I find him beautiful, despite the fact that he looks like you, looks like me, and doesn’t look at all like my kind fellow countrymen. Or is that a mother’s blindness?

To which Charles answered, with a merry and sly grin:

- Do you remember, my goddess, the day when I promised to translate to you the writing Ern the Wise carved on the wall of his hunting trophy room?

- Yes, my love!

- Then listen. It was made in the ancient Latin language, and said as follows: “The men of my country are smart, loyal and diligent; the women – honest, kind and understanding. But – God forgive them – both are ugly”.

1927