Metamorphoses (2024)

Pictor saw a bird alight in the grass. The bird’s feathers were ablaze with color, each plume a different color of the rainbow. And he drew nearer to the bird ans asked, “Most lovely Bird, tell me, where can one find happiness?”. “Happiness”, the bird replied, its golden beak brimming with laughter, “Happiness, Friend, is in each thing, valley and mountain, flower and gem.” Even as it spoke this words, the bird began to dance, ruffling its feathers, flapping its wings, turning its head, beating its tail on the ground, winking, laughing, spinning around in a whirl of color. When it came to a standstill, what had been a bird was now a many-colored flower: feathers to petals, claws to roots. The transformation was marvelous. But even as Pictor stood there blinking, it wen on changing. Weary of being a flower, it pulled up its roots, set its anthers and filaments in motion. On petal-thin wings it slowly rose aloft and floated in mid-air, a weightless, shimmering butterfly. Pictor could scarcely believe his eyes.

From Pictor’s Metamorphoses by Hermann Hesse.