The Vase of Clay
by Jean AicardGenre: Drama
Setting:
Format of Original Source: Short Story
Recommended Adaptation Length:
Candidate for Adaptation? Not Likely
EXCERPT:
Now Jean is ageing; Jean is old. He sits upon his stone seat beside the well, under the lace-like shade of the olive tree, in front of his empty field, all the soil of which is good clay but which no longer produces either raspberries or roses.
Jean said formerly: “There are three things: roses, raspberries, lips.”
All the three have forsaken him.
The lips of the young girls, and even those of the children, have become scoffing.
“Ah, Father Jean! Do you live like the grasshoppers? Nobody ever sees you eat, Father Jean! Father Jean lives on cold water. The man who grows old becomes a child again!
“What will you put into your beautiful vase, if you ever make it, silly old fellow? It will not hold even a drop of water from your well. Go and paint the hen-coops and make water-jugs!”
Jean silently shakes his head, and only replies to all these railleries by a kindly smile.
He is good to animals, and he shares his dry bread with the poor.
COMMENTS:
Not really a story; belongs more in the prose-poem category. Might make an interesting dance piece, but probably not a musical.
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