19.11.2001

from "CINEMA PARADISO" Giuseppe Tornatore

"Once...a king gave a feast for the loveliest princesses in the realm. Now, a soldier who was standing guard saw the king's daughter go by. She was the most beautiful of all and he fell instantly in love.

But what is a simple soldier next to the daughter of a king?

At last he succeeded in meeting her, and he told her he could no longer live without her.

The princess was so taken by the depth of his feeling that she said to the soldier, "If you can wait for 100 days and 100 nights under my balcony, at the end of it I shall be yours."

With that the soldier went and waited one day... two days... then ten... then twenty.

Each evening the princess looked out, and he never moved! In rain, in wind, in snow, he was always there! Birds shat on his head, bees stung him- but he didn't budge.

At the end of ninety nights he had become all dry, all white. Tears streamed from his eyes. He couldn't hold them back. He didn't even have the strength to sleep. And all that time, the princess watched him.

At long last, it was the 99th night... and the soldier stood up, took his chair and left."

"What happened at the end?"

"That *is* the end. And don't ask what it means. I don't know."