"The Indian Parrot" by Coleman Barks

"The Indian Parrot" by Coleman Barks
(Published in One-Handed Basket Weaving. Maypop Books, 1991.)

There was a merchant setting out for India.
He asked each male and female servantwhat they wanted to be brought as a gift.
Each told him a different exotic object:A piece of silk, a brass figurine,a pearl necklace.
Then he asked his beautiful caged parrot,the one with such a lovely voice, and she said,

"When you see the Indian parrots, describe my cage.
Say that I need guidance here in my separation from them.
Ask how our friendship can continue with me so confined and them flying about freely in the meadow mist.
Tell them that I remember well our mornings moving together from tree to tree.
Tell them to drink one cup of ecstatic wine in honour of me here in the dregs of my life.
Tell them that the sound of their quarreling high in the trees would be sweeter to hear than any music."

This parrot is the spirit-bird in all of us, that part that wants to return to freedom, and is the freedom. What she wants from India is herself!

So this parrot gave her message to the merchant, and when he reached India, he saw a field full of parrots. He stopped and called out what she had told him.

One of the nearest parrots shivered and stiffened and fell down dead.

The merchant said,
"This one is surely kin to my parrot. I shouldn't have spoken."

He finished his trading and returned home with the presents for his workers.

When he got to the parrot, she demanded her gift.
"What happened when you told my storyto the Indian parrots?"

"I'm afraid to say."

"Master, you must!"

"When I spoke your complaint to the fieldof chattering parrots, it broke one of their hearts.
She must have been a close companion,or a relative, for when she heard about you she grew quiet and trembled, and died."

As the caged parrot heard this, she herself quivered and sank to the cage floor.

This merchant was a good man. He grieved deeply for his parrot, murmuring distracted phrases, self-contradictory -cold, then loving - clear, then murky with symbolism.

A drowning man reaches for anything!
The Friend loves this flailing about better than any lying still.
The One who lives inside existence stays constantly in motion, and and whatever you do, that king watches through the window.

When the merchant threw the "dead" parrot out of the cage, it spread its wings and glided to a nearby tree!

The merchant suddenly understood the mystery.

"Sweet singer, what was in the message that taught you this trick?"

"She told me that it was the charm of my voice that kept me caged.Give it up, and be released!"

The parrot told the merchant one or two more spiritual truths. Then a tender goodbye.

"God protect you," said the merchant "as you go on your new way. I hope to follow you!"