Klechdy sezamowe

Six oriental fairy tales told by one of the most outstanding Polish poets and illustrated by one of the most important representatives of the Polish poster school.

A young Persian prince mounts an enchanted wooden horse and disappears into the clouds. He flies all the way to Bengal before he discovers how to land.

A fisherman fishes a copper box out of the sea and when he opens it, he realizes that it would have been better not to do so.

An African sorcerer comes to China to find the only man who can retrieve a miraculous lamp from the underworld…

Do you remember these stories?

It takes a great deal of concentration to listen to these tales from beginning to end. For they are tales full of unexpected events and unheard-of miracles. It's easy for an inattentive and careless listener to get lost in them, just as a certain boy got lost in the enchanted forest. At midnight, all the paths and roads of this strange forest began to leap and dance with laughter, and they fled from the boy as often as he tried to step on one to return home. One must be very attentive when entering an enchanted forest, or when listening to truly enchanted tales. Even Persian, Arabian, and Indian kings strained their royal attention when these strange and terrible, strange, and incomprehensible tales were told to them.

So please be quiet, for this is where the story begins!

The text was based on the first edition (Kraków: Wydaw. J. Mortkowicza, 1913), omitting abbreviations and changes introduced in editions published after the author's death. Inflection, spelling, and punctuation have been modernized.