The Psyche

"The Psyche" (Chinese title Su Qi, also translated as "Psyche") is a short fairy tale written by the Danish author Hans Christian Andersen in September 1861 and included in the second part of the second volume of New Fairy Tales and Stories, published in 1862. The story is narrated by the brightest star of the morning: it has watched the human world for hundreds and thousands of years and tells the reader about a young Roman man whom only it remembers. This poor, unknown artist lives in an old temple on a narrow street in Rome, sculpting figures from clay but always smashing his work the next day; his friends urge him to enjoy life as Raphael did, but he longs only to turn the lofty ideal in his heart into marble. One day, in the garden of an aristocratic mansion, he meets a young woman and feels she is just like the Psyche in Raphael's painting; returning home, he sculpts her image and is satisfied with it for the first time. When the girl's father sees the clay figure, he says, "It is simply you, alive," and orders a marble version. The young man pours his heart and soul into carving The Psyche, but when he comes to announce the good news, he confesses his love to her and is met with contemptuous rejection. In his agony he buries the statue in an abandoned well, then wanders for the rest of his life and finally dies in a monastery. Many years later, people digging a grave for a young nun strike something hard with their spades, and a pure white marble Psyche sees the light of day again; onlookers marvel that it is a masterpiece of art's golden age, yet no one knows who made it; only that star remembers his struggles, weakness, and unwillingness to accept his fate. Through this story Andersen asks: which of art, love, and faith is true salvation, and can the beauty created by mortals outlive its creator?