What lay beyond that gap in the wall?
It could be simply one of those niches carved into the rock, beyond which she would find yet another wall to come up against. Or it could be a hidden passage, like the tunnel that connected her trailer to the circus ring.
Although she felt very tired, the Tiger decided to get up.
She wanted to find out what lay beyond that wall.
Strangely, her body and legs obeyed without complaining. She knew she had lost a lot of weight, but she hadn’t thought she had lost that much.
She could feel the fresh earth beneath her paws, so this could not be a dream.
She really was walking.
What if this is how the acrobats feel? she found herself thinking.
But before she could give herself an answer, she had passed through the wall.
What appeared before her eyes was neither a glacier nor a ridge, but another valley similar to that which she had left behind – only here there were no mountain ranges on the horizon to mark its borders.
It was more than a valley; this was a huge pasture with rolling hills and hollows. The grass seemed to contain all the shades of green on Earth; brushed by a light breeze, it swayed softly, like waves on the sea.
The Tiger stopped, hesitating.
Will I be allowed in? she wondered.
She saw a herd of deer pass by, not far from her. They walked proudly with their majestic jagged horns, with no sign of fear in their velvety eyes. Even a cub could attack them at this range, the Tiger thought, realizing as she did so that she was no longer hungry.
She was captivated by their beauty.
Throughout her life, she had only ever chased their backs or lunged at their throats. She had never realized how proud and noble they were.
The deer stared at her for a moment, then continued on their way.
I wonder if they see in me what I see in them, she thought, letting them pass by unharmed.
And yet she still couldn’t bring herself to go in.
It was only when she saw the sun that she found the courage.
Held within that sun were all the sunrises and the sunsets she had admired in her life, and yet it looked so different from the sun she had always known. Instead of rising on one side and setting on the other, it sat unmoving in the sky.
A huge sphere, the colour of fire.
Its rays seemed to penetrate every piece of matter; they did not scorch or burn, but instead painted all things with the mild sweetness of the dawn.
The sun was calling to her, like it had called to her in the taiga.
It was that sun that encouraged her to take her first steps into the unknown pasture, discovering a vast array of flowers hidden among the tall grass. None of them had wilted or been bent; it was as if no herd had ever passed through there, as if no one had ever grazed upon them.
She looked at the flowers, then, lifting her muzzle, stared at the sky.
And in the sky, beyond the sun, she saw the stars.
She could see both the daylight and the darkness of the night. They merged into one another, as the rhythm of breathing merges with every creature called to life.
The flowers were stars, and the stars were flowers. They were reflected in one another, shining with the same splendour.
As she moved slowly forward, the Tiger realized there were several animals in the pasture, but, strangely, none of them ran away.
There no longer appeared to be predators or prey.
Every creature walked with the calm confidence of a tiger who feels like a true tiger. The same calm, the same majesty. Even the squirrels and hares. Even the clumsy marmots carried themselves with the dignity of a King or Queen.
While she was observing this strange phenomenon, the Tiger was joined by a doe. Their eyes met, and once again, the Tiger realized she was no longer hungry – only very thirsty.
Too much time had passed since she had had anything to drink. She remembered her mother’s words: ‘The larger prey always go to the river.’
She decided to trustingly follow the doe.
They proceeded quietly through the tall grass, strolling side by side towards the hills. When they passed the second hill, the Tiger heard the murmur of a brook in the distance. They leaned over and saw the water in a small ravine not far away.
Aside from a lamb that seemed to be resting, its legs folded underneath its body, there was no one else around.
So they descended down the slope. The grass beside the water was soft.
Once they reached the brook, the doe lowered her neck, bent her legs slightly and started drinking in small sips.
The Tiger crouched down too, like she had done as a cub, taking her time. She let her paws dangle down the bank and leaned over, dipping her tongue into the water.
What a wonderful feeling!
She had finally found some water that could quench her burning thirst!
As she drank, however, the Tiger became aware of something odd. The brook seemed to have no bottom. There were no rocks or sand, no fish or weeds in sight. Beyond the water there was only more water, just as beyond the sky there is simply more sky.
The brook seemed to slice the world in two, like a knife.
In two halves; in two lives.
For a moment, the Tiger thought she had seen her mother’s face reflected next to her own. She had the same proud and joyful look that she had had when she gave birth to her.
That joy suddenly became her own.
She leaned a little further forward, stretching out a paw to try to grab the reflection. To touch her mother’s fur once more – to hear her voice. To see the Man’s hands again – to catch his eye.
What sort of water could it be that it seemed to contain everything she had loved?
The more the Tiger looked into the water, the more she realized how much it resembled a gemstone.
One evening, a long time before, the Man had told her about those precious stones.
‘They’re such wonderful gems that they radiate splendour. Everything is reflected and renewed on their surface. There are some that are coloured and others that are transparent, like diamonds. Men are willing to condemn themselves to hell just to possess them. Imagine the peace that would reign in the world if they knew that the only gems to treasure are the ones that shine from the beginning and for all eternity within their hearts.’
At that moment, the Tiger felt a voice vibrate inside her like a roar of thunder.
‘Tiger!’
She jumped in surprise. Whoever could call her name with such power?
The lamb was the only creature in sight.
Then she turned around.
And saw.
The Siberian tiger, otherwise known as the Amur tiger, is one of the largest members of the cat family. These tigers were once found throughout Russia, eastern Mongolia, China and North Korea. By the 1940s, however, they were faced with extinction; in little over a century, the world had lost 97% of its tiger population, and the total number of Siberian tigers living in the wild reached as low as forty.
Although they are still seriously endangered, with the help of worldwide conservation and anti-poaching efforts, global numbers of tigers have now risen to just under four thousand, over five hundred of which are Siberian tigers. In June 2017, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) launched an appeal to highlight the disastrous effects of habitat destruction and climate change, in the hope that by the next Chinese Year of the Tiger, 2022, numbers of tigers in the wild will surpass six thousand.
Find out about the many ways you can support efforts to protect the Siberian tiger here:
www.worldwildlife.org/species/amur-tiger
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A Oneworld Book
First published in North America, Great Britain and Australia by Oneworld Publications, 2017
This ebook published 2017
Originally published in Italian as La Tigre e l’Acrobata by La nave di Teseo, 2016
Copyright © Susanna Tamaro, 2016
English translation copyright © Nicoleugenia Prezzavento and Vicki Satlow, 2017
The moral right of Susanna Tamaro to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved
Copyright under Berne Convention
A CIP record for this title is available from the British Library
ISBN 978-1-78607-282-5
eISBN 978-1-78607-283-2
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Susanna Tamaro, The Tiger and the Acrobat
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