Once upon a time, and if it hadn’t happened, it wouldn’t be told.
There once was a mighty and powerful emperor. His empire was so vast that no one knew where it began or where it ended.
Some said it had no borders at all, while others claimed to have heard from the elders that the emperor once fought wars with his neighbors, some greater and stronger than he, others smaller and weaker.
There was talk throughout the land and the world about this emperor, for it was said that his right eye always laughed, while his left eye never ceased to weep. The people often wondered what strange matter this could be, that the emperor’s eyes could not be at peace with one another. If brave men went to ask the emperor, he would only smile and say nothing. Thus, the quarrel between the emperor’s eyes remained a great mystery, known only to the emperor himself.
The emperor’s sons grew up. And what sons they were! Three princes in the land like three stars in the sky!
Florea, the eldest, was a fathom tall, with shoulders so broad that you couldn’t measure them with four hands stretched across.
Costan was entirely different: short in stature, stocky in build, with the arms of a man and fists packed tight.
The third and youngest son of the emperor was Petru: tall, but slender, more like a girl than a boy. Petru did not speak much: he laughed and sang, sang and laughed from morning till night.
Only sometimes would you see him grow somber, pushing the hair from his forehead to the right and left, and in those moments, he looked like an old man from the emperor’s council.
“Florea, you’re a grown man now; go ask father why one of his eyes weeps while the other always laughs,” Petru said to his brother one fine morning. But Florea didn’t go, he had known since he was a boy that the emperor grew angry if anyone asked him about that matter.
The same thing happened when Petru asked his brother Costan.