Explorer Şehmuz And The Poor King

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Explorer Şehmuz arrived in the country of poor people as he ventured around. He became more and more surprised as he walked around in the country because he couldn’t understand why they were so poor. Their clothes were very old and torn and some of them were wearing wooden sandals and some of them didn’t have even those sandals and they were walking around barefooted. All the houses in the villages, towns and cities were wooden and they all had only one floor. The fields were in certain places and these places were very small compared to the largeness of the country. He went to the capital of that country. He asked for where the king’s palace was. They said it was not very far away and it was in the middle of the woods. He dismounted from his horse near the woods. He walked through the woods the trees and after a while he ended up a flat place. He looked around and could see nothing except for a two storeyed wooden house. There were about five or six people digging the ground around that wooden house with pickaxes in order to plant something. He went closer to these people:

‘ Excuse me, misters! I was told that the King’s palace was somewhere around here, but I couldn’t find it. I wonder if I am looking for it in the wrong place.’ he said.

‘ You are in the right place sir. This is the palace of our king.’ said one of the man as he pointed to the wooden house.

Explorer Şehmuz was so shocked that he couldn’t speak for a while what is more he couldn’t believe his ears and eyes. How come the King of such a big country would live in an old building like this. He couldn’t believe it. It was so strange and ridiculous. Then he started to feel dizzy and his eyes closed. Then he fell down because he lost his consciousness. When he was conscious again he held his head between his hands and started to think about the reasons of this situation.

‘ How come I couldn’t predict that living in this old house is normal for the king who controls a very poor country and as everybody is starving to death in this country ,the king can be poor, too. I have seen so many places and I have met so many people and now I understand that experience doesn’t always work.’ he thought. Then he decided to visit the king and see how poor he was.

‘ I am OK!. There is nothing wrong. I am so tired so that I felt dizzy. I want to talk to your king. Tell him Explorer Şehmuz wants to visit him.’ he told the people who gathered around him. One of them went to inform the king about Şehmuz’s visit.

Then explorer Şehmuz went into the King’s room. Middle aged king welcomed him standing and smiling.

‘ Welcome! I am pleased to meet you. So you are Explorer Şehmuz. I have been listening carefully to the things told about you for years. You bring happiness and fruitfullness to the places you visit. Your knowledge, speech and chats were really convincing that people have never got bored and wanted to learn more from you. I thought you were older, but you are too young.’ said the king.

‘ Thank you my dear king. It is my pleasure to meet you. I hope God bless you and all your

people. I first started visiting different places when I was fifteen and it has been more than fifteen years that I have been visiting different countries. I explore around and learn new things. I teach the things that I learned to the people who don’t know them and who are in need of learning. I am a kind of social worker for people who want to learn something.’ said Şehmuz.

‘You are right Şehmuz. The importance of knowledge is not known in some places where there are not any people to teach something and in those places people are illiterate. Anyway , you must be tired. Come this way. I think you should sit and relax.’ said the king and gave him a wooden chair to sit and he sat on another one.

‘ I think you had seen many of the villages and towns of my country until you came to my palace so that you must have realized that my people are so poor and in our towns there aren’t any merchants coming from other countries to sell something to my people as they live in poverty. Besides, most of our lands are unfruitful that is why my people can’t find enough food to eat so new clothes or shoes are luxury for them. We have tried to grow different kinds of fruit, vegetables or crops in those fields which are not farmed and empty at the moment but the result was misery.’ continued the king to his speech.

‘ My dear king, most of your lands have clayey soil. This kind of soil does not let air or water go under the soil. So that vecetables or crops whatever that are planted to this kind of soil can’t get oxigen and when it rains water can not reach the roots of them. If there is no oxigen and water plants can not live. The rest of your lands which is a very small amount has sandy soil which is suitable to grow some kind of vegetables and fruit but the amount of sand is a bit high in this kind of soil. We should mix clayey soil and sandy soil in some convenient places. If the mixture is supported with fertilizer it becomes soil with humus which is the most fruitful soil. You can get a lot of crops, vegetables and fruit. What is more you can make some artificial ponds and grow different kinds of fish so that you can supply meat and protein for your people who need it. In the future you can have more products than you need so you can sell them to neighbour countries and make money.’ explained Şehmuz.

The king was listening to what Şehmuz was saying carefully.

‘ It is enough if we can find enough food to eat. Making money is not very important for me at the moment because my people are dying of hunger. My first aim is to find them enough food. You are telling me very interesting and important things and I have never heard of them before. What you suggest us to do is a great thing. I did not know that there were such methods for agriculture. We shouldn’t waste time. I want some representatives from all the cities, towns and villages in my country to come to my palace. I want them to learn what to do and I also want them to teach the things they learned to all the people in their cities or villages. I am starting an agriculture campaign in my country.’ the king said happily.

It was just the right season and time to plant and grow some crops and vegetables so that Şehmuz’s being there was a big chance for the people who lived there. He told them what they were going to do in details and and taught them how to do it and they went back to their hometowns and taught the people who lived there. For days and weeks they carried sandy soil to the clayey lands in their cars. They mixed those soils and the new fields were planted with seeds. Water canals were opened in order to water those new fields. Also the rains in Autumn helped to water the fields. Next some artificial ponds were made in suitable places and some fish were started to be grown there. After a while crops and vegetables started to sprout in those fields. Everybody was so happy. They picked up the vegetables and fruit. All the warehouses were full of products. All the animals in the country started to graze in the hayfields. In the past those animals used to be really thin but now they got fatter and fatter as they had lots to eat.

Next year the lands where crops were grown were extended. The people who had enough food to eat continued working hard and ambitiously. They exchanged their extra products with clothes and shoes which were brought from different countries. Merchants who had never heard of that country before started to come to the country. Trade started with other countries.

The other year they had much more product. The people who had enough clothes and shoes sold their products in order to have new houses which were made of stone and had two or three storeys. The king also had a big palace which was built opposite the old wooden one and moved there. He didn’t have his old palace fell down as Şehmuz requested from him. A big signboard was hung on the door of the palace and these words of Explorer Şehmuz were written on it.

‘There is absence. Existence is in absence. The important thing is to pulloff absence out of existance. Absence is only one. One absence can’t be two absences. If existence seperates from absence it multiplies. It becomes two, three,five... absence prevents the improvement of existence, incarcerates it. Existence exists in the absence of absent and becomes a being.

Explorer Şehmuz wanted permission from the king to leave the country as saying he has been in this city for three years, he will feel himself happy and fortunate , and by the help of learning , examining , searching and working without looking for advantage will develop the countries. The king and his people did not insist on this precious man whom they owed their everything, who annihilated the poverty. They know that he is an explorer. There would be some other people who would need help and learning. Yes....... A king was crying.

Written by: Serdar Yıldırım