Three wishes

Description

“Dreaming on moonlit nights, brings good luck. You can ask for three wishes”, proclaimed the mysterious piece of paper that fell down the chimney, while the two old people spent their time toasting a crust of bread. Gold teeth, elegant clothes, a diamond palace… What a difficult choice…! So the old woman thought that with a sausage sandwich, she would be able to think better. Just then… sass!, the sausage appeared. She had used up her first wish! How many dreams end in three wishes? This tale, adapted from the Portuguese oral tradition, speaks to us about the power of dreams, of luck that appears and disappears whimsically before our very eyes and of how affection and the desire to continue dreaming bring us happiness. This story presents alternative versions in distinct European countries; in England, instead of the sausage, the element which appears before the old couple and ends up substituting the dreamed of riches, is a chocolate pudding. A variant found in Porto Rico presents a grandmother whose husband, furious because she wasted a wish, wishes donkey ears on her. Gabriel Pacheco provides illustrations of great evocative power, playing from beginning to end with the scenic resources reminding us of a puppet theatre, and introducing elements that provide the text with a great symbolic charge, like the moon game, with its ball weaves and unweaves the luck of the main characters, the keys, the locks… The choice of colour is fundamental in relation with the emotions and the moment -reality or desire- represented. Text by Eva Mejuto, from a popular Portuguese tale Illustrations by Gabriel Pacheco Translation by Mark W. Heslop