Traditional Tales
This Traditional Story.
This story is a very traditional story, and although it is Sicilian, we all have a similar tale.
An story of Love.
Does your country have a similar story
An Italian Story
Pretty Poor Girl or Povira Bedda
Collected by Mattia Di Martino by an anonymous story-teller in Noto. This story was presented during the meeting in Palermo betweent the schools from England and the Sicilian host school
Once upon a time, so the story goes, there was an old man with a beautiful grandaugheter. They were so poor that their survival depended on whatever people were willing to give them. The girl was called povira bedda, “ Pretty Poor Girl”.One day a fortune-teller came along, one of those charlatans who travels around offering to tell the fortune to any woman who’d believe him, just to make some money. He was so insistent that Povira Bidda agreed to have her fortune told.
The poor child had no money to give him, but he had noticed a little bed quilt spread out in the sun outside the house, and he agreed to take this as payment. He began making the usual sign of the cross in the girl’s palm and then he predicted she would get a king for a husband.
Povira Bidda’s first reaction was to laugh, but the idea stayed in her head, and she began thinking about it.happened that Povera Bedda’s house stood just below the king’s palace. At the very moment, the fortune-teller was reciting the future,
Well, it so the young prince happened to be looking out and listening. He was very amused, and has he laughed he called out to her:
“ you lost the little quilt from your bed, but a prince like me you’ll never wed!”
Povira Bidda answer him: “Why should I worry?” “ There’s one that’s above and one that’s below, and I’ll be the prince’s wife I know, as I trust in the Lord divine the son of the king is sure to be mine. As I trust in God and sanint alone, the prince will soon be very own. “
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Donec mollis dignissim