“There exist two countries, one thousand miles apart. And there, in the two countries, when night comes, people cannot sleep. Because when it becomes night, all of them begin lamenting with a great wail, men, women and children. If a stone were there, it would burst into tears too, because at night, one hears a great wail, and because of it everyone begins to lament. […]

 “Why does it happen? Because there exist two birds. One is a he, and one is a she. And there is only one pair of birds of their kind in the world. And the she got lost. And he goes about and searches for her. And she searches for him. And they each searched for the other for a very long time. And they both became distraught and saw that they could no longer find one another. So they remained where they were and built nests.

 “He built a nest near one of the two countries. Not simply near, but the distance of a voice away, such that people in that country can hear his voice. And she also built a nest near the second country, in the same way. Not simply near, but the distance of a voice away, such that the people in that country can hear her voice.

 “And when night comes, the two birds begin to lament with a very great wail, because both of them are lamenting for their mate. He laments for her and she laments for him. And that is the wail which one hears in the two countries. Merely because of that sound, everyone laments there, and no one can sleep.”

 --  from The Tale of the Seven Beggars by Nachman of Bratslav 
    (translated from the Yiddish by Dara Horn)

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