拇指姑娘

拇指姑娘

Thumbelina

从前有一个妇人，她非常想要一个小小的孩子，却一直没有办法实现这个愿望。最后她去见了一位仙女，说：“我太想有一个小孩子了，你能告诉我到哪里可以找到一个吗？”

There was once a woman who wished very much to have a little child, but she could not obtain her wish. At last she went to a fairy, and said, “I should so very much like to have a little child; can you tell me where I can find one?”

“噢，这很容易办到，”仙女说，“这儿有一粒大麦，它和农夫田里长出来、给鸡吃的那种不一样。你把它放进花盆里，看看会发生什么吧。”

“Oh, that can be easily managed,” said the fairy. “Here is a barleycorn of a different kind to those which grow in the farmer’s fields, and which the chickens eat; put it into a flower-pot, and see what will happen.”

“谢谢您，”妇人说。她给了仙女十二个先令，这就是那粒大麦的价钱。

“Thank you,” said the woman, and she gave the fairy twelve shillings, which was the price of the barleycorn.

然后她回到家里把大麦种了下去。立刻，那里长出了一朵又大又美丽的花，看上去很像一朵郁金香，但是它的花瓣紧紧闭着，就像还是个花苞一样。

Then she went home and planted it, and immediately there grew up a large handsome flower, something like a tulip in appearance, but with its leaves tightly closed as if it were still a bud.

“这真是一朵美丽的花，”妇人说着，亲吻了那红色和金色的花瓣。就在她亲吻的时候，花朵开放了，她看出这真的是一朵郁金香。

“It is a beautiful flower,” said the woman, and she kissed the red and golden-colored leaves, and while she did so the flower opened, and she could see that it was a real tulip.

在花朵里面，在那绿丝绒般的花蕊上，坐着一位非常柔弱、可爱的小姑娘。她还没有半个大拇指长，大家叫她“拇指姑娘”或者蒂妮，因为她太小了。

Within the flower, upon the green velvet stamens, sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden. She was scarcely half as long as a thumb, and they gave her the name of “Thumbelina,” or Tiny, because she was so small.

一个擦得很光滑的胡桃壳成了她的摇篮；她的床是用蓝色紫罗兰叶子铺成的，上面还盖着一片玫瑰花瓣作为被子。

A walnut-shell, elegantly polished, served her for a cradle; her bed was formed of blue violet-leaves, with a rose-leaf for a counterpane.

晚上她睡在这里，白天她就在桌子上玩耍。妇人在桌上放了一个盛满水的盘子。

Here she slept at night, but during the day she amused herself on a table, where the woman had placed a plateful of water.

盘子周围摆了一圈花环，花茎都浸在水里。水面上漂着一片很大的郁金香花瓣，成了蒂妮的小船。这位小姑娘坐在这儿，用两根白马鬃做成的桨，从这一边划到那一边。

Round this plate were wreaths of flowers with their stems in the water, and upon it floated a large tulip-leaf, which served Tiny for a boat. Here the little maiden sat and rowed herself from side to side, with two oars made of white horse-hair.

这真是一幅可爱的景象。蒂妮还能轻轻地、甜甜地唱歌，以前从来没有人听过这样美妙的歌声。

It really was a very pretty sight. Tiny could, also, sing so softly and sweetly that nothing like her singing had ever before been heard.

一天夜里，正当她躺在美丽的小床上时，一只又大、又丑、湿漉漉的癞蛤蟆从窗户的一块破玻璃跳了进来，一下跳到了桌上，而蒂妮正睡在她的玫瑰花瓣被子下面。

One night, while she lay in her pretty bed, a large, ugly, wet toad crept through a broken pane of glass in the window, and leaped right upon the table where Tiny lay sleeping under her rose-leaf quilt.

“给我儿子当小媳妇可真漂亮，”癞蛤蟆说。她抱起睡着小蒂妮的胡桃壳，带着它跳出窗外，进了花园。

“What a pretty little wife this would make for my son,” said the toad, and she took up the walnut-shell in which little Tiny lay asleep, and jumped through the window with it into the garden.

在花园里一条宽宽的小溪边的泥潭里，住着这只癞蛤蟆和她的儿子。他甚至比他妈妈还要丑。当他看到漂亮的小姑娘躺在精致的床上时，只能叫着：“呱，呱，呱。”

In the swampy margin of a broad stream in the garden lived the toad, with her son. He was uglier even than his mother, and when he saw the pretty little maiden in her elegant bed, he could only cry, “Croak, croak, croak.”