There was once a poor Prince, who had a kingdom. His kingdom was very small,
but still quite large enough to marry upon; and he wished to marry.
It was certainly rather cool of him to say to the Emperor's daughter, "Will
you have me?" But so he did; for his name was renowned far and wide; and there
were a hundred princesses who would have answered, "Yes!" and "Thank you
kindly." We shall see what this princess said.
Listen!
It happened that where the Prince's father lay buried, there grew a rose
tree--a most beautiful rose tree, which blossomed only once in every five
years, and even then bore only one flower, but that was a rose! It smelt so
sweet that all cares and sorrows were forgotten by him who inhaled its
fragrance.
And furthermore, the Prince had a nightingale, who could sing in such a manner
that it seemed as though all sweet melodies dwelt in her little throat. So the
Princess was to have the rose, and the nightingale; and they were accordingly
put into large silver caskets, and sent to her.
The Emperor had them brought into a large hall, where the Princess was playing
at "Visiting," with the ladies of the court; and when she saw the caskets with
the presents, she clapped her hands for joy.
"Ah, if it were but a little pussy-cat!" said she; but the rose tree, with its
beautiful rose came to view.
"Oh, how prettily it is made!" said all the court ladies.
"It is more than pretty," said the Emperor, "it is charming!"
But the Princess touched it, and was almost ready to cry.
"Fie, papa!" said she. "It is not made at all, it is natural!"
"Let us see what is in the other casket, before we get into a bad humor," said
the Emperor. So the nightingale came forth and sang so delightfully that at
first no one could say anything ill-humored of her.
"Superbe! Charmant!" exclaimed the ladies; for they all used to chatter French,
each one worse than her neighbor.
Weak forces of good and evil was expelled to the sky. Asked Zeus is good at, how can we return to earth to. Zeus told him that we should not and go, one by one of the world to visit it. Evil and people very close, so one after another to find them. Good because down from the sky, on the very slow to very slow.
参考译文：
力量弱小的善,被恶赶走到了天上。善于是问宙斯,怎样才能回到人间去。宙斯告诉他,大家不要一起去,一个一个的去访问人间吧。恶与人很相近,所以接连不断地去找他们。善因为从天上下来,所以就来得很慢很慢。
One fine summer's day Earl Mar's daughter went into the castle garden, dancing and tripping along. And as she played and sported she would stop from time to time to listen to the music of the birds. After a while as she sat under the shade of a green oak tree she looked up and spied a sprightly dove sitting high up on one of its branches. She looked up and said: "Coo-my-dove, my dear, come down to me and I will give you a golden cage. I'll take you home and pet you well, as well as any bird of them all." Scarcely had she said these words when the dove flew down from the branch and settled on her shoulder, nestling up against her neck while she smoothed its feathers. Then she took it home to her own room.
The day was done and the night came on and Earl Mar's daughter was thinking of going to sleep when, turning round, she found at her side a handsome young man. She _was_ startled, for the door had been locked for hours. But she was a brave girl and said: "What are you doing here, young man, to come and startle me so? The door was barred these hours ago; how ever did you come here?"
"Hush! hush!" the young man whispered. "I was that cooing dove that you coaxed from off the tree."
Tags: 英语小故事 , 英语童话故事 , english fale ,