The Princess and the Pea 公主與豌豆

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess—she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! What a sight the rain and the wind had made her look! The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.

Well, we’ll soon find that out, thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.

On this the princess had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

“Oh, very badly!” she said. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”

Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.

Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.

So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

【日積月累】

torrent n. 激流，洪流

good gracious 天啊

bedstead n.（木質或金屬的）床架

mattress n. 褥墊，床墊

eider-down n. 鴨的絨毛，鴨絨被

black and blue青一塊紫一塊

【參考譯文】

從前，有一個王子想娶一個公主——她必須是一個真正的公主。他走遍了全世界想找一個真正的公主，但是他找不到他想要的。公主多的是，但是卻很難證明她們是不是真正的公主。總是有些事情不如意。所以他又回到了家，感到很傷心，因為他本該有一個真正的公主的。

一天傍晚，一場特大暴風雨來臨了；雷電交加，大雨瓢潑而下。突然城門傳來敲門聲，老國王走過去開門。

門外站著的是一個公主。但是，天啊！大風大雨已經讓她看起來多么糟糕啊！雨水順著她的頭發和衣服往下流進她的鞋子里，又從鞋跟處流了出來。但是她說她是一個真正的公主。

好吧，我們很快就會知道的，老王后心想。但是她什么都沒說就走進了臥室，她把鋪蓋掀開在底下放了一顆豌豆；然后她在豌豆上鋪了20床床墊，還在床墊上放了20床鴨絨被。

這個公主就在這樣一張床上睡了一個晚上。早上有人問她晚上睡得怎樣。

“噢，很糟糕！”她說。“我幾乎整晚都沒有合眼。天知道床上有什么，但是我躺在什么硬東西上，所以我全身都是青一塊紫一塊的。真是太恐怖了！”

現在，他們知道這是一個真正的公主了，因為即使隔著20床床墊和20床鴨絨被，她還是感覺到了那顆豌豆。

除了真正的公主沒有人會那么敏感。

所以王子就娶了這位公主為妻，因為他知道這次他找到了一個真正的公主；而那顆豌豆則被放進了博物館，現在仍然可以看到，如果沒有人偷走的話。

【人生啟迪】

雖然這個故事有點夸張，我們也不是要學習這個公主的嬌氣，但是公主的誠實卻是值得我們學習的。如果這個公主不是那么誠實的話，那她就會失去這個如意郎君了。