《安徒生童话英文版》第314章

　　It is an innocent wish, and innocentwishes are sure to be fulfilled. I must go in there and lean againsther, even if I have to break the window."

　　"You must never go in there," said the yard-dog, "for if youapproach the stove, you'll melt away, away."

　　"I might as well go," said the Snow Man, "for I think I ambreaking up as it is."

　　During the whole day the Snow Man stood looking in through thewindow, and in the twilight hour the room became still moreinviting, for from the stove came a gentle glow, not like the sun orthe moon; no, only the bright light which gleams from a stove whenit has been well fed. When the door of the stove was opened, theflames darted out of its mouth; this is customary with all stoves. Thelight of the flames fell directly on the face and breast of the SnowMan with a ruddy gleam. "I can endure it no longer," said he; "howbeautiful it looks when it stretches out its tongue?"

　　The night was long, but did not appear so to the Snow Man, whostood there enjoying his own reflections, and crackling with the cold.In the morning, the window-panes of the housekeeper's room werecovered with ice. They were the most beautiful ice-flowers any SnowMan could desire, but they concealed the stove. These window-paneswould not thaw, and he could see nothing of the stove, which hepictured to himself, as if it had been a lovely human being. Thesnow crackled and the wind whistled around him; it was just the kindof frosty weather a Snow Man might thoroughly enjoy. But he did notenjoy it; how, indeed, could he enjoy anything when he was "stovesick?"

　　"That is terrible disease for a Snow Man," said the yard-dog; "Ihave suffered from it myself, but I got over it. Away, away," hebarked and then he added, "the weather is going to change." And theweather did change; it began to thaw. As the warmth increased, theSnow Man decreased. He said nothing and made no complaint, which isa sure sign. One morning he broke, and sunk down altogether; and,behold, where he had stood, something like a broomstick remainedsticking up in the ground. It was the pole round which the boys hadbuilt him up. "Ah, now I understand why he had such a great longingfor the stove," said the yard-dog. "Why, there's the shovel that isused for cleaning out the stove, fastened to the pole." The Snow Manhad a stove scraper in his body; that was what moved him so. "But it'sall over now. Away, away." And soon the winter passed. "Away, away,"barked the hoarse yard-dog. But the girls in the house sang,

　　"Come from your fragrant home, green thyme;

　　Stretch your soft branches, willow-tree;

　　The months are bringing the sweet spring-time,

　　When the lark in the sky sings joyfully.

　　Come gentle sun, while the cuckoo sings,

　　And I'll mock his note in my wanderings."

　　And nobody thought any more of the Snow Man.

　　THE END.

　　1872

　　FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN

　　THE SNOW QUEEN

　　IN SEVEN STORIES

　　by Hans Christian Andersen

　　STORY THE FIRST

　　WHICH describes a looking-glass and the broken fragments.

　　You must attend to the commencement of this story, for when we getto the end we shall know more than we do now about a very wickedhobgoblin; he was one of the very worst, for he was a real demon.One day, when he was in a merry mood, he made a looking-glass whichhad the power of making everything good or beautiful that wasreflected in it almost shrink to nothing, while everything that wasworthless and bad looked increased in size and worse than ever. Themost lovely landscapes appeared like boiled spinach, and the peoplebecame hideous, and looked as if they stood on their heads and hadno bodies. Their countenances were so distorted that no one couldrecognize them, and even one freckle on the face appeared to spreadover the whole of the nose and mouth. The demon said this was veryamusing. When a good or pious thought passed through the mind of anyone it was misrepresented in the glass; and then how the demon laughedat his cunning invention. All who went to the demon's school- for hekept a school- talked everywhere of the wonders they had seen, anddeclared that people could now, for the first time, see what the worldand mankind were really like. They carried the glass about everywhere,till at last there was not a land nor a people who had not been lookedat through this distorted mirror. They wanted even to fly with it upto heaven to see the angels, but the higher they flew the moreslippery the glass became, and they could scarcely hold it, till atlast it slipped from their hands, fell to the earth, and was brokeninto millions of pieces. But now the looking-glass caused moreunhappiness than ever, for some of the fragments were not so largeas a grain of sand, and they flew about the world into everycountry. When one of these tiny atoms flew into a person's eye, itstuck there unknown to him, and from that moment he saw everythingthrough a distorted medium, or could see only the worst side of whathe looked at, for even the smallest fragment retained the same powerwhich had belonged to the whole mirror. Some few persons even got afragment of the looking-glass in their hearts, and this was veryterrible, for their hearts became cold like a lump of ice. A few ofthe pieces were so large that they could be used as window-panes; itwould have been a sad thing to look at our friends through them. Otherpieces were made into spectacles; this was dreadful for those who worethem, for they could see nothing either rightly or justly. At all thisthe wicked demon laughed till his sides shook- it tickled him so tosee the mischief he had done. There were still a number of theselittle fragments of glass floating about in the air, and now you shallhear what happened with one of them.

　　SECOND STORY

　　A LITTLE BOY AND A LITTLE GIRL

　　In a large town, full of houses and people, there is not roomfor everybody to have even a little garden, therefore they are obligedto be satisfied with a few flowers in flower-pots. In one of theselarge towns lived two poor children who had a garden somethinglarger and better than a few flower-pots. They were not brother andsister, but they loved each other almost as much as if they hadbeen. Their parents lived opposite to each other in two garrets, wherethe roofs of neighboring houses projected out towards each other andthe water-pipe ran between them. In each house was a little window, sothat any one could step across the gutter from one window to theother. The parents of these children had each a large wooden box inwhich they cultivated kitchen herbs for their own use, and a littlerose-bush in each box, which grew splendidly. Now after a while theparents decided to place these two boxes across the water-pipe, sothat they reached from one window to the other and looked like twobanks of flowers. Sweet-peas drooped over the boxes, and therose-bushes shot forth long branches, which were trained round thewindows and clustered together almost like a triumphal arch ofleaves and flowers. The boxes were very high, and the children knewthey must not climb upon them, without permission, but they wereoften, however, allowed to step out together and sit upon their littlestools under the rose-bushes, or play quietly. In winter all thispleasure came to an end, for the windows were sometimes quite frozenover. But then they would warm copper pennies on the stove, and holdthe warm pennies against the frozen pane; there would be very soon alittle round hole through which they could peep, and the soft brighteyes of the little boy and girl would beam through the hole at eachwindow as they looked at each other. Their names were Kay and Gerda.In summer they could be together with one jump from the window, but inwinter they had to go up and down the long staircase, and outthrough the snow before they could meet.

　　"See there are the white bees swarming," said Kay's oldgrandmother one day when it was snowing.

　　"Have they a queen bee?"