格林童话选 英文版 Grimms' Fairy Tales
格林兄弟 Brüder Grimm
RAPUNZEL
There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for achild. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant herdesire. These people had a little window at the back of their housefrom which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the mostbeautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a highwall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to anenchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. Oneday the woman was standing by this window and looking down into thegarden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautifulrampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longedfor it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: 'What ails you, dear wife?''Ah,' she replied, 'if I can't eat some of the rampion, which is inthe garden behind our house, I shall die.' The man, who loved her,thought: 'Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampionyourself, let it cost what it will.' At twilight, he clambered downover the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched ahandful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herselfa salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her--so verygood, that the next day she longed for it three times as much asbefore. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descendinto the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himselfdown again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terriblyafraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. 'How can youdare,' said she with angry look, 'descend into my garden and steal myrampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!' 'Ah,' answered he,'let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do itout of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and feltsuch a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got someto eat.' Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, andsaid to him: 'If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take awaywith you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, youmust give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; itshall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.' The manin his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was broughtto bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name ofRapunzel, and took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When shewas twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which layin a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top wasa little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placedherself beneath it and cried:
and the enchantressclimbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I toowill try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it?
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Let down your hair to me.'
Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when sheheard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses,wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then thehair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
After a year or two, it came to pass that the king's son rode throughthe forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was socharming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who inher solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. Theking's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of thetower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had sodeeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forestand listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, hesaw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Let down your hair to me.'
Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantressclimbed up to her. 'If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I toowill try my fortune,' said he, and the next day when it began to growdark, he went to the tower and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Let down your hair to me.'
Immediately the hair fell down and the king's son climbed up.
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyeshad never yet beheld, came to her; but the king's son began to talk toher quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been sostirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced tosee her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if shewould take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young andhandsome, she thought: 'He will love me more than old Dame Gotheldoes'; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: 'I willwillingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bringwith you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave aladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you willtake me on your horse.' They agreed that until that time he shouldcome to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. Theenchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her:'Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier forme to draw up than the young king's son--he is with me in a moment.''Ah! you wicked child,' cried the enchantress. 'What do I hear yousay! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet youhave deceived me!' In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautifultresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair ofscissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and thelovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she tookpoor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief andmisery.
On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantressfastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of thewindow, and when the king's son came and cried:
'Rapunzel, Rapunzel,Let down your hair to me.'
she let the hair down. The king's son ascended, but instead of findinghis dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him withwicked and venomous looks. 'Aha!' she cried mockingly, 'you wouldfetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing inthe nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well.Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.' The king's sonwas beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down fromthe tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fellpierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, atenothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep overthe loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for someyears, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twinsto which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness.He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he wenttowards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on hisneck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clearagain, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdomwhere he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long timeafterwards, happy and contented.