格林童话选 英文版 Grimms' Fairy Tales
格林兄弟 Brüder Grimm
THE TURNIP
There were two brothers who were both soldiers; the one was rich andthe other poor. The poor man thought he would try to better himself;so, pulling off his red coat, he became a gardener, and dug his groundwell, and sowed turnips.
When the seed came up, there was one plant bigger than all the rest;and it kept getting larger and larger, and seemed as if it would nevercease growing; so that it might have been called the prince of turnipsfor there never was such a one seen before, and never will again. Atlast it was so big that it filled a cart, and two oxen could hardlydraw it; and the gardener knew not what in the world to do with it,nor whether it would be a blessing or a curse to him. One day he saidto himself, 'What shall I do with it? if I sell it, it will bring nomore than another; and for eating, the little turnips are better thanthis; the best thing perhaps is to carry it and give it to the king asa mark of respect.'
Then he yoked his oxen, and drew the turnip to the court, and gave itto the king. 'What a wonderful thing!' said the king; 'I have seenmany strange things, but such a monster as this I never saw. Where didyou get the seed? or is it only your good luck? If so, you are a truechild of fortune.' 'Ah, no!' answered the gardener, 'I am no child offortune; I am a poor soldier, who never could get enough to live upon;so I laid aside my red coat, and set to work, tilling the ground. Ihave a brother, who is rich, and your majesty knows him well, and allthe world knows him; but because I am poor, everybody forgets me.'
The king then took pity on him, and said, 'You shall be poor nolonger. I will give you so much that you shall be even richer thanyour brother.' Then he gave him gold and lands and flocks, and madehim so rich that his brother's fortune could not at all be comparedwith his.
When the brother heard of all this, and how a turnip had made thegardener so rich, he envied him sorely, and bethought himself how hecould contrive to get the same good fortune for himself. However, hedetermined to manage more cleverly than his brother, and got togethera rich present of gold and fine horses for the king; and thought hemust have a much larger gift in return; for if his brother hadreceived so much for only a turnip, what must his present be wroth?
The king took the gift very graciously, and said he knew not what togive in return more valuable and wonderful than the great turnip; sothe soldier was forced to put it into a cart, and drag it home withhim. When he reached home, he knew not upon whom to vent his rage andspite; and at length wicked thoughts came into his head, and heresolved to kill his brother.
So he hired some villains to murder him; and having shown them whereto lie in ambush, he went to his brother, and said, 'Dear brother, Ihave found a hidden treasure; let us go and dig it up, and share itbetween us.' The other had no suspicions of his roguery: so they wentout together, and as they were travelling along, the murderers rushedout upon him, bound him, and were going to hang him on a tree.
But whilst they were getting all ready, they heard the trampling of ahorse at a distance, which so frightened them that they pushed theirprisoner neck and shoulders together into a sack, and swung him up bya cord to the tree, where they left him dangling, and ran away.Meantime he worked and worked away, till he made a hole large enoughto put out his head.
When the horseman came up, he proved to be a student, a merry fellow,who was journeying along on his nag, and singing as he went. As soonas the man in the sack saw him passing under the tree, he cried out,'Good morning! good morning to thee, my friend!' The student lookedabout everywhere; and seeing no one, and not knowing where the voicecame from, cried out, 'Who calls me?'
Then the man in the tree answered, 'Lift up thine eyes, for beholdhere I sit in the sack of wisdom; here have I, in a short time,learned great and wondrous things. Compared to this seat, all thelearning of the schools is as empty air. A little longer, and I shallknow all that man can know, and shall come forth wiser than the wisestof mankind. Here I discern the signs and motions of the heavens andthe stars; the laws that control the winds; the number of the sands onthe seashore; the healing of the sick; the virtues of all simples, ofbirds, and of precious stones. Wert thou but once here, my friend,though wouldst feel and own the power of knowledge.
The student listened to all this and wondered much; at last he said,'Blessed be the day and hour when I found you; cannot you contrive tolet me into the sack for a little while?' Then the other answered, asif very unwillingly, 'A little space I may allow thee to sit here, ifthou wilt reward me well and entreat me kindly; but thou must tarryyet an hour below, till I have learnt some little matters that are yetunknown to me.'
So the student sat himself down and waited a while; but the time hungheavy upon him, and he begged earnestly that he might ascendforthwith, for his thirst for knowledge was great. Then the otherpretended to give way, and said, 'Thou must let the sack of wisdomdescend, by untying yonder cord, and then thou shalt enter.' So thestudent let him down, opened the sack, and set him free. 'Now then,'cried he, 'let me ascend quickly.' As he began to put himself into thesack heels first, 'Wait a while,' said the gardener, 'that is not theway.' Then he pushed him in head first, tied up the sack, and soonswung up the searcher after wisdom dangling in the air. 'How is itwith thee, friend?' said he, 'dost thou not feel that wisdom comesunto thee? Rest there in peace, till thou art a wiser man than thouwert.'
So saying, he trotted off on the student's nag, and left the poorfellow to gather wisdom till somebody should come and let him down.