There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, and had the greatest desire to eat some. This desire increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get any of 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 cut some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.”
The man, who loved her, thought,“Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.”At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greadily. It tasted so good to her—so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening, therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.
“How can you dare,”said she with angry look,“to descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!”
“Ah,”answered he,“l(fā)et mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.”Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him,“If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.”The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window.
When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried,
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair to me.”
Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair 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 through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The King's son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried,
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.”
Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her.“If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I will for once try my fortune,”said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried,
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair.”
Immediately the hair fell down and the King's son climbed up.
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the King's son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought,“He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does;”and she said yes,and laid her hand in his. She said,“I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.”They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her,“Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me 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 you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me.”In her anger she clutched Rapunzel's beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.
On the same day, that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the King's son came and cried,
“Rapunzel, Rapunzel,
Let down your hair,”
she let the hair down. The King's son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks.“Aha!”she cried mockingly,“You would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the 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 son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell, pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did nothing but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to 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 went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.
從前有一個(gè)男人和一個(gè)女人,他們想要個(gè)孩子,可是很久都沒有。后來,女人終于懷孕了,也許親愛的上帝要讓她如愿以償了。他們家后面的房子有一扇小窗,從小窗往外看能看到一座豪華美麗的花園,芳草如茵,盛開著最美麗的花;但是這座一道高墻圍著的花園,誰都不敢走進(jìn)去,因?yàn)樗鼘儆谝粋€(gè)法力廣大的女巫,人人都懼怕她。有一天,女人站在那個(gè)小窗旁俯望花園,看見一圃非常美麗的萵苣,那么鮮嫩,青翠欲滴,引得她忽然產(chǎn)生想吃萵苣的強(qiáng)烈愿望。這渴望與日俱增,但她知道無法實(shí)現(xiàn),因而日漸消瘦,面容蒼白、憔悴。她丈夫吃驚地問道:“你怎么啦,親愛的?”
“啊,”她回答,“如果我不能吃到我們家后面花園里長的萵苣,我就要死了。”
那個(gè)男人很愛她,心想:“無論付出什么代價(jià),我也要給她弄點(diǎn)萵苣來。”他在暮色朦朧中翻過圍墻,跳進(jìn)巫婆的花園,匆匆忙忙拔了一個(gè)萵苣,帶回來給妻子。她馬上拿它做涼菜,吃得一干二凈。她覺得萵苣味道好極了,第二天饞得更厲害。丈夫要讓她安寧,還得再去一趟花園。于是他又在暮色朦朧的時(shí)候爬墻過去,這時(shí),他看見老巫婆就站在自己面前,嚇一大跳。
“你膽子不小??!”她目露兇光,說:“敢做賊到我花園里偷我的萵苣,我得叫你知道我的厲害。”
“??!”他回答說,“請你寬恕我吧,我實(shí)在是迫不得已,我的妻子從窗口看到你的萵苣,她饞得厲害,不讓她吃點(diǎn)兒,她真的會(huì)死的。”巫婆怒氣漸消,對他說:“真是像你所說的那樣,我就讓你拿萵苣,要多少拿多少。只是我有個(gè)條件:你得把你妻子生的孩子給我。我會(huì)像媽媽一樣照料他,孩子的生活差不了?!蹦悄腥诵睦锖ε?,一口答應(yīng)了。他的妻子一分娩,老巫婆就去了,她給孩子取名叫萵苣,把孩子帶走了。
萵苣長成了天底下最漂亮的女孩子。她十二歲那年,巫婆把她鎖在森林中一座塔樓里。這塔既沒有樓梯,也沒有門,只塔頂上有一個(gè)很小很小的窗戶。
巫婆要上塔樓,就往塔下一站,大聲喊:
萵苣,萵苣,
放下你的頭發(fā),我要上去。
萵苣有一頭長長的細(xì)如金絲的美麗秀發(fā),她聽到巫婆的叫聲,就解開辮子,纏繞在一個(gè)窗鉤子上,把頭發(fā)放下四米來長,讓巫婆爬上去。
幾年以后,一位王子騎馬路過森林,從塔旁走過的時(shí)候,聽見有人在唱歌,歌聲是那么美妙動(dòng)人,王子不由駐足傾聽。這是萵苣姑娘在孤寂中為了打發(fā)時(shí)光,揚(yáng)聲歌唱。王子想上去找她,卻找不到塔樓的門。這座塔沒有門。他只好回家,但這歌聲深深地打動(dòng)了他的心,他天天到森林里去聽萵苣姑娘唱歌。一天,他站在一棵樹后面,看見一個(gè)巫婆走上前去,聽見她叫喊:
萵苣,萵苣,
放下你的頭發(fā),我要上去。
萵苣姑娘聽了,放下發(fā)辮,巫婆爬了上去?!凹热贿@是上塔的梯子,我也要碰碰運(yùn)氣?!钡诙焯炜旌诘臅r(shí)候,他走近塔,大聲喊:
萵苣,萵苣,
放下你的頭發(fā),我要上去。
不一會(huì)兒,頭發(fā)垂下來,王子登上了塔。
萵苣姑娘看見一個(gè)男人進(jìn)塔向她走來,起初非常害怕,因?yàn)樗龔膩頉]有見過男人。但王子十分親切地和她攀談,向她訴說她的歌聲如何使他深受感動(dòng),他如何寢食難安,非要親自見她一面不可,萵苣姑娘的恐懼消失了,他問她愿不愿意嫁給他,她見他年少英俊,心想:“他會(huì)比戈特爾老太太還愛我?!北愦饝?yīng)了,把自己的手放在他的手里。她說:“我愿意跟你一起走,但是我不知道怎樣才能下去。你以后再來,都帶一卷絲線吧,我要編個(gè)軟梯,編好了,我就能下塔了,然后你再扶我上馬?!彼麄兗s定直到出走之前,他每天晚上都來看她,因?yàn)槔咸虐滋靵?。這事巫婆絲毫也沒有察覺,直到有一天,萵苣姑娘對她說:“請你告訴我,戈特爾太太,這是怎么回事,我覺得把你拉上來比把那位年輕的王子拉上來要費(fèi)勁得多,他一眨眼就到我身邊了?!?/p>
“好?。 蔽灼沤腥缕饋?,“你這個(gè)壞孩子,說的什么話!我還以為已經(jīng)使你與世隔絕了呢!原來你騙了我!”大怒之下,她抓住萵苣姑娘美麗的發(fā)辮,在左手腕纏繞幾圈,右手抄起一把剪刀,咔嚓幾下,剪斷了頭發(fā),美麗的發(fā)辮落在地上。她還狠心地把可憐的萵苣姑娘帶到一處荒野,迫使她在那里過著極其艱辛痛苦的生活。
萵苣姑娘被趕走的當(dāng)天晚上,巫婆把剪下的發(fā)辮的一端牢牢系在塔里的窗鉤上,王子一喊:
萵苣,萵苣,
放下你的頭發(fā),我要上去。
她就往塔下放發(fā)辮。王子登上塔發(fā)現(xiàn)他心愛的萵苣姑娘不在塔上,只見老巫婆一雙惡毒的眼睛死死盯著他?!鞍」彼I笑王子,大聲說,“你要找你的心上人,但美麗的小鳥兒已經(jīng)不在窩里,也不歌唱了,貓把她叼走了,我還要挖掉你的兩只眼睛,叫你永遠(yuǎn)休想再看見她!”王子心中痛楚萬分,絕望之中跳下高塔。他落在荊棘叢中,雖然保住了性命,雙眼卻被刺瞎了。他盲目地在森林里流浪,吃的是樹根、野莓,終日為失去他最心愛的女子而哭泣悲傷。他在愁苦困頓之中這樣流浪了幾年,終于來到萵苣姑娘和她生的孿生兄妹一起艱難度日的荒野。他聽到有人說話,那聲音是那么熟悉,他徑直走過去,待他走近,萵苣姑娘認(rèn)出他來,撲到他身上痛哭了起來。她的兩行清淚濕潤了他的眼睛,它們又變得清澈明亮,恢復(fù)了從前的視力。他帶他們回到他的王國,受到熱烈的歡迎,他們幸福愉快地一起生活了很久很久。
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