卖火柴的小女孩翻译英文

卖火柴的小女孩
作者：汉斯·克里斯蒂安·安徒生

Most terribly cold it was; it snowed, and was nearly quite dark, and evening-- the last evening of the year. In this cold and darkness there went along the street a poor little girl, bareheaded, and with naked feet. When she left home she had slippers on, it is true; but what was the good of that? They were very large slippers, which her mother had hitherto worn; so large were they; and the poor little thing lost them as she scuffled away across the street, because of two carriages that rolled by dreadfully fast.

One slipper was nowhere to be found; the other had been laid hold of by an urchin, and off he ran with it; he thought it would do capitally for a cradle when he some day or other should have children himself. So the little maiden walked on with her tiny naked feet, that were quite red and blue from cold. She carried a quantity of matches in an old apron, and she held a bundle of them in her hand. Nobody had bought anything of her the whole livelong day; no one had given her a single farthing.

She crept along trembling with cold and hunger–a very picture of sorrow, the poor little thing!

The flakes of snow covered her long fair hair, which fell in beautiful curls around her neck; but of that, of course, she never once now thought. From all the windows the candles were gleaming, and it smelt so deliciously of roast goose, for you know it was New Year’s Eve; yes, of that she thought.

In a corner formed by two houses, of which one advanced more than the other, she seated herself down and cowered together. Her little feet she had drawn close up to her, but she grew colder and colder, and to go home she did not venture, for she had not sold any matches and could not bring a farthing of money: from her father she would certainly get blows, and at home it was cold too, for above her she had only the roof, through which the wind whistled, even though the largest cracks were stopped up with straw and rags.

Her little hands were almost numbed with cold. Oh! a match might afford her a world of comfort, if she only dared take a single one out of the bundle, draw it against the wall, and warm her fingers by it. She drew one out. “Rischt!” how it blazed, how it burnt! It was a warm, bright flame, like a candle, as she held her hands over it: it was a wonderful light. It seemed really to the little maiden as though she were sitting before a large iron stove, with burnished brass feet and a brass ornament at top. The fire burned with such blessed influence; it warmed so delightfully. The little girl had already stretched out her feet to warm them too; but–the small flame went out, the stove vanished: she had only the remains of the burnt-out match in her hand.

She rubbed another against the wall: it burned brightly, and where the light fell on the wall, there the wall became transparent like a veil, so that she could see into the room. On the table was spread a snow-white tablecloth; upon it was a splendid porcelain service, and the roast goose was steaming famously with its stuffing of apple and dried plums. And what was still more capital to behold was, the goose hopped down from the dish, reeled about on the floor with knife and fork in its breast, till it came up to the poor little girl; when–the match went out and nothing but the thick, cold, damp wall was left behind. She lighted another match. Now there she was sitting under the most magnificent Christmas tree: it was still larger, and more decorated than the one which she had seen through the glass door in the rich merchant’s house.

Thousands of lights were burning on the green branches, and gaily-colored pictures, such as she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon her. The little maiden stretched out her hands towards them when–the match went out. The lights of the Christmas tree rose higher and higher, she saw them now as stars in heaven; one fell down and formed a long trail of fire.

“Someone is just dead!” said the little girl; for her old grandmother, the only person who had loved her, and who was now no more, had told her, that when a star falls, a soul ascends to God.

She drew another match against the wall: it was again light, and in the lustre there stood the old grandmother, so bright and radiant, so mild, and with such an expression of love.

“Grandmother!” cried the little one. “Oh, take me with you! You go away when the match burns out; you vanish like the warm stove, like the delicious roast goose, and like the magnificent Christmas tree!” And she rubbed the whole bundle of matches quickly against the wall, for she wanted to be quite sure of keeping her grandmother near her. And the matches gave such a brilliant light that it was brighter than at noon-day: never formerly had the grandmother been so beautiful and so tall. She took the little maiden, on her arm, and both flew in brightness and in joy so high, so very high, and then above was neither cold, nor hunger, nor anxiety–they were with God.

But in the corner, at the cold hour of dawn, sat the poor girl, with rosy cheeks and with a smiling mouth, leaning against the wall–frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. Stiff and stark sat the child there with her matches, of which one bundle had been burnt. “She wanted to warm herself,” people said. No one had the slightest suspicion of what beautiful things she had seen; no one even dreamed of the splendor in which, with her grandmother she had entered on the joys of a new year.

译文

最冷的是；下雪了，天几乎完全黑了，这是一年中的最后一个晚上。在这寒冷和黑暗中，有一个可怜的小女孩沿着街道走着，光着头，赤着脚。当她离开家时，她确实穿着拖鞋。但这有什么好处呢？这是一双很大的拖鞋，她母亲一直都穿过。它们是如此之大；当这个可怜的小东西拖着脚步穿过街道时，由于两辆马车以惊人的速度驶过，她失去了它们。

一只拖鞋却无处可寻；另一个被一个顽童抓住了，他带着它跑了。他认为当他有一天或有一天自己也有孩子时，这对于摇篮来说是非常有用的。小姑娘就这样赤着小脚走着，那双脚冻得又红又青。她的旧围裙里装着一些火柴，手里还拿着一捆火柴。整整一天，没有人给她买过任何东西。没有人给过她一分钱。

她又冷又饿，浑身颤抖，蹑手蹑脚地走着——这可怜的小东西，真是悲伤的景象！

雪花覆盖了她金色的长发，美丽的卷发垂在脖子上。但当然，她现在从来没有想过这一点。所有窗户里的蜡烛都在闪闪发光，烤鹅的味道非常可口，因为你知道今天是除夕夜。是的，她是这么想的。

在两栋房子围成的角落里，一栋比另一栋先进，她坐下来，蜷缩在一起。她把小脚靠近了她，但她越来越冷，她不敢回家，因为她没有卖过任何火柴，也带不到一分钱：她肯定会从她父亲那里得到。刮风了，家里也很冷，因为她头顶上只有屋顶，风从屋顶呼啸而过，尽管最大的裂缝已经用稻草和破布堵住了。

她的小手都快冻僵了。哦！一根火柴可能会给她带来极大的安慰，只要她敢于从包里拿出一根，把它拉到墙上，然后用它来温暖她的手指。她抽出一张。“瑞施特！” 它多么耀眼，多么燃烧！当她把手放在它上面时，那是一团温暖、明亮的火焰，就像一支蜡烛：这是一种美妙的光。在这个小姑娘看来，她真的就像坐在一个大铁炉前，炉脚是锃亮的，上面有黄铜装饰品。火焰熊熊燃烧，具有如此神圣的影响力；天气暖和得令人愉快。小女孩也已经伸出脚来取暖了。但是——小火苗熄灭了，火炉也消失了：她手里只剩下燃尽的火柴了。

她又在墙上擦了一把：它燃烧得很明亮，光线照射到墙上的地方，墙壁就变得像面纱一样透明，这样她就可以看到房间里的情况。桌子上铺着雪白的桌布。上面放着精美的瓷器，烤鹅里的苹果和李子干正在冒着热气。更值得一看的是，鹅从盘子里跳下来，胸前插着刀叉，在地板上打滚，直到它来到可怜的小女孩面前。当——火柴熄灭了，只剩下厚厚、冰冷、潮湿的墙壁。她又点燃了一根火柴。现在她正坐在一棵最宏伟的圣诞树下：它比她透过富商家里的玻璃门看到的那棵更大，装饰得也更漂亮。

数以千计的灯光在绿色的树枝上燃烧，色彩鲜艳的图画，就像她在商店橱窗里看到的那样，俯视着她。小姑娘向他们伸出双手，这时——火柴熄灭了。圣诞树上的灯光越升越高，她现在看到它们就像天上的星星；有一个掉了下来，形成了一条长长的火迹。

“有人刚刚死了！” 小女孩说；因为她的老祖母，唯一爱过她的人，现在已经不在了，她告诉她，当一颗星星坠落时，一个灵魂就会升到上帝那里。

她又在墙上划了一根火柴：天又亮了，在光亮中站着的是老祖母，她那么明亮、容光焕发、那么温和，而且表情充满爱意。

“祖母！” 小家伙叫道。“哦，带上我吧！当火柴燃尽时，你就消失了；你像温暖的炉子，像美味的烤鹅，像华丽的圣诞树一样消失了！” 她迅速在墙上擦了整捆火柴，因为她想确保祖母能留在她身边。火柴发出耀眼的光芒，比中午还亮：祖母从来没有这么美丽，这么高大。她把小姑娘抱在手臂上，两人都在光明和欢乐中飞得那么高，那么高，上面既不寒冷，也不饥饿，也不焦虑——她们与上帝同在。

但在黎明寒冷的时刻，那个可怜的女孩坐在角落里，脸颊红润，嘴角挂着微笑，靠在墙上——在去年的最后一个晚上被冻死了。孩子僵硬而冷漠地坐在那儿，手里拿着火柴，其中有一捆已经烧焦了。人们说：“她想取暖。” 没有人对她所看到的美丽事物有丝毫怀疑；没有人梦想过她与祖母一起进入新年的欢乐时光。