The Princess and the Pea

Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.

从前有一位王子，他想娶一位公主为妻；但她必须是一位真正的公主。他游遍了世界各地去寻找这样一位公主，可是无论走到哪里都找不到自己想要的人。公主倒是有很多，可是很难弄清楚她们是不是真正的公主。她们身上总有些地方不太对劲。于是他只好回到家中，闷闷不乐，因为他非常想娶到一位真正的公主。

One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.

一天晚上，一场可怕的暴风雨降临了；雷电交加，大雨倾盆而下。忽然，城门传来了敲门声，老国王便去开门。

It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.

原来是一位公主站在门外。可是，天哪！风吹雨打把她弄得多么狼狈啊。水从她的头发和衣服上流下来，流进鞋尖，又从鞋跟流出来。可她还是说自己是一位真正的公主。

"Well, we'll soon find that out," thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.

“好吧，我们很快就会弄清楚的。”老王后心想。可是她什么也没说，走进卧室，把床上所有的被褥都拿掉，在床板上放了一粒豌豆；然后她拿来二十床床垫铺在豌豆上面，又在床垫上铺了二十床鸭绒被。

On this the princess had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.

公主就得在这张床上睡一整夜。到了早上，人们问她睡得怎么样。

"Oh, very badly!" said she. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!"

“哦，糟透了！”她说。“我几乎整夜都没合眼。天知道床上有什么东西，反正我是压在什么硬邦邦的东西上了，弄得我浑身青一块紫一块的。真是太可怕了！”

Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.

这下大家都知道她是一位真正的公主了，因为她竟然能隔着二十床床垫和二十床鸭绒被感觉到那粒豌豆。

Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.

除了真正的公主，没有人会这样敏感。

So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.

于是王子娶她为妻，因为现在他知道自己终于找到了一位真正的公主；那粒豌豆则被放进了博物馆，如果没有人把它偷走的话，如今还能看得到呢。

There, that is a true story.

好了，这就是一个真实的故事。