介绍:
There was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess, but she must be a true Princess. So he traveled through the whole world to find one, but there was always something against each. There were plenty of Princesses, but he could not find out if they were true Princesses. In every case there was some little defect, which showed the genuine article was not yet found. So he came home again in very low spirits, for he had wanted very much to have a true Princess.
从前有一位王子，他想找一位公主结婚，但是她必须是一位真正的公主。他走遍了全世界，想要寻找到一位真正的公主，但不论走到什么地方，总碰到一些障碍。公主倒有的是，但王子无法判断她们她们究竟是不是真正的公主，因为她们总有一些地方不大对头，结果，他只好回家来，心中很不快活，因为他是多么渴望得到一位真正的公主。
One night there was a dreadful storm; it thundered and lightened and the rain streamed down in torrents. It was fearful! There was a knocking heard at the Palace gate, and the old King went to open it.
有一天晚上，忽然起了一阵可怕的暴风雨，天空在掣电，在打雷，还下着大雨，这真使人有些害怕！这时，有人在敲门，老国王就走过去去开门。
There stood a Princess outside the gate; but oh, in what a sad plight she was from the rain and the storm! The water was running down from her hair and her dress into the points of her shoes and out at the heels again. And yet she said she was a true Princess!
站在城外的是一位美丽的公主。可是，天哪！经过了风吹雨打之后，她的样子是多么难看啊！水沿着她的头发和衣服向下流，流进鞋尖，又从脚跟流出来。她说她是一个真正的公主。
‘Well, we shall soon find that!’ thought the old Queen. But she said nothing, and went into the sleeping-room, took off all the bed-clothes, and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed. Then she put twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty eider-down quilts on the top of the mattresses. And this was the bed in which the Princess was to sleep.
老皇后心想：“是的，这点我们马上就可以考查出来。”可是，她什么也没说。她走进卧房，把所有的被褥全部搬开，在床榻上放了一粒豌豆于是她取出二十张床垫子，把它们压在豌豆上。随后，她又在这些垫子上放了二十床鸭绒被。这位公主夜里就睡在这些东西上面。
The next morning she was asked how she had slept.
早晨大家问她昨晚睡得怎样。
‘Oh, very badly!’ said the Princess. ‘I scarcely closed my eyes all night! I am sure I don’t know what was in the bed. I laid on something so hard that my whole body is black and blue. It is dreadful!’
“啊，不舒服极了！”公主说。”我差不多整夜都没有合上眼！天晓得床下有什么东西？有一粒很硬的东西硌着我，弄的我全身发紫，这真怕人！”
Now they perceived that she was a true Princess, because she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down quilts.
现在大家看出来了，她的确是一位真正的公主。因为压在这二十层床垫子和二十床鸭绒被下面的一粒豌豆，她居然还能感得觉出来。
No one but a true Princess could be so sensitive.
除了真正的公主以外，任何人都不会有这么稚嫩的皮肤的。
So the Prince married her, for now he knew that at last he had got hold of a true Princess. And the pea was put into the Royal Museum, where it is still to be seen if no one has stolen it.
因此，那位王子就选她做妻子了，因为他知道他得到了一位真正的公主。这粒豌豆因此也送进了博物馆。如果没有人把它拿走的话，人们现在还可以在那儿看到它呢。
Now this is a true story.
请注意，这是一个真的故事。
So Bertie says that’s how you tell a real princess. Sadie says she would never sit on a pea, but still Bertie won’t say that she’s a real princess and now she’s in a bit of a huff. I’m sure she will cheer up soon because she likes Bertie really.
大家还在听
