【英文文学】The Olive Fairy Book.docx

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1、【英文文学】The Olive Fairy BookPrefaceMany years ago my friend and publisher, Mr. Charles Longman, presented me with Le Cabinet des Fes (The Fairy Cabinet). This work almost requires a swinging bookcase for its accommodation, like the Encyclop?dia Britannica, and in a revolving bookcase I bestowed the vo

2、lumes. Circumstances of an intimately domestic character, not wholly unconnected, as Mr. Micawber might have said, with the narrowness of my study (in which it is impossible to swing a cat), prevent the revolving bookcase from revolving at this moment. I can see, however, that the Fairy Cabinet cont

3、ains at least forty volumes, and I think there are about sixty in all. This great plenitude of fairy tales from all quarters presents legends of fairies, witches, genii or Djinn, monsters, dragons, wicked step-mothers, princesses, pretty or plain, princes lucky or unlucky, giants, dwarfs, and enchan

4、tments. The stories begin with those which children like best the old Blue Beard, Puss in Boots, Hop o my Thumb, Little Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty, and Toads and Pearls. These were first collected, written, and printed at Paris in 1697. The author was Monsieur Charles Perrault, a famous pe

5、rsonage in a great perruque, who in his day wrote large volumes now unread. He never dreamed that he was to be remembered mainly by the shabby little volume with the tiny headpiece pictures how unlike the fairy way of drawing by Mr. Ford, said to be known as Over-the-wall Ford among authors who play

6、 cricket, because of the force with which he swipes! Perrault picked up the rustic tales which the nurse of his little boy used to tell, and he told them again in his own courtly, witty way. They do not seem to have been translated into English until nearly thirty years later, when they were publish

7、ed in English, with the French on the opposite page, by a Mr. Pote, a bookseller at Eton. Probably the younger Eton boys learned as much French as they condescended to acquire from these fairy tales, which are certainly more amusing than the Tlmaque of Messire Fran?ois de Salignac de la Motte-Fnelon

8、, tutor of the children of France, Archbishop Duke of Cambrai, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire.The success of Perrault was based on the pleasure which the court of Louis XIV. took in fairy tales; we know that they were told among Court ladies, from a letter of Madame de Svign. Naturally, Perraul

9、t had imitators, such as Madame dAulnoy, a wandering lady of more wit than reputation. To her we owe Beauty and the Beast and The Yellow Dwarf. Anthony Hamilton tried his hand with The Ram, a story too prolix and confused, best remembered for the remark, Ram, my friend, begin at the beginning! Indee

10、d, the narrative style of the Ram is lacking in lucidity! Then came The Arabian Nights, translated by Monsieur Galland. Nobody has translated The Arabian Nights so well as Galland. His is the reverse of a scientific rendering, but it is as pleasantly readable as the Iliad and Odyssey would be if Ale

11、xandre Dumas had kept his promise to translate Homer. Galland omitted the verses and a great number of passages which nobody would miss, though the anthropologist is supposed to find them valuable and instructive in later scientific translations which do not amuse. Later, Persian Tales, Tales of the

12、 Sea, and original inventions, more or less on the fairy model, were composed by industrious men and women. They are far too long are novels, indeed, and would please no child or mature person of taste. All these were collected in the vast Fairy Cabinet, published in 1786, just before the Revolution

13、. Probably their attempt to be simple charmed a society which was extremely artificial, talked about the simple life and the state of nature, and was on the eve of a revolution in which human nature revealed her most primitive traits in orgies of blood.That was the end of the Court and of the Court

14、Fairy Tales, and just when they were demolished, learned men like the Grimms and Sir Walter Scott began to take an interest in the popular tales of peasants and savages all the world over. All the world over the tales were found to be essentially the same things. Cinderella is everywhere; a whole bo

15、ok has been written on Cinderella by Miss Cox, and a very good book it is, but not interesting to children. For them the best of the collections of foreign fairy tales are the German stories by the Grimms, the Tales from the Norse, by Sir G. W. Dasent, (which some foolish grown-ups denounced as impr

16、oper), and Miss Freres Indian stories. There are hundreds of collections of savage and peasant fairy tales, but, though many of these are most interesting, especially Bishop Callaways Zulu stories (with the Zulu versions), these do not come in the way of parents and uncles, and therefore do not come

17、 in the way of children. It is my wish that children should be allowed to choose their own books. Let their friends give them the money and turn them loose in the book shops! They know their own tastes, and if the children are born bookish, while their dear parents are the reverse, (and this does oc

18、cur!), then the children make the better choice. They are unaffected in their selections; some want Shakespeares of their own, and some prefer a volume entitled Buster Brown. A few alas, how few! are fond of poetry; a still smaller number are fond of history. We know that there are no fairies, but h

19、istory stories are true! say these little innocents. I am not so sure that there are no fairies, and I am only too well aware that the best history stories are not true.What children do love is ghost stories. Tell us a ghost story! they cry, and I am able to meet the demand, with which I am in since

20、re sympathy. Only strong control prevents me from telling the last true ghost story which I heard yesterday. It would suit children excellently well. The Grey Ghost Story Book would be a favourite. At a very early age I read a number of advertisements of books, and wept because I could not buy dozen

21、s of them, and somebody gave me a book on Botany! It looked all right, nicely bound in green cloth, but within it was full of all manner of tediousness.In our Fairy Cabinet, which cannot extend to sixty volumes, we have aimed at pleasing children, not grown-ups, at whom the old French writers direct

22、ed their romances, but have hunted for fairy tales in all quarters, not in Europe alone. In this volume we open, thanks to Dr. Ignaz Künos, with a story from the Turks. Little King Loc is an original invention by M. Anatole France, which he very kindly permitted Mrs. Lang to adapt from LAbeille

23、.Major Campbell, as previously, tells tales which he collected among the natives of India. But the sources are usually named at the end of each story, and when they are not named children will not miss them. Mrs. Lang, except in cases mentioned, has translated and adapted to the conditions of young

24、readers the bulk of the collection, and Mrs. Skovgaard-Pedersen has done The Green Knight from the Danish. I must especially thank Monsieur Macler for permitting us to use some of his Contes Armniens (Paris: Ernest Leroux, Editeur).MadschunOnce upon a time there lived, in a small cottage among some

25、hills, a woman with her son, and, to her great grief, the young man, though hardly more than twenty years of age, had not as much hair on his head as a baby. But, old as he looked, the youth was very idle, and whatever trade his mother put him to he refused to work, and in a few days always came hom

26、e again.On a fine summer morning he was lying as usual half asleep in the little garden in front of the cottage when the sultans daughter came riding by, followed by a number of gaily dressed ladies. The youth lazily raised himself on his elbow to look at her, and that one glance changed his whole n

27、ature.I will marry her and nobody else, he thought. And jumping up, he went to find his mother.You must go at once to the sultan, and tell him that I want his daughter for my wife, he said.What? shouted the old woman, shrinking back into a corner, for nothing but sudden madness could explain such an

28、 amazing errand.Dont you understand? You must go at once to the sultan and tell him that I want his daughter for my wife, repeated the youth impatiently.But but, do you know what you are saying? stammered the mother. You will learn no trade, and have only the five gold pieces left you by your father

29、, and can you really expect that the sultan would give his daughter to a penniless bald-pate like you?That is my affair; do as I bid you. And neither day nor night did her son cease tormenting her, till, in despair, she put on her best clothes, and wrapped her veil about her, and went over the hill

30、to the palace.It was the day that the sultan set apart for hearing the complaints and petitions of his people, so the woman found no difficulty in gaining admission to his presence.The youth sees the sultans daughter riding byDo not think me mad, O Excellency, she began, though I know I must seem li

31、ke it. But I have a son who, since his eyes have rested on the veiled face of the princess, has not left me in peace day or night till I consented to come to the palace, and to ask your Excellency for your daughters hand. It was in vain I answered that my head might pay the forfeit of my boldness, h

32、e would listen to nothing. Therefore am I here; do with me even as you will!Now the sultan always loved anything out of the common, and this situation was new indeed. So, instead of ordering the trembling creature to be flogged or cast into prison, as some other sovereigns might have done, he merely

33、 said: Bid your son come hither.The old woman stared in astonishment at such a reply. But when the sultan repeated his words even more gently than before, and did not look in anywise angered, she took courage, and bowing again she hastened homeward.Well, how have you sped? asked her son eagerly as s

34、he crossed the threshold.You are to go up to the palace without delay, and speak to the sultan himself, replied the mother. And when he heard the good news, his face lightened up so wonderfully that his mother thought what a pity it was that he had no hair, as then he would be quite handsome.Ah, the

35、 lightning will not fly more swiftly, cried he. And in another instant he was out of her sight.When the sultan beheld the bald head of his daughters wooer, he no longer felt in the mood for joking, and resolved that he must somehow or other shake himself free of such an unwelcome lover. But as he ha

36、d summoned the young man to the palace, he could hardly dismiss him without a reason, so he hastily said:I hear you wish to marry my daughter? Well and good. But the man who is to be her husband must first collect all the birds in the world, and bring them into the gardens of the palace; for hithert

37、o no birds have made their homes in the trees.The young man was filled with despair at the sultans words. How was he to snare all these birds? and even if he did succeed in catching them it would take years to carry them to the palace! Still, he was too proud to let the sultan think that he had give

38、n up the princess without a struggle, so he took a road that led past the palace and walked on, not noticing whither he went.In this manner a week slipped by, and at length he found himself crossing a desert with great rocks scattered here and there. In the shadow cast by one of these was seated a h

39、oly man or dervish, as he was called, who motioned to the youth to sit beside him.Something is troubling you, my son, said the holy man; tell me what it is, as I may be able to help you.O, my father, answered the youth, I wish to marry the princess of my country; but the sultan refuses to give her t

40、o me unless I can collect all the birds in the world and bring them into his garden. And how can I, or any other man, do that?Do not despair, replied the dervish, it is not so difficult as it sounds. Two days journey from here, in the path of the setting sun, there stands a cypress tree, larger than

41、 any other cypress that grows upon the earth. Sit down where the shadow is darkest, close to the trunk, and keep very still. By-and-by you will hear a mighty rushing of wings, and all the birds in the world will come and nestle in the branches. Be careful not to make a sound till everything is quiet

42、 again, and then say “Madschun!” At that the birds will be forced to remain where they are not one can move from its perch; and you will be able to place them all over your head and arms and body, and in this way you must carry them to the sultan.With a glad heart the young man thanked the dervish,

43、and paid such close heed to his directions that, a few days later, a strange figure covered with soft feathers walked into the presence of the sultan. The princesss father was filled with surprise, for never had he seen such a sight before. Oh! how lovely were those little bodies, and bright frighte

44、ned eyes! Soon a gentle stirring was heard, and what a multitude of wings unfolded themselves: blue wings, yellow wings, red wings, green wings. And when the young man whispered Go, they first flew in circles round the sultans head, and then disappeared through the open window, to choose homes in th

45、e garden.The youth bows before the sultan, as birds fly around himI have done your bidding, O Sultan, and now give me the princess, said the youth. And the sultan answered hurriedly:Yes! oh, yes! you have pleased me well! Only one thing remains to turn you into a husband that any girl might desire.

46、That head of yours, you know it is so very bald! Get it covered with nice thick curly hair, and then I will give you my daughter. You are so clever that I am sure this will give you no trouble at all.Silently the young man listened to the sultans words, and silently he sat in his mothers kitchen for

47、 many days to come, till, one morning, the news reached him that the sultan had betrothed his daughter to the son of the wizir, and that the wedding was to be celebrated without delay in the palace. With that he arose in wrath, and made his way quickly and secretly to a side door, used only by the w

48、orkmen who kept the building in repair, and, unseen by anyone, he made his way into the mosque, and then entered the palace by a gallery which opened straight into the great hall. Here the bride and bridegroom and two or three friends were assembled, waiting for the appearance of the sultan for the

49、contract to be signed.Madschun! whispered the youth from above. And instantly everyone remained rooted to the ground; and some messengers whom the sultan had sent to see that all was ready shared the same fate.At length, angry and impatient, the sultan went down to behold with his own eyes what had happened, but as nobody could