拇指姑娘英文故事

《拇指姑娘》是世界著名童话作家安徒生的作品，是一篇享誉世界的童话佳作。下面小编为大家整理的拇指姑娘英文故事，希望对大家有用!

拇指姑娘英文故事

There was once a woman who wished very much to have a little child, but she could not obtain her wish. At last she went to a fairy, and said, “I should so very much like to have a little child; can you tell me where I can find one?”“Oh, that can be easily managed,” said the fairy. “Here is a barleycorn of a different kind to those which grow in the farmer’s fields, and which the chickens eat; put it into a flower-pot, and see what will happen.”“Thank you,” said the woman, and she gave the fairy twelve shillings, which was the price of the barleycorn. Then she went home and planted it, and immediately there grew up a large handsome flower, something like a tulip in appearance, but with its leaves tightly closed as if it were still a bud.

“It is a beautiful flower,” said the woman, and she kissed the red and golden-colored leaves, and while she did so the flower opened, and she could see that it was a real tulip. Within the flower, upon the green velvet stamens,sat a very delicate and graceful little maiden. She was scarcely half as long as a thumb and they gave her the name of “Thumbelina”, or Tiny, because she was so small. A walnut-shell, elegantly polished, served her for a cradle; her bed was formed of blue violet-leaves, with a rose-leaf for a counterpane. Here she slept at night, but during the day she amused herself on a table, where the woman had placed a plateful of water. Round this plate were wreaths of flowers with their stems in the water, and upon it floated a large tulip-leaf, which served Tiny for a boat. Here the little maiden sat and rowed herself from side to side, with two oars made of white horse-hair. It really was a very pretty sight. Tiny could, also, sing so softly and sweetly that nothing like her singing had ever before been heard.

One night, while she lay in her pretty bed, a large, ugly, wet toad crept through a broken pane of glass in the window, and leaped right upon the table where Tiny lay sleeping under her rose-leaf quilt. “What a pretty little wife this would make for my son,” said the toad, and she took up the walnut-shell in which little Tiny lay asleep, and jumped through the window with it into the garden.In the swampy margin of a broad stream in the garden lived the toad, with her son. He was uglier even than his mother, and when he saw the pretty little maiden in her elegant bed, he could only cry, “Croak, croak, croak.”“Don’t speak so loud, or she will wake,” said the toad, “and then she might run away, for she is as light as swan’s down. We will place her on one of the water-lily leaves out in the stream; it will be like an island to her, she is so light and small, and then she cannot escape; and, while she is away, we will make haste and prepare the state-room under the marsh, in which you are to live when you are married.”Far out in the stream grew a number of water-lilies, with broad green leaves, which seemed to float on the top of the water. The largest of these leaves appeared farther off than the rest, and the old toad swam out to it with the walnut-shell, in which little Tiny lay still asleep.The tiny little creature woke very early in the morning, and began to cry bitterly when she found where she was, for she could see nothing but water on every side of the large green leaf, and no way of reaching the land.

Meanwhile the old toad was very busy under the marsh, decking her room with rushes and wild yellow flowers, to make it look pretty for her new daughter-in-law. Then she swam out with her ugly son to the leaf on which she had placed poor little Tiny. She wanted to fetch the pretty bed, that she might put it in the bridal chamber to be ready for her. The old toad bowed low to her in the water, and said, “Here is my son, he will be your husband, and you will live happily in the marsh by the stream.”The little fishes, who swam about in the water beneath, had seen the toad, and heard what she said, so they lifted their heads above the water to look at the little maiden. As soon as they caught sight of her, they saw she was very pretty, and it made them very sorry to think that she must go and live with the ugly toads. “No, it must never be!” So they assembled together in the water, round the green stalk which held the leaf on which the little maiden stood, and gnawed it away at the root with their teeth. Then the leaf floated down the stream, carrying Tiny far away out of reach of land.

从前有一个女人，她很想有一个很小的小孩，但是始终未能如愿。最后，她去找了一个小仙子，对她说：“我很想有一个特别小的小孩，你能告诉我在哪儿可以找到吗?”“哦，这很简单。”小仙子说。“这有一个大麦粒，这个大麦粒跟农民地里长的大麦粒不一样，跟鸡会吃的大麦粒也不一样;你把它放进一个花盆里，看看能种出什么来。”“谢谢。”女人说。她给了小仙子12先令作为大麦粒的报酬，然后就回家了。她把大麦粒种在一个花盆里，很快，花盆里长出一大朵漂亮的花，看上去像一朵郁金香，但是叶子都紧紧地合在一起，好像还是一个花蕾。

“这朵花真漂亮。”女人说。她吻了吻它红色和金色的叶子，而就在这时，花开了，她看出来了，还真的是朵郁金香。花里的绿色丝绒雄蕊上坐着一个纤细优雅的小女孩。她还没有一根大拇指的一半那么长，于是大家给她取了个名字，叫“拇指姑娘”，或者叫“小拇指”，因为她实在是很小。她的摇篮是一个打磨得很漂亮的花生壳;她的床是由蓝色的紫罗兰叶子做成的，床罩则是一片玫瑰叶。每天晚上她在这里睡觉，白天就在桌子上玩。女人在桌上放了一盘水。一朵花环绕在盘子周围，花的茎都插在水里，水上浮着一大片郁金香叶子。这就是小拇指的船。小拇指坐在船里，从盘子的一边划到另一边，用两根白色的马毛做船桨。这景象非常美妙，而小拇指唱歌的声音轻柔动听，从来没有人听过像她这么美妙的歌声。

一天晚上，她躺在自己美丽的床上，睡在玫瑰叶被子下面，一只巨大的、丑陋的、湿漉漉的蟾蜍从破玻璃窗格爬了进来，正好跳在小拇指睡着的桌子上。“带她去做我儿子的小美人妻该多好。”蟾蜍说，然后她拿起小拇指睡觉的花生壳，从窗户跳了出去，跳进了花园里。蟾蜍生活在花园里一条宽阔的小溪沼泽边缘，跟她的儿子住在一起。他比自己的妈妈还要丑，当他看到漂亮的床上那优雅的小女孩时，只能大喊道：“呱，呱，呱。”“说话别这么大声，不然会把她吵醒的。”蟾蜍说，“她可能会逃走，因为她跟天鹅的绒毛一样轻。我们要把她放在小溪里的睡莲叶下面;她这么轻，这么小，睡莲叶对她来说就相当于一个岛屿，这样她就没法逃走了;我们还要快些准备沼泽地下面的仓房，你结婚之后要住在里面。”小溪里生长着一大片睡莲，睡莲有着宽阔的绿色叶子，好像漂浮在水上一样。这些叶子中较大的一片比其他叶子都要大。老蟾蜍带着花生壳游过去，小拇指还在花生壳里熟睡。第二天早上，小拇指很早就醒来了，她发现自己身处一大片绿色的叶子上面，周围什么都看不到，只能看见水，也没办法到达陆地。她开始悲痛地哭泣起来。

此时，老蟾蜍在沼泽地下忙碌着，她用灯芯草和野黄花装饰着未来儿媳的房间，她把房子布置得漂漂亮亮。然后她同丑陋的儿子一起游出来，游到她放小拇指的叶子上面。她想把美丽的床搬到新娘房间，为新娘做好准备。老蟾蜍在水中朝她深深地鞠了一躬，说：“这是我的儿子，他会做你的丈夫，你们会在小溪边的沼泽地里幸福地生活下去。”在水下游来游去的小鱼儿看见了蟾蜍，又听见了小拇指说的话，它们从水下抬起头来，看着小女孩。它们一看到她，就发现她非常漂亮，而想到她要跟丑陋的蟾蜍生活在一起，它们就觉得非常难过。“不，我们不能让这一切发生!”于是，它们在水中集合起来，集合在小女孩站着的叶子的绿茎旁，然后用牙齿咬断绿茎根部。叶子随着小溪飘走了，带着小拇指飘向了遥远的地方。