双语安徒生童话:Ib and Little Christina 依卜和小克丽斯玎

发布时间:2017-07-31 编辑:tyl

  IN the forest that extends from the banks of theGudenau, in North Jutland, a long way into thecountry, and not far from the clear stream, rises aGREat ridge of land, which stretches through thewood like a wall. Westward of this ridge, and notfar from the river, stands a farmhouse,surrounded by such poor land that the sandy soilshows itself between the scanty ears of rye andwheat which grow in it. Some years have passed since the people who lived here cultivatedthese fields; they kept three sheep, a pig, and two oxen; in fact they maintainedthemselves very well, they had quite enough to live upon, as people generally have who arecontent with their lot. They even could have afforded to keep two horses, but it was a sayingamong the farmers in those parts, “The horse eats himself up;” that is to say, he eats asmuch as he earns. Jeppe Jans cultivated his fields in summer, and in the winter he madewooden shoes. He also had an assistant, a lad who understood as well as he himself did howto make wooden shoes strong, but light, and in the fashion. They carved shoes andspoons, which paid well; therefore no one could justly call Jeppe Jans and his family poorpeople. Little Ib, a boy of seven years old and the only child, would sit by, watching theworkmen, or cutting a stick, and sometimes his finger instead of the stick. But one day Ibsucceeded so well in his carving that he made two pieces of wood look really like two littlewooden shoes, and he determined to give them as a present to Little Christina.

  “And who was Little Christina?” She was the boatman's daughter, graceful and delicateas the child of a gentleman; had she been dressed differently, no one would have believedthat she lived in a hut on the neighboring heath with her father. He was a widower, and earnedhis living by carrying firewood in his large boat from the forest to the eel-pond and eel-weir,on the estate of Silkborg, and sometimes even to the distant town of Randers. There was noone under whose care he could leave Little Christina; so she was almost always with him in hisboat, or playing in the wood among the blossoming heath, or picking the ripe wild berries.Sometimes, when her father had to go as far as the town, he would take Little Christina,who was a year younger than Ib, across the heath to the cottage of Jeppe Jans, and leaveher there. Ib and Christina aGREed together in everything; they divided their bread and berrieswhen they were hungry; they were partners in digging their little gardens; they ran, andcrept, and played about everywhere. Once they wandered a long way into the forest, andeven ventured together to climb the high ridge. Another time they found a few snipes' eggs inthe wood, which was a great event. Ib had never been on the heath where Christina's fatherlived, nor on the river; but at last came an opportunity. Christina's father invited him to gofor a sail in his boat; and the evening before, he accompanied the boatman across the heathto his house. The next morning early, the two children were placed on the top of a high pile offirewood in the boat, and sat eating bread and wild strawberries, while Christina's father andhis man drove the boat forward with poles. They floated on swiftly, for the tide was in theirfavor, passing over lakes, formed by the stream in its course; sometimes they seemedquite enclosed by reeds and water-plants, yet there was always room for them to pass out,although the old trees overhung the water and the old oaks stretched out their bare branches,as if they had turned up their sleeves and wished to show their knotty, naked arms. Old alder-trees, whose roots were loosened from the banks, clung with their fibres to the bottom ofthe stream, and the tops of the branches above the water looked like little woody islands. Thewater-lilies waved themselves to and fro on the river, everything made the excursionbeautiful, and at last they came to the great eel-weir, where the water rushed through theflood-gates; and the children thought this a beautiful sight. In those days there was nofactory nor any town house, nothing but the great farm, with its scanty-bearing fields, inwhich could be seen a few herd of cattle, and one or two farm laborers. The rushing of thewater through the sluices, and the scream of the wild ducks, were almost the only signs ofactive life at Silkborg. After the firewood had been unloaded, Christina's father bought a wholebundle of eels and a sucking-pig, which were all placed in a basket in the stern of the boat.Then they returned again up the stream; and as the wind was favorable, two sails werehoisted, which carried the boat on as well as if two horses had been harnessed to it. As theysailed on, they came by chance to the place where the boatman's assistant lived, at a littledistance from the bank of the river. The boat was moored; and the two men, after desiringthe children to sit still, both went on shore. they obeyed this order for a very short time, andthen forgot it altogether. First they peeped into the basket containing the eels and the sucking-pig; then they must needs pull out the pig and take it in their hands, and feel it, and touchit; and as they both wanted to hold it at the same time, the consequence was that they letit fall into the water, and the pig sailed away with the stream.

  Here was a terrible disaster. Ib jumped ashore, and ran a little distance from the boat.

  “Oh, take me with you,” cried Christina; and she sprang after him. In a few minutesthey found themselves deep in a thicket, and could no longer see the boat or the shore. Theyran on a little farther, and then Christina fell down, and began to cry.

  Ib helped her up, and said, “Never mind; follow me. Yonder is the house.” But the housewas not yonder; and they wandered still farther, over the dry rustling leaves of the lastyear, and treading on fallen branches that crackled under their little feet; then they heard aloud, piercing cry, and they stood still to listen. Presently the scream of an eagle soundedthrough the wood; it was an ugly cry, and it frightened the children; but before them, inthe thickest part of the forest, GREw the most beautiful blackberries, in wonderful quantities.They looked so inviting that the children could not help stopping; and they remained there solong eating, that their mouths and cheeks became quite black with the juice.

  Presently they heard the frightful scream again, and Christina said, “We shall get intotrouble about that pig.”

  “Oh, never mind,” said Ib; “we will go home to my father's house. It is here in thewood.” So they went on, but the road led them out of the way; no house could be seen, itGREw dark, and the children were afraid. The solemn stillness that reigned around them wasnow and then broken by the shrill cries of the great horned owl and other birds that they knewnothing of. At last they both lost themselves in the thicket; Christina began to cry, and thenIb cried too; and, after weeping and lamenting for some time, they stretched themselvesdown on the dry leaves and fell asleep.