the Hurds扔掉的亞麻

the Hurds扔掉的亞麻

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

　　Once upon a time there was a girl who was beautiful, but lazy and negligent. When she had to spin she was so ill tempered that if there was a little knot in the flax, she at once pulled out a whole heap of it, and scattered it about on the ground beside her. Now she had a servant who was industrious, and who gathered together the discarded flax, cleaned it, spun it well, and had a beautiful dress woven out of it for herself.

　　A young man had courted the lazy girl, and the wedding was about to take place. On the eve of the wedding, the industrious girl was dancing merrily about in her beautiful dress, and the bride said,

　　Ach, wat kann das M??ken springen

　　in minen Slickerlingen!

　　Ah, how that girl can jump about,

　　in my hurds!

　　the bridegroom heard this, and asked the bride what she meant by it. So she told him that the girl was wearing a dress made from the flax which she had thrown away. When the bridegroom heard this, and saw how lazy she was, and how industrious the poor girl was, he gave her up and went to the other girl, and chose her as his wife.

　　從前有位姑娘長得很漂亮，但很懶惰又馬虎。如果叫她紡織，她總是心浮意躁，麻里有個小結，她就會扯掉一大堆麻，扔在身邊的地上。有一個勤快的丫頭，把摔掉的麻收攏來，洗乾凈，又精心地紡了一遍，用它織成了一件漂亮的衣服。一個年輕人向那懶姑娘求婚，他們很快就要舉行婚禮了。在結婚的前一晚，那勤快的丫頭穿著她那美麗的衣服，高興地來他家跳舞，新娘說：

　　“啊呀，那丫頭穿著我不要的東西，

　　竟來堂而皇之地跳舞！“

　　新郎聽見了，很是迷惑，問新娘說這話是甚么意思。於是她跟他說，那女孩穿的衣服，是她扔掉的麻織成的。新郎聽到這話，曉得她懶，而那窮女孩勤快，就毫不猶豫地撇下了她，走到了那勤快的姑娘跟前，選了她做了自己的妻子。