Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales: The Nightingale

In China, you know, the emperor is Chinese, and the people around him are also Chinese. Pen & Fun & Pavilion www.biquge.info The story I'm going to tell you about here happened many years ago, so it's best to listen to it now while it's not forgotten. The emperor I'm going to talk about, his palace is the most beautiful in the world. It's made entirely of tiles, and it's very expensive, but it's so brittle and brittle that anyone who touches it has to be very careful. In the garden you can see the rarest flowers, the most beautiful of them, with small silver bells tied to them, and tinks and rings, so that everyone will not fail to notice the flowers as they pass by.

Indeed, everything in the Emperor's garden was extremely delicately arranged. The garden was so large that even the chief gardener himself did not know where it ended. Follow it all the way and finally, you will come to a magnificent wood, with tall trees reflected in some deep lakes. The woods lead to the sea, which is so blue and deep that even a big ship can drive close to the shore and drive in the shadow of the trees. Among the trees was a nightingale on it, and it sang so beautifully that the fisherman who came out every night to cast his nets would stop and listen to it, and he could not help but say, "Oh my God, how beautiful it sings!" But he could not listen for a long time, for he had to go to work and catch fish, and he soon forgot about the birds. But the next night, when he heard it singing, he repeated the words of the previous night: "Oh my God, how beautiful it sings!" ”

People from all over the world came to the emperor's capital to pay homage to his palace and gardens; But when they heard the nightingale sing, they all said that it was the best of all things. When these travelers return home, they share what they have seen; Learned people also wrote books describing the capital, the palace, and the gardens; But they did not forget the nightingale, no, it is always mentioned in the first chapter. People who can write poetry write beautiful long poems in praise of this nightingale who lives in the woods by the sea.

These books sold all over the world, and one of them reached the emperor; He sat down in his golden chair and read, nodding his head from time to time as he read, for he was glad to see that his capital, his palace, and his gardens were so complimented. But then he read the phrase "The most beautiful of them all."

"What! Nightingale? I didn't know of any nightingales, I had never heard of them. And yet it's in my empire, and even in my garden. It seems that reading books can know a few things. ”

So he called one of his courtiers. This courtier was so noble that anyone of lower rank spoke to him or asked him a thing, and he simply replied "phew", which meant nothing.

"There is a very famous strange bird called the Nightingale," and this time the emperor spoke to him; "They say it's the greatest thing in my entire vast empire. Why have I never heard of it? ”

"I have never heard of this name," replied the courtier, "and it has never been brought to the palace. ”

"I want it to be delivered here tonight," ordered the Emperor, "and the whole world knows it, but I don't even know it." ”

"I've never heard of it," said the courtier, "but I'll do my best to find it." ”

But it's easy to say, where to find this nightingale? The courtier walked all over the palace, up and down, through halls and corridors, but none of the people he met had ever heard of the bird. So he replied to the emperor that it must be a myth, made up by the man who wrote the book.

"Your Majesty cannot write all the letters," he said, "and sometimes what is written in the books is pure fiction, or so-called fabrication." ”

"But the book I have just read," said the Emperor, "was given to me by the Emperor of Japan, so it cannot be fake." I must hear this nightingale singing! I'm going to hear it tonight! If it is not delivered, it will hit the stomachs of the whole palace, and it will be after it has just eaten. ”

"Yes!" The courtier shouted. He went upstairs and downstairs again, walking through halls and corridors; Half of the palace ran with him, because they didn't want to give a stomach beating. They went everywhere to inquire about this wonderful nightingale, and the whole world knew about it, but the palace did not know.

At last they came to the kitchen, where a poor little girl was working, wiping the pot. She said, "Oh, yes, I know this nightingale; That's right, I'm familiar with it, and it sings beautifully. I was allowed to send the leftovers home every night to my poor sick mother; She lives by the sea right below. The road was long, and when I came back, I was tired and sat down in the woods to rest and listen to the nightingale sing. I would hear it with tears in my eyes, like my mom was kissing me. ”

"Little girl," said the courtier, "I will give you a fixed job in the kitchen, and you may wait for the emperor to eat, if you will bring us to the nightingale; Because I want to invite it into the palace tonight. ”

So she went to the place where the nightingale sang in the woods, and half of the palace followed her. As they walked, a cow mooed.

"Oh," said one of the young courtiers, "now we have found it. How amazing the strength of such a small animal, how loud it screamed; I'm sure I've heard that before. ”

"No, it's just a cow barking," said the little kitchen girl; "We still have a long way to go to the place of the nightingale."

Then passing through the swamp, the frog croaked.

"Nice," sighed the court priest, "now I hear it, as crisp as the sound of a church bell." ”

"No, it's just frog croaking," said the little kitchen girl, "but I think I'll hear it soon." ”

Soon the nightingale began to sing.

"That's it," said the little girl, "listen, listen, it's on the branch above." She pointed to a small gray bird on a branch.

"Is this possible?" The courtier said, "I never thought it would be like that, it looks ordinary, ordinary!" It must have been shocked to see that so many nobles surrounded it at once. ”

"Little nightingale," cried the little girl with a raised voice, "our most merciful emperor wants you to sing before him. ”

"Very happily." The nightingale spoke, and began to sing as pleasant as it could be.

"It sounds like a little glass bell," sighed the courtier, "and look how well its little singing voice trembles." It's strange that we hadn't heard it before; It is sure to be a great success in the palace. ”

"Do you want me to sing another song in front of the emperor?" Nightingale asked, thinking the Emperor was present.

"My little nightingale," said the courtier, "I have the honour to invite you to-night to a court feast, where the Emperor wishes you to enchant him with your most charming songs." ”

"My song is best sung in the green woods." The nightingale said; However, it heard that the emperor wanted it to go, and it was still willing to follow them to the palace.

The palace was very elaborately arranged for this matter. Tiled walls and tiled floors shine in the light of thousands of lights. In the corridor were the most beautiful flowers hung with small bells, which rang so loudly that they could not even be heard as people ran around and the breeze drifted by.

In the hall where the emperor's throne was located, a small golden perch had been installed. The whole palace was present, and the little kitchen girl was also gracious enough to stand at the door. She has been made a court servant. All the men were well-dressed, and every eye was fixed on the little gray bird. The Emperor nodded to the nightingale and let it start singing.

The nightingale sang so sweetly that tears welled up in the emperor's eyes; When tears rolled down the emperor's cheeks, it sang better than ever. The song it sang touched everyone's hearts, and the emperor liked it so much that he sent a decree to the nightingale to put his gold silk scarf around his neck. There is no higher honor than this. But the nightingale refused, saying that it had been rewarded enough.

"I have seen the tears of the Emperor," it said, "and that is the greatest reward for me." The Emperor's tears have a special power, and God knows, this reward is enough. Then it sang another song.

"It's a beautiful singing voice we've never heard before," said the lady-in-waitings to each other; From then on, when they spoke to people, they first took a little water in their mouths, so that they could speak with a strange voice, and they could think of themselves as nightingales. The men and maids were also satisfied, which is telling, for it is not easy to pay them to like, and to be honest, the Nightingale has had the greatest success when he enters the palace.

Now it stays in the palace and has its own birdcage, which can come out twice during the day and once at night. When it came out, twelve servants were appointed to wait on it, holding a silk thread tied to its leg every day. This kind of flying method is really not happy at all.

The whole city was talking about this amazing bird, and when two people met, one said "night" and the other said "warbler", and they understood what it meant, because everyone only talked about nightingales. Eleven of the peddler's children were named "Nightingales", but none of them could sing.

One day the emperor received a large package with the word "Nightingale" written on it.

"There is no doubt that this is yet another new book about our famous bird," said the emperor. But when it was opened, it was not a book, but a handicraft in a box, a man-made nightingale, which looked like it was alive, but made of gold and silver, and was full of diamonds, rubies, and sapphires. As soon as the artificial nightingale is wound, it can sing a song that a real nightingale sings, and its tail can move up and down, emitting silver and gold flashes. It wore a ribbon around its neck that read: "The Nightingale of the Emperor of Japan cannot be compared with the Nightingale of the Emperor of China." ”

"This nightingale is beautiful." Said the people of the whole palace. The man who sent the artificial nightingale was immediately named "Chief Royal Nightingale Messenger".

"Now they must be sung together," said the man in the palace, "what a beautiful duet it would be." And so it was done. But they don't work well together, because real nightingales are free to sing whatever they want, while artificial nightingales can only sing a waltz.

"I can't blame it," said the court musician, "and it sings exactly to the beat, which is my genre." So the artificial nightingale had to sing solo, and everyone agreed that it sang as beautifully as the real nightingale; Plus it looks much prettier, with diamonds, rubies, and sapphires sparkling like bracelets and brooches.

The artificial nightingale can sing the same song thirty-three times without getting tired at all, and people are happy to listen to it thirty-four times, but the emperor says that the real nightingale should sing it, but where has it gone? No one noticed. It had flown out of the open window and back into its own verdant forest.

"What does that mean!" After discovering that it had flown away, the emperor was angry and said. All the people in the palace scolded it and called it ungrateful.

"But we've got the best bird left," they said, and the bird sang again. It still sings the same tune because it can't sing anything else. But the piece was so complicated that the courtiers still didn't memorize it. The court musicians held the bird up to the sky, believing it to be better than the true nightingale, not only for its outward beauty and gem but also for its inner musical talent.

"For you must realize that my Majesty and gentlemen, that true nightingale cannot be relied upon at all. For a real nightingale, we can never say what it will sing next, but for this artificial bird, everything is arranged. There is only one tune in total, and everything can be explained clearly. We can open it and explain it so that people understand the structure of the waltz, why one note follows another. "That's exactly what we want." Everyone replied in unison. Then the court musicians were given permission to show the bird to the public next Sunday.

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Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales: The Nightingale

Time:2011-05-11 13:18:26

The emperor ordered that everyone must be present to hear it sing. People did so, and they became drunk when they heard it singing, but it must have been due to drinking tea, which is an authentic Chinese habit. They all pointed to the sky with their index fingers, nodded their heads and said, "Oh! ”

But a poor fisherman, who had heard a real nightingale sing, muttered, "It does sound beautiful, like a real bird, but it sings the same old way; At the same time, it seems that something is missing, and I can't tell what is missing. ”

From then on, the True Nightingale was expelled from the Empire.

This artificial nightingale was placed on a silk cushion beside the emperor's bed, and the gifts it received were all gold and silver jewels, and it was now called the "little singer of the emperor's royal family", and the rank was the first on the left; Because the emperor considered the atrium to be on the left, and the left was the noblest side. Even if it is an emperor, his atrium is in the same position as the atrium of ordinary people.

The court musicians wrote a monumental work about this artificial bird, twenty-five volumes, which were not only profound and profound, but also long, and all written in the most difficult Chinese characters; All the people bought it and said they had read it and understood it, because they were afraid that they would be thought stupid and dull.

In this way, a year has passed, and every note of the song sung by the artificial bird, the emperor, the people of the whole palace and all the other Chinese can recite it, and everyone likes it so much because they can also sing it, and they sing it like this. Children on the street sing: "Tink, cluck; The emperor himself sang: "Twitter, cluck." "It's so much fun!

But one night, when the artificial bird was singing the most beautifully, and the emperor was lying on the bed and was listening to his thoughts, the inside of the bird suddenly made a "hiss" sound. Then a clockwork broke, all the gears "whined", and the music stopped.

The Emperor hurriedly jumped out of bed and summoned his imperial physician; But what can the imperial doctor do? Then the watchmaker was summoned; After much research and inspection, the bird was finally reluctantly repaired; However, the watchmaker said that it must be used with care in the future, because the barrel is damaged and the new one cannot be installed. The bird can only be used sparingly, and it cannot be allowed to sing often.

What a tragedy! Now the artificial bird can only sing once a year, and even that would be dangerous to the entire internal machine. Then the court musician made a little speech, full of difficult words, that the bird was as good as it had been; If he said so, it was as good as it was.

Five years have passed, and at this time true sorrow has befallen the kingdom. Although everyone loved them as the old emperor, he was now seriously ill, and everyone agreed that there was no hope for him. Although the new emperor had been chosen, the people standing in the street still asked the courtiers how the old emperor was; And he just shook his head and said, "Phew! ”

The emperor lay on his golden dragon bed, his body cold and pale; The whole palace decided that he was dead, and they all ran to make a pilgrimage to his heir. The maids went out to talk about it, and the waitresses had coffee with their companions. The halls and all the corridors were covered with cloth so that no footsteps could be heard, and there was a dead silence all around.

But the Emperor was not dead, though he lay on his splendid bed with velvet curtains and heavy tassels of gold, his face pale and his body stiff. The window was open, and the moon shone on the emperor and the artificial bird.

The poor emperor only felt that his chest was so heavy that he could not even breathe, so he opened his eyes and saw the Grim Reaper sitting there. He wore the emperor's golden crown, held the emperor's golden sword in one hand, and held his imperial flag in the other. Around the bed were many strange heads peeking in through the long velvet curtains, some very ugly, some beautiful and gentle. These heads represent the good and bad things that the Emperor has done, and now that the Grim Reaper is sitting on the Emperor's heart, they are staring at the Emperor's face.

"Do you remember this?" "Do you remember that?" They asked one after another, and it reminded him of many things from the past, and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead.

"No, no, I don't remember at all! This is not true! The Emperor exclaimed, "Music! Music! Beat the Chinese drum! He begged, "Let me not hear what they say." ”

But they continued to speak, and the Grim Reaper nodded to them like the Chinese.

"Music! Music! The Emperor shouted, "You precious little golden bird, sing, please!" I have given you gold and precious gifts; I even hang my gold wire scarf around your neck. Sing! Please, sing! But the artificial nightingale was silent. No one wound it, so it couldn't sing a single note.

The Grim Reaper continued to stare at the Emperor with the empty eye sockets on his skull, and the room was eerily quiet.

Suddenly, through the open window, the sweetest singing voice came in. Outside, on the branch of a tree rested a live nightingale. It heard that the emperor was sick and afflicted, so it came to sing him songs of comfort and hope. As soon as it sang, the faces between the curtains faded away; The blood in the emperor's veins flowed faster, bringing vitality to his weakened limbs; Even the Grim Reaper himself listened, saying, "Sing, little nightingale, keep singing!" ”

"So, will you give me the golden sword and the imperial flag? Will you give me that golden crown? Nightingale said.

So the Grim Reaper handed over the treasures for a tune; The nightingale continued to sing its song. It sings of the quiet church cemetery, where white roses grow, where elderberry trees fragrance in the breeze, and where the fresh grass is wet with the tears of mourners. So the Grim Reaper, eager to see his garden, turned into a cold white mist and drifted out of the window.

"Thank you, thank you," said the Emperor softly, "you holy little bird, I remember you. I once banished you from my empire, and yet you have come back to sing for me, and with your sweet songs you have driven those grimaces away from my bedside, and you have driven death from my heart. How can I reward you? ”

"You have rewarded me," said the nightingale, "and I will never forget the first time I sang to you, which brought tears to your eyes." These tears are jewels that fill the singer's heart with joy. But now you sleep, take care of your body, get back to health, and I'll sing for you again. ”

The gray bird sang again; In the midst of its singing, the emperor sank into a sweet slumber; How peaceful and comfortable it was!

When he regained his strength and energy, he woke up, and the sun shone brightly through the window. But none of his servants returnedβ€”they all believed that he was dead; Only the nightingale remained crouched beside him, singing.

"You must stay with me forever," said the Emperor, "and you can sing as you like; I'm going to smash that artificial bird to pieces. ”

"No, don't do it," replied the nightingale, "and the bird sings very well while it is still singing." Keep it here. I can't live in this palace, I can't build my nest here; But let me come when I want to. I will sing to you at night on the branch outside your window to make you happy and make you think deeply. I will sing not only to you of the happy ones, but also of the suffering ones. I want to sing about the good and evil that is happening and still hidden around you. I, little songbird, will fly away from you and your palace to the poor fisherman's house and the peasant's farmhouse. I love your heart more than your crown; However, the crown also has its sacredness. I'll come! I'll sing for you! But you have to promise me one thing. ”

"I'll promise you anything." The Emperor said that by this time he had put on his imperial robes, and stood there, holding the heavy golden sword, and pressing it to his heart.

"I ask for only one thing," replied the nightingale, "and don't let anyone know that you have a bird that tells you everything, that it would be better." When the nightingale said this, she flew away.

The servants now come in and attend to the dead emperor. All at once they stood there and opened their mouths, but the emperor said to them, "You are dry. (To be continued.) If you like this work, you are welcome to come to the starting point (qidian.com) to vote for recommendation, monthly pass, your support, is my biggest motivation. (To be continued.) )