How to Tell a True Princess

There was once upon a time a Prince who wanted to marry a Princess, but she must be a true Princess. So he travelled through the whole world to find one, but there was always something against each. There were plenty of Princesses, but he could not find out if they were true Princesses. In every case there was some little defect, which showed the genuine article was not yet found. So he came home again in very low spirits, for he had wanted very much to have a true Princess.

从前有一位王子，想娶一位公主，但她必须是一位真正的公主。于是他游遍了整个世界去寻找这样一位公主，可是每一次都总有些地方不尽如人意。公主倒是有的是，可是他没法弄清楚她们是不是真正的公主。每次都总有些小小的瑕疵，说明还没找到真正货真价实的那一位。于是他只好垂头丧气地回到家中，因为他非常想拥有一位真正的公主。

One night there was a dreadful storm; it thundered and lightened and the rain streamed down in torrents. It was fearful! There was a knocking heard at the Palace gate, and the old King went to open it.

一天夜里，一场可怕的暴风雨来袭；电闪雷鸣，大雨如注地倾泻而下。真是骇人极了！这时，王宫大门传来了敲门声，老国王便去开门。

There stood a Princess outside the gate; but oh, in what a sad plight she was from the rain and the storm! The water was running down from her hair and her dress into the points of her shoes and out at the heels again. And yet she said she was a true Princess!

门外站着一位公主；可是，噢，经过这场风雨，她的样子是多么凄惨啊！水从她的头发和衣裙上流下来，一直流进鞋尖，又从鞋跟流了出来。可她还是说自己是一位真正的公主！

‘Well, we shall soon find that!’ thought the old Queen. But she said nothing, and went into the sleeping-room, took off all the bed-clothes, and laid a pea on the bottom of the bed. Then she put twenty mattresses on top of the pea, and twenty eider-down quilts on the top of the mattresses. And this was the bed in which the Princess was to sleep.

“好吧，我们很快就会知道的！”老王后心想。可是她什么也没说，走进卧室，掀掉了床上所有的被褥，在床板底下放了一粒豌豆。然后她在豌豆上铺了二十床床垫，又在床垫上铺了二十床鸭绒被。公主就要睡在这张床上。

The next morning she was asked how she had slept.

第二天早上，有人问她睡得怎么样。

‘Oh, very badly!’ said the Princess. ‘I scarcely closed my eyes all night! I am sure I don’t know what was in the bed. I laid on something so hard that my whole body is black and blue. It is dreadful!’

“哦，糟透了！”公主说。“我几乎整夜都没合上眼！我实在不知道床上有什么东西。我压在什么硬邦邦的东西上了，弄得我浑身上下都是青一块紫一块的。真是太可怕了！”

Now they perceived that she was a true Princess, because she had felt the pea through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down quilts.

这下大家都明白了，她确实是一位真正的公主，因为她竟然隔着二十床床垫和二十床鸭绒被感觉到了那粒豌豆。

No one but a true Princess could be so sensitive.

除了真正的公主，没有人会这样敏感。

So the Prince married her, for now he knew that at last he had got hold of a true Princess. And the pea was put into the Royal Museum, where it is still to be seen if no one has stolen it. Now this is a true story.

于是王子娶了她，因为他现在知道自己终于找到了一位真正的公主。那粒豌豆则被放进了皇家博物馆，如果没有人把它偷走的话，如今还能看得到。这就是一个真实的故事。