介绍： 公众号：MT英语（ID:mtkouyu）
专辑;【英文原版童话故事】
文本整理：Leeven

There were once a man and a woman who had long wished for a child – but without any luck. At last, the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. They had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden ...

介绍： 公众号：MT英语（ID:mtkouyu）
专辑;【英文原版童话故事】
文本整理：Leeven

There were once a man and a woman who had long wished for a child – but without any luck. At last, the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. They had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world.
从前有一个男人和一个女人，他俩一直想要个孩子，可总也得不到。最后，女人只好希望上帝能赐给她一个孩子。他们家的屋子后面有个小窗户，从那里可以看到一个美丽的花园，里面长满了奇花异草。可是，花园的周围有一道高墙，谁也不敢进去，因为那个花园属于一个女巫。这个女巫的法力非常大，世界上人人都怕她。

One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful plant called a Rapunzel, and it looked so fresh and （绿色的） that she longed for it; she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable.
一天，妻子站在窗口向花园望去，看到一块菜地上长着非常漂亮的莴苣。这些莴苣绿油油、水灵灵的，立刻就勾起了她的食欲，非常想吃它们。这种欲望与日俱增，而当知道自己无论如何也吃不到的时候，她变得非常憔悴，脸色苍白，痛苦不堪。

Then her husband was alarmed, and asked, "What troubles you, dear wife?"
她丈夫吓坏了，问她："亲爱的，你哪里不舒服呀?"

"Ah," she replied, "if I can’t eat some of the Rapunzel, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die."
"啊，"她回答，"我要是吃不到我们家后面那个园子里的莴苣，我就会死掉的。

The man, who loved her, thought, "Sooner than let your wife die, better bring her some of the Rapunzel – let it cost you what it will."
"丈夫因为非常爱她，便想："与其说让妻子去死，不如给她弄些莴苣来，管它会发生什么事情呢。"

When it was getting dark, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of the Rapunzel plant and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her-so very good that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden.
黄昏时分，他翻过围墙，溜进了女巫的花园，飞快地拔了一把莴苣，带回来给她妻子吃。妻子立刻把莴苣做成色拉，狼吞虎咽地吃了下去。这莴苣的味道真是太好了，第二天她想吃的莴苣居然比前一天多了两倍。为了满足妻子，丈夫只好决定再次翻进女巫的园子。

In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was struck with terror, for he saw the enchantress standing before him.
于是，黄昏时分，他偷偷地溜进了园子，可他刚从墙上爬下来，就吓了一跳，因为他看到女巫就站在他的面前。

"How can you dare," said she with angry look, "climb down into my garden and steal my Rapunzel, like a thief? You shall suffer for it!"
"你好大的胆子，"她怒气冲冲地说，"竟敢溜进我的园子来，像个贼一样偷我的莴苣!"

"Ah," answered he, "let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your Rapunzel from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not gotten some to eat."
"唉，"他回答，"可怜可怜我，饶了我吧。我是没办法才这样做的。我妻子从窗口看到了你园子中的莴苣，想吃得要命，吃不到就会死掉的。"

Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him, "If you speak the truth, I will allow you to take away with you as much Rapunzel as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother."
女巫听了之后气慢慢消了一些，对他说："如果事情真像你说的这样，我可以让你随便采多少莴苣，但我有一个条件：你必须把你妻子将要生的孩子交给我。我会让她过得很好的，而且会像妈妈一样对待她。"

The man in his terror agreed to everything, and when the child was born, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
丈夫由于害怕，只好答应女巫的一切条件。妻子刚刚生下孩子，女巫就来了，给孩子取了个名字叫"莴苣"，然后就把孩子带走了。

Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her in a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window.
"莴苣"慢慢长成了天底下最漂亮的女孩。孩子十二岁那年，女巫把她关进了一座高塔。这座高塔在森林里，既没有楼梯也没有门，只是在塔顶上有一个小小的窗户。

When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel; let down your hair to me."
每当女巫想进去，她就站在塔下叫道："莴苣，莴苣，把你的头发垂下来。"

Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them around one of the hooks of the window above. Then the hair fell twenty yards down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
莴苣姑娘长着一头金丝般浓密的长发。一听到女巫的叫声，她便松开她的发辫，把顶端绕在一个窗钩上，然后放下来二十公尺。女巫便顺着这长发爬上去。

After a year or two, it happened that the king’s son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice sing out. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found.
一两年过去了。有一天，王子骑马路过森林，刚好经过这座塔。这时，他突然听到美妙的歌声，不由得停下来静静地听着。唱歌的正是莴苣姑娘，她在寂寞中只好靠唱歌来打发时光。王子想爬到塔顶上去见她，便四处找门，可怎么也没有找到。

He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it.
他回到了宫中，那歌声已经深深地打动了他，他每天都要骑马去森林里听。

Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel; let down your hair to me."
一天，他站在一棵树后，看到女巫来了，而且听到她冲着塔顶叫道："莴苣，莴苣，把你的头发垂下来。"

Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. "If that is the ladder that leads to the top, I too will try my fortune," said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel; let down your hair to me."
莴苣姑娘立刻垂下她的发辫，女巫顺着它爬了上去。王子想："如果那就是让人爬上去的梯子，我也可以试试我的运气。"第二天傍晚，他来到塔下叫道："莴苣，莴苣，把你的头发垂下来。"

Immediately the hair fell down and the prince climbed up; at first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king’s son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest - he had been forced to see her.

Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought, "He will love me more than old Dame Gothel the enchantress does," so she said yes, and laid her hand in his.

She said, "I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down.Bring with you a （些）of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it. When that is ready I will climb down, and you will take me on your horse." They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day.

The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her, "Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king’s son - he is with me in a moment."

"Ah! You wicked child," cried the enchantress. "What do I hear you say? I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!"
"啊!你这坏孩子!"女巫嚷道，"你在说什么?我还以为你与世隔绝了呢，却不想你竟然骗了我!

"In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful hair, wrapped it twice around her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip snap; they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. She was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.

On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king’s son came and cried, "Rapunzel, Rapunzel; let down your hair to me." She let the hair down and the king’s son climbed, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and poisonous looks.

"Aha!" She cried mockingly. "You would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again."

The king’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leaped down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blindly about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at last came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth; a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness.

He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.