Jeff Wei分享站点The Little Mermaid
小美人鱼（又译海的女儿）
- The Little Mermaid
- As-is
- Chaowai: 06-the-little-mermaid-chaowai.pdf
- BBC The Little Mermaid
- translate by Jean Hersholt
As-is
Far out to sea the water is as blue as the petals on the loveliest cornflower and as clear as the purest glass. But it is very deep, deeper than any anchor rope can reach. Many church steeples would have to be placed one on top of the other to stretch from the bottom up to the surface of the water. Down there live the mermen.
- petal /ˈpetl/ n. 花瓣
- cornflower /ˈkɔːrnflaʊər/ n. 矢车菊
- church /tʃɜːtʃ/ n. 教堂；礼拜；教派 adj. 教会的；礼拜的 vt. 领…到教堂接受宗教仪式
- steeple /ˈstiːpl/ n. 尖塔；尖顶 vt. 把…建成尖塔
- stretch /stretʃ/ v. （柔软或弹性物）伸展；（使）过分延长；延续 dj. 弹性的，可拉伸的
远眺大海，海水像最可爱的矢车菊上的花瓣一样蓝，像最纯净的玻璃一样清。但它非常深，比任何锚索都要深。许多教堂的尖塔必须一个接一个地建起来，从底部一直延伸到水面。下面住着人鱼。
在海的远处，水是那么蓝，像最美丽的矢车菊花瓣，同时又是那么清，像最明亮的玻璃。然而它是很深很深，深得任何锚链都达不到底。要想从海底一直达到水面，必须有许多许多教堂尖塔一个接着一个地联起来才成。海底的人就住在这下面。
Now, it certainly shouldn't be thought that the bottom is only bare and sandy. No, down there grow the strangest trees and plants, which have such flexible stalks and leaves that the slightest movement of the water sets them in motion as if they were alive. All the fish, big and small, slip in and out among the branches just the way the birds do up here in the air. At the very deepest spot lies the castle of the king of the sea. The walls are of coral, and the long tapering windows are of the clearest amber. But the roof is of mussel shells, which open and close with the flow of the water. The effect is lovely, for in each of there is a beautiful pearl, any of which would be highly prized in a queen's crown.
不过人们千万不要以为那儿只是一片铺满了白砂的海底。不是的，那儿生长着最奇异的树木和植物。它们的枝干和叶子是那么柔软，只要水轻微地流动一下，它们就摇动起来，好像它们是活着的东西。所有的大小鱼儿在这些枝子中间游来游去，像是天空的飞鸟。海里最深的地方是海王宫殿所在的处所。它的墙是用珊瑚砌成的，它那些尖顶的高窗子是用最亮的琥珀做成的；不过屋顶上却铺着黑色的蚌壳，它们随着水的流动可以自动地开合。这是怪好看的，国为每一颗蚌壳里面含有亮晶晶的珍珠。随便哪一颗珍珠都可以成为皇后帽子上最主要的装饰品。
For many years the king of the sea had been a widower, and his old mother kept house for him. She was a wise woman and proud of her royal birth, and so she wore twelve oysters on her tail; the others of noble birth had to content themselves with only six. Otherwise she deserved much praise, especially because she was so fond of the little princesses, her grandchildren. There were six lovely children, but the youngest one was the fairest of them all. Her skin was as clear and opalescent as a rose petal. Her eyes as blue as the deepest sea. But like all the others, she had no feet, her body ended in a fishtail.
住在那底下的海王已经做了好多年的鳏夫，但是他有老母亲为他管理家务。她是一个聪明的女人，可是对于自己高贵的出身总是感到不可一世，因此她的尾巴上老戴着一打的牡蛎——其余的显贵只能每人戴上半打。除此以外，她是值得大大的称赞的，特别是因为她非常爱那些小小的海公主——她的一些孙女。她们是六个美丽的孩子，而她们之中，那个顶小的要算是最美丽的了。她的皮肤又光又嫩，像玫瑰的花瓣，她的眼睛是蔚蓝色的，像最深的湖水。不过，跟其他的公主一样，她没有腿：她身体的下部是一条鱼尾。
All day long they could spend playing down in the castle in the great halls where living flowers grew out of the walls. The big amber windows were opened, and then the fish swam into them just as on land the swallows fly in when we open the windows. But the fishes swam right over to the small princesses, ate out of their hands, and allowed themselves to be petted.
她们可以把整个漫长的日子花费在皇宫里，在墙上生有鲜花的大厅里。那些琥珀镶的大窗子是开着的，鱼儿向着她们游来，正如我们打开窗子的时候，燕子会飞进来一样。不过鱼儿一直游向这些小小的公主，在她们的手里找东西吃，让她们来抚摸自己。
Outside the castle was a large garden with trees as red as fire and as blue as night. The fruit shone like gold, and the flowers looked like burning flames, for their stalks and leaves were always in motion. The ground itself was the finest sand, but blue like the flame of brimstone. A strange blue sheen lay over everything down there. It was more like standing high up in the air and seeing only sky above and below than like being at the bottom of the sea. In a dead calm the sun could be glimpsed. It looked like a purple flower from whose chalice the light streamed out.
宫殿外面有一个很大的花园，里边生长着许多火红和深蓝色的树木；树上的果子亮得像黄金，花朵开得像焚烧着的火，花枝和叶子在不停地摇动。地上全是最细的砂子，但是蓝得像硫黄发出的光焰。在那儿，处处都闪着一种奇异的、蓝色的光彩。你很容易以为你是高高地在空中而不是在海底，你的头上和脚下全是一片蓝天。当海是非常沉静的时候，你可瞥见太阳：它像一朵紫色的花，从它的花萼里射出各种色彩的光。
Each of the little princesses had her own tiny plot in the garden where she could dig and plant just as she wished. One made her flower bed in the shape of a whale. Another preferred hers to resemble a little mermaid. But the youngest made hers quite round like the sun and had only flowers that shone red the way it did. She was a strange child, quiet and pensive, and while the other sisters decorated their gardens with the strange things they had found from wrecked ships, the only thing she wanted, besides the rosy-red flowers that resembled the sun high above, was a beautiful marble statue. It was of a handsome boy carved out of clear white stone, and in the shipwreck it had come down to the bottom of the sea. By the pedestal she had planted a rose-colored weeping willow. It grew magnificently, and its fresh branches hung out over the statue and down toward the blue, sandy bottom, where its shadow appeared violet and moved just like the branches. It looked as if the top and its roots played at kissing each other.
Nothing pleased her more than to hear about the world of mortals up above. The old grandmother had to tell everything she knew about ships and cities, mortals and animals. To her it seemed especially wonderful and lovely that on the earth the flowers gave off a fragrance, since they didn't at the bottom of the sea, and that the forests were green and those fish that were seen among their branches there could sing so loud and sweet that it was a pleasure. What the grandmother called fish were the little birds, for otherwise the princesses wouldn't have understood her, as they had never seen a bird.
'When you reach the age of fifteenth,' said the grandmother, 'you shall be permitted to go to the surface of the water, sit in the moonlight on the rocks, and look at the great ships sailing by. You will see forests and cities too.'
The next year the first sister would be fifteen, but the others - yes, each one was a year younger than the other; so the youngest still had five years left before she might come up from the bottom of the sea and find out how it looked in our world. But each one promised to tell the others what she had seen on that first day and what she had found to be the most wonderful thing, for their grandmother hadn't told them enough - there was so much they had to find out.
No one was as full of longing as the youngest, the one who had to wait the longest and who was so quiet and pensive. Many a night she stood by the open window and looked up through the dark blue water where the fish flipped their fins and tails. She could see the moon and the stars. To be sure, they shone quite pale, but through the water they looked much larger than they do to our eyes. If it seemed as though a black shadow glided slowly under them, then she knew it was either a whale that swam over her else it was a ship with many mortals on board. It certainly never occurred to them that a lovely little mermaid was standing down below stretching her white hands up toward the keel.
Now the eldest princess was fifteen and was permitted to go up to the surface of the water.
When she came back, she had hundreds of things to tell about. But the most wonderful thing of all, she said, was to lie in the moonlight on a sandbank in the calm sea and to look at the big city close to the shore, where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars, and to listen to the music and the noise and commotion of carriages and mortals, to see the many church steeples and spires, and to hear the chimes ring. And just because the youngest sister couldn't go up there, she longed for all this the most.
Oh! how the little mermaid listened. And later in the evening, when she was standing by the open window and looking up through the dark blue water, she thought of the great city with all the noise and commotion, and then it seemed to her that she could hear the church bells ringing down to her.
The next year the second sister was allowed to rise up through the water and swim wherever she liked. She came up just as the sun was setting, and she found this sight the loveliest. The whole sky looked like gold, she said - and the clouds. Well, she couldn't describe their beauty enough. Crimson and violet, they had sailed over her, But even faster than the clouds, like a long while veil, a flock of wild swans had flown over the water into the sun. She swam towards it, but it sank, and the rosy glow went out on the sea and on the clouds.
The next year the third sister came up. She was the boldest of them all, and so she swam up a broad river that emptied into the sea. She saw lovely green hills covered with grapevines. Castles and farms peeped out among great forests. She heard how all the birds sang, and the sun shone so hot that she had to dive under the water to cool her burning face. In a little bay she came upon a whole flock of little children. Quite naked, they ran and splashed in the water. She wanted to play with them, but they ran away terrified. And then a little black animal came; it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before. It barked at her so furiously that she grew frightened and made for the open sea. But never could she forget the great forests, the green hills, and the lovely children who could swim in the water despite the fact that they had no fishtails.
The fourth sister was not so bold. She stayed out in the middle of the rolling sea and said that this was the loveliest of all. She could see for many miles all around her, and the sky was just like a big glass bell. She had seen ships, but far away. They looked like sea gulls. The funny dolphins had turned somersaults, and the big whales had spouted water through their nostrils so it had looked like hundreds of fountains all around.
Now it was the turn of the fifth sister. Her birthday was in the winter, so she saw what the others hadn't seen. The sea looked quite green, and huge icebergs were swimming all around. Each one looked like a pearl, she said, although they were certainly much bigger than the church steeples built by mortals. They appeared in the strangest shapes and sparkled like diamonds. She had sat on one of the biggest, and all the sailing ships sailed, terrified, around where she sat with with her long hair flying in the breeze. But in the evening the sky was covered with clouds. The lighting flashed and the thunder boomed while the black sea lifted the huge icebergs up high, where they glittered in the bright flashes of light. On all the ships they took in the sails, and they were anxious and afraid. But she sat calmly on her floating iceberg and watched the blue streaks of lightning zigzag into the sea.
Each time one of the sisters came to the surface of the water for the first time she was always enchanted by the new and wonderful things she had seen. But now that, as grown girls, they were permitted to go up there whenever they liked, it no longer mattered to them. They longed again for home. And after a month they said it was most beautiful down there where they lived and that home was the best of all.
Many an evening the five sisters rose up arm in arm to the surface of the water. They had beautiful voices, sweeter than those of any mortals, and whenever a storm was nigh and they thought a ship might be wrecked, they swam ahead of the ship and sang so sweetly about how beautiful it was at the bottom of the sea and bade the sailors not to be afraid of coming down there. But the sailors couldn't understand the words. They thought it was the storm. Nor were they able to see the wonders down there either, for when the ship sank, the mortals drowned and came only as corpses to the castle of the king of the sea.
Now, in the evening, when the sisters rose up arm in arm through the sea, the little sister was left behind quite alone, looking after them and as if she were going to cry. But a mermaid has no tears, and so she suffers even more.
'Oh, if only I were fifteen,' she said. 'I know that I will truly come to love that world and the mortals who build and dwell up there!'
At last, she too was fifteen.
'See, now it is your turn!' said her grandmother, the old dowager queen. 'Come now, let me adorn you just like your other sisters.' And she put a wreath of white lilies on her hair. But each flower petal was half a pearl. And the old queen had eight large oysters squeeze themselves tightly to the princess's tail to show her high rank.
'It hurts so much,' said the little mermaid.
'Yes, you must suffer a bit to look pretty!' said the old queen.
Oh, how happy she would have been to shake off all this magnificence, to take off the heavy wreath. Her red flowers in her garden were more becoming to her, but she dared not do otherwise now. "Farewell," she said and rose as easily and as lightly as a bubble up through the water.
The sun had just gone down as she raised her head out of the water, but all the clouds still shone like roses and gold, and in the middle of the pink sky the evening star shone clear and lovely. The air was mild and fresh, and the sea was as smooth as glass. There lay a big ship with three masts. Only a single sail was up, for not a breeze was blowing, and around in the ropes and masts sailors were sitting. There was music and song, and as the evening grew darker hundreds of many-colored lanterns were lit. It looked as if the flags of all nations were waving in the air. The little mermaid swam right over to the cabin window, and every time the water lifted her high in the air she could see in through the glass panes to where many finely dressed mortals were standing. But the handsomest by far was the young prince with the big dark eyes, who was certainly not more than sixteen. It was his birthday,and this was why all the festivities were taking place. The sailor danced on deck, and when the young prince came out, more than a hundred rockets rose into the air. They shone as bright as day, so the little mermaid became quite frightened and ducked down under the water. But she soon stuck her head out again, and then it was as if all the stars in the sky were falling down to her. Never before had she seen such fireworks. Huge suns whirled around magnificent flaming fish swung in the blue air, and everything was reflected in the clear, calm sea. The ship itself was so lit up that every little rope was visible, not to mention mortals. Oh, how handsome the young prince was, and he shook everybody by the hand and laughed and smiled while the wonderful night was filled with music.
It grew late, but the little mermaid couldn't tear her eyes away from the ship and the handsome prince. The many-coloured lanterns were put out. The rockets no longer climbed into the air, nor were any more salutes fired from the cannons, either. But deep down in the sea it rumbled and grumbled. All the while she sat bobbing up and down on the water so she could see into the cabin. But now the ship went faster, adn one sail after the other spread out. Now the waves were rougher, great clouds rolled up, and in the distance there was lightning. Oh, there was going to be a terrible storm, so the sailors took in the sails. The ship rocked at top speed over the raging sea. The water rose like huge black mountains that wanted to pour over the mast, but the ship dived down like a swan among the high billows and let itself be lifted high again on the towering water. The little mermaid thought this speed was pleasant, but the sailors didn't think so. The ship creaked and cracked and the thick planks buckled under the heavy blows. Waves poured in over the ship, the mast snapped in the middle just like a reed, and the ship rolled over on its side while the water poured into the hold. Now the little mermaid saw they were in danger. She herself had to beware of planks and bits of wreckage floating on the water. For a moment it was so pitch black that she could not see a thing, but when the lightning flashed, it was again so bright that she could make out everyone on the ship. They were all floundering and struggling for their lives. She looked especially for the young prince, and as the ship broke apart she saw him sink down into the depths. At first she was quite pleased, for now he would come down to her. But then she remembered that mortals could not live in the water and that only as a corpse could he come down to her father's castle. No, die he mustn't! And so she swam among beams and planks that floated on the sea, quite forgetting that they could have crushed her. She dived deep down in the water and rose up high among the waves, adn thus she came at last to the young prince, who could hardly were growing weak; his beautiful eyes were closed. He would have died had the little mermaid not arrived. She held his head up above the water and thus let the waves carry them wherever they liked.
In the morning the storm was over. Of the ship there wasn't a chip to be seen. The sun climbed, red and shining, out of the water; it was as if it brought life into the prince's cheeks, but his eyes remained closed. The mermaid kissed his high, handsome forehead and stoked back his wet hair. She thought he resembled the marble statue down in her little garden. She kissed him again and wished for him to live.
Now she saw the mainland ahead of her, high blue mountains on whose peaks the white snow shone as if swans were lying there. Down by the coast were lovely green forests, and ahead lay a church or a convent. Which, she didn't rightly know, but it was a building. Lemon and orange trees were growing there in the garden, and in front of the gate stood high palm trees. The sea had made a little bay here, which was calm but very deep all the way over to the rock where the fine white sand had been washed ashore. Here she swam with the handsome prince and put him on the sand, but especially she saw to it that his head was raised in the sunshine.
Now the bells in the big white building, and many young girls came out through the gate to the garden. Then the little mermaid swam farther out behind some big rocks that jutted up out of the water, covered her hair and breast with sea foam so no one could see her little face, and then kept watch to see who came out to the unfortunate prince.
It wasn't long before a young girl came over to where he lay. She seemed to be quite frightened, but only for a moment. Then she fetched several mortals, and the mermaid saw that the prince revived and that he smiled at everyone around him. But he didn't smile out to her, for he didn't know at all that she had saved him. She was so unhappy. And when he was carried into the big building, she dived down sorrowfully in the water and found her way home to her father's castle.
She had always been silent and pensive, but now she was more so than ever. Her sisters asked about what she had seen the first time she was up there, but she told them nothing.
Many an evening and morning she swam up to where she had left the prince. She saw that the fruits in the garden ripened and were picked. She saw that the snow melted on the high mountains, but she didn't see the prince, and so she returned home even sadder that before. Her only comfort was to sit in the little garden and throw her arms around the pretty marble statue that resembled the prince. But she didn't take care of her flowers. As in a jungle, they grew out over the paths, with their long stalks and leaves intertwined with the branches of the trees, until it was quite dark.
At last she couldn't hold out any longer, but told one of her sisters. And then all the others found out at once, but no more than they, and a few other mermaids, who didn't tell anyone except their closest friends. One of them knew who the prince was. She had also seen the festivities on the ship and knew where he was from and where his kingdom lay.
'Come, little sister,' said the other princesses, and with their arms around another's shoulders they came up to the surface of the water in a long row in front of the spot where they knew the prince's castle stood.
It was made of a pale yellow, shiny kind of stone, with great stairways - one went right down to the water. Magnificent gilded domes soared above the roof, and among the pillars that went around the whole building stood marble statues that looked as if they were alive. Through the clear glass in the high windows one could see into the most magnificent halls, where costly silken curtains and tapestries were hanging, and all of the walls were adorned with large paintings that were a joy to behold. In the middle of the biggest hall splashed a great fountain. Streams of water shot up high toward the glass dome in the root, through which the sun shone on the water and all the lovely plants growing in the big pool.
Now she knew where he lived, and many an evening and night she came there over the water. She swam much closer to land than any of the others had dared. Yes, she went all the way up the little canal, under the magnificent marble balcony that cast a long shadow on the water. Here she sat and looked at the young prince, who thought he was quite alone in the clear moonlight.
Many an evening she saw him sail to the sound of music in the splendid boat on which the flags were waving. She peeped out from among the green rushes and caught the wind in her long silvery white veil, and if anyone saw it, he thought it was a swan spreading its wings.
Many a night, when the fishermen were fishing by torchlight in the sea, she heard them tell so many good things about the young prince that she was glad she had saved his life when he was drifting about half dead on the waves. And she thought of how fervently she had kissed him then. He knew nothing about it at all, couldn't even dream about her once.
She grew fonder and fonder of mortals, wished more and more that she could rise up among them. She thought their world ws far bigger than hers. Why, they could fly over the sea in ships and climb the high mountains way above the clouds, and their lands with forests and fields stretched farther than she could see. There was so much she wanted to find out, but her sisters didn't know the answers to everything, and so she asked her old grandmother, and she knew the upper world well, which she quite rightly called The Lands Above the Sea.
'If mortals don't drown,' the little mermaid asked, 'do they live for forever? Don't they die the way we do down here in the sea?'
'Why, yes,' said the old queen, 'they must also die, and their lifetime is much shorter than ours. We can live to be three hundred years old, but when we stop existing here, we only turn into foam upon the water. We don't even have a grave down here among our loved ones. We have no immortal soul; we never have life again. We are like the green rushes: once they are cut they can never be green again. Mortals, on the other land, have soul, which lives forever after the body has turned to dust. It mounts up through the clear air to the shining stars. Just as we come to the surface of the water and see the land of the mortals, so do they come up to lovely unknown places that we will never see.'
'Why didn't we get an immortal soul?' asked he little mermaid sadly, 'I'd gladly give all my hundreds of years just to be a mortal for one day and afterward to be able to share in the heavenly world!'
'You mustn't go and think about that,' said the old queen. 'We are much better off than the mortals up there!'
'I too shall die and float as foam on the sea, not hear the music of the waves or see the lovely flowers and the red sun. Isn't there anything at all I can do to win an immortal soul!'
'No!' said the old queen. 'Only if a mortal fell so much in love with you that you were dearer to him than a father and mother; only if you remained in all his thoughts and he was so deeply attached to you that he let the priest place his right hand in yours with a vow of faithfulness now and forever; only then would his soul float over into your body, and you would also share in the happiness of mortals. He would give you a soul and still keep his own. But that never can happen. The very thing that is so lovely here in the sea, your fishtail, they find so disgusting up there on the earth. They don't know any better. Up there one has to have two clumsy stumps, which they call legs, to be beautiful!'
Then the little mermaid sighed and looked sadly at her fishtail.
'Let us be satisfied,' said the old queen. 'We will frisk and frolic in the three hundred years we have to live in. That's plenty of time indeed. Afterward one can rest in one's grave all the more happily. This evening we are going to hav ea court ball!'
Now, this was a splendor not to be seen on earth. Walls and ceiling in the great ballroom were of thick but clear glass. Several hundred gigantic mussel shells, rosy-red and green as grass, stood in rows on each side with a blue flame, which lit up the whole ballroom and shone out through the walls so the sea too was brightly illuminated. One could see the countless fish that swam over to the glass wall. On some the scales shone purple; on others they seemed to be silver and gold. Through the middle of the ballroom flowed a broad stream, and in this the mermen and mermaids danced to the music of their own lovely songs. No mortals on earth have such beautiful voices. The little mermaid had the loveliest voice of all, and they clapped their hands for her. And for moment her heart was filled with joy, for she knew that she had the most beautiful voice of all on this earth and in the sea. But soon she started thinking again of the world above her. She couldn't forget the handsome prince and her sorrow at not possessing, like him, an immortal soul. And so she slipped out of her father's castle unnoticed, and while everything inside was merriment and song she sat sadly in her little garden. Then she heard a horn ring down through the water, and she thought: "Now he is sailing up there, the one I love more than a father or a mother, the one who remains in all my thoughts and in whose hand I would place all my life's happiness. I would risk everything to win him and an immortal soul. I will go to the sea witch. I have always been so afraid of her, but maybe she can advise and help me."
Now the little mermaid went out of her garden toward the roaring maelstroms behind which the sea witch lived. She had never gone that way before. Here grew no flowers, no sea grass. Only the bare, gray, sandy bottom stretched on toward the maelstroms, which, like roaring mill wheels, whirled around and dragged everything that came their way down with them into the depths. In between these crushing whirlpools she had to go to enter the realm of the sea witch, and for a long way there was no other road than over hot bubbling mire that the swa witch called her peat bog. In back of it lay her house, right in the midst of an eerie forest. All the trees and bushes were polyps - half animal, half plant. They looked like hundred-headed serpents growing out of the earth. All the branches were long slimy arms with fingers like sinuous worms, and joint by joint they moved from the roots to the outermost tips. Whatever they could grab in the sea they wound their arms around it and never let it go. Terrified, the little mermaid remained standing outside the forest. Her heart was pounding with fright. She almost turned back, but then she thought of the prince and of an immortal soul, and it gave her courage. She bound her long, flowing hair around her head so the polyps could not grab her by it. She crossed both hands upon her breast and then off she flew, the way the fish can fly through the water, in among the loathsome polyps that reached out their arms and fingers after her. She saw where each of them had something it had seized; hundreds of small arms held onto it like strong iron bands. Rows of white bones of mortals who had drowned at sea and sunk all the way down there peered forth from the polyps' arms. Ships' wheels and chests they held tightly, skeletons of land animals, and - most terrifying of all - a little mermaid that they had captured and strangled.
Now she came to a large slimy opening in the forest where big fat water snakes gamboled, revealing their ugly yellowish-white bellies. In the middle of the opening had been erected a house made of the bones of shipwrecked mortals. There sat the sea witch letting a toad eat from her mouth, just the way mortals permit a little canary bird to eat sugar. She called the fat, hideous water snakes her little chickens and let them tumble on her big spongy breasts.
'I know what you want, all right,' said the sea witch. 'it's stupid of you to do it. Nonetheless, you shall have your way, for it will bring you misfortune, my lovely princess! You want to get rid of your fishtail and have two stumps to walk on instead, just like mortals, so the young prince can fall in love with you, and you can win him and an immortal soul!' Just then the sea witch let out such a loud and hideous laugh that the toad and the water snakes fell down to the ground and writhed there. 'You've come just in the nick of time,' said the witch. 'Tomorrow, after the sun rises, I couldn't have helped you until another year was over. I shall make you a potion, and before the sun rises you shall take it and swim to land, seat your self on the shore there, and drink it. Then your tail will split and shrink into what mortals call lovely legs. But it hurts. It is like being pierced through by a sharp sword. Everyone who sees you will say you are the loveliest mortal child he has ever seen. You will keep your grace of movement. No dancer wil ever float the way you do, but each step you take will be like treading on a sharp knife so your blood will flow! If you want to suffer all this, then I will help you.'
'Yes，' said the little mermaid in a trembling voice, thinking of the prince and of winning an immortal soul.
'But remember,' said the witch, 'once you have been given a mortal shape, you can never become a mermaid again. You can never sink down through the water to your sisters and to your father's castle. And if you do not win the love of the prince, so that for your sake he forgets his father and mother and never puts you out of his thoughts and lets the priest place your hand in his so you become man and wife, you will not win an immortal soul. The first morning after he is married to another, your heart will break and you will turn into foam upon the water.'
'This I want!' said the little mermaid and turned deathly pale.
'But you must also pay me,' said the witch, 'and what I demand is no small thing. You have the loveliest voice of all down here at the bottom of the sea, and you probably think you're going to entrant him with it. But that voice you shall give to me. I want the best thing you have for my precious drink. Why, I must put my very own blood in it so it will be as sharp as a two-edged sword.'
'But if you take my voice,' said the little mermaid, 'what will I have left?'
'Your lovely figure,' said the witch, your grace of movement, and your sparkling eyes. With them you can enchant a mortal heart, all right! Stick out your little tongue so I can cut it off in payment, and you shall have the potent drink!'
'So be it!' said the little mermaid, and the witch put her kettle on to brew the magic potion. 'Cleanliness is a good thing,' she said, and scoured her kettle with her water snakes, which she knotted together. Now she cut her breast and let the black blood drip into the kettle. The steam made strange shapes that were terrifying and dreadful to see. Every moment the witch put something new into the kettle, and when it had cooked properly, it was like crocodile tears. At last the drink was ready, and it was as clear as water.
'There it is,' said the witch, and cut out the little mermaid's tongue. Now she was mute now and could neither speak nor sing.
'If any of the polyps should grab you when you go back through my forest,' said the witch, 'just throw one drop of this drink on them and their arms and fingers will burst into a thousand pieces.' But the mermaid didn't have to do that. The polyps drew back in terror when they saw she was carrying the gleaming drink that shone in her hand as if it was a twinkling star. So she soon came through the forest, the bog, and the roaring maelstroms.
She could see her father's castle. The torches had been extinguished in the great ballroom. They were probably all asleep inside there, but she dared not look for them now that she was mute and was going to leave them forever. It was as though her heart would break with grief. She stole into the garden, took a flower from each of her sisters' flower beds, threw hundreds of kisses toward the castle, and rose up through the dark blue sea.
The sun had not yet risen when she saw the prince's castle and went up the magnificent marble stairway. The moon shone bright and clear. The little mermaid drank the strong, burning drink, and it was as if a two-edged sword were going through her delicate body. At that she fainted and lay as if dead. When the sun was shining high on the sea, she awoke and felt a piercing pain, but right in front of her stood the handsome prince. He fixed his coal-black eyes upon her so that she had to cast down her own, and then she saw that her fishtail was gone, and she had the prettiest little white legs that any young girl could have, but she was quite naked. And so she enveloped herself in her thick long hair. The prince asked who she was and how she had come there, and she looked at him softly yet sadly with her dark blue eyes, for of course she could not speak. Each step hse took was, as the witch had said, like stepping on pointed awls and sharp knives. But she endured this willingly. At the prince's side she rose as easily as a bubble, and he and everyone else marveled at her graceful, flowing movements.
She was given costly gowns of silk and muslin to wear. In the castle she was the fairest of all. But she was mute, she could neither sing nor speak. Lovely slave girls, dressed in silk and gold, came forth and sang for the prince and his royal parents. One of them sang more sweetly that all the others, and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her. Then the little mermaid was sad. She knew that she herself had sung far more beautifully, and she thought, "Oh, if only he knew that to be with him I have given away my voice for all eternity."
Now the slave girls danced in graceful, floating movements to the accompaniment of the loveliest music. Then the little mermaid raised her beautiful white arms, stood up on her toes, and glided across the floor. She danced as no one had ever danced before. With each movement, her beauty became even more apparent, and her eyes spoke more deeply to the heart than the slave girl's song.
Everyone was enchanted by her, especially the prince, who called her his little foundling, and she danced on and on despite the fact that each time her feet touched the ground it was like treading on sharp knives. The prince said she was to stay with him forever, and she was allowed to sleep outside his door on a velvet cushion.
He had boys' clothes made for her so she could accompany him on horseback. They rode through the fragrant forests, where the green branches brushed her shoulders and the little birds sang within the fresh leaves. With the prince she climbed up the high mountains, and despite the fact that her delicate feet bled so the others could see it, she laughed at this and followed him until they could see the clouds sailing far below them like a flock of birds on their way to distant lands.
Back at the prince's castle, at night while the others slept, she went down the marble stairway and cooled her burning feet by standing in the cold sea water. And then she thought of those down there in the depths.
One night her sisters came arm in arm. They sang so mournfully as they swam over the water, and she waved to them. After this they visited her every night, and one night far out she saw her old grandmother, who had not been to the surface of the water for many years, and the king of the sea with his crown upon his head. They stretched out their arms to her but dared not come as close to land as her sisters.
Day by day the prince grew fonder of her. He loved her the way one loves a dear, good child, but to make her his queen did not occur to him at all. And she would have to become his wife if she were to live, or else she would have no immortal soul and would turn into foam upon the on the morning after his wedding.
'Don't you love me most of all?' the eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say when he took her in his arms and kissed her lovely forehead.
"Of course I love you best," said the prince, "for you have the kindest heart of all. You are devoted to me, and you resemble a young girl I once saw but will certainly never find again. I was on a ship that was wrecked. The waves carried me ashore near a holy temple to which several young maidens had been consecrated. The youngest of them found me on the shore and saved my life. I only saw her twice. She was the only one I could love in this world. But you look like her and you have almost replaced her image in my soul. She belongs to the holy temple, and so good fortune has sent you to me. We shall never be parted!"
“Alas! He doesn't know that I saved his life!" thought the little mermaid. "I carried him over the sea to the forest where the temple stands. I hid under the foam and waited to see if any morals would come. I saw that beautiful girl, whom he loves more than me." And the mermaid sighed deeply, for she couldn't cry. "The girl is consecrated to the holy temple, he said. She will never come out into the world. They will never meet again, but I am with him and see him every day. I will take care of him, love him, lay down my life for him!"
But now people were saying that the prince was going to be married to the lovely daughter of the neighboring king. That was why he was equipping so magnificent a ship. It was given out that the prince is to travel to see the country of the neighboring king, but actually it is to see his daughter. He is to have a grate retinue with him.
But the little mermaid shook her head and laughed. She knew the prince's thoughts far better than all the rest. "I have to go," he had told her. "I have to look at the lovely princess. My parents insist upon it. But they won't be able to force me to bring her home as my bride. I cannot love her. She doesn't look like the beautiful girl in the temple, who you resemble. If I should ever choose a bride, you would be the more likely one, my mute little foundling with the speaking eyes!" And he kissed her rosy mouth, played with her long hair, and rested his head upon her heart, which dreamed of mortal happiness and an immortal soul.
"you're not afraid of the sea, are you, my mute little child!" he said as they stood on the deck of the magnificent ship that was taking him to the country of the neighboring king. And he told her of storms and calms and of strange fish in the depths and of what the divers had seen down there. And she smiled at his story, for of course she knew about the bottom of the sea far better than anyone else.
In the moonlit night, when everyone was asleep - even the sailor at the wheel - she sat by the railing of the ship and stared down through the clear water, and it seemed to her that she could see her father's castle. At the very top stood her old grandmother with her silver crown on her head, staring up through the strong currents at the keel of the ship. Then her sisters came up to the surface of the water. They gazed at her sadly and wrung their white hands. She waved to them and smiled and was going to tell them that all was well with her and that she was happy, but the ship's boy approached and her sisters dived down, so he thought the white he had seen was foam upon the sea.
The next morning the ship sailed into the harbour of the neighboring king's capital. All the church bells were ringing, and from the high towers trumpets were blowing, while the soldiers stood with waving banners and glittering bayonets. Every day there was a feast. Balls and parties followed one after the other, but the princess had not yet come. She was being educated far away in a holy temple, they said; there she was learning all the royal virtues. At last she arrived.
The little mermaid was waiting eagerly to see how beautiful she was, and she had to confess that she had never seen a lovelier creature. Her skin was delicate and soft,and from under her long dark eyelashes smiled a pair of dark blue faithful eyes.
'It's you!' said the prince. 'You, who saved me when I lay as if dead on the shore!' And he took his blushing bride into his arms. "Oh, I am far too happy," he said to the little mermaid. "The best I could ever dare hope for has at last come true! You will be overjoyed at my good fortune,, for you love me best of all." And the little mermaid kissed his hand, but already she seemed to feel her heart breaking. His wedding morning would indeed bring her death and change her into foam upon the sea.
All the church bells were ringing. The heralds rode through the streets and proclaimed the betrothal. On all the altars fragrant oils burned in costly silver lamps. The priests swung censers, and the bride and bridegroom gave each other their hands and received the blessing of the bishop. The little mermaid, dressed in silk and gold, stood holding the bride's train, but her ears did not hear the festive music nor did her eyes see the sacred ceremony. She thought of the morning of her death, of everything she had lost in this world.
The very same evening the bride and bridegroom went on board the ship. Cannons fired salutes, all the flags were waving, and in the middle of the deck a majestic purple and gold pavilion with the softest cushions had been erected. Here the bridal pair was to sleep in the still, cool night. The breeze filled the sails, and the ship glided easily and gently over the clear sea.
When it started to get dark, many-colored lanterns were lighted and the sailors danced merrily on deck. It made the little mermaid think of the first time she had come to the surface of the water and seen the same splendor and festivity. And she whirled along in the dance, floating as the swallow soars when it is being pursued, and everyone applauded her and cried out in admiration. Never had she danced so magnificently. It was as though sharp knives were cutting her delicate feet, but she didn't feel it. The pain in her heart was even greater. She knew this was the last evening she would see the one for whom she had left her family and her home, sacrificed her beautiful voice, and daily suffered endless agony without his ever realizing it. It was the last night she would breathe the same air as he, see the deep sea and the starry sky. An endless night without thoughts or dreams awaited her - she who neither had a soul nor could ever win one. And there was gaiety and merriment on the ship until long past midnight. She laughed and danced, with the thought of death in her heart. The prince kissed his lovely bride and she played with his dark hair, and arm in arm they went to bed in the magnificent pavilion.
It grew silent and still on the ship. Only the helmsman stood at the wheel. The little mermaid leaned her white arms on the railing and looked toward the east for the dawn, for the first rays of the sun, which she knew would kill her. Then she saw her sisters come to the surface of the water. They were as pale as she was. Their long beautiful hair no longer floated in teh breeze. It had been cut off.
'We have given it to the witch so she could help you, so you needn't die tonight. She has given us a knife; here it is. See how sharp it is? Before the sun rises, you must plunge it into the prince's heart! And when his warm blood spatters your feet, they will grow together into a fishtail, and you will become a mermaid again and can sink down into the water to us, and live your three hundred years before you turn into the lifeless, salty sea foam. Hurry! Either you or he must die before the sun rises. Our old grandmother has grieved so much that her hair has fallen out, as ours has fallen under the witch's scissors. Kill the prince and return to us! Hurry! Do you see that red streak on the horizon? In a few moments the sun will rise, and then you must die!" And they uttered a strange, deep sigh and sank beneath the waves.
The little mermaid drew the purple curtain back from the pavilion and looked at the lovely bride asleep with her head on the prince's chest. She bent down and kissed his handsome forehead; looked at the sky, which grew rosier and rosier; looked at the sharp knife; and again fastened her eyes on the prince, who murmured the name of his bride in his dreams. She alone was in his thoughts, and the knife glittered in the mermaid's hand. But then she threw it far out into the waves. They shone red where it fell, as if drops of blood were bubbling up through the water. Once more she gazed at the prince with dimming eyes, then plunged from the ship down into the sea. And she felt her body dissolving into foam.
Now the sun rose out of the sea. the mild, warm rays fell on the deathly cold sea foam, and the little mermaid did not feel death. She saw the clear sun, and up above her floated hundreds of lovely transparent creatures. Through them she could see the white sails of the ship and the rosy clouds in the sky. Their voices were melodious but so ethereal that no mortal ear could hear them, just as no mortal eye could perceive them. Without wings, they floated through the air by their own lightness. The little mermaid saw that she had a body like theirs. It rose higher and higher out of the foam.
'To whom do I come?' she said, and her voice, like that of the others, rang so ethereally that no earthly music can reproduce it.
"To the daughters of the air," replied the others. "A mermaid has no immortal soul and can never have one unless she wins the love of a mortal. Her immortality depends on an unknown power. The daughters of the air have no immortal souls, either, but by good deeds they can create one for themselves. We fly to the hot countries, where the humid, pestilential air kills mortals. There we waft cooling breezes. We spread the fragrance of flowers through the air and send refreshment and healing. After striving for three hundred years to do what good we can, we then receive an immortal soul and share in the eternal happiness of mortals. Poor little mermaid, with all your heart you have striven for the same goal. You have suffered and endured and have risen to the world of the spirits of the air. Now by good deeds you can create an immortal soul for yourself after three hundred years."
And the little mermaid raised her transparent arms up toward God's sun, and for the first time she felt tears. On the ship there was again life and movement. She saw the prince with his lovely bride searching for her. Sorrowfully they stared at the bubbling foam, as if they knew she had thrown herself into the sea. Invisible, she kissed the bride's forehead, smiled at the prince, and with the other children of the air rose up onto the pink cloud that sailed through the air.
"In three hundred years we will float like this into the kingdom of God!"
"We can come there earlier," whispered one. "Unseen we float into the houses of mortals where there are children, and for every day that we find a good child who makes his parents happy and deserves their love, God shortens our period of trial. The child does not know when we fly through the room, and when we smile over it with joy a year is taken from the three hundred. But if we see a naughty and wicked child, we must weep tears of sorrow, and each tear adds a day to our period of trial!"
Chaowai: 06-the-little-mermaid-chaowai.pdf
Far out at sea the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower and as clear as the purest glass, but it is very deep, deeper than any anchor cable can reach, many church towers would have to be placed on top of each other to stretch from the sea-bed to the surface. Down there the sea-folk live.
Do not believe, though, that there is nothing but the bare, white sand on the sea bed; no, the most marvellous trees and plants grow there that have such pliant trunks, stems and leaves that the slightest movement of the water causes them to move as if they were alive. All the fishes, great and small, slip between their branches, just as birds up here do in the air. At the very deepest spot lies the sea-king's palace, the walls are of coral and the tall pointed windows of the clearest amber, but the roof is of mussel shells that open and close as the water passes - it looks so lovely, for in each of them lie gleaming pearls, a single one of which would be a prize gem in a queen's crown.
For many years the sea-king down there had been a widower, but his old mother kept house for him, she was a wise woman, but proud of her high birth, so she always wore twelve oysters on her tail while all the other fine folk were only allowed to wear six. Otherwise, she deserved much praise, especially because she was so fond of the small sea-princesses, the daughters of her son. There were six lovely children, but the youngest one was the most beautiful of them all, her skin was as clear and delicate as a rose petal, her eyes as blue as the deepest sea, but like the rest of them she had no feet, her body ended in a fish's tail.
All day long they could spend playing down in the palace, in the great halls where living flowers grew out of the walls. The great amber windows would be opened, and then the fishes would swim in to them, just as the swallows fly in to us when we open the windows, but the fishes swam right up to the small princesses, ate out of their hand and let themselves be stroked.
Outside the palace there was a large garden with bright-red and dark-blue trees, with fruit that shone like gold and flowers that blazed like fire in the constantly moving stems and leaves. The earth itself was the finest sand, but blue as a flare of sulphur. There lay a mysterious blue sheen over everything down there - it would be easier to believe one was high up in the air and could only see sky above and beneath one than that one was down on the sea-bed. When the sea was calm, one could make out the sun, it seemed to be a purple flower with its entire light streaming out of the calyx.
Each of the small princesses had her own little plot in the garden where she could dig and sow as she wanted; one gave her flower plot the form of a whale, another preferred hers to look like a little mermaid, but the youngest princess made hers completely round like the sun, and only had flowers that shone red like it did. She was strange child, quiet and thoughtful, and while the other sisters added the most remarkable things they had taken from stranded ships as decoration, all she wanted to have, apart from the rose-red flowers that resembled the sun high up above, was a beautiful marble statue, it was of a fine-looking lad, carved out of clear white stone and left on the sea-bed after a ship had foundered. At its base she planted a rose-red weeping willow, it grew splendidly and hung with its fresh branches over the statue, down towards the blue sea-bed, where its shadow appeared to be violet and in motion, just like the branches; it looked as if the tree-top and its roots pretended to be kissing each other.
Nothing made her happier than to hear about the human world above them; the old grandmother had to tell all she knew about ships and cities, people and animals and what seemed especially delightful to her was that up on the earth the flowers had a scent, for they did not down on the sea-bed, and that the forests were green and the fish that could be seen among their branches could sing so loudly and sweetly that it gladdened the heart; it was the small birds that grandmother called fish, for otherwise the sisters would not be able to understand her, as they had never seen a bird.
'When you complete your fifteenth year,' grandmother said, 'you will be allowed to rise up out of the sea, sit in the moonlight on the rocks and watch the big ships that sail past - you will see forests and cities!' During the following year one of the sisters turned fifteen, but the others, well, each one was a year younger than the other, so the youngest had no less than five years to wait before she would venture to come up from the sea-bed and see how things are in our world. But each one promised the other to relate what she had seen and found most delightful on that first day; for their grandmother did not tell them enough, there was so much they wanted to know about.
None was as full of longing as the youngest one, the very princess who had the longest time to wait and who was so quiet and thoughtful. Many a night she would stand at the open window and gaze up through the dark-blue water, where the fishes swished their fins and tails. She could see the moon and the stars, their gleam was admittedly somewhat pale, but through the water they looked much larger than they do to our eyes; if what looked like a black cloud passed beneath them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming above her, or possibly a ship with many people on board; they certainly didn't think there might be a lovely little mermaid standing below them stretching her white hands up towards the keel.
Now the oldest princess was fifteen years old and was to venture above the surface of the sea.
When she came back, she had hundreds of things to tell, but the most delightful, she said, was to lie in the moonlight on a sandbank in the calm water, and to see close to the coast the great city, where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars, to hear the music and the noise and clamour of carriages and humans, see the many church towers and spires, and to hear the bells ringing out; precisely because she could not come up there, she longed most of all for all this.
Oh! how the youngest sister was all ears, and when later that evening she stood by the open window and gazed up through the dark-blue water, she thought of the great city with all its noise and clamour, and she believed she could hear the church bells sounding down where she was.
The following year the second sister was allowed to rise through the water and swim wherever she wanted. She swam up just as the sun was setting, and it was that sight which she felt was the loveliest. The whole sky had looked as if it was of gold, she said, and the clouds, well, their loveliness she could not describe enough! red and yellow, they had sailed over her head, but far swifter than them, like a long while veil, a flock of wild swans had flown over the water where the sun stood; she swam towards it, but it sank and the rosy gleam on the surface of the sea and the clouds was extinguished.
The following year a third sister came up there, she was the boldest of them all, so she swam up a broad estuary that flowed into the sea. She saw lovely green slopes with vines, castles and manors peeped out between magnificent forests; she heard how all the birds sang and the sun shone so strongly that she often had to dive down under the surface to cool her burning face. In a small bay she met a whole flock of small human children; completely naked, they ran about and splashed in the water, she wanted to play with them, but they ran away in fear, and a small black animal appeared, it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before, it barked so terribly at her that she was scared and made for the open sea, but she could never forget the magnificent forests, the green hillsides and the charming children who could swim on the water, even though they didn't have any tail.
The fourth sister was not as bold, she stayed out in the wild mid-ocean, and said that it was precisely this that was the loveliest - one could see many miles around one on all sides, and the sky above was like a great bell-jar. She had seen ships, but far off, they looked like gulls, the amusing dolphins had turned somersaults, and the huge whales had spouted water up out of their blowholes, so it had looked like hundreds of fountains around her.
It was now the fifth sister's turn; her birthday happened to be in the winter and so she saw what the others had not seen on their first visit. The water looked quite green and great icebergs were swimming around in it, each of them looked like a pearl, she said, and yet they were far bigger than the church towers humans built. They appeared in the most remarkable shapes and glittered like diamonds. She had sat down on one of the largest and all the sailing ships, in fright, gave her a wide berth, where she sat letting the wind play with her long hair; but later in the evening the sky became overcast, there was thunder and lightning, while the black sea lifted the great blocks of ice high up and let them gleam in the red lightning. The sails were taken in on all the ships, and they were in fear and dread, but she calmly sat on her swimming iceberg and watched the blue stroke of lightning zigzag down into the gleaming sea.
The first time any of the sisters came above the surface of the water, each of them was always fascinated by the new, beautiful things she saw, but since they now - as grown-up girls - were allowed to go up there whenever they wanted, things lost their appeal, they longed to be back home, and after a month they said that it was most beautiful of all down where they lived, and so nice to be home.
On many an evening the five sisters interlocked arms and rose in a row above the water; they had beautiful voices, more beautiful than any human's, and when a storm blew up, so that they thought the ships were bound to go under, they would swim in front of the ships and sing so beautifully of how delightful it was on the sea bed, and tell the sailors not to be frightened of coming down there; but the sailors were unable to understand the words and thought it was the storm, nor did they ever get to see any of these delights, for when their ship sank, those on board drowned, and only came down to the sea-king's palace as corpses.
When the sisters gathered in the evening, arm in arm, and ascended through the sea, their little sister was thus left behind all on her own, and it was as if she would cry, but a mermaid has no tears and so she had to suffer all the more.
'Oh, if only I was fifteen years old!' she said, 'I know that I will grow really fond of the world above us and of the people who build and live up there!'
At last, she reached the age of fifteen.
'There, now we've got you off our hands,' her grandmother, the old queen mother, said. 'Come here, let me deck you out like your other sisters!' and she placed a garland of white lilies in her hair, but each petal in the flower was half a pearl; and the old lady had eight large oysters attach themselves to the princess's tail to indicate her high rank.
'It hurts so much,' the little mermaid said.
'Yes, one has to go through a great deal of trouble to look nice!' the old woman said.
Oh! she would so much have liked to shake all this finery off her and laid the heavy garland aside; her red flowers in the garden suited her much better, but she didn't dare rearrange things. 'Goodbye,' she said and rose so light and clear, like a bubble through the water.
The sun had just set as she lifted her head above the surface of the water, but all the clouds were still gleaming like roses and gold, and in the midst of the pale-red sky the evening star shone with such brightness and beauty, the air was mild and fresh and the sea absolutely still. On it was a large ship with three masts, with only a single sail up, for there was not a breath of wind, and here and there in the ropes and on the beams the sailors were sitting. There was music and singing, and as the evening grew darker, hundreds of many-coloured lamps were lit, so it looked as if the flags of every nation were waving in the wind. The little mermaid swam right up to the cabin window, and each time the swell lifted her up, she could look through the mirror-clear windows where the many people stood in fine array, but the handsomest even so was the young prince with the large black eyes, he couldn't have been much older than sixteen, it was his birthday, which was why there was so much of a to-do. The sailors were dancing on deck, and when the young prince came out, more than a hundred rockets shot up into the air, they lit everything up as if it was broad daylight, so the little mermaid was very frightened and dived under the surface, but soon she stuck her head up again, and then it was as if all the stars in the sky fell down to her. She had never seen such pyrotechnics before. Great suns span round, wonderful fire-fishes soared into the blue sky, and everything was reflected by the clear, calm sea. On board the ship everything was so bright that one could see every little rope, and the people too. Oh, how handsome the young prince was, and he clasped people's hands, laughed and smiled, while the music rang out in the wonderful evening.
It grew late, but the little mermaid was unable to take her eyes off the ship and the handsome prince. The many-coloured lamps were put out, no more rockets soared into the sky, there were no more cannon shots, but deep down in the sea there was a humming and droning, whereas she sat on the surface rocking up and down, so that she could look into the cabin; but the ship picked up speed, one sail after the other unfurled, now the waves became stronger, large clouds appeared, and there was lightning in the distance. Oh, there was going to be a terrible storm! so the sailors reefed in the sails. And the large ship careered along at great speed on the wild waves, the water rose to form what looked like great black mountains that would crash down over the mast, but the ship dipped like a swan down between the high waves and let itself be lifted up on the towering waters. The little mermaid found this ride enjoyable, but the sailors did not, the ship creaked and groaned, the thick planking bent at the buffeting of the waves, the mast broke in two as if it was a reed, and the ship rolled over on its side and water began to pour in. Now the little mermaid realised that they were in danger, she had to take care herself to avoid the beams and fragments of the ship that were floating on the water. At one moment it was so pitch-black that she couldn't see the slightest thing, but when a flash of lightning came, everything was so clear once more that she could make out all of them on the ship; everyone lurched around as best he could; she looked especially for the young prince, and when the ship came apart, she saw him sink down into the depths of the ocean. To begin with, she was quite pleased, for now he would be coming down to her, but then she remembered that humans cannot live in the water, and that he would not come down to her father's palace, only his corpse. No, he could not be allowed to die; so she swam in among the beams and planks that drifted on the sea, completely forgot that they might have crushed her, she dived deep beneath the surface and rose up high again between the waves, and finally she managed to reach the young prince, who was hardly able to swim any longer in the stormy sea, his arms and legs were beginning to go limp, his beautiful eyes to close - he would have died if the little mermaid had not come to his aid. She held his head above water, and then let the waves bear her and him wherever they wanted.
When morning came the bad weather was over; not a shred of the ship was to be seen, the sun rose red and gleaming out of the water - it was as if this brought life to the prince's cheeks, but his eyes remained closed; the mermaid kissed his lovely high forehead and stroked back his wet hair; to her he looked like the marble statue down in her little garden, she kissed him again, and wished for him to be allowed to live.
She now saw the mainland ahead of her, tall blue mountains with white snow gleaming on their summits as if swans were lying there; down by the coast there were lovely green forests, and in front of them lay a church or an abbey, she did not know for sure, but it was definitely a building. Lemon and orange trees grew in the garden, and in front of the gate stood tall palm trees. The shore formed a small bay here where the water was completely still but very deep, all the way to the cliff where fine silver sand had been washed up, she swam over there with the handsome prince and laid him down on the sand, but made sure that his head lay high up in the warm sunshine.
Now the bells in the large white building started to chime, and many young girls came walking through the garden. Then the little mermaid swam further out behind some boulders that stuck up out of the water, placed sea-foam of her hair and breast so that no one could see her small face, and then she watched to see who came out to the poor prince.
It did not take long before a young girl came to the spot, she seemed to be quite shocked, but only for a moment, then she fetched some others, and the mermaid saw how the prince recovered and that he smiled to all of those around him, but not out to her, for he did not even know that she had saved him; she felt so sad, and when he was led into the large building, she dived sorrowfully down into the water and sought her way home to her father's palace.
She had always been quiet and thoughtful, but now she was even more so. Her sisters asked her what she had seen the first time up above, but she did not tell them anything.
Many an evening and morning she rose up to the spot where she had left the prince. She saw how the fruit in the garden ripened and was picked, she saw how the snow melted on the high mountains, but she did not see the prince, and therefore she was always even sadder when she returned home. Her only consolation was to sit in her little garden and embrace the beautiful marble statue that looked like the prince, but she did not tend her flowers, they grew as in a wilderness, out over the paths and twined their long stems and leaves in among the branches so that it became quite dark.
Finally, she couldn't bear it any longer, and told one of her sisters, and soon all of them had got to hear of it, but only her other sisters and a couple of other mermaids who only told their closest friends. One of them knew the identity of the prince, she had also seen the festivities on the ship, knew where he came from, and where his kingdom lay.
'Come, little sister!' the other princesses said, and with their arms round each other's shoulders they rose in a long row out of the sea in front of the place where they knew the prince's palace lay.
It had been built of a light-yellow gleaming type of stone, with large marble staircases, one went straight down to the sea. Magnificent gilt domes rose up above the roof, and between the columns that went round the entire building there were marble statues that looked as if they were alive. Through the clear glass in the tall windows one could glimpse the most magnificent halls that were hung with precious silk curtains and tapestries, and all the walls were adorned with large paintings that were a sheer joy to look at. In the middle of the largest hall there was a large plashing fountain, its jets shooting up towards the glass dome in the ceiling, through which the sun shone on the water and on the lovely plants growing in the large pool.
Now she knew where he lived, and she went there many an evening and night on the water; she swam much closer to the land than any of the others had dared - she even went right up into the narrow canal, under the magnificent marble balcony that cast a long shadow over the water. Here she sat and gazed at the young prince, who thought he was completely alone in the bright moonlight. Many evenings she saw him sail about with music in his magnificent boat with its fluttering flags; she peeped out through the green rushes, and if the wind caught her silver-white veil and anyone saw it, they thought it was a swan lifting its wings.
Many a night, when the fishermen were out at sea with their blazing torches, she heard them say many good things about the young prince, and it pleased her that she had saved his life when he was drifting half-dead on the waves, and she thought of how firmly his head had rested on her breast, and how fervently she had kissed him then; he knew nothing about that, couldn't even dream about her.
She came to like human beings more and more, and she wished more and more to be able to rise up among them; their world seemed to her to be much bigger than hers; for they could fly across the ocean on ships, climb high mountains way above the clouds, and the countries they owned stretched with their forests and fields farther than the eye could see. There was so much she wanted to know, but her sisters could not answer everything, so she asked her old grandmother and she was familiar with the higher world, which is what she rightly called the lands above the sea.
'When humans do not drown,' the little mermaid asked, 'can they stay alive for ever, don't they die like we do down here in the sea?'
'Oh yes,' the old woman said, 'they too have to die, and their lives are even shorter than ours are. We can live until we are three hundred years old, but when we cease to exist, we become foam on the water, do not even have a grave down here among our dear ones. We do not have an immortal soul, we will never live again, we are like the green rushes, once they have been severed they can never grow green again! Humans on the other hand have a soul that lives for ever, lives even after the body has become earth; it rises up through the clear sky up to all the shining stars! Just as we rise up to the surface of the sea and see the lands of the humans, they rise up to unknown lovely places, those we will never get to see.'
'Why did we never get an immortal soul?' the little mermaid asked sadly, 'I would give up all the three hundred years I have to live in just to be a human being for one day and then be part of the heavenly world!'
'You mustn't spend your time thinking of such things!' the old woman said, 'we have a much happier and better life than the human beings up there!'
'So I am to die and float like foam on the sea, not hear the music of the waves, see the lovely flowers and the red sun! Is there nothing I can do to gain an eternal soul!'
'No!' the old woman said, 'only if a human were to fall so in love with you that you were more to him that his father and mother; if all his thoughts and love were centred on you, and he would let the priest place his right hand in yours and promise to be faithful now and in all eternity. Only then would his soul flow over into your body and you would partake in human happiness. He would give you a soul and yet retain his own. But that can never happen! For what is so lovely here in the ocean - your fish's tail - they find ugly up there on the earth, they don't understand it at all, there one has to have two clumsy props that they call legs in order to be considered beautiful or handsome!'
Then the little mermaid sighed and looked sadly at her fish's tail.
'Let's be content,' the old woman said, 'let's jump and leap in the three hundred years we have to live in, that's quite a long time after all, and then one can even more contentedly rest in one's grave. This evening there is to be court ball!'
It was also more magnificent than anything ever seen on earth. The walls and ceiling of the great dance hall were of thick but clear glass. Several hundred huge mussel shells, rosy red and green as grass, stood in rows on either side with a blue-burning fire that lit up the entire hall and gleamed out through the walls so that the sea right outside looked quite illuminated; one could see all the innumerable fish, great and small, that swam towards the glass wall, on some of them the scales gleamed a purple-red, on others they seemed to be silver and gold. A broadly running stream ran through the middle of the hall, and on it mermen and mermaids danced to their own delightful singing. The humans on earth do not have such beautiful voices. The little mermaid sang the most beautifully of them all, and they applauded her, and for a moment she felt happy in her heart, for she knew that she had the loveliest voice of anyone on earth and in the sea! But soon she began to think once more of the world above her; she couldn't forget the handsome prince and her sorrow at not owning - as he did - an immortal soul. So she slipped away from her father's palace, and while everything was singing and enjoyment inside, she sat out in her own little garden and was sad. Then she heard French horns sounding down through the water, and she thought 'now he is out sailing, the one who I love even more than father and mother, the one who fills all my thoughts and in whose hand I wish to place all my life's happiness. I will risk anything to win him and an immortal soul! While my sisters are dancing inside my father's palace, I will go to the sea-witch - I've always been so afraid of her, but she can perhaps advise and help me!'
Now the little mermaid left her garden and went towards the roaring whirlpools behind which the witch lived. She had never gone that way before, no flowers grew there, no sea-grass, only the bare grey sandy bottom stretched towards the whirlpools, where the water, like roaring mill-wheels, whirled round and tore everything they caught hold of down with it into the depths; she had to pass between these crushing, whirling masses of water to get to the region of the sea-witch, and here there was for quite some distance no other way than over the hot, bubbling mud the witch called her peat-bog. Behind it lay her house in the middle of a strange forest. All the trees and shrubs were polyps - half-animal and half-plant - they looked like snakes with hundreds of heads growing out of the earth; all the branches were long, slimy arms, with fingers like pliant worms, and joint by joint they moved from their root to the outermost tip. Everything in the sea they could catch hold of they twined round tightly and never let go again. The little mermaid remained standing quite terrified outside there; her heart pounded with fear, she had almost turned back, but then she thought of the prince and of the human soul, and that gave her courage. She bound her long, fluttering hair around her head so that the polyps couldn't grab hold of it, folded both her hands over her breast, and flew - as fish can fly through the water - in among the horrible polyps which stretched out their pliant arms and fingers after her. She saw that wherever they had seized something, hundreds of small arms held it as with bands of steel. Humans who had perished at sea and sunk down to the depths, peeped out from the polyps' arms as white skeletons. They held onto ships' rudders and chests, skeletons of land animals and a little mermaid that they had caught and strangled - that was what seemed to her to be almost the most dreadful.
She now came to a large slimy place in the forest where large, fat water-snakes tumbled and showed their vile white-yellow bellies. In the middle of this clearing a house had been built of the white bones of shipwrecked human beings, there the sea-witch sat, allowing a toad to eat from her mouth, just as human allow a small canary to eat sugar. The horrible fat water-snakes she called her small chickens and she let them romp around on her large, spongy breast.
'I know what you want alright!' the sea-witch said. 'it's very stupid of you! but you shall have your will even so, for it will bring you great misfortune, my lovely princess. You want to get rid of your fish's tail and have two props instead to go around on just like human beings, so that the young prince can fall in love with you and you can have him and an immortal soul!' And just then the witch cackled so loudly and horribly that the toad and the grass snakes fell to the ground and tossed around there. 'You've come at precisely the right time,' the witch said, 'tomorrow when the sun rises I couldn't have helped you before another year had passed. I will prepare a drink for you; before the sun rises you must swim with it to where there is land, sit down on the shore there and drink it, then your tail will split and contract into what humans call a nice pair of legs, but it will hurt you, it is as if a sharp sword passed through you. Everyone who sees you will say you are the loveliest human child they have ever seen! you will keep your floating walk, no dancer can float as you can, but each step you take will be like treading on a sharp knife that made your blood flow. Are you prepared to suffer all this? - for then I will help you.'
'Yes!' the little mermaid said with a trembling voice, and she thought of the prince and of winning an immortal soul.
'But remember this,' the witch said, 'once you have assumed human form, you can never become a mermaid again! you can never dive down through the water to your sisters and to your father's palace, and if you do not gain the love of the prince, so that he forgets his father and mother for you, unless you fill all his thoughts and he lets the priest place your hands in each other's so that you become man and wife, you will not gain an immortal soul! the first morning after he has married someone else, your heart will break, and you will become foam on the water.'
'This is my wish!' the little mermaid said and was deathly pale.
'But you must also pay me!' the witch said, 'and what I am asking for is no trifle. You have the loveliest voice of all those here on the sea-bed, and you count on entrancing him with it, but that voice you must give to me. I must have the best thing you own for my precious drink! I must give you of my own blood for the drink, so that it can be as sharp as a double-edged sword!'
'But if you take my voice,' the little mermaid said, 'what am I left with?'
'Your beautiful appearance,' the witch said, your floating walk and your eloquent eyes - with those you're sure to be able to captivate a human heart. Well, have you lost your courage! Stretch out your little tongue, I will cut it off as payment, and you shall have your powerful drink!'
'So be it!' the little mermaid said, and the witch fetched her cauldron to boil the magic potion. 'Cleanliness is next to godliness!' she said and scoured the inside of it with the grass snakes, which she bound into a knot; now she made a deep scratch in her breast and let her black blood drip down in it. The steam formed the queerest shapes that were scaring and frightening. Every second the witch added new things to the cauldron, and when it boiled away it was as if a crocodile was crying. Finally the drink was ready - it looked like the clearest water!
'There it is!' the witch said and cut the little mermaid's tongue off - she was mute now, unable to either sing or speak.
'If the polyps should seize you as you pass through my forest on your way back,' the witch said, 'just throw a single drop of this drink onto them and their arms and fingers will burst into thousands of pieces!' but the mermaid had no need of this, the polyps retreated in fear when they saw she was carrying the gleaming drink that shone in her hand as if it was a twinkling star. So she soon came through the forest, the bog and the roaring whirlpools.
She could see her father's palace; the lamps had been put out in the large dance hall; they were surely all asleep inside, but she did not dare to try and find them, now that she could not speak and would be leaving them for ever. It felt as if her heart would break from sorrow. She stole into the garden, took one flower from each of her sisters' flower beds, sent thousands of finger-kisses towards the palace and rose up through the dark-blue waters.
The sun had not yet appeared when she saw the prince's palace and went up the magnificent marble staircase. The moon shone wonderfully clearly. The little mermaid downed the fiery, sharp drink and it was as though a two-edged sword went right through her fine body, she fainted and lay as if dead. When the sun was shining over the sea, she woke up and felt a searing pain, but right in front of her the handsome young prince was standing, he fixed his jet-black eyes on her, so she lowered hers and saw that her fish's tail was gone and that she had the most attractive small white legs any young girl could have, but she was completely naked, so she wrapped herself in her long tresses. The prince asked who she was, and how she had come to be there, and she looked at him so gently and so sorrowfully with her dark-blue eyes, for she could not speak, you see. Then he took her by the hand and led her into the palace. Every step she took was, as the witch had said to her earlier, as if she was treading on pointed needles and sharp knives, but she put up with this gladly; with the prince's hand holding hers she rose as light as a soap-bubble, and he and everyone else marvelled at her elegant, floating walk.
She was dressed in priceless clothes of silk and muslin, she was the most beautiful of all those at the palace, but she was mute, unable to sing or speak. Lovely slave-girls, dressed in silk and gold, came forward and sang for the prince and his royal parents; a song more beautiful than all the others and the prince clapped his hands and smiled at her, then the little mermaid felt sad, for she knew that she herself would have sung far more beautifully! she thought, 'Oh, if only he knew that in order to be with him I have given away my voice for all eternity!'
Now the slave-girls danced graceful, floating dances to the loveliest music, then the little mermaid lifted her beautiful white arms, raised herself on tiptoe and floated across the floor, danced as no one had ever danced before; at her every movement her loveliness became more apparent, and her eyes spoke more profoundly to the heart than the singing of the slave-girls.
Everyone was enchanted by this, particularly the prince, who called her his little foundling, and she danced more and more even though every time her foot touched the ground it was as if she was treading on sharp knives. The prince said that she was to be with him always, and she was allowed to sleep outside his door on a velvet cushion.
He had a man's costume sewn for her, so that she could follow him on horseback. They rode through the fragrant forests where the green branches brushed her shoulders and the small birds sang behind fresh-green leaves. She climbed with the prince on the high mountains and although her fine feet bled, so that the others noticed it, she merely laughed at this and followed him until they saw the clouds sailing beneath them as if they were a flock of birds flying off to foreign lands.
Back at the prince's palace, when the others were asleep, she went out onto the broad marble staircase, and it cooled her burning feet to stand there in the cold sea-water, and then she thought of them down there in the depths of the ocean.
One night her sisters came arm in arm, they sang so sorrowfully as they swam across the water, and she waved to them, and they recognised her and told her how sad she had made them all. Every night after that they visited her, and one night, far out, she saw her old grandmother, who had not been up to the surface of the sea for many years, and the sea-king with his crown on his head - they stretched their arms out towards her, but did not dare come as close to the shore as her sisters did.
Day by day the prince became more dear to her, he was fond of her as one can be fond of a good, dear child, but it never occurred to him to make her his queen, and she had to become his wife, otherwise she would never get an immortal soul, but on his wedding morning would become foam on the sea.
'Aren't you fonder of me than all the rest!' the eyes of the little mermaid seemed to say when he took her in his arms and kissed her lovely forehead.
'Yes, you are dearest of all to me,' the prince said, 'for you have the best heart of them all, you are the most devoted to me, and you resemble a young girl I once saw but will surely never find again. I was on a ship that was wrecked, the waves washed me ashore near a sacred temple where several young girls were in service, the youngest of them found me down on the shore and saved my life, I only saw her twice; she was the only one I could ever love in this world, but you resemble her, you almost replace her image in my soul, she belongs to the holy temple, and therefore my good fortune has sent you to me - we shall never be parted!' - 'Alas, he doesn't know that I have saved his life!' the little mermaid thought, 'I carried him over the sea to the forest where the temple stands, I sat behind the foam and waited to see if anyone would come. I saw the beautiful girl he is more fond of than me!' and the mermaid sighed deeply - she was unable to cry. 'The girl belongs to the sacred temple, he has told me, she will never come out into the world, they will not meet again, I am with him, I see him every day, I will take care of him, love him, sacrifice my life to him!'
But now the prince is to be married and have the lovely daughter of the king of the neighbouring country! people said, that is why he is equipping a ship so magnificently. The prince is travelling to see the lands of the neighbouring king, is the official explanation, but it is to see the neighbouring king's daughter. He is to have a large retinue with him; but the little mermaid shook her head and laughed; she knew the prince's thoughts much better than all the rest. 'I must travel!' he had said to her, 'I must see the beautiful princess, my parents insist on it, but they do not wish to force me to bring her home as my bride! I cannot love her! she does not look like the beautiful girl in the temple that you resemble. If I ever had to choose a bride, it would rather be you, my speechless foundling with the eloquent eyes!' and he kissed her red lips, played with her long tresses and placed his head close to her heart, so it dreamt of human happiness and an immortal soul.
'But you are not frightened of the sea, my mute child!' he said when they stood on board the magnificent ship that was to take him to the lands of the neighbouring king; and he told her about storms and dead calms, about strange fish in the ocean depths and what the diver had seen there, and she smiled at his account, for she of course knew far better than anyone else about the sea-bed.
In the moonlit night, when everyone was asleep, except for the mate, she sat by the railing of the ship and stared down through the clear water, and she seemed to see her father's palace, highest up stood her old grandmother with her silver crown on her head and stared up through the swift currents at the keel of the ship. Then her sisters broke the surface of the sea, they stared sorrowfully at her and wrung their white hands, she waved to them, smiled and wanted to tell them that things were going well and successfully for her, but the ship's boy came closer and the sisters dived down, so he thought that what he had seen had merely been white foam on the water.
The next morning the ship entered the harbour of the magnificent city of the neighbouring king. All the church bells rang out, and trumpets sounded from the high towers, while the soldiers stood with fluttering flags and glinting bayonets. There were festivities every single day, balls and parties in succession, but the princess was not present yet, she was being brought up far away from there in a sacred temple, they said, where she was learning all the royal virtues. Finally, she arrived on the scene.
The little mermaid was most eager to see her beauty, and she had to admit that she had never seen a fairer creature. Her skin was so fine and transparent, and behind the long, dark eyelashes there smiled a pair of black-blue faithful eyes!
'It's you!' the prince said, 'you who saved me when I lay like a corpse on the shore!' and he embraced his blushing bride. 'Oh, I am far too fortunate!' he said to the little mermaid. 'The best thing I could ever have hoped for has been fulfilled for me. You will rejoice in my good fortune, for you are more fond of me than all the others!' And the little mermaid kissed his hand, and she seemed to feel her heart break. His wedding morning would bring her death and turn her into foam on the sea.
All the church bells rang out, the heralds rode through the streets and announced the engagement. Fragrant oil burned in precious silver lamps on all the altars. The priests swung incense and the bride and bridegroom joined hands and received the bishop's blessing. The little mermaid stood in silk and gold and held the bride's train, but her ear did not hear the festive music, her eye did not see the holy ceremony, she thought only of her death-night, of all that she had lost in this world.
That very same evening, the bride and bridegroom boarded the ship, the cannons were fired, all the flags waved, and a fine tent of gold and purple had been raised in the middle of the ship, with the loveliest of cushions - there the wedding couple were to sleep in the still, cool night. The sails swelled out in the wind, and the ship glided lightly and without any great motion out across the clear water.
When it grew dark, many-coloured lamps were lit and the sailors danced merry dances on deck. The little mermaid had to think of the first time she surfaced from the depths and saw the same magnificence and happiness, and she whirled round in the dance too, floated like the swallow floats when it is being pursued, and everyone expressed their great admiration, never had she danced so wonderfully; it felt like sharp knives in her fine small feet, but she did not notice it - it was nothing compared to the pain in her heart. She knew this would be the last evening she would see the man for whom she had abandoned her home and her family, given up her lovely voice and suffered endless torment every day, without him having any idea of this. This was the last night she would breathe the same air as he did, see the deep ocean and the star-studded sky, an eternal night without thought or dream awaited her, she who had no soul and would never be able to gain one. And there was joy and merriment on board until way after midnight, she laughed and danced but with the thought of death in her heart. The prince kissed his lovely bride, and she played with his black hair, and arm in arm they retired to the magnificent tent.
It grew quiet and still on board, with only the mate still on duty, the little mermaid laid her white arm on the railing and looked eastwards towards the approaching dawn, the first rays of the sun, she knew, would kill her. Then she saw her sisters rise up out of the sea, they were pale, as she was; their long beautiful hair no longer fluttered in the wind - it had been cut off.
'We have given it to the witch, so that she can bring help and prevent you from dying this night! She has given us a knife - here it is! Can you see how sharp it is? Before the sun rises, you must plunge it into the prince's heart, and when his warm blood spatters onto your feet, they will once more become a fish's tail and you will become a mermaid once again, be able to come down into the water to us and live your three hundred years before you are turned into dead, salty sea-foam. Hurry! Either he or you must die before the sun rises! Our old grandmother is grieving so much that her white hair has fallen off, just as ours did at the witch's scissors. Kill the prince and come back! Hurry, can't you see the red streak in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise and you will have to die!' and they let out a strangely deep sigh and sank down into the waves.
The little mermaid pulled by the purple curtain from the tent, and she saw the lovely bride sleeping with her head on the prince's breast, and she bent down, kissed him on his handsome forehead, looked up at the sky where the dawn grew stronger and stronger, looked down at the sharp knife and once more fixed her eyes on the prince, who named his bride by name in his dreams, she alone was in his thoughts, and the knife shook in the mermaid's hand, but then she flung it far out across the waves, which gleamed red when it fell, so it looked like drops of blood trickling up out of the water. Once more she gazed at the prince with half-glazed eyes, rushed off the ship down into the sea, and felt her body dissolve into foam.
Now the sun rose out of the sea. Its rays fell so gently and warmly on the deathly cold sea-foam and the little mermaid did not feel death, she saw the bright sun, and up above her there floated hundreds of transparent, lovely creatures; through them she could see the ship's white sails and the sky's red clouds, their voice was a melody, but so spiritual that no human ear could hear it, just as no earthly eye could see them - without wings they floated in their own lightness through the air.
'Who am I coming to!' she said, and her voice sounded like those of the other beings, so spiritual than no earthly music can reproduce it.
'To the daughters of the air!' the others replied. 'A mermaid has no immortal soul, can never gain one unless she wins the love of a human being! Her eternal being depends on a foreign force. The daughters of the air do not have an eternal soul either, but by good deeds they are able to create one for themselves. We fly to the warm countries where the sultry plague-air kills people - there we fan cool air on them. We spread the scent of flowers through the air and send refreshment and cure. When we have striven to do all the good we can for three hundred years, we are granted an immortal soul and take part in the eternal happiness of humans. You, poor little mermaid, have striven to do the same with all your heart as we do, you have suffered and endured, have lifted yourself up to the realm of the spirits of the air, now through good deeds you can create for yourself an immortal soul in three hundred years' time.'
And the little mermaid lifted her clear arms towards God's sun, and for the first time she felt tears. On board the ship there was noise and life once more, she saw the prince with his lovely bride searching for her, sadly they stared at the bubbling foam, as if they knew she had thrown herself into the waves. Unseen, she kissed the bride's forehead, smiled at him and rose with the other children of the air up onto the rosy cloud that sailed through the sky.
'In three hundred years' time we will sail thus into the kingdom of God!'
'We can also enter in earlier than that!' one of them whispered. 'We can float unseen into the homes of humans who have children, and each time we find a good child that gladdens its parents and earns their love, God shortens our time of probation. The child is unaware of us flying through the living room, and when we smile with joy at it, one year is taken away from our three hundred, but if we see a naughty and wicked child, then we have to cry tears of sorrow, and each tear adds a further day to our time of probation!'
- A fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen. Translated into English by John Irons in 2014 for the Hans Christian Andersen Centre at the University of Southern Denmark.
- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
BBC The Little Mermaid
小美人鱼（又译海的女儿）
Audio Transcript
A long time ago, in a beautiful world under the sea, there lived mer-people. Merpeople were strange magical creatures with bodies like you and me but long fish’s tails instead of legs.Although mer-people were happy in their under-sea kingdom, sometimes, just for fun, they would swim up to the surface and take a look at our world.
TODO double check 很久以前，在一个美丽的海底世界里，住着人鱼。人鱼是一种奇怪的神奇生物，有着像你我一样的身体，只不过是长长的鱼尾巴，而不是腿。虽然人鱼在他们的海底王国里很快乐，但有时为了好玩，他们会游到海面上来看看我们的世界。
Sometimes they would see human beings sail past on their great ships and say, ‘What strange lives those humans lead!’
有时他们会看到人类驾着他们的大船驶过，说:“这些人过着多么奇怪的生活啊!”
The king of the mer-people had six mermaid daughters. All were very beautiful, but the loveliest was the youngest. Not only was she beautiful, but the Little Mermaid had the best singing voice of all the mer-people. When the Little Mermaid sang, everyone would stop what they were doing and listen. Even the fishes seemed to swim more slowly as if they too were enjoying her singing.
人鱼国王有六个美人鱼女儿。大家都很漂亮，但最可爱的是最年轻的。她不仅长得很美，而且她的歌声在人鱼中是最好听的。当小美人鱼唱歌的时候，每个人都会停下手头的工作去听。甚至连鱼也似乎游得更慢了，好像它们也在欣赏她的歌声。
Mermaids were not allowed to go up to the surface to see the world of human beings until they were fifteen years old, and each sister on her fifteenth birthday swam up to see our world for herself. When they came back they told of huge ships plunging through great storms, of children playing happily on sandy beaches, of white creatures that seemed to fl oat gracefully through the air,and of strange sad music that floated from the towers of tall buildings.
美人鱼直到十五岁才被允许到水面上来看人类的世界，每一个姐姐在十五岁生日的时候都要游上来看我们的世界。当他们回来的时候，他们讲述了巨大的船只在风暴中颠簸，孩子们在沙滩上快乐地玩耍，白色的动物似乎优雅地在空中飞舞，奇怪的悲伤的音乐从高楼的塔楼上飘起。
Each time one of her sisters went to the surface, the Little Mermaid would plead with her father to be allowed to go with her.‘Be patient, little one,’ her father would say. ‘Your turn will come.’
每当她的姐妹们浮出水面的时候，小人鱼就会恳求她的父亲允许她跟她一起去。“要有耐心，小家伙，”她父亲说。“该你了。”
At last it was the Little Mermaid’s fifteenth birthday and, towards the end of the day, her father looked at her and said, ‘The time has come, little one. Come back and tell us what you find.’ The Little Mermaid kissed her father, said goodbye to her five sisters and began the long swim to the surface.
最后，这天是小人鱼的十五岁生日。一天快结束的时候，她的父亲看着她说:“小人鱼，时间到了。回来告诉我们你的发现。小人鱼吻了吻她的父亲，告别了她的五个姐姐，开始向水面游去。
Up and up she swam and it was night time before she came close to the surface. She saw a bright light dancing on the water, then moments later her face burst through the waves into the moonlight.
她越游越高，直到晚上才接近水面。她看见一束亮光在水面上跳舞，过了一会儿，她的脸冲破海浪，映入月光中。
For the first time the Little Mermaid saw stars shining in the dark night sky and felt the gentle sea winds on her cheeks. She saw a sailing ship lit by hundreds of lanterns and thought that she had never seen anything so beautiful in all her life. She swam closer to the ship...and, upon hearing strange music, she just had to find out what creatures made those wonderful sounds.
小人鱼第一次看到了夜空中闪烁的星星，感觉到海风轻拂着她的脸颊。她看到一艘帆船被成百上千的灯笼点亮了，她觉得她这辈子从来没有见过这么美丽的东西。她游得离船更近了……一听到奇怪的音乐，她就必须找出是什么生物发出这些美妙的声音。
Looking through a window in the side of the ship, she saw what seemed to be a birthday party and the special guest was a young prince. He stood in the centre of the room and everybody seemed to be smiling at him.
透过船侧的一扇窗户，她看到了一个像是生日派对的东西，特别的客人是一位年轻的王子。他站在房间的中央，每个人似乎都在对他微笑。
He was the most handsome thing she had ever seen. When he smiled, his eyes seemed to light up the whole room and, by the time the party had ended and the guests had gone to bed, the Little Mermaid had fallen in love.
他是她所见过的最英俊的人。当他微笑的时候，他的眼睛似乎把整个房间都照亮了。当舞会结束，客人们都上床睡觉的时候，小人鱼已经爱上了他。
‘It’s getting late,’ she sighed. ‘I must go back to my father and sisters and tell them what I have seen. But then came a sound which the Little Mermaid had never heard before.
“天晚了，”她叹了口气。“我必须回到我父亲和姐姐们那里，把我所看到的告诉她们。这时，小人鱼听到了一种她从来没有听到过的声音。
A storm was coming and before long great dark clouds hid the moon. The air around the Little Mermaid started to move...and the calm sea started to heave and moan like a giant waking from a deep sleep.
暴风雨即将来临，不久，巨大的乌云遮住了月亮。小美人鱼周围的空气开始移动……平静的大海开始起伏，呻吟，就像一个巨人从沉睡中醒来。
The Prince’s ship started to lurch and roll in the churning sea...and the Little Mermaid could hear terror in the voices of the sailors as they tried to save their ship from the giant waves.
王子的船开始在汹涌的大海中颠簸翻滚……小美人鱼听到水手们的声音，他们正试图把船从巨浪中拯救出来。
Then suddenly the ship’s mast snapped in two. Its deck was smashed to pieces by a giant wave. Sailors were thrown into the sea and the beautiful ship began to sink. The Little Mermaid was not afraid of the storm. She dived into a huge wave and swam down into the darkness and there among the swirling wreckage she saw her prince... lifeless...
突然，船上的桅杆断成两截。它的甲板被一个巨浪打得粉碎。水手们被抛进海里，那艘美丽的船开始下沉。小美人鱼并不害怕暴风雨。她跳进一个巨大的波浪里，游到黑暗中，在旋转的残骸中，她看到了她的王子……毫无生气的……
The Little Mermaid knew that humans could not live in water. ‘Drowned already?’ said the Little Mermaid. ‘No. He will not drown. I will not let him drown.’ So she swam to the prince, carried him back up to the surface and held his head up out of the water. He was still too weak to move but at least he was alive. The Little Mermaid swam through the night. By morning the storm had passed and she saw dry land.
小美人鱼知道人类不能生活在水里。“淹死了吗?小人鱼说。“不。他不会淹死。我不会让他淹死的。于是她游向王子，把他带回到水面，把他的头从水里拉出来。他仍然虚弱得动不了，但至少他还活着。小美人鱼在夜里游来游去。早晨，暴风雨过去了，她看到了陆地。
The Little Mermaid saw a white sandy beach and she laid the sleeping prince on the sand in front of a small church. Then she swam to some nearby rocks to see what would happen. The prince opened his eyes and saw a girl coming out of the church.
小美人鱼看到一个白色的沙滩，她把睡着的王子放在一个小教堂前面的沙滩上。然后她游到附近的岩石去看看会发生什么事。王子睁开眼睛，看见一个女孩从教堂里走出来。
The girl stared at the prince for a moment then ran back inside to fetch help. People came running. The prince was picked up and gently carried away. The Little Mermaid sighed and swam back to her home under the sea.
女孩盯着王子看了一会儿，然后跑进去找人帮忙。人跑过来。王子被抱起，轻轻地带走了。小美人鱼叹了口气，游回了她在海底的家。
When her father and sisters asked her what she had seen, the Little Mermaid said nothing. For days she sat sadly by herself thinking of nothing but the handsome prince. At last she could bear it no longer and told her oldest sister what had happened to her on the night of the storm.
当她的父亲和姐妹们问她看到了什么时，小美人鱼什么也没说。一连几天，她愁眉苦脸地坐着，脑子里想的都是那位英俊的王子。最后，她实在忍不下去了，就把暴风雨当晚发生的事告诉了大姐。
The Little Mermaid looked sadly at her fish’s tail. ‘If only I was a human,’ she said. ‘Don’t be silly,’ said her sister. ‘We mermaids are much happier than humans. Humans only have short lives, but we can live for three hundred years.’
小人鱼伤心地看着她的鱼尾。“要是我是个人就好了，”她说。“别傻了，”她姐姐说。“我们美人鱼比人类快乐得多。人类的寿命很短，但我们可以活三百年。”
‘I don’t care,’ said the Little Mermaid. ‘I would happily give up all my hundreds of years to have just one day as a human.’‘You must forget all about this prince,’ said the Little Mermaid’s oldest sister. ‘You must never speak of him again.’
“我不在乎，”小人鱼说。“我愿意放弃我几百年的生命，只为了一个人的一天。“你必须忘掉关于这个王子的一切，”小人鱼的姐姐说。“你再也不要提起他了。”
But the Little Mermaid could not forget about the prince and, later that night when her father and sisters weren’t looking, the Little Mermaid slipped away and went to find the old Sea Witch.
但是小美人鱼没有忘记王子，那天晚上，当她的父亲和姐妹们都没有注意到的时候，小美人鱼悄悄离开去找老巫婆了。
The Sea Witch lived in the darkest, coldest part of the ocean and her house, which was made from the bones of drowned sailors, was guarded by poisonous water snakes.
海巫婆住在海洋最黑暗、最寒冷的地方，她的房子是用淹死的水手的骨头建造的，由有毒的水蛇看守着。
‘Madam,’ said the little Mermaid. ‘I have come to... ‘I know why you’ve come child. You want to lose your fish’s tail and marry your prince,’ said the witch. ‘Can you help me?’ asked the mermaid ‘I can help you,’ said the witch, ‘but it will hurt’. The Little Mermaid shuddered, ‘Just tell me what I have to do.’
“夫人，”小人鱼说。“我来……“我知道你为什么来，孩子。“你想丢掉你的鱼尾，嫁给你的王子，”女巫说。“你能帮我吗?”“我可以帮助你，”巫婆说，“但是会很痛的。”小美人鱼颤抖着说:“告诉我该怎么做。”
‘You must drink this potion,’ said the witch, ‘and then your tail will turn into human legs, but every step you take on land will be like walking on sharp knives.’ ‘I’m not afraid,’ said the Little Mermaid. ‘And once you have human legs you can never be a mermaid again,’ said the witch. ‘If your prince doesn’t want you; if he falls in love with someone else, then the day after he marries, you will turn into nothing. Nothing more than bubbles floating on the sea.’
“你必须喝下这药水，”女巫说，“然后你的尾巴就会变成人的腿，但是你在陆地上走的每一步都像在锋利的刀子上行走。“我不害怕，”小人鱼说。“一旦你有了人的腿，你就再也不能做人鱼了。”妖婆说。“如果你的王子不需要你;如果他爱上了别人，那么在他结婚的那天，你就什么都不是了。只不过是海面上的泡沫。”
‘Give me the potion,’ said the Little Mermaid. The Sea Witch smiled. ‘Wait my child. First you must pay me.’ ‘But I have nothing,’ said the Little Mermaid. ‘How can I pay?’ ‘I’ll take your voice,’ said the witch. ‘Your beautiful singing voice. Yes, that should do nicely.’ The Little Mermaid looked at the witch and said, ‘Very well. If that is what I must pay, then take it.’
“把药水给我。”小人鱼说。海巫婆笑了。等待我的孩子。首先你得付钱给我。“可是我什么也没有!”小人鱼说。“我怎么付钱?”“我要听你的声音，”女巫说。“你美妙的歌声。是的，那很好。小人鱼看着女巫说:“很好。如果这是我必须付的钱，那就拿去吧。”
The witch handed the Little Mermaid the potion in a small bottle and the Little Mermaid spoke no more – the witch had taken her tongue. The next day the Prince’s servants found a beautiful young woman lying on the beach near the palace. They helped her inside, and when the young woman walked, she seemed to be in pain, almost as if she was walking on knives.
巫婆把装在小瓶子里的药水递给小人鱼，小人鱼不再说话了——巫婆已经把她的舌头收回来了。第二天，王子的仆人发现一位美丽的年轻女子躺在王宫附近的海滩上。他们把她扶进屋里，当那个年轻女人走路时，她似乎很痛苦，就像在刀子上走路一样。
The servants dressed her in fine clothes, but when they asked her who she was, she said nothing because this was the Little Mermaid who had given her voice to the Sea Witch and who could never speak or sing again.
但是当他们问她是谁的时候，她什么也没有说，因为这就是把她的声音送给海巫婆的小人鱼，她再也不能说话，也不能唱歌了。
Everybody agreed that the Little Mermaid was the most beautiful young woman in the whole palace and, although she never spoke, she quickly became the prince’s favourite. He never went anywhere without the Little Mermaid at his side.
大家一致认为小美人鱼是整个宫殿里最美丽的年轻女人，尽管她从不说话，但她很快就成为王子的宠儿。没有小美人鱼在他身边，他哪儿也去不了。
One day he told her how much he cared for her and for a moment she was so full of happiness that she thought her heart would burst. ‘But,’ said the Prince, ‘I cannot marry you because I am still searching for my true love.’
有一天，他告诉她他是多么关心她，有那么一会儿，她高兴得心都要碎了。“但是，”王子说，“我不能嫁给你，因为我还在寻找我的真爱。”
He explained that once he had nearly drowned and that he had been washed ashore and found by a beautiful young girl. He had only seen that girl once but had fallen in love with her and decided that, if he ever found her, he would ask her to marry him.
他解释说，有一次他差点淹死，被冲上了岸，一个年轻漂亮的姑娘发现了他。他只见过那姑娘一次，但已经爱上了她，决定一旦找到她，就向她求婚。
The Little Mermaid was very sad. She could not tell the prince that it was she who had saved him; that she had given up everything, her tail, her beautiful voice, her family, just to be with him.
小美人鱼很伤心。她不能告诉王子是她救了他;她放弃了一切，她的尾巴，她美丽的声音，她的家人，只是为了和他在一起。
One day a king from another land visited the prince. The king brought with him his beautiful daughter and, when the prince saw the king’s daughter, he knew her straight away. This was the girl who had found him on the beach.
一天，一位来自另一个国家的国王来看王子。国王带来了他美丽的女儿，当王子看到国王的女儿时，他立刻就认出了她。这就是那个在海滩上发现他的女孩。
She had grown up into a beautiful woman but there was no mistake. He had dreamed of her for years and, now he had found her, he asked her to marry him.
她已经长成了一个美丽的女人，但这并没有错。他多年来一直梦想着她，现在他找到了她，他向她求婚。
On the day of the wedding the Little Mermaid thought her heart would break. She had lost her prince and when sun rose the next day she would die. She remembered the witch’s words. She would turn to nothing; nothing more than bubbles on the sea water.
婚礼那天，小美人鱼觉得自己的心都要碎了。她失去了她的王子，第二天太阳升起时，她就会死去。她想起了女巫的话。她将一无所有;只不过是海水上的泡沫。
That night when everyone was asleep the Little Mermaid sat by the shore waiting for the dawn. She knew that this was her last night alive and that soon the sun would rise. Suddenly, from out of the waves, five silvery figures rose up in the moonlight. It was the Little Mermaid’s sisters.
那天晚上，所有的人都睡着了，小美人鱼坐在岸边等待黎明的到来。她知道这是她活着的最后一个夜晚，太阳很快就会升起。突然，五个银色的人影在月光下从波浪中升起。是小美人鱼的姐妹们。
‘Quick,’ said the oldest sister. ‘You can still save yourself. The witch has given us this magic knife. Kill the prince. Plunge the knife into his heart and when his warm blood splashes on your feet they will grow into a tail and you will become a mermaid again. Hurry little sister. The sun is nearly rising.’
“快，”大姐说。“你还是可以救自己的。女巫给了我们这把魔刀。杀死王子。把刀子插进他的心里，当他的热血溅到你的脚上时，它们就会变成一条尾巴，你就又会变成一条人鱼。匆忙的小妹妹。太阳快出来了。”
The Little Mermaid took the knife and ran to the prince’s bedroom. She looked at him as her slept beside his new wife. One blow with the knife, and then she would be free. How she longed to be once more with her father and her sisters under the sea! Shelooked at the sharp knife. She looked at the prince. She still loved him, so she went to the window... and threw the knife far out into the sea.
小美人鱼拿起刀子，跑到王子的卧室。当她睡在他的新妻子身边时，她看着他。用刀一击，她就自由了。她多么希望能再一次跟她的父亲和姐妹们一起在海底生活啊!她看着那把锋利的刀。她看着王子。她仍然爱着他，所以她走到窗前……把刀远远地抛到海里。
In the morning the prince ordered his servants to search high and low but no sign of the Little Mermaid was ever found. The prince was very sad and would often sit on the beach late at night missing his little friend. And sometimes he would look at the bubbles on the water shining in the moonlight and almost think he saw her face.
第二天早晨，王子命令他的仆人到处寻找，但是没有找到小人鱼的影子。王子很伤心，经常在深夜坐在沙滩上思念他的小朋友。有时他看着月光下水面上闪闪发光的水泡，几乎以为自己看到了她的脸。
Synopsis
- synopsis /sɪˈnɒpsɪs/ n. 概要，大纲
Anne-Marie Duff reads an adaptation of 'The Little Mermaid' by Hans Christian Andersen.
The Sea King has six mermaid daughters. The youngest is the most beautiful and has the best singing voice. On her fifteenth birthday, the Little Mermaid is allowed to make her first trip to the surface of the sea. She watches a party taking place on a boat and falls in love with the handsome prince she sees there. A storm comes, the boat is wrecked and the prince seems sure to drown. The Little Mermaid rescues him and leaves him on a nearby beach, where he is found by a girl who fetches help.
The Little Mermaid wishes to become human so that she can see the prince again, even though the life of a human is much shorter than that of a mermaid. She visits a sea witch who provides a potion that will give her legs but at the cost of her beautiful singing voice. Furthermore, every step she takes on her new legs will cause great pain, and should the prince marry someone else, the mermaid will disappear becoming bubbles on the sea surface.
Nonetheless, the Little Mermaid takes the potion and when found on the beach is taken to the palace. The prince enjoys her company but will not marry her as he is waiting to find the girl who rescued him on the beach years before. This girl turns out to be a princess from a neighbouring kingdom.
On the day of the wedding the Little Mermaid’s sisters appear and give her a knife that they have brought from the sea witch. The mermaid must kill the prince with the knife and allow his blood to drip on her feet. Then she will regain her tail and her singing voice and her painful legs will disappear. But the Little Mermaid cannot bring herself to kill the prince and throws the knife away and disappears. Later, the prince imagines he can see her face when looking at bubbles on the sea.
Download the transcript of The Little Mermaid (pdf)
Curriculum guidance
Tales of Hans Christian Andersen can be used to target a range of Reading and Writing objectives from the KS2 National Curriculum programme of study for English across Y3 to Y6 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland and Second Level of the Curriculum for Excellence in Scotland. Specific objectives include increasing pupils’ familiarity with a range of texts ‘including fairy stories’ and ’traditional stories’.
Pupils have the opportunity to listen to and read a selection of Andersen’s stories - especially adapted for the age group - and respond through a range of speaking and writing activities. Full details of curriculum links and follow up activities are included in the Teachers’ Notes.
Some of Hans Christian Andersen's tales have a dark and pessimistic theme. This means that careful selection of texts is required to ensure age-appropriateness. Please see the teachers' notes below for full synopses and suggestions for use in the classroom.
Download the Teachers' Notes for Tales of Hans Christian Andersen (pdf)
Background
- The Little Mermaid was first published in 1837 and translated into English in 1872.
- The best-known film adaptation is the Disney version from 1989, featuring songs such as ‘Part of your world’ and ‘Under the sea’.
- The most famous and popular tourist attraction in Denmark is a statue - ‘The little mermaid’ - set on Copenhagen’s waterfront.
Reading / listening comprehension
- Compare the benefits and drawbacks to the Little Mermaid of becoming human – what do you think you might have done in her situation...and why?
- The mermaid cannot speak to the prince to tell him how it was she that rescued him
- in what other ways might she have been able to convey this message to him? Why do you think she does not use these other ways to communicate?
- Discuss the ending of the story. Why might Andersen have created an unhappy ending in which the Little Mermaid has sacrificed her life for that of the Prince?
- How could the ending be changed to make it happier? Would this make it a better story?
- What are the motives for the sea witch for taking the mermaid’s voice?
- Compare and contrast this version with other versions of the story you might have seen or heard. How does the story differ? Why do you think the other versions have these differences?
translate by Jean Hersholt
Far out in the ocean the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest cornflower, and as clear as the purest glass. But it is very deep too. It goes down deeper than any anchor rope will go, and many, many steeples would have to be stacked one on top of another to reach from the bottom to the surface of the sea. It is down there that the sea folk live.
Now don't suppose that there are only bare white sands at the bottom of the sea. No indeed! The most marvelous trees and flowers grow down there, with such pliant stalks and leaves that the least stir in the water makes them move about as though they were alive. All sorts of fish, large and small, dart among the branches, just as birds flit through the trees up here. From the deepest spot in the ocean rises the palace of the sea king. Its walls are made of coral and its high pointed windows of the clearest amber, but the roof is made of mussel shells that open and shut with the tide. This is a wonderful sight to see, for every shell holds glistening pearls, any one of which would be the pride of a queen's crown.
The sea king down there had been a widower for years, and his old mother kept house for him. She was a clever woman, but very proud of her noble birth. Therefore she flaunted twelve oysters on her tail while the other ladies of the court were only allowed to wear six. Except for this she was an altogether praiseworthy person, particularly so because she was extremely fond of her granddaughters, the little sea princesses. They were six lovely girls, but the youngest was the most beautiful of them all. Her skin was as soft and tender as a rose petal, and her eyes were as blue as the deep sea, but like all the others she had no feet. Her body ended in a fish tail.
The whole day long they used to play in the palace, down in the great halls where live flowers grew on the walls. Whenever the high amber windows were thrown open the fish would swim in, just as swallows dart into our rooms when we open the windows. But these fish, now, would swim right up to the little princesses to eat out of their hands and let themselves be petted.
Outside the palace was a big garden, with flaming red and deep-blue trees. Their fruit glittered like gold, and their blossoms flamed like fire on their constantly waving stalks. The soil was very fine sand indeed, but as blue as burning brimstone. A strange blue veil lay over everything down there. You would have thought yourself aloft in the air with only the blue sky above and beneath you, rather than down at the bottom of the sea. When there was a dead calm, you could just see the sun, like a scarlet flower with light streaming from its calyx.
Each little princess had her own small garden plot, where she could dig and plant whatever she liked. One of them made her little flower bed in the shape of a whale, another thought it neater to shape hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest of them made hers as round as the sun, and there she grew only flowers which were as red as the sun itself. She was an unusual child, quiet and wistful, and when her sisters decorated their gardens with all kinds of odd things they had found in sunken ships, she would allow nothing in hers except flowers as red as the sun, and a pretty marble statue. This figure of a handsome boy, carved in pure white marble, had sunk down to the bottom of the sea from some ship that was wrecked. Beside the statue she planted a rose-colored weeping willow tree, which thrived so well that its graceful branches shaded the statue and hung down to the blue sand, where their shadows took on a violet tint, and swayed as the branches swayed. It looked as if the roots and the tips of the branches were kissing each other in play.
Nothing gave the youngest princess such pleasure as to hear about the world of human beings up above them. Her old grandmother had to tell her all she knew about ships and cities, and of people and animals. What seemed nicest of all to her was that up on land the flowers were fragrant, for those at the bottom of the sea had no scent. And she thought it was nice that the woods were green, and that the fish you saw among their branches could sing so loud and sweet that it was delightful to hear them. Her grandmother had to call the little birds "fish," or the princess would not have known what she was talking about, for she had never seen a bird.
"When you get to be fifteen," her grandmother said, "you will be allowed to rise up out of the ocean and sit on the rocks in the moonlight, to watch the great ships sailing by. You will see woods and towns, too."
Next year one of her sisters would be fifteen, but the others - well, since each was a whole year older than the next the youngest still had five long years to wait until she could rise up from the water and see what our world was like. But each sister promised to tell the others about all that she saw, and what she found most marvelous on her first day. Their grandmother had not told them half enough, and there were so many thing that they longed to know about.
The most eager of them all was the youngest, the very one who was so quiet and wistful. Many a night she stood by her open window and looked up through the dark blue water where the fish waved their fins and tails. She could just see the moon and stars. To be sure, their light was quite dim, but looked at through the water they seemed much bigger than they appear to us. Whenever a cloud-like shadow swept across them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming overhead, or a ship with many human beings aboard it. Little did they dream that a pretty young mermaid was down below, stretching her white arms up toward the keel of their ship.
The eldest princess had her fifteenth birthday, so now she received permission to rise up out of the water. When she got back she had a hundred things to tell her sisters about, but the most marvelous thing of all, she said, was to lie on a sand bar in the moonlight, when the sea was calm, and to gaze at the large city on the shore, where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars; to listen to music; to hear the chatter and clamor of carriages and people; to see so many church towers and spires; and to hear the ringing bells. Because she could not enter the city, that was just what she most dearly longed to do.
Oh, how intently the youngest sister listened. After this, whenever she stood at her open window at night and looked up through the dark blue waters, she thought of that great city with all of its clatter and clamor, and even fancied that in these depths she could hear the church bells ring.
The next year, her second sister had permission to rise up to the surface and swim wherever she pleased. She came up just at sunset, and she said that this spectacle was the most marvelous sight she had ever seen. The heavens had a golden glow, and as for the clouds - she could not find words to describe their beauty. Splashed with red and tinted with violet, they sailed over her head. But much faster than the sailing clouds were wild swans in a flock. Like a long white veil trailing above the sea, they flew toward the setting sun. She too swam toward it, but down it went, and all the rose-colored glow faded from the sea and sky.
The following year, her third sister ascended, and as she was the boldest of them all she swam up a broad river that flowed into the ocean. She saw gloriously green, vine-colored hills. Palaces and manor houses could be glimpsed through the splendid woods. She heard all the birds sing, and the sun shone so brightly that often she had to dive under the water to cool her burning face. In a small cove she found a whole school of mortal children, paddling about in the water quite naked. She wanted to play with them, but they took fright and ran away. Then along came a little black animal - it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before. It barked at her so ferociously that she took fright herself, and fled to the open sea. But never could she forget the splendid woods, the green hills, and the nice children who could swim in the water although they didn't wear fish tails.
The fourth sister was not so venturesome. She stayed far out among the rough waves, which she said was a marvelous place. You could see all around you for miles and miles, and the heavens up above you were like a vast dome of glass. She had seen ships, but they were so far away that they looked like sea gulls. Playful dolphins had turned somersaults, and monstrous whales had spouted water through their nostrils so that it looked as if hundreds of fountains were playing all around them.
Now the fifth sister had her turn. Her birthday came in the wintertime, so she saw things that none of the others had seen. The sea was a deep green color, and enormous icebergs drifted about. Each one glistened like a pearl, she said, but they were more lofty than any church steeple built by man. They assumed the most fantastic shapes, and sparkled like diamonds. She had seated herself on the largest one, and all the ships that came sailing by sped away as soon as the frightened sailors saw her there with her long hair blowing in the wind.
In the late evening clouds filled the sky. Thunder cracked and lightning darted across the heavens. Black waves lifted those great bergs of ice on high, where they flashed when the lightning struck.
On all the ships the sails were reefed and there was fear and trembling. But quietly she sat there, upon her drifting iceberg, and watched the blue forked lightning strike the sea.
Each of the sisters took delight in the lovely new sights when she first rose up to the surface of the sea. But when they became grown-up girls, who were allowed to go wherever they liked, they became indifferent to it. They would become homesick, and in a month they said that there was no place like the bottom of the sea, where they felt so completely at home.
On many an evening the older sisters would rise to the surface, arm in arm, all five in a row. They had beautiful voices, more charming than those of any mortal beings. When a storm was brewing, and they anticipated a shipwreck, they would swim before the ship and sing most seductively of how beautiful it was at the bottom of the ocean, trying to overcome the prejudice that the sailors had against coming down to them. But people could not understand their song, and mistook it for the voice of the storm. Nor was it for them to see the glories of the deep. When their ship went down they were drowned, and it was as dead men that they reached the sea king's palace.
On the evenings when the mermaids rose through the water like this, arm in arm, their youngest sister stayed behind all alone, looking after them and wanting to weep. But a mermaid has no tears, and therefore she suffers so much more.
"Oh, how I do wish I were fifteen!" she said. "I know I shall love that world up there and all the people who live in it."
And at last she too came to be fifteen.
"Now I'll have you off my hands," said her grandmother, the old queen dowager. "Come, let me adorn you like your sisters." In the little maid's hair she put a wreath of white lilies, each petal of which was formed from half of a pearl. And the old queen let eight big oysters fasten themselves to the princess's tail, as a sign of her high rank.
"But that hurts!" said the little mermaid.
"You must put up with a good deal to keep up appearances," her grandmother told her.
Oh, how gladly she would have shaken off all these decorations, and laid aside the cumbersome wreath! The red flowers in her garden were much more becoming to her, but she didn't dare to make any changes. "Good-by," she said, and up she went through the water, as light and as sparkling as a bubble.
The sun had just gone down when her head rose above the surface, but the clouds still shone like gold and roses, and in the delicately tinted sky sparkled the clear gleam of the evening star. The air was mild and fresh and the sea unruffled. A great three-master lay in view with only one of all its sails set, for there was not even the whisper of a breeze, and the sailors idled about in the rigging and on the yards. There was music and singing on the ship, and as night came on they lighted hundreds of such brightly colored lanterns that one might have thought the flags of all nations were swinging in the air.
The little mermaid swam right up to the window of the main cabin, and each time she rose with the swell she could peep in through the clear glass panes at the crowd of brilliantly dressed people within. The handsomest of them all was a young Prince with big dark eyes. He could not be more than sixteen years old. It was his birthday and that was the reason for all the celebration. Up on deck the sailors were dancing, and when the Prince appeared among them a hundred or more rockets flew through the air, making it as bright as day. These startled the little mermaid so badly that she ducked under the water. But she soon peeped up again, and then it seemed as if all the stars in the sky were falling around her. Never had she seen such fireworks. Great suns spun around, splendid fire-fish floated through the blue air, and all these things were mirrored in the crystal clear sea. It was so brilliantly bright that you could see every little rope of the ship, and the people could be seen distinctly. Oh, how handsome the young Prince was! He laughed, and he smiled and shook people by the hand, while the music rang out in the perfect evening.
It got very late, but the little mermaid could not take her eyes off the ship and the handsome Prince. The brightly colored lanterns were put out, no more rockets flew through the air, and no more cannon boomed. But there was a mutter and rumble deep down in the sea, and the swell kept bouncing her up so high that she could look into the cabin.
Now the ship began to sail. Canvas after canvas was spread in the wind, the waves rose high, great clouds gathered, and lightning flashed in the distance. Ah, they were in for a terrible storm, and the mariners made haste to reef the sails. The tall ship pitched and rolled as it sped through the angry sea. The waves rose up like towering black mountains, as if they would break over the masthead, but the swan-like ship plunged into the valleys between such waves, and emerged to ride their lofty heights. To the little mermaid this seemed good sport, but to the sailors it was nothing of the sort. The ship creaked and labored, thick timbers gave way under the heavy blows, waves broke over the ship, the mainmast snapped in two like a reed, the ship listed over on its side, and water burst into the hold.
Now the little mermaid saw that people were in peril, and that she herself must take care to avoid the beams and wreckage tossed about by the sea. One moment it would be black as pitch, and she couldn't see a thing. Next moment the lightning would flash so brightly that she could distinguish every soul on board. Everyone was looking out for himself as best he could. She watched closely for the young Prince, and when the ship split in two she saw him sink down in the sea. At first she was overjoyed that he would be with her, but then she recalled that human people could not live under the water, and he could only visit her father's palace as a dead man. No, he should not die! So she swam in among all the floating planks and beams, completely forgetting that they might crush her. She dived through the waves and rode their crests, until at length she reached the young Prince, who was no longer able to swim in that raging sea. His arms and legs were exhausted, his beautiful eyes were closing, and he would have died if the little mermaid had not come to help him. She held his head above water, and let the waves take them wherever the waves went.
At daybreak, when the storm was over, not a trace of the ship was in view. The sun rose out of the waters, red and bright, and its beams seemed to bring the glow of life back to the cheeks of the Prince, but his eyes remained closed. The mermaid kissed his high and shapely forehead. As she stroked his wet hair in place, it seemed to her that he looked like that marble statue in her little garden. She kissed him again and hoped that he would live.
She saw dry land rise before her in high blue mountains, topped with snow as glistening white as if a flock of swans were resting there. Down by the shore were splendid green woods, and in the foreground stood a church, or perhaps a convent; she didn't know which, but anyway it was a building. Orange and lemon trees grew in its garden, and tall palm trees grew beside the gateway. Here the sea formed a little harbor, quite calm and very deep. Fine white sand had been washed up below the cliffs. She swam there with the handsome Prince, and stretched him out on the sand, taking special care to pillow his head up high in the warm sunlight.
The bells began to ring in the great white building, and a number of young girls came out into the garden. The little mermaid swam away behind some tall rocks that stuck out of the water. She covered her hair and her shoulders with foam so that no one could see her tiny face, and then she watched to see who would find the poor Prince.
In a little while one of the young girls came upon him. She seemed frightened, but only for a minute; then she called more people. The mermaid watched the Prince regain consciousness, and smile at everyone around him. But he did not smile at her, for he did not even know that she had saved him. She felt very unhappy, and when they led him away to the big building she dived sadly down into the water and returned to her father's palace.
She had always been quiet and wistful, and now she became much more so. Her sisters asked her what she had seen on her first visit up to the surface, but she would not tell them a thing.
Many evenings and many mornings she revisited the spot where she had left the Prince. She saw the fruit in the garden ripened and harvested, and she saw the snow on the high mountain melted away, but she did not see the Prince, so each time she came home sadder than she had left. It was her one consolation to sit in her little garden and throw her arms about the beautiful marble statue that looked so much like the Prince. But she took no care of her flowers now. They overgrew the paths until the place was a wilderness, and their long stalks and leaves became so entangled in the branches of the tree that it cast a gloomy shade.
Finally she couldn't bear it any longer. She told her secret to one of her sisters. Immediately all the other sisters heard about it. No one else knew, except a few more mermaids who told no one - except their most intimate friends. One of these friends knew who the Prince was. She too had seen the birthday celebration on the ship. She knew where he came from and where his kingdom was.
"Come, little sister!" said the other princesses. Arm in arm, they rose from the water in a long row, right in front of where they knew the Prince's palace stood. It was built of pale, glistening, golden stone with great marble staircases, one of which led down to the sea. Magnificent gilt domes rose above the roof, and between the pillars all around the building were marble statues that looked most lifelike. Through the clear glass of the lofty windows one could see into the splendid halls, with their costly silk hangings and tapestries, and walls covered with paintings that were delightful to behold. In the center of the main hall a large fountain played its columns of spray up to the glass-domed roof, through which the sun shone down on the water and upon the lovely plants that grew in the big basin.
Now that she knew where he lived, many an evening and many a night she spent there in the sea. She swam much closer to shore than any of her sisters would dare venture, and she even went far up a narrow stream, under the splendid marble balcony that cast its long shadow in the water. Here she used to sit and watch the young Prince when he thought himself quite alone in the bright moonlight.
On many evenings she saw him sail out in his fine boat, with music playing and flags a-flutter. She would peep out through the green rushes, and if the wind blew her long silver veil, anyone who saw it mistook it for a swan spreading its wings.
On many nights she saw the fishermen come out to sea with their torches, and heard them tell about how kind the young Prince was. This made her proud to think that it was she who had saved his life when he was buffeted about, half dead among the waves. And she thought of how softly his head had rested on her breast, and how tenderly she had kissed him, though he knew nothing of all this nor could he even dream of it.
Increasingly she grew to like human beings, and more and more she longed to live among them. Their world seemed so much wider than her own, for they could skim over the sea in ships, and mount up into the lofty peaks high over the clouds, and their lands stretched out in woods and fields farther than the eye could see. There was so much she wanted to know. Her sisters could not answer all her questions, so she asked her old grandmother, who knew about the "upper world," which was what she said was the right name for the countries above the sea.
"If men aren't drowned," the little mermaid asked, "do they live on forever? Don't they die, as we do down here in the sea?"
"Yes," the old lady said, "they too must die, and their lifetimes are even shorter than ours. We can live to be three hundred years old, but when we perish we turn into mere foam on the sea, and haven't even a grave down here among our dear ones. We have no immortal soul, no life hereafter. We are like the green seaweed - once cut down, it never grows again. Human beings, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, long after their bodies have turned to clay. It rises through thin air, up to the shining stars. Just as we rise through the water to see the lands on earth, so men rise up to beautiful places unknown, which we shall never see."
"Why weren't we given an immortal soul?" the little mermaid sadly asked. "I would gladly give up my three hundred years if I could be a human being only for a day, and later share in that heavenly realm."
"You must not think about that," said the old lady. "We fare much more happily and are much better off than the folk up there."
"Then I must also die and float as foam upon the sea, not hearing the music of the waves, and seeing neither the beautiful flowers nor the red sun! Can't I do anything at all to win an immortal soul?"
"No," her grandmother answered, "not unless a human being loved you so much that you meant more to him than his father and mother. If his every thought and his whole heart cleaved to you so that he would let a priest join his right hand to yours and would promise to be faithful here and throughout all eternity, then his soul would dwell in your body, and you would share in the happiness of mankind. He would give you a soul and yet keep his own. But that can never come to pass. The very thing that is your greatest beauty here in the sea - your fish tail - would be considered ugly on land. They have such poor taste that to be thought beautiful there you have to have two awkward props which they call legs."
The little mermaid sighed and looked unhappily at her fish tail.
"Come, let us be gay!" the old lady said. "Let us leap and bound throughout the three hundred years that we have to live. Surely that is time and to spare, and afterwards we shall be glad enough to rest in our graves. - We are holding a court ball this evening."
This was a much more glorious affair than is ever to be seen on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the great ballroom were made of massive but transparent glass. Many hundreds of huge rose-red and grass-green shells stood on each side in rows, with the blue flames that burned in each shell illuminating the whole room and shining through the walls so clearly that it was quite bright in the sea outside. You could see the countless fish, great and small, swimming toward the glass walls. On some of them the scales gleamed purplish-red, while others were silver and gold. Across the floor of the hall ran a wide stream of water, and upon this the mermaids and mermen danced to their own entrancing songs. Such beautiful voices are not to be heard among the people who live on land. The little mermaid sang more sweetly than anyone else, and everyone applauded her. For a moment her heart was happy, because she knew she had the loveliest voice of all, in the sea or on the land. But her thoughts soon strayed to the world up above. She could not forget the charming Prince, nor her sorrow that she did not have an immortal soul like his. Therefore she stole out of her father's palace and, while everything there was song and gladness, she sat sadly in her own little garden.
Then she heard a bugle call through the water, and she thought, "That must mean he is sailing up there, he whom I love more than my father or mother, he of whom I am always thinking, and in whose hands I would so willingly trust my lifelong happiness. I dare do anything to win him and to gain an immortal soul. While my sisters are dancing here, in my father's palace, I shall visit the sea witch of whom I have always been so afraid. Perhaps she will be able to advise me and help me."
The little mermaid set out from her garden toward the whirlpools that raged in front of the witch's dwelling. She had never gone that way before. No flowers grew there, nor any seaweed. Bare and gray, the sands extended to the whirlpools, where like roaring mill wheels the waters whirled and snatched everything within their reach down to the bottom of the sea. Between these tumultuous whirlpools she had to thread her way to reach the witch's waters, and then for a long stretch the only trail lay through a hot seething mire, which the witch called her peat marsh. Beyond it her house lay in the middle of a weird forest, where all the trees and shrubs were polyps, half animal and half plant. They looked like hundred-headed snakes growing out of the soil. All their branches were long, slimy arms, with fingers like wriggling worms. They squirmed, joint by joint, from their roots to their outermost tentacles, and whatever they could lay hold of they twined around and never let go. The little mermaid was terrified, and stopped at the edge of the forest. Her heart thumped with fear and she nearly turned back, but then she remembered the Prince and the souls that men have, and she summoned her courage. She bound her long flowing locks closely about her head so that the polyps could not catch hold of them, folded her arms across her breast, and darted through the water like a fish, in among the slimy polyps that stretched out their writhing arms and fingers to seize her. She saw that every one of them held something that it had caught with its hundreds of little tentacles, and to which it clung as with strong hoops of steel. The white bones of men who had perished at sea and sunk to these depths could be seen in the polyps' arms. Ships' rudders, and seamen's chests, and the skeletons of land animals had also fallen into their clutches, but the most ghastly sight of all was a little mermaid whom they had caught and strangled.
She reached a large muddy clearing in the forest, where big fat water snakes slithered about, showing their foul yellowish bellies. In the middle of this clearing was a house built of the bones of shipwrecked men, and there sat the sea witch, letting a toad eat out of her mouth just as we might feed sugar to a little canary bird. She called the ugly fat water snakes her little chickabiddies, and let them crawl and sprawl about on her spongy bosom.
"I know exactly what you want," said the sea witch. "It is very foolish of you, but just the same you shall have your way, for it will bring you to grief, my proud princess. You want to get rid of your fish tail and have two props instead, so that you can walk about like a human creature, and have the young Prince fall in love with you, and win him and an immortal soul besides." At this, the witch gave such a loud cackling laugh that the toad and the snakes were shaken to the ground, where they lay writhing.
"You are just in time," said the witch. "After the sun comes up tomorrow, a whole year would have to go by before I could be of any help to you. J shall compound you a draught, and before sunrise you must swim to the shore with it, seat yourself on dry land, and drink the draught down. Then your tail will divide and shrink until it becomes what the people on earth call a pair of shapely legs. But it will hurt; it will feel as if a sharp sword slashed through you. Everyone who sees you will say that you are the most graceful human being they have ever laid eyes on, for you will keep your gliding movement and no dancer will be able to tread as lightly as you. But every step you take will feel as if you were treading upon knife blades so sharp that blood must flow. I am willing to help you, but are you willing to suffer all this?"
"Yes," the little mermaid said in a trembling voice, as she thought of the Prince and of gaining a human soul.
"Remember!" said the witch. "Once you have taken a human form, you can never be a mermaid again. You can never come back through the waters to your sisters, or to your father's palace. And if you do not win the love of the Prince so completely that for your sake he forgets his father and mother, cleaves to you with his every thought and his whole heart, and lets the priest join your hands in marriage, then you will win no immortal soul. If he marries someone else, your heart will break on the very next morning, and you will become foam of the sea."
"I shall take that risk," said the little mermaid, but she turned as pale as death.
"Also, you will have to pay me," said the witch, "and it is no trifling price that I'm asking. You have the sweetest voice of anyone down here at the bottom of the sea, and while I don't doubt that you would like to captivate the Prince with it, you must give this voice to me. I will take the very best thing that you have, in return for my sovereign draught. I must pour my own blood in it to make the drink as sharp as a two-edged sword."
"But if you take my voice," said the little mermaid, "what will be left to me?"
"Your lovely form," the witch told her, "your gliding movements, and your eloquent eyes. With these you can easily enchant a human heart. Well, have you lost your courage? Stick out your little tongue and I shall cut it off. I'll have my price, and you shall have the potent draught."
"Go ahead," said the little mermaid.
The witch hung her caldron over the flames, to brew the draught. "Cleanliness is a good thing," she said, as she tied her snakes in a knot and scoured out the pot with them. Then she pricked herself in the chest and let her black blood splash into the caldron. Steam swirled up from it, in such ghastly shapes that anyone would have been terrified by them. The witch constantly threw new ingredients into the caldron, and it started to boil with a sound like that of a crocodile shedding tears. When the draught was ready at last, it looked as clear as the purest water.
"There's your draught," said the witch. And she cut off the tongue of the little mermaid, who now was dumb and could neither sing nor talk.
"If the polyps should pounce on you when you walk back through my wood," the witch said, "just spill a drop of this brew upon them and their tentacles will break in a thousand pieces." But there was no need of that, for the polyps curled up in terror as soon as they saw the bright draught. It glittered in the little mermaid's hand as if it were a shining star. So she soon traversed the forest, the marsh, and the place of raging whirlpools.
She could see her father's palace. The lights had been snuffed out in the great ballroom, and doubtless everyone in the palace was asleep, but she dared not go near them, now that she was stricken dumb and was leaving her home forever. Her heart felt as if it would break with grief. She tip-toed into the garden, took one flower from each of her sisters' little plots, blew a thousand kisses toward the palace, and then mounted up through the dark blue sea.
The sun had not yet risen when she saw the Prince's palace. As she climbed his splendid marble staircase, the moon was shining clear. The little mermaid swallowed the bitter, fiery draught, and it was as if a two-edged sword struck through her frail body. She swooned away, and lay there as if she were dead. When the sun rose over the sea she awoke and felt a flash of pain, but directly in front of her stood the handsome young Prince, gazing at her with his coal-black eyes. Lowering her gaze, she saw that her fish tail was gone, and that she had the loveliest pair of white legs any young maid could hope to have. But she was naked, so she clothed herself in her own long hair.
The Prince asked who she was, and how she came to be there. Her deep blue eyes looked at him tenderly but very sadly, for she could not speak. Then he took her hand and led her into his palace. Every footstep felt as if she were walking on the blades and points of sharp knives, just as the witch had foretold, but she gladly endured it. She moved as lightly as a bubble as she walked beside the Prince. He and all who saw her marveled at the grace of her gliding walk.
Once clad in the rich silk and muslin garments that were provided for her, she was the loveliest person in all the palace, though she was dumb and could neither sing nor speak. Beautiful slaves, attired in silk and cloth of gold, came to sing before the Prince and his royal parents. One of them sang more sweetly than all the others, and when the Prince smiled at her and clapped his hands, the little mermaid felt very unhappy, for she knew that she herself used to sing much more sweetly.
"Oh," she thought, "if he only knew that I parted with my voice forever so that I could be near him."
Graceful slaves now began to dance to the most wonderful music. Then the little mermaid lifted her shapely white arms, rose up on the tips of her toes, and skimmed over the floor. No one had ever danced so well. Each movement set off her beauty to better and better advantage, and her eyes spoke more directly to the heart than any of the singing slaves could do.
She charmed everyone, and especially the Prince, who called her his dear little foundling. She danced time and again, though every time she touched the floor she felt as if she were treading on sharp-edged steel. The Prince said he would keep her with him always, and that she was to have a velvet pillow to sleep on outside his door.
He had a page's suit made for her, so that she could go with him on horseback. They would ride through the sweet scented woods, where the green boughs brushed her shoulders, and where the little birds sang among the fluttering leaves.
She climbed up high mountains with the Prince, and though her tender feet bled so that all could see it, she only laughed and followed him on until they could see the clouds driving far below, like a flock of birds in flight to distant lands.
At home in the Prince's palace, while the others slept at night, she would go down the broad marble steps to cool her burning feet in the cold sea water, and then she would recall those who lived beneath the sea. One night her sisters came by, arm in arm, singing sadly as they breasted the waves. When she held out her hands toward them, they knew who she was, and told her how unhappy she had made them all. They came to see her every night after that, and once far, far out to sea, she saw her old grandmother, who had not been up to the surface this many a year. With her was the sea king, with his crown upon his head. They stretched out their hands to her, but they did not venture so near the land as her sisters had.
Day after day she became more dear to the Prince, who loved her as one would love a good little child, but he never thought of making her his Queen. Yet she had to be his wife or she would never have an immortal soul, and on the morning after his wedding she would turn into foam on the waves.
"Don't you love me best of all?" the little mermaid's eyes seemed to question him, when he took her in his arms and kissed her lovely forehead.
"Yes, you are most dear to me," said the Prince, "for you have the kindest heart. You love me more than anyone else does, and you look so much like a young girl I once saw but never shall find again. I was on a ship that was wrecked, and the waves cast me ashore near a holy temple, where many young girls performed the rituals. The youngest of them found me beside the sea and saved my life. Though I saw her no more than twice, she is the only person in all the world whom I could love. But you are so much like her that you almost replace the memory of her in my heart. She belongs to that holy temple, therefore it is my good fortune that I have you. We shall never part."
"Alas, he doesn't know it was I who saved his life," the little mermaid thought. "I carried him over the sea to the garden where the temple stands. I hid behind the foam and watched to see if anyone would come. I saw the pretty maid he loves better than me." A sigh was the only sign of her deep distress, for a mermaid cannot cry. "He says that the other maid belongs to the holy temple. She will never come out into the world, so they will never see each other again. It is I who will care for him, love him, and give all my life to him."
Now rumors arose that the Prince was to wed the beautiful daughter of a neighboring King, and that it was for this reason he was having such a superb ship made ready to sail. The rumor ran that the Prince's real interest in visiting the neighboring kingdom was to see the King's daughter, and that he was to travel with a lordly retinue. The little mermaid shook her head and smiled, for she knew the Prince's thoughts far better than anyone else did.
"I am forced to make this journey," he told her. "I must visit the beautiful Princess, for this is my parents' wish, but they would not have me bring her home as my bride against my own will, and I can never love her. She does not resemble the lovely maiden in the temple, as you do, and if I were to choose a bride, I would sooner choose you, my dear mute foundling with those telling eyes of yours." And he kissed her on the mouth, fingered her long hair, and laid his head against her heart so that she came to dream of mortal happiness and an immortal soul.
"I trust you aren't afraid of the sea, my silent child ' he said, as they went on board the magnificent vessel that was to carry them to the land of the neighboring King. And he told her stories of storms, of ships becalmed, of strange deep-sea fish, and of the wonders that divers have seen. She smiled at such stories, for no one knew about the bottom of the sea as well as she did.
In the clear moonlight, when everyone except the man at the helm was asleep, she sat on the side of the ship gazing down through the transparent water, and fancied she could catch glimpses of her father's palace. On the topmost tower stood her old grandmother, wearing her silver crown and looking up at the keel of the ship through the rushing waves. Then her sisters rose to the surface, looked at her sadly, and wrung their white hands. She smiled and waved, trying to let them know that all went well and that she was happy. But along came the cabin boy, and her sisters dived out of sight so quickly that the boy supposed the flash of white he had seen was merely foam on the sea.
Next morning the ship came in to the harbor of the neighboring King's glorious city. All the church bells chimed, and trumpets were sounded from all the high towers, while the soldiers lined up with flying banners and glittering bayonets. Every day had a new festivity, as one ball or levee followed another, but the Princess was still to appear. They said she was being brought up in some far-away sacred temple, where she was learning every royal virtue. But she came at last.
The little mermaid was curious to see how beautiful this Princess was, and she had to grant that a more exquisite figure she had never seen. The Princess's skin was clear and fair, and behind the long, dark lashes her deep blue eyes were smiling and devoted.
"It was you!" the Prince cried. "You are the one who saved me when I lay like a dead man beside the sea." He clasped the blushing bride of his choice in his arms. "Oh, I am happier than a man should be!" he told his little mermaid. "My fondest dream - that which I never dared to hope - has come true. You will share in my great joy, for you love me more than anyone does."
The little mermaid kissed his hand and felt that her heart was beginning to break. For the morning after his wedding day would see her dead and turned to watery foam.
All the church bells rang out, and heralds rode through the streets to announce the wedding. Upon every altar sweet-scented oils were burned in costly silver lamps. The priests swung their censers, the bride and the bridegroom joined their hands, and the bishop blessed their marriage. The little mermaid, clothed in silk and cloth of gold, held the bride's train, but she was deaf to the wedding march and blind to the holy ritual. Her thought turned on her last night upon earth, and on all she had lost in this world.
That same evening, the bride and bridegroom went aboard the ship. Cannon thundered and banners waved. On the deck of the ship a royal pavilion of purple and gold was set up, and furnished with luxurious cushions. Here the wedded couple were to sleep on that calm, clear night. The sails swelled in the breeze, and the ship glided so lightly that it scarcely seemed to move over the quiet sea. All nightfall brightly colored lanterns were lighted, and the mariners merrily danced on the deck. The little mermaid could not forget that first time she rose from the depths of the sea and looked on at such pomp and happiness. Light as a swallow pursued by his enemies, she joined in the whirling dance. Everyone cheered her, for never had she danced so wonderfully. Her tender feet felt as if they were pierced by daggers, but she did not feel it. Her heart suffered far greater pain. She knew that this was the last evening that she ever would see him for whom she had forsaken her home and family, for whom she had sacrificed her lovely voice and suffered such constant torment, while he knew nothing of all these things. It was the last night that she would breathe the same air with him, or look upon deep waters or the star fields of the blue sky. A never-ending night, without thought and without dreams, awaited her who had no soul and could not get one. The merrymaking lasted long after midnight, yet she laughed and danced on despite the thought of death she carried in her heart. The Prince kissed his beautiful bride and she toyed with his coal-black hair. Hand in hand, they went to rest in the magnificent pavilion.
A hush came over the ship. Only the helmsman remained on deck as the little mermaid leaned her white arms on the bulwarks and looked to the east to see the first red hint of daybreak, for she knew that the first flash of the sun would strike her dead. Then she saw her sisters rise up among the waves. They were as pale as she, and there was no sign of their lovely long hair that the breezes used to blow. It had all been cut off.
'We have given our hair to the witch," they said, "so that she would send you help, and save you from death tonight. She gave us a knife. Here it is. See the sharp blade! Before the sun rises, you must strike it into the Prince's heart, and when his warm blood bathes your feet they will grow together and become a fish tail. Then you will be a mermaid again, able to come back to us in the sea, and live out your three hundred years before you die and turn into dead salt sea foam. Make haste! He or you must die before sunrise. Our old grandmother is so grief-stricken that her white hair is falling fast, just as ours did under the witch's scissors. Kill the Prince and come back to us. Hurry! Hurry! See that red glow in the heavens! In a few minutes the sun will rise and you must die." So saying, they gave a strange deep sigh and sank beneath the waves.
The little mermaid parted the purple curtains of the tent and saw the beautiful bride asleep with her head on the Prince's breast. The mermaid bent down and kissed his shapely forehead. She looked at the sky, fast reddening for the break of day. She looked at the sharp knife and again turned her eyes toward the Prince, who in his sleep murmured the name of his bride. His thoughts were all for her, and the knife blade trembled in the mermaid's hand. But then she flung it from her, far out over the waves. Where it fell the waves were red, as if bubbles of blood seethed in the water. With eyes already glazing she looked once more at the Prince, hurled herself over the bulwarks into the sea, and felt her body dissolve in foam.
The sun rose up from the waters. Its beams fell, warm and kindly, upon the chill sea foam, and the little mermaid did not feel the hand of death. In the bright sunlight overhead,she saw hundreds of fair ethereal beings. They were so transparent that through them she could see the ship's white sails and the red clouds in the sky. Their voices were sheer music, but so spirit-like that no human ear could detect the sound, just as no eye on earth could see their forms. Without wings, they floated as light as the air itself. The little mermaid discovered that she was shaped like them, and that she was gradually rising up out of the foam.
'Who are you, toward whom I rise?" she asked, and her voice sounded like those above her, so spiritual that no music on earth could match it.
"We are the daughters of the air," they answered. "A mermaid has no immortal soul, and can never get one unless she wins the love of a human being. Her eternal life must depend upon a power outside herself. The daughters of the air do not have an immortal soul either, but they can earn one by their good deeds. We fly to the south, where the hot poisonous air kills human beings unless we bring cool breezes. We carry the scent of flowers through the air, bringing freshness and healing balm wherever we go. When for three hundred years we have tried to do all the good that we can, we are given an immortal soul and a share in mankind's eternal bliss. You, poor little mermaid, have tried with your whole heart to do this too. Your suffering and your loyalty have raised you up into the realm of airy spirits, and now in the course of three hundred years you may earn by your good deeds a soul that will never die."
The little mermaid lifted her clear bright eyes toward God's sun, and for the first time her eyes were wet with tears.
On board the ship all was astir and lively again. She saw the Prince and his fair bride in search of her. Then they gazed sadly into the seething foam, as if they knew she had hurled herself into the waves. Unseen by them, she kissed the bride's forehead, smiled upon the Prince, and rose up with the other daughters of the air to the rose-red clouds that sailed on high.
"This is the way that we shall rise to the kingdom of God, after three hundred years have passed."
"We may get there even sooner," one spirit whispered. "Unseen, we fly into the homes of men, where there are children, and for every day on which we find a good child who pleases his parents and deserves their love, God shortens our days of trial. The child does not know when we float through his room, but when we smile at him in approval one year is taken from our three hundred. But if we see a naughty, mischievous child we must shed tears of sorrow, and each tear adds a day to the time of our trial."