 |
|
She
jumped into the sea. She knew that her body was changing into water.
The sun came up into the sky. She could still see the ship and the
sky over her. She could hear the People of the Sky singing. She could
see them in the sky above her. Then she saw that she had a body like
theirs! She found herself going up and up out of the water and up
into the sky.
"Who are you?" she said. "Where are you taking me?"
"We are the children of the sky," was the answer. "We
do not have souls like the land people. But we do not die like sea
people. We can get souls by doing good to others. We bring rain and
flowers to dusty lands.We bring sleep to those who are ill and in
pain, and happiness to those who are sad. If we do good things for
three hundred years, we get a soul, and we can live for ever. You,
poor sea princess, are now one of us. You have gone away from the
sea because of your love for someone. You have had great pain and
sadness. Now you can bring happiness to others, and you can get a
soul."
The little sea princess put out her arms up to the sun. Then she
looked down at the ship.
All were awake on the ship. She saw the prince with his pretty young
wife. They were looking for her. They looked sadly down at the sea.
Did they know that she had jumped into it? No one could see her now.
She went down and kissed the prince, but he could not see her. Then
she went up and up into the sky.
"After three hundred years, we shall get our souls. Then we
shall live for ever in the beautiful place far, far up in the sky!"
said the children of the sky.
"We may do this sooner," said one of her sky sisters,
" We go into many houses where there are children. No one can
ever see us, but we are there. When we find a good child, a year is
taken from our three hundred years. But when we see a bad child, we
are sad because this adds a year to our time here."
（End）
|
|
她跃入海里，她觉得她的身躯在化为水。太阳升
起来，他仍可以看到船只和她上面的天空。她可以听
到天上的人在歌唱，看到他们在她上面的天空中。后
来她看到自己获得了她们的形体！她发现自己渐渐浮
出水面，向天空飞升。
“你们是谁？”她说，“你们把我带到哪儿去啊
？”
“我们是天空的女儿。”这是回答，“我们和陆
地上的人不同，我们没有灵魂。但我们和海洋里的人
也不一样，我们不会死去。我们通过为别人做好事而
获得一个灵魂。我们把雨露和鲜花带到尘世；我们给
生病的人和遭受痛苦的人事来睡眠；给忧愁的人带来
欢愉。我们做完三百年的好事，就会获得一个灵魂，
就能得到永生。你，可怜的海公主，现在是我们中的
一员了。因为你爱上了一个人而离开了海洋，你经受
过巨大折痛苦和悲伤。现在你可以为别人创造幸福，
你可以得到一个灵魂。”
小海公主向太阳伸出她的手臂，然后又注视着那
艘船。
在那条船上，人们都睡着了，她看见王子和他年
轻的妻子在寻找她。他们悲悼地望着大海。他们是否
知道她已经跳进大海中呢？现在谁也看不见她。她降
落下来，吻了吻王子，但他看不见她。然后她向上升
入天空去了。
“三百年以后，我们将获得灵魂，然后永远生活
在高高的天空中那个美丽的地方。“天空中的孩子们
说。
“我们也许不要等这么久就可以做到了，”一个
空中姐妹说，“我们飞入有孩子的很多屋子，谁也不
会看到我们，可我们就在那儿。当我们遇上一个好孩
子的时候，我们就可以从三百年中减去一年，但是我
们当我们看到一个坏孩子的时候，我们就很伤心，因
为要在三百年外加上一年。”
（完）
|
|
