1.The Hen and the Little Girl 母鸡和小女孩
In a country home, a mother hen and her cute chicks were living happily. A little girl came to visit the country home, but was very bored. One night, the girl went into the chicken house. As soon as she went in, there was disorder.
Here and there cries of the chickens could be heard. The father, who was inside, woke up.
"What's going on? Why are you bothering the chickens?" "Because I'm bored." "You have to sleep now, go inside."
The girl went into the chicken house, again, the next day. There was a racket again, as the chickens were frightened. The moon in the night sky was worried. This time, the little girl's father will not be forgiving. Finally, the sleeping father woke up. "Why are the chickens crying? By chance" The father was angry and came out to the yard.
"What's wrong with you? Is it okay to bother animals that can't talk? You need to be punished." When the little girl saw her father's angry face, she began to cry.
"It is true that I bothered the chickens, but I was bored yesterday. But today I went in to apologize to the chickens. I was going to hug the chickens."
When the father heard what his daughter said, a smile quickly
appeared on his face. "You are truly my daughter." The father praised his
daughter. He was proud of his daughter that knew how to apologize. The moon in the sky gave a big laugh, too.
2.The Mermaid Princess 人鱼公主
The Mermaid Princess
In the deep, sea palace, there lived a mermaid princess. Whenever she sang a song with her beautiful voice, everyone envied her. However, the mermaid princess wanted to go to the outside world.
"I would like to hear the beautiful sound of birds. "The king
promised her. "When you turn 15 years old, you can go and see the life above the sea." "Oh, I can't wait!
Finally, it was the mermaid princess' 15th birthday. She went up to the sea. The princess saw a great ship. And she saw a handsome prince standing on the ship. The princess fell in love with him at first sight. However, as thunder and lightning struck, the ship sank on its side. The prince lost his consciousness and fell deep into the sea. "Oh, no! The prince fell into the water. Let me hurry and save him."
The princess saved the prince and laid him on the sand. The princess took care of him all night. When the prince opened his eyes, the
mermaid princess hid from him. She thought he might get scared by her tail. Just then, a princess from a neighbor land came out to see the sea and she saw the prince.
The princess watched from a far the prince who always came out to the sea at night. The princess was very sad. She wanted to become a human so that she could be with the prince.
She asked the witch. "Okay, I will make you into a human, but you must give me your beautiful voice. If the prince marries someone else, you will become a water bubble. You must marry the prince."
On the sand, she drank the medicine that the witch had given her. With the big sudden pain, she turned into a human. Just then, the prince who came out to the sea saw the princess.
The prince took the princess who could not speak, to his palace.
Although she could not speak, she was happy to be living near the prince. The prince was going to be married to a princess from a neighbor land. "I will be marrying the princess that saved my life." 'I am the one that saved your life.' But, her voice could not be heard.
At night, the mermaid princess' older sisters came up to the sea. They gave the mermaid princess a knife and said, "If you stab the prince with this knife, you can be a mermaid again. If you don't, you will become a water bubble."
On the night of the wedding, the mermaid princess was going to stab the sleeping prince with the knife. But, she could not kill the loving prince. "It's best that I just turn into a water bubble. "When morning came, the mermaid turned into a water bubble and went up to heaven.
3.The Naked King 皇帝的新装
Long, long time ago, there lived a very fancy king. The king changed his clothes 12 times a day. He really liked to show off to his subjects. "My clothes are the best in the world."
One day, two tailors planned a trick. "Why don't we teach that stupid and extravagant king a lesson. He doesn't even worry about his starving people." "That's right! He thinks he's the best."
The two men went to see the king. "Oh, the world's most marvelous king! We have brought the most beautiful cloth in the whole world." "However, not everyone is able to see the cloth. Those that tell lies and have bad hearts are not able to see this fine cloth."
After the king heard those words, he became very interested. "Could there really be such a cloth? If I can make clothes out of those cloths, my clothes will be the best in the whole world. Hurry and show me the cloth." The king began to get more and more greedy.
The tailors pretended that the cloth was real, as they showed it to the king. The king and the fine-spoken subjects could not see anything before them. But, none of them could show that they could not see it. The king and his fine-spoken subjects just looked at each other. Then, the tailor quickly spoke in a arrogant manner. "Well, is there no honest man here? How can you look at this beautiful cloth and not praise it."
Among the subjects, one of them made a flattering comment out loud. "Wow! This is the first time that I have seen such a wonderful
cloth." All the subjects tried to be the first to praise the cloth. Then, the king was amazed with the beauty of the cloth, too.
The king gave the money and ordered them to make his clothes. For several days, the tailors pretended to be making the clothes. The king became worried and told one of his subjects to go and see how the clothes was coming along.
The subject could not say how much the clothes had been
completed. As hard as he looked, he could not see it. But, he could not say that he was unable to see it. Instead, he pretended to be amazed at how beautiful it was coming along.
A few days later, the tailors came back with the King's clothes. "Here you are, try on this clothes." The king was not able to honestly say that he could not see the clothes. He, too, pretended to look over it. One man said, "Your majesty, let’s go and show off this finest
clothes in the world." The subjects all agreed at the same time. "Yes, that is a good idea."
The king walked out to the street very proudly and walked with pride. All the people in the land came out to see the king's new clothes. They were all surprised, though.
Just then, a little girl shouted out, "Our king is naked!" Then everyone said, “He’s naked, he's naked!"
The king now realized the truth. However, with only his
undergarments on, he still walked in a dignified manner. Even though he was embarrassed, he could not stop walking. Why not? Because he was the king.
4.The Elf of the Rose 玫瑰小精灵
There once was a rose bush in full bloom in a big garden. An elf was living in the most beautiful rose in the garden, and she was so small that people could not see her. She had long blond hair to her toes and beautiful wings.
One day, it got dark before she got home. She had been dancing and flying around so she didn't have time to get back to the rose bush. Suddenly, the weather got cold, evening dew started to fall, and a strong
wind began to blow. She could not stay in the other flowers because they were all closed up.
"What am I going to do now? It's too cold." She got scared because she had never stayed outside at night. There was a twinkling light from the other side of the garden. "It's too cold, and I am scared. Maybe I should spend tonight there."
The elf flew to a pavilion on the other side of the garden in a hurry. But there were already two people in the pavilion. A beautiful young lady and a handsome man were praying that they would never be apart from each other. They were in love.
"But we must go far away from each other soon." "Your brother is sending me away because he does not like our marriage. Oh my bride, please wait for me until I come back to you!" She sobbed and nodded her head.
She pulled off a rose from the bush which was aside her and kissed it. Then she gave him the rose as a token of her love. At that moment, the rose opened up. The elf went into the rose secretly.
At that moment, a horrible looking man entered the pavillion. He was the brother of the young lady. "What? You want to marry my sister?" He drew his sword and cut the young man and buried him under a linden-tree.
"He is gone forever now, and he will forget my sister. How dare the poor little boy want to marry my sister? It is common to die during a trip, so nobody will suspect me of murdering him." The brother brushed up his clothes and disappeared.
The elf woke up and found she was in the middle of a dark forest. "Oh my! The forest is moving!" But it was not a forest. It was the hair of the young lady's brother. She shivered with fear and anger.
When they got in the house, the young lady from the garden was crying. The man looked at his sister and gave her a chilly smile, and went to bed. "Oh my lover, my dear fiance, please come back safely." She sobbed sadly and fell asleep.
The elf sat down quietly spreading her wings and told the young lady what she saw that day. "What I am trying to say now is not a dream. If you dig under the linden-tree in the garden, you will find your fiance. It is your brother who killed him."
The beautiful young lady woke up. She secretly went out of her room and dug under the linden-tree as the elf had said.
Her lover was lying in the ground, cold dead. She cried out sadly and killed herself right next to her fiance. After some time passed, a flower called, 'Jasmine' came into bloom at the place where the two lovers had died. The Jasmine had big white flowers on the branch and had a sweet smell.
Incidentally, the young lady's brother was walking down the road and he pulled off a branch of the jasmine and put it near his bedside. When night fell, two bees with poison stingers came out of the jasmine flowers and bit the brother's ears and mouth, and then they vanished.
The Ugly Duckling 丑小鸭
A mother duck was brooding on her eggs near the margin of a pond.
A flock of lovely baby ducks was soon born, making sweet peeping
sounds when the eggs were broken. But one egg remained unbroken. "It is strange. Why has this egg not broken?"
The mother duck continued her brooding. At last, the egg was broken and a baby duck was born. However that baby duck was very ugly compared to the other baby ducks.
The mother duck was worried, but still she took the baby ducks near the water and taught them how to swim. The ugly duckling also swam with his brothers and sisters, moving his legs eagerly. "It is lucky though. That baby swims well." Still his brothers pecked at the ugly duckling with their bills.
"How hideous this baby duck is. We don't want to see you. Go to a cat." His brothers gave a very hard time to the poor duckling. "Stop it, don't do that!" The mother duck sighed and said, "Ah! I wish that this baby could live happily at another place."
The baby duck heard what his mother said and dropped tears of sorrow saying, "Mom, I will leave. Good-bye." The ugly duckling left his nest beyond the pond.
When he entered the forest, other birds were frightened by the baby duck and ran away. "Why do they run away? Is it because I am so awful?" The baby duck became sadder and plodded along the field.
Near the water beside the field, two wild ducks were playing around. "Yah, what is that ugly duck? Let's make fun of him." The two wild ducks flew up in the air and threw stones at the baby duck.
"Bang! Bang!" At that time, a hunter shot his gun. The two wild ducks fell down dead to the ground. "Uh? What is this small bird?" The hunter took home the awkward little baby duck along with the two wild ducks. "Dad, what is this poor-looking bird?" "I took it with me in order to give it to you, my son. It was trembling with fear in the water." The
children gave a hard time to the baby duck by pulling its wings and tail. "That hurts! Ow!" The baby duck spilled a jug of milk while running away from the cruel hands of the children. The dishes on the table were also broken. The angry hunter sent out the baby duck with a flourish of
his broomstick. And so the after being cast out from the house of the hunter, the ugly duckling spent a long and cold winter alone.
Finally spring came. The baby duck had a good stretch and flew up in the air vigorously. "Uh! I am flying!"
Upon the lake, a flock of white and pretty swans were playing
around while swimming. "They are indeed pretty birds." The baby duck became sad. "Those birds may not like me as I am so ugly."
The baby duck tried to run away from the group of beautiful swans. "Hi! Where are you going? Come and play around with us!" The baby duck approached the swans hesitatingly. At that moment, the baby duck saw his own appearance reflected to the lake. There was one more beautiful swan gliding gracefully across the water.
The ugly duckling who overcame all suffering had finally become a beautiful swan. And so he lived happily ever after.
1.The Hen and the Little Girl 母鸡和小女孩
In a country home, a mother hen and her cute chicks were living happily. A little girl came to visit the country home, but was very bored. One night, the girl went into the chicken house. As soon as she went in, there was disorder.
Here and there cries of the chickens could be heard. The father, who was inside, woke up.
"What's going on? Why are you bothering the chickens?" "Because I'm bored." "You have to sleep now, go inside."
The girl went into the chicken house, again, the next day. There was a racket again, as the chickens were frightened. The moon in the night sky was worried. This time, the little girl's father will not be forgiving. Finally, the sleeping father woke up. "Why are the chickens crying? By chance" The father was angry and came out to the yard.
"What's wrong with you? Is it okay to bother animals that can't talk? You need to be punished." When the little girl saw her father's angry face, she began to cry.
"It is true that I bothered the chickens, but I was bored yesterday. But today I went in to apologize to the chickens. I was going to hug the chickens."
When the father heard what his daughter said, a smile quickly
appeared on his face. "You are truly my daughter." The father praised his
daughter. He was proud of his daughter that knew how to apologize. The moon in the sky gave a big laugh, too.
2.The Mermaid Princess 人鱼公主
The Mermaid Princess
In the deep, sea palace, there lived a mermaid princess. Whenever she sang a song with her beautiful voice, everyone envied her. However, the mermaid princess wanted to go to the outside world.
"I would like to hear the beautiful sound of birds. "The king
promised her. "When you turn 15 years old, you can go and see the life above the sea." "Oh, I can't wait!
Finally, it was the mermaid princess' 15th birthday. She went up to the sea. The princess saw a great ship. And she saw a handsome prince standing on the ship. The princess fell in love with him at first sight. However, as thunder and lightning struck, the ship sank on its side. The prince lost his consciousness and fell deep into the sea. "Oh, no! The prince fell into the water. Let me hurry and save him."
The princess saved the prince and laid him on the sand. The princess took care of him all night. When the prince opened his eyes, the
mermaid princess hid from him. She thought he might get scared by her tail. Just then, a princess from a neighbor land came out to see the sea and she saw the prince.
The princess watched from a far the prince who always came out to the sea at night. The princess was very sad. She wanted to become a human so that she could be with the prince.
She asked the witch. "Okay, I will make you into a human, but you must give me your beautiful voice. If the prince marries someone else, you will become a water bubble. You must marry the prince."
On the sand, she drank the medicine that the witch had given her. With the big sudden pain, she turned into a human. Just then, the prince who came out to the sea saw the princess.
The prince took the princess who could not speak, to his palace.
Although she could not speak, she was happy to be living near the prince. The prince was going to be married to a princess from a neighbor land. "I will be marrying the princess that saved my life." 'I am the one that saved your life.' But, her voice could not be heard.
At night, the mermaid princess' older sisters came up to the sea. They gave the mermaid princess a knife and said, "If you stab the prince with this knife, you can be a mermaid again. If you don't, you will become a water bubble."
On the night of the wedding, the mermaid princess was going to stab the sleeping prince with the knife. But, she could not kill the loving prince. "It's best that I just turn into a water bubble. "When morning came, the mermaid turned into a water bubble and went up to heaven.
3.The Naked King 皇帝的新装
Long, long time ago, there lived a very fancy king. The king changed his clothes 12 times a day. He really liked to show off to his subjects. "My clothes are the best in the world."
One day, two tailors planned a trick. "Why don't we teach that stupid and extravagant king a lesson. He doesn't even worry about his starving people." "That's right! He thinks he's the best."
The two men went to see the king. "Oh, the world's most marvelous king! We have brought the most beautiful cloth in the whole world." "However, not everyone is able to see the cloth. Those that tell lies and have bad hearts are not able to see this fine cloth."
After the king heard those words, he became very interested. "Could there really be such a cloth? If I can make clothes out of those cloths, my clothes will be the best in the whole world. Hurry and show me the cloth." The king began to get more and more greedy.
The tailors pretended that the cloth was real, as they showed it to the king. The king and the fine-spoken subjects could not see anything before them. But, none of them could show that they could not see it. The king and his fine-spoken subjects just looked at each other. Then, the tailor quickly spoke in a arrogant manner. "Well, is there no honest man here? How can you look at this beautiful cloth and not praise it."
Among the subjects, one of them made a flattering comment out loud. "Wow! This is the first time that I have seen such a wonderful
cloth." All the subjects tried to be the first to praise the cloth. Then, the king was amazed with the beauty of the cloth, too.
The king gave the money and ordered them to make his clothes. For several days, the tailors pretended to be making the clothes. The king became worried and told one of his subjects to go and see how the clothes was coming along.
The subject could not say how much the clothes had been
completed. As hard as he looked, he could not see it. But, he could not say that he was unable to see it. Instead, he pretended to be amazed at how beautiful it was coming along.
A few days later, the tailors came back with the King's clothes. "Here you are, try on this clothes." The king was not able to honestly say that he could not see the clothes. He, too, pretended to look over it. One man said, "Your majesty, let’s go and show off this finest
clothes in the world." The subjects all agreed at the same time. "Yes, that is a good idea."
The king walked out to the street very proudly and walked with pride. All the people in the land came out to see the king's new clothes. They were all surprised, though.
Just then, a little girl shouted out, "Our king is naked!" Then everyone said, “He’s naked, he's naked!"
The king now realized the truth. However, with only his
undergarments on, he still walked in a dignified manner. Even though he was embarrassed, he could not stop walking. Why not? Because he was the king.
4.The Elf of the Rose 玫瑰小精灵
There once was a rose bush in full bloom in a big garden. An elf was living in the most beautiful rose in the garden, and she was so small that people could not see her. She had long blond hair to her toes and beautiful wings.
One day, it got dark before she got home. She had been dancing and flying around so she didn't have time to get back to the rose bush. Suddenly, the weather got cold, evening dew started to fall, and a strong
wind began to blow. She could not stay in the other flowers because they were all closed up.
"What am I going to do now? It's too cold." She got scared because she had never stayed outside at night. There was a twinkling light from the other side of the garden. "It's too cold, and I am scared. Maybe I should spend tonight there."
The elf flew to a pavilion on the other side of the garden in a hurry. But there were already two people in the pavilion. A beautiful young lady and a handsome man were praying that they would never be apart from each other. They were in love.
"But we must go far away from each other soon." "Your brother is sending me away because he does not like our marriage. Oh my bride, please wait for me until I come back to you!" She sobbed and nodded her head.
She pulled off a rose from the bush which was aside her and kissed it. Then she gave him the rose as a token of her love. At that moment, the rose opened up. The elf went into the rose secretly.
At that moment, a horrible looking man entered the pavillion. He was the brother of the young lady. "What? You want to marry my sister?" He drew his sword and cut the young man and buried him under a linden-tree.
"He is gone forever now, and he will forget my sister. How dare the poor little boy want to marry my sister? It is common to die during a trip, so nobody will suspect me of murdering him." The brother brushed up his clothes and disappeared.
The elf woke up and found she was in the middle of a dark forest. "Oh my! The forest is moving!" But it was not a forest. It was the hair of the young lady's brother. She shivered with fear and anger.
When they got in the house, the young lady from the garden was crying. The man looked at his sister and gave her a chilly smile, and went to bed. "Oh my lover, my dear fiance, please come back safely." She sobbed sadly and fell asleep.
The elf sat down quietly spreading her wings and told the young lady what she saw that day. "What I am trying to say now is not a dream. If you dig under the linden-tree in the garden, you will find your fiance. It is your brother who killed him."
The beautiful young lady woke up. She secretly went out of her room and dug under the linden-tree as the elf had said.
Her lover was lying in the ground, cold dead. She cried out sadly and killed herself right next to her fiance. After some time passed, a flower called, 'Jasmine' came into bloom at the place where the two lovers had died. The Jasmine had big white flowers on the branch and had a sweet smell.
Incidentally, the young lady's brother was walking down the road and he pulled off a branch of the jasmine and put it near his bedside. When night fell, two bees with poison stingers came out of the jasmine flowers and bit the brother's ears and mouth, and then they vanished.
The Ugly Duckling 丑小鸭
A mother duck was brooding on her eggs near the margin of a pond.
A flock of lovely baby ducks was soon born, making sweet peeping
sounds when the eggs were broken. But one egg remained unbroken. "It is strange. Why has this egg not broken?"
The mother duck continued her brooding. At last, the egg was broken and a baby duck was born. However that baby duck was very ugly compared to the other baby ducks.
The mother duck was worried, but still she took the baby ducks near the water and taught them how to swim. The ugly duckling also swam with his brothers and sisters, moving his legs eagerly. "It is lucky though. That baby swims well." Still his brothers pecked at the ugly duckling with their bills.
"How hideous this baby duck is. We don't want to see you. Go to a cat." His brothers gave a very hard time to the poor duckling. "Stop it, don't do that!" The mother duck sighed and said, "Ah! I wish that this baby could live happily at another place."
The baby duck heard what his mother said and dropped tears of sorrow saying, "Mom, I will leave. Good-bye." The ugly duckling left his nest beyond the pond.
When he entered the forest, other birds were frightened by the baby duck and ran away. "Why do they run away? Is it because I am so awful?" The baby duck became sadder and plodded along the field.
Near the water beside the field, two wild ducks were playing around. "Yah, what is that ugly duck? Let's make fun of him." The two wild ducks flew up in the air and threw stones at the baby duck.
"Bang! Bang!" At that time, a hunter shot his gun. The two wild ducks fell down dead to the ground. "Uh? What is this small bird?" The hunter took home the awkward little baby duck along with the two wild ducks. "Dad, what is this poor-looking bird?" "I took it with me in order to give it to you, my son. It was trembling with fear in the water." The
children gave a hard time to the baby duck by pulling its wings and tail. "That hurts! Ow!" The baby duck spilled a jug of milk while running away from the cruel hands of the children. The dishes on the table were also broken. The angry hunter sent out the baby duck with a flourish of
his broomstick. And so the after being cast out from the house of the hunter, the ugly duckling spent a long and cold winter alone.
Finally spring came. The baby duck had a good stretch and flew up in the air vigorously. "Uh! I am flying!"
Upon the lake, a flock of white and pretty swans were playing
around while swimming. "They are indeed pretty birds." The baby duck became sad. "Those birds may not like me as I am so ugly."
The baby duck tried to run away from the group of beautiful swans. "Hi! Where are you going? Come and play around with us!" The baby duck approached the swans hesitatingly. At that moment, the baby duck saw his own appearance reflected to the lake. There was one more beautiful swan gliding gracefully across the water.
The ugly duckling who overcame all suffering had finally become a beautiful swan. And so he lived happily ever after.