英語小故事:壞孩子的故事

The Willful Child

Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

Once upon a time there was a child who was willful and did not do what his mother wanted. For this reason God was displeased with him and caused him to become ill, and no doctor could help him, and in a short time he lay on his deathbed.

He was lowered into a grave and covered with earth, but his little arm suddenly came forth and reached up, and it didn't help when they put it back in and put fresh earth over it, for the little arm always came out again. So the mother herself had to go to the grave and beat the little arm with a switch, and as soon as she had done that, it withdrew, and the child finally came to rest beneath the earth.

從前有個非常任性的小孩,她從不聽母親的話,上帝對此很不高興,讓她得了醫生誰也治不好她的病,很快她就踏上了黃泉之路。人們把她的屍體放入了墓穴,然後向她身上撒泥土,但突然她的一隻手臂伸了出來,向上舉著。人們把她的手臂又塞了進去,繼續撒泥土,但她的手臂又伸了出來。對此她母親也無計可施,只得走下墓穴,用棍子在那手臂上敲了一下,它這才縮了進去,這樣小女孩總算在地下安靜地長眠了