Andersen in His Childhood

                                 童年时的安徒生

                                                         ■ 蔡丽 飞言 译注

    Andersen was born and brought up in a small town named Austen. His family was so poor that the local nobles didn’t allow their children to play with Andersen in order not to debase1 themselves. Therefore, Andersen had to spend his childhood by dreaming.

    When he was six years old, his mother sent him to Galestein, a school for boys only. Andersen had good performance in school, so his teachers loved him very much and often presented biscuits and flowers to him. There was only one girl—Sara in his school. She was very pretty with black eyes. Sara studied hard and performed well in school. Andersen liked playing with Sara and he often dreamed he was a noble and Sara a princess.

    Once a time, Andersen went home with Sara. He asked her, “What are you going to be when growing up?”

    “I wish to be a director of a farm, so the others on the farm must obey me!” Sara said, with her head held high.

    Andersen responded quickly, “How would you like to be a director! How boring it would be!”

    “But I think it will be good!” she said, blinking2 her eyes.

    Shaking his head, Andersen said, “How, you—a princess, would like to be a director? Let me tell you…”

    Andersen said in a secret way, “In fact, I am a noble. I just left the castle for the time being and I will return to it when I grow up. There is a big garden full of roses in the front of my castle! You are welcome to my castle with a beautiful and luxury3 cart, so that you could live a happy life in it!”

    At his words, Sara got a good hoo-hah, pointing at him, “You must be mad and joking!”

Sara told Andersen’s words to other children after she got home. The next day, a boy of a miller4 rushed to him and pulled his hair, shouting, “Morning, Duke! Where is your beautiful castle?” From then on, he was laughed at by more people because of this.

    In spite of that, Andersen didn’t give up his dream. He was still dreaming he was a brave noble, and that the stick in his hand was his fine horse. He dreamed that he looked for treasure on his fine horse and saved his beautiful princess—Sara from the flaming fire.

    But sometimes Andersen would dream himself a great hero and that he was interviewed even by the king because of his great contribution to the country! Sometimes, he would dream the little spirits dancing everywhere in the forest when strolling5 in the forest! And sometimes, he couldn’t help taking out the puppet6 to perform the puppet show according to his own imagination.

    Dream and imagination were the very things that Andersen liked doing most when he was a child. He made his own beautiful and colorful stories in dream and imagination.

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1. debase [di5beis] vt. 贬低

2. blinking [5bliNkiN] adj. 闪光的

3. luxury [5lQkFEri] n. 奢侈

4. miller [5milE] n. 磨坊主

5. stroll [strEul] v. 闲逛；漫步

6. puppet [5pQpit] n. 木偶

    安徒生出生在丹麦一个叫奥塞登的小城镇上。他家里很穷，所以当地的贵族们都不同意自己家的孩子与安徒生一块儿玩，以免降低身份。所以，安徒生的童年多是在自己的幻想中度过的。

    6岁的时候，母亲把安徒生送到了加尔斯坦男孩学校。因为安徒生成绩很好，所以老师非常喜欢他，经常把饼干和鲜花送给他。加尔斯坦男孩学校只有一个女生——萨拉。她长得非常漂亮，有一双黑色的眼睛。萨拉学习很努力，成绩很好。安徒生很喜欢同萨拉一起玩，还常常幻想自己是贵族，萨拉是美丽的公主。

    有一次，安徒生和萨拉一起回家，安徒生问萨拉：“长大之后，你想成为什么样的人呢？”

    萨拉高高地昂起头说：“长大后我一定要成为农场的女管事，我要让农场里的人都听我的！”

    安徒生听完后，马上说：“你怎么能当女管事啊！那多没意思啊！”

    “可是我觉得很不错啊！”萨拉眨着眼睛说。

    安徒生摇摇头说：“不行，公主怎么可以去做女管事呢？告诉你吧……”

    安徒生神秘地说：“其实，我是一个贵族，只是暂时离开了城堡，我的城堡前面有一个花园，里面种满了玫瑰花！等我长大了，我一定会回到城堡，那时候我就会用豪华的马车把你接到城堡里，让你在城堡里快乐地生活！”

    听了安徒生的话，萨拉哈哈大笑，指着安徒生说：“我看你一定是疯了!”

    回家后萨拉把安徒生的话告诉了别的孩子。第二天，一个磨坊主的儿子冲到安徒生面前，揪着他的头发嚷道：“日安，公爵大人！你漂亮的城堡在哪儿呢？”这使得安徒生遭到了更多人的嘲笑。

    可是安徒生没有放弃幻想。他依然幻想着自己是一个英勇的贵族，手中的木棒就是他的骏马。安徒生幻想自己骑着骏马去寻宝，在路上，他从熊熊大火中救下自己美丽的公主——萨拉。

    有时候安徒生会幻想自己是一个伟大的英雄，为国家立下了功劳，连国王都要接见他！有时候他一个人走在树林里，又会幻想着树林里到处飞舞着小精灵！有时候安徒生会忍不住拿出爸爸为他雕刻的小木偶，根据自己的想象表演木偶剧。

    幻想，是安徒生小时候最喜欢做的事情，他在幻想中编织着属于自己的美丽故事。

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