The Selfish Giant 自私的巨人

Every afternoon, as the children were coming back from school, they
used to go and play in the giant's garden.
It was a beautiful large garden. Beautiful flowers grew in the grass.
There were twelve fruit trees. In the spring the fruit trees were covered
with red and white flowers, and later in the year they bore rich fruit. The
birds sang in the trees so sweetly that sometimes the children stopped
their games and listened to them. "How happy we are here!" they cried
to each other.
One day the giant came back. He had been away for seven years.
When he arrived, he saw the children playing in his garden. "What are
you doing here?" he cried in a very loud voice. The children ran away.
"My own garden is my own garden," said the giant. "I will allow no
one to play in it but myself. "So he built a high wall round it and put up
a notice: Keep out. He was a very selfish giant.
So the children had nowhere to play. They tried to play on the road,
but the road was dusty and full of hard stone, and they did not like it.
They wandered round the high walls when their lessons were finished
and talked about the beautiful garden inside. "How happy we were
there!" they said to each other.
The spring came, and there were flowers and little birds all over the
country. But in the garden of the Selfish Giant it was till winter the birds
did not like to sing in it because there were no children, and the trees
forgot to bear flowers. Snow covered up the grass, and ice covered all
the trees with silver. The north wind came, and driving rain.
"I can't understand why the spring is so late in coming," said the
Selfish Giant as he sat at the window of his house and looked out at his
cold white garden. "I hope that there will be a change in the weather."
But the spring never came, nor the summer. When there was golden
fruit in every other garden, there was no fruit in the the giant's garden. It
was always winter there with the north wind, and snow, and ice, and
driving rain.
The giant was lying in bed one morning when he heard some
beautiful music. It was a little bird singing outside his window. It was so
long since he had heard the song of a bird that it seemed to him the most
beautiful music in the world. Then the north wind and the rain stopped.
"I believe that spring has come at last!" said the giant. He jumped out
of bed and looked out.
What did he see?
He saw a most wonderful sight. The children had come in though a
hole in the wall and were sitting in the branches of the trees. There was a
little child in every tree that he could see. The trees were so glad to have
the children back that they had covered themselves with flowers: the
birds were flying about and singing with joy, and flowers were looking
up through the green grass.
A little boy was standing in the farthest corner of the garden. He was
so small that he could not reach up to the branches of the tree, but was
wandering round it and weeping. That tree was still covered with ice and
snow.
"How selfish I have been!" said the giant. "Now I know why the
spring would not come here. I'll put the little boy on the top of the tree.
Then I'll pull down the wall and my garden shall be a children's
playground for ever." He was really sorry for what he had done.
So he went down: he opened the door very quietly, and went out into
the garden. But, when the children saw him, they were afraid and ran
away. Only the little boy did not run: his eyes were so full of tears that
he did not see the giant coming. The giant came quietly behind him. He
took the little boy gently in his hand and put him up into the tree. Then
the tree was suddenly covered with flowers, and the birds came and sang
in it, and the little boy put his arms round the giant's neck and kissed
him.
The other children saw that giant was not bad and selfish now, so they
came running back.
"It's your garden now, little children," said the giant, and he pulled
down the wall.
When the people were going along the road to the town, they found
the giant playing with the children in the most beautiful garden they had
ever seen.
The children played all day, and in the evening they came to the giant
to say goodbye to him.
"But where is your little friend?" he said. "Where is the little boy I put
in the tree?" The giant loved him best because the little boy had kissed
him.
"We don't know," answered the children. "he has gone away."
"You must tell him to come tomorrow, he must come tomorrow." "We
don't know where he lives. We had never seen him before." The giant
felt very sad.
Every afternoon when school ended, the children came and played
with the giant. But the little boy whom the giant loved was never seen
again. The giant was very kind to all the children, but he did want to see
his first little friend. "How much I would like to see him!" he said.
Years went by, and the giant became very old and weak. He could not
play in the garden now; so he sat in a big chair and watched the children
at their games and looked at his beautiful garden. "I have many beautiful
flowers," he said, "but the children are the most beautiful flowers of all."
One morning, when he was dressing himself, he looked out of the
window. He did not hate the winter now, because he knew that the spring
was sleeping and the flowers were resting: he knew that they would
come again.
Suddenly he rubbed his eyes; he looked again at the wonderful sight!
In the farthest corner of the garden there was a tree quite covered with
beautiful white flowers. Its branches were golden, and silver fruit hung
down from them. And the little boy whom he loved was standing under
the tree.
He ran out into the garden: he hurried across the grass and came near
the child. When he came quite close, his face became red with anger and
he said, "Who has dared to wound you?" There were marks on the
child's hands, and on the little feet.
"Who had dared to wound you?" cried the giant. "Tell me and I will
take my sword and kill him!"
"No," said the child, "These are the wounds of love."
"Who are you?" said the giant. He was afraid, and knelt before the
little child.
"You once let me play in your garden," said the child. "Today you'll
come with me into my garden in heaven."
When the children came into the garden on that afternoon, they found
the giant lying dead under the tree, covered with white flowers.

自私的巨人

每天下午，孩子們放學回來之後，總愛到巨人的花園裏去遊玩。
這是一個漂亮的大花園。草叢中盛開著美麗的花朵。另外園裏還
有 12 株果樹。春天來臨時，樹上開滿紅色和白色的花朵；秋天到來
時，樹上果實累累。鳥兒在樹上歌唱，唱得那麼動聽，孩子們有時
會停止遊戲，來傾聽鳥兒唱歌。他們彼此歡叫著：“我們在這兒多快
樂呀！”
巨人離家已經七年了。一天他回來了。他一進家，就看到孩子們
在花園裏玩，他大吼道：“你們在這兒幹什麼？”孩子們一聽就嚇跑
了。
“我自己的花園就應歸我自己，”巨人說，“除了我自己，我不許
任何人在裏面遊玩。”於是他在花園四周築了一道高高的圍牆，還貼
了一張告示：“禁止入內。”他是一個非常自私的巨人。
孩子們因此沒有玩的地方了。他們只好在馬路上玩，可路上塵土
飛揚而且到處是堅硬的石頭，他們不喜歡。他們放學後就在高牆外
轉來轉去，談論著牆內美麗的花園。他們相互說著：“以前我們在這
兒多快樂呀！”
春天來了，全國到處開滿鮮花，鳥兒到處飛。但是在自私的巨人
的花園裏卻仍是一派殘冬的景象——因為園內沒有孩子的蹤跡，鳥
兒也就不願在這兒歌唱，連樹都忘了開花。雪花鋪滿草地，寒冰覆
蓋著所有的樹木，使它們披上銀裝。北風刮來，接著又下起了傾盆
大雨。自私的巨人坐在屋子窗前，望著外面寒冷雪白的花園，說：“
我弄不懂為什麼今年春天來得那麼遲。我希望天氣能變得好一些。”
但是春天和夏天一直都沒來。當別的花園結滿金色的果子時，巨
人的花園裏卻一個果子也沒有。那兒永遠是冬季，有凜冽的北風，
寒冷的冰雪和瓢潑的大雨。一天早上巨人躺在床上，忽然聽到一種
優美的音樂。這是一隻小鳥在窗外唱歌。他已經很久沒聽到鳥兒的歌
聲了，所以他以為這是世上最美的音樂。接著，北風息了，暴雨停
了。
“我相信春天到底來了！”巨人說著跳下床朝外面看去。
他看到了什麼？
他看見一副美妙的景象。孩子們從圍牆的一個洞鑽進花園裏來，
坐在樹枝上。他在每棵樹上都能看到一個孩子。孩子們又都回來了，
果樹很高興，用各種各樣的花朵將自己重新裝飾起來，鳥兒歡快地
四處飛翔，歌唱，花兒也在綠色的草叢中抬頭張望。
一個小男孩站在花園最遠的一個角落裏。他太小了還夠不著樹枝
只好在樹下徘徊哭泣。那棵樹仍被冰雪覆蓋著。
“我多自私呀！”巨人說，“現在我知道為什麼春天不肯到這兒來
了。我要把這個男孩抱到樹上，然後推倒圍牆，那我的花園將永遠
是孩子們的遊戲場。”他對自己以前做的事確實感到後悔了。
於是他走了出來，輕輕地打開門走進花園。但是孩子們一看到他
就都嚇跑了。只有那個小男孩沒有跑：他眼裏含著淚水，沒看見巨
人走了過來。巨人悄悄地來到他身後，他伸手把男孩輕輕抱起來，
放到樹上。那棵樹頓時開滿鮮花，鳥兒也飛來了在樹上唱歌，小男
孩伸出雙手摟著巨人的脖子吻了他一下。
其他的男孩認為巨人不再那麼壞，那麼自私，於是他們又都跑
了回來。
“孩子們，這兒現在是你們的花園了。”巨人說著把圍牆推倒了。
人們順大路進城時，看到巨人正和孩子們在花園裏玩，那個花園是
他們見過的最美麗的。
孩子們在那兒玩了一整天。傍晚時，他們去向巨人告別。
“你們那位小朋友哪兒去了？”他說，“我抱到樹上的那個男孩去
哪兒了？”巨人最喜歡的就是他，因為那小男孩曾吻過他。
“我們不知道，”孩子們回答說，“他已經走了。”
“你們告訴他讓他明天一定要來。”可孩子們回答說：“我們沒人
知道他住哪兒，我們以前從沒見過他。”巨人對所有的孩子都很好，
可他確實很想見到他的第一位小朋友。他說：“我多想再見見他呀！
”
許多年過去了，巨人變得很老，很衰弱了。現在他再也不能在園
子裏玩耍了。於是他就坐在一張大椅子上看著孩子們做遊戲，欣賞
那美麗的花園。他說，“我有許多美麗的話，可孩子們才是最美麗的
花。”
 一天早晨，當他正穿衣服時，他朝窗外看了看。他現在不討厭冬
天了，因為他知道春天正酣睡，花兒在休息，他知道它們一定會再
來。
突然，他揉了揉眼睛，他又看到那幅美妙的畫面！在花園最遠
的角落裏有一棵樹，樹上開滿了美麗的白花。樹枝是金色的，上面
懸掛著銀色的果子，而且他所愛的小男孩就站在樹下。
他跑進花園，急急忙忙地穿過草叢，來到男孩身邊。當他走近男
孩時，他氣得滿臉通紅，他說：“誰竟敢傷害你？”因為他看到男孩
的手和腳上都是傷痕。“誰竟敢傷害你？”巨人喊道，“告訴我，我要
用劍殺了他！”
“不，”孩子說，“這是愛的傷痕。”
“你是誰？”巨人問道，他感到很敬畏，跪在男孩面前。
“你曾經讓我在你的花園裏遊玩，”男孩說，“今天我就要把你帶
到我天國裏的花園裏去。”
那天下午，孩子們又來到花園時，發現巨人躺在一棵樹下死了，
他的身上撒滿了白花