天鹅湖的英语故事表述

天鹅湖的英语故事表述

The swan lake|天鹅湖

Chapter 1　　
　　Long ago in a far kingdom there lived a queen.
　　She had
a son. On the day before the prince was eighteen years old the queen said to
him: “You are grown up enough, my son, to find you a bride1 who will one day sit
at your side on the throne2.”
　　However, the prince had not thought of
getting married at all. “Don't trouble me with it, Mum,” he answered and looked
out of the window at the trees bending in the wind.
“But you must get
married, my son,” the queen insisted. “What would the subjects say about their
king being without a queen?”
　　The prince sighed heavily.
　　“So, what am I
to do, mum?” he asked.
　　“I'll arrange everything myself,” said the queen.
“But you must obey me.”
　　The prince sighed for the second time. “Well, mum,
I'll do as you say. But I'd better go hunting today.”
　　“Enjoy your youth
while you have it,” the queen smiled. “But remember that tomorrow I'm going to
arrange a great party, inviting the nicest maidens of all the best families we
have in our country. And from among them you'll have to choose your
bride.”
　　“You may choose her for me yourself!” the prince exclaimed, being
glad to end the conversation. “The wind, the far land, the steed3, the bow, and
the forests are dearer to me!” And the queen saw no more of him. Taking his
favorite companion Beppo and some of the equipage4 the prince left everything
and went hunting.
　　They sat in the saddle all day long, but the prince had
no gladness in hunting, galloping5 wildly through the meadows6. Something
depressed7 him, but he didn't know what it was.
　　When at last in the evening
the prince and his companions grew tired and were going back exhausted, they all
at once found themselves near the Stone Grove. This was the forest about which
there were such terrible stories told that no one dared to go there.
　　At the
sight of the forest terror overcame them all. Even the horses pricked up8 their
ears seeing the dark wall of oaks, which looked as if hewed9 from
stone.
　　“Just look, Beppo!” the prince cried suddenly to his companion,
pointing at the darkling sky.
　　“They are swans, what else do you think they
can be?” asked Beppo, shrugging10 slightly. “But don't you see that one in
front?” cried the prince. “You too have grown pale, Beppo, haven't you? It has a
golden crown on its head! Those are not swans at all!”
　　“Indeed,” Beppo
agreed.
　　These swans were strange, and most strange was the one that led
them. They reminded one of white clouds, floating quickly across the
sky.
　　“I must have this one!” cried the prince. “The Swan-Queen can be seen
only once in a lifetime, and most people don't see her at all.”
　　Grief11
filled his heart. The prince drew his bow. But the flock12 had already
vanished13 into the depth of the wood.
　　The hunters dismounted14

and ran into the forest. There they were overcome by an awful silence. The
great oaks reminded them of cliffs15. And the moss16 was like a thick carpet.
They made their way through the thicket, not knowing where they were
going.
　　Suddenly Beppo pointed forward:
　　“A lake!”
　　A silver mirror
glinted17 in the dusk among the trees. The hunters drew apart the last branches
of the thicket and stopped on the beach, wonder-stricken. A flock of white swans
with long lithe18 necks were swimming in the lake, and at their head, towering
above the water mirror, glided the most beautiful, the most mysterious, and
therewith19, the gravest20 swan with a golden crown on it's head.
　　The
prince drew his bow, but he had to lower it again.
　　“I can't shoot!” he
groaned21.” “It seems to me that I'd be killing a human being. It isn't a swan,
Beppo. It's a beautiful maiden. That is the princess, whom I seek, that is my
bride!”
　　“Are you mad, Prince!” Beppo scolded him.“ It was not long ago
when you were overjoyed with our wild galloping and now you talk like this! Has
something enchanted22 you? They say that the Stone Grove is woven of
witchery23”.
　　“The Queen of the swans has enchanted me,” the prince
whispered, and the reflection24 of the lake with the flock of white swans
glinted in his eyes.
　　“Look how beautiful she is! Like a snow-white, gently
inflated25 sail! Like the uneasy nights, in the darkness of which I woke and
something inexpressible26 pushed me to the night window to look at the Moon as
it was floating through the clouds...Do you see? Now they are ready to go away.
They are taking off!”
　　And so it was. In the dusk27 the swans unfolded28
their wings and stretched their necks forward. The darker it became the whiter
they seemed. The whitest was the swan wearing the golden crown that glinted in
the setting sun. The queen of the swans took off into the air like a white
waft29 of air, and the prince was dazzled30.
　　“She is flying to us!” he
exclaimed suddenly. “She's noticed us!”
　　The queen of swans flew right
towards them. But just as she neared them she changed course, swerved31 and flew
high above the lake. The others followed her as if she pulled them behind her on
an unseen thread.
　　“I'll run after her, I can't lose her!” cried the prince.
And Beppo tried to hold him back in vain32. The others had no time to look round
before the prince had disappeared into the shadow of the forest.
　　“What
shall we do?” said Beppo helplessly to his companions, seeing that he couldn't
overtake33 the prince.
　　“We'll seek him,” said an old well-tried
archer34.　“I think we'll find him at the edge of the forest.”
　　“He has
fallen in love with a swan,” the old hunter laughed. “With their queen! Who has
ever heard the like? The queen is beautiful and graceful, but she loves nobody.
She has cold eyes, and loves only cool water. She never can give the prince an
heir35.”
　　“For she is a real swan, nevertheless,” added Beppo.
　　Soon the
hunters made their way through the thicket towards where they thought they could
find the prince.
　　Only the moon lighted their way.

Chapter 2
　　The moon glinted like silver in the sky, and it could be seen
how the prince hurried after it. He went steadily in the direction whither36 the
swans were flying.
　　Suddenly the forest thinned. In the pale moonlight the
ruins of Stone Castle were seen.
　　The prince sat on a stone to have a
rest.
　　Frightened, he thought, “How will I find her here in this wild dark
forest, if I don't know where she is hiding?”
　　Helplessly he looked up at
the moon, which answered him with a cold unmoving stare. He turned to the oaks,
which stood like a silent crowd of servants, waiting for an order.
　　Just
then it seemed to him that he saw something new among them. A beautiful maiden
stood before the prince.
　　He spoke to her. And to his surprise the maiden
replied. Most of all he was amazed that she talked to him as to a close friend,
as if they had played together in childhood.
　　“I was like all maidens, my
prince”, she said. But the master of this bewitched37 grove38 turned me into a
swan in revenge39. And all the girls of my retinue40, too.”
　　“Is there a
master in the Stone Grove?”
　　“Yes, Readbeard,” she asserted41. “Oh, if you
only knew, how cruel and evil he is.”
　　“Then you are not a swan!” the prince
said gladly. “But how has it come about that I see you now in your real
image?”
　　“Every night we can take on a human image. But then we become twice
as miserable when the white witchery wraps round us again. Our arms become
numb42 and covered with feathers, our necks stretch out and we turn into
swans.”

the swan lake