The Selfish Giant

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.


　


I. Translation for Reference(参考译文)


自私的巨人


每天下午，孩子们放学回来之后，总爱到巨人的花园里去游玩。


这是一个漂亮的大花园。草丛中盛开着美丽的花朵。另外园里还有12株果树。春天来临时，树上开满红色和白色的花朵；秋天到来时，树上果实累累。鸟儿在树上歌唱，唱得那么动听，孩子们有时会停止游戏，来倾听鸟儿唱歌。他们彼此欢叫着：“我们在这儿多快乐呀！”


巨人离家已经七年了。一天他回来了。他一进家，就看到孩子们在花园里玩，他大吼道：“你们在这儿干什么？”孩子们一听就吓跑了。


“我自己的花园就应归我自己，”巨人说，“除了我自己，我不许任何人在里面游玩。”于是他在花园四周筑了一道高高的围墙，还贴了一张告示：“禁止入内。”他是一个非常自私的巨人。


孩子们因此没有玩的地方了。他们只好在马路上玩，可路上尘土飞扬而且到处是坚硬的石头，他们不喜欢。他们放学后就在高墙外转来转去，谈论着墙内美丽的花园。他们相互说着：“以前我们在这儿多快乐呀！”


春天来了，全国到处开满鲜花，鸟儿到处飞。但是在自私的巨人的花园里却仍是一派残冬的景象——因为园内没有孩子的踪迹，鸟儿也就不愿在这儿歌唱，连树都忘了开花。雪花铺满草地，寒冰覆盖着所有的树木，使它们披上银装。北风刮来，接着又下起了倾盆大雨。自私的巨人坐在屋子窗前，望着外面寒冷雪白的花园，说：“我弄不懂为什么今年春天来得那么迟。我希望天气能变得好一些。”


但是春天和夏天一直都没来。当别的花园结满金色的果子时，巨人的花园里却一个果子也没有。那儿永远是冬季，有凛冽的北风，寒冷的冰雪和瓢泼的大雨。一天早上巨人躺在床上，忽然听到一种优美的音乐。这是一只小鸟在窗外唱歌。他已经很久没听到鸟儿的歌声了，所以他以为这是世上最美的音乐。接着，北风息了，暴雨停了。


“我相信春天到底来了！”巨人说着跳下床朝外面看去。


他看到了什么？


他看见一副美妙的景象。孩子们从围墙的一个洞钻进花园里来，坐在树枝上。他在每棵树上都能看到一个孩子。孩子们又都回来了，果树很高兴，用各种各样的花朵将自己重新装饰起来，鸟儿欢快地四处飞翔，歌唱，花儿也在绿色的草丛中抬头张望。


一个小男孩站在花园最远的一个角落里。他太小了还够不着树枝，只好在树下徘徊哭泣。那棵树仍被冰雪覆盖着。


“我多自私呀！”巨人说，“现在我知道为什么春天不肯到这儿来了。我要把这个男孩抱到树上，然后推倒围墙，那我的花园将永远是孩子们的游戏场。”他对自己以前做的事确实感到后悔了。


于是他走了出来，轻轻地打开门走进花园。但是孩子们一看到他，就都吓跑了。只有那个小男孩没有跑：他眼里含着泪水，没看见巨人走了过来。巨人悄悄地来到他身后，他伸手把男孩轻轻抱起来，放到树上。那棵树顿时开满鲜花，鸟儿也飞来了在树上唱歌，小男孩伸出双手搂着巨人的脖子吻了他一下。


其他的男孩认为巨人不再那么坏，那么自私，于是他们又都跑了回来。


“孩子们，这儿现在是你们的花园了。”巨人说着把围墙推倒了。人们顺大路进城时，看到巨人正和孩子们在花园里玩，那个花园是他们见过的最美丽的。


孩子们在那儿玩了一整天。傍晚时，他们去向巨人告别。


“你们那位小朋友哪儿去了？”他说，“我抱到树上的那个男孩去哪儿了？”巨人最喜欢的就是他，因为那小男孩曾吻过他。


“我们不知道，”孩子们回答说，“他已经走了。”


“你们告诉他让他明天一定要来。”可孩子们回答说：“我们没人知道他住哪儿，我们以前从没见过他。”巨人对所有的孩子都很好，可他确实很想见到他的第一位小朋友。他说：“我多想再见见他呀！”


许多年过去了，巨人变得很老，很衰弱了。现在他再也不能在园子里玩耍了。于是他就坐在一张大椅子上看着孩子们做游戏，欣赏那美丽的花园。他说，“我有许多美丽的话，可孩子们才是最美丽的花。”


一天早晨，当他正穿衣服时，他朝窗外看了看。他现在不讨厌冬天了，因为他知道春天正酣睡，花儿在休息，他知道它们一定会再来。


突然，他揉了揉眼睛，他又看到那幅美妙的画面！在花园最远的角落里有一棵树，树上开满了美丽的白花。树枝是金色的，上面悬挂着银色的果子，而且他所爱的小男孩就站在树下。


他跑进花园，急急忙忙地穿过草丛，来到男孩身边。当他走近男骇时，他气得满脸通红，他说：“谁竟敢伤害你？”因为他看到男骇的手和脚上都是伤痕。“谁竟敢伤害你？”巨人喊道，“告诉我，我要用剑杀了他！”


“不，”孩子说，“这是爱的伤痕。”


“你是谁？”巨人问道，他感到很敬畏，跪在男骇面前。


“你曾经让我在你的花园里游玩，”男骇说，“今天我就要把你带到我天国里的花园里去。”


那天下午，孩子们又来到花园时，发现巨人躺在一棵树下死了，他的身上撒满了白花。