海中水是那麼藍，玉米 – 花花瓣，和CLEA petals of the most beautiful corn-flower, and as clear as the purest glass. But it is very deep, deeper than any cable will sound; many steeples must be placed one above the other to reach from the ground to the surface of the water. And down there live the sea-people. 海中水是那麼藍，玉米 – 花花瓣，，因為玻璃。
但它是，深入任何電纜聲音;許多尖塔放在一個另一個上面從地面到達水面。
和那裡住海人。
Now, you must not believe there is nothing down there but the naked sand; no,—the strangest trees and plants grow there, so pliable in their stalks and leaves that at the least motion of the water they move just as if they had life. All fishes, great and small, glide among the twigs, just as here the birds do in the trees. In the deepest spot of all lies the Sea-king’s castle: the walls are of coral, and the tall, Gothic windows of the clearest amber; shells form the roof, and they open and shut according as the water flows. It looks lovely, for in each shell lie gleaming pearls, a single one of which would have great value in a queen’s diadem. 現在，你不要相信有什麼那兒，但赤裸裸沙子，沒有， – 奇怪樹木和植物生長那裡，他們秸稈如此和葉，水中運動他們移動，好像他們生活。
所有魚，和小，滑行樹枝間，像這裡鳥做樹上。
所有地方於海國王城堡：牆壁是珊瑚，和琥珀，哥特式窗户;殼形成屋頂，並它們打開和關閉水流量。
它看起來可愛，每個shell謊言閃閃發光珍珠，其中有一個人會具有價值一個女王王冠。
The Sea-king below there had been a widower for many years, while his old mother kept house for him. She was a clever woman, but proud of her rank, so she wore twelve oysters on her tail, while the other great people were only allowed to wear six. Beyond this she was deserving of great praise, especially because she was very fond of her grand-daughters, the little Sea-princesses. These were six pretty children; but the youngest was the most beautiful of all. Her skin was as clear and as fine as a rose leaf; her eyes were as blue as the deepest sea; but, like all the rest, she had no feet, for her body ended in a fish-tail. 海國王下麵出現了一個喪偶多年，而他老母親他管理家務。
她是個女人，但她排名感到，所以她戴著一打牡蠣她尾巴，而其他人民只被允許戴上半打。
這個，她是值得給予高度讚賞，是因為她喜歡她孫女，小海公主。
這些是6個孩子，但老三是。
她皮膚光玫瑰花瓣，她眼睛是那麼藍，像湖水。
但是，像所有休息，她有腿，她身體魚尾結束。
All day long they could play in the castle, down in the halls, where living flowers grew out of the walls. The great amber windows were opened, and then the fishes swam in to them, just as the swallows fly in to us when we open our windows; but the fishes swam straight up to the Princesses, ate out of their hands, and let themselves be stroked. 一整天，他們可以城堡大廳，那裡生活花朵脱胎於牆壁打球，下來。
她遊他們，但是太陽沉沒，和粉色色調褪色海面上，並雲中。
Outside the castle was a great garden with bright red and dark blue flowers; the fruit glowed like gold, and the flowers like flames of fire; and they continually kept moving their stalks and leaves. The earth itself was the finest sand, but blue as the flame of brimstone. A peculiar blue radiance lay upon everything down there: one would have thought oneself high in the air, with the canopy of heaven above and around, rather than at the bottom of the deep sea. During a calm the sun could be seen; it appeared like a purple flower, from which all light streamed out. 宮殿外面是紅色和藍色花花園;閃著如金，如火焰花，他們地地移動自己莖和葉。
地上砂子，但是得像硫磺火焰。
一個奇特藍色光芒擋著一切都在那兒：人會覺得自己空中，與天上所有樹冠和周圍，而不是深海底部。
陽光下可以看出，它像一朵紫色花，它所有光流出來。
Each of the little Princesses had her own little place in the garden, where she might dig and plant at her good pleasure. One gave her flower-bed the form of a whale; another thought it better to make hers like a little sea-woman: but the youngest made hers quite round, like the sun and had flowers which gleamed red as the sun itself. She was a strange child, quiet and thoughtful, and when the other sisters made a display of the beautiful things they had received out of wrecked ships, she would have nothing beyond the red flowers which resembled the sun, except a pretty marble statue. This was a figure of a charming boy, hewn out of white clear stone, which had sunk down to the bottom of the sea from a wreck. She planted a pink weeping willow beside this statue; the tree grew famously, and hung its fresh branches over the statue towards the blue sandy ground, where the shadow showed violet, and moved like the branches themselves; it seemed as if the ends of the branches and the roots were playing together and wished to kiss each other. 每個小公主花園裡她自己地方，那裡她可能她美意挖掘和植物。
一個送她花牀鯨魚形式，另一種認為它地使她像個小海女：但老三做她圓，像太陽，花紅色閃閃發光太陽本身。
她是個孩子，安靜，周到，當其他姐妹做，他們收到了失事船隻美麗東西展示，她什麼沒有超越紅花它類似太陽，一個大理石雕像。
這是一個數字一個迷人男孩，鑿出來白晴石，這沉下到海底沉船。
她栽柳樹旁邊這尊粉紅色哭泣;樹長大，並且向著藍色沙質地，那裡陰影呈現紫色雕像掛上它枝葉，並像移動分支機構本身，它彷彿兩端樹枝和樹根一起打球，並希望親吻方。
There was no greater pleasure for her than to hear of the world of men above them. The old grandmother had to tell all she knew of ships and towns, of men and animals. It seemed particularly beautiful to her that up on the earth the flowers shed fragrance, for they had none down at the bottom of the sea, and that the trees were green, and that the fishes which one saw there among the trees could sing so loud and clear that it was a pleasure to hear them. What the grandmother called fishes were the little birds; the Princess could not understand them in any other way, for she had never seen a bird. 有人支持她沒有，而不是聽到男人世界他們之上。
老祖母告訴所有人和動物，她知道船舶和城鎮。
它她地球上花香味散出，他們有倒海底，和這些樹木是綠色，而哪一個那裡看見了樹木中魚會唱得那麼並明確表示，這是一個聽到他們聲音。
什麼叫外婆魚是鳥;公主看慣他們任何其他方式，因為她有見過一隻鳥。
“你了15歲，”奶奶説，“你有權請站起來大海，坐在岩石月光下，並看到了船隻，因為他們航行了。
然後你會看到樹林和城市！“ In the next year one of the sisters was fifteen years of age, but each of the others was one year younger than the next; so that the youngest had full five years to wait before she could come up from the bottom of the sea, and find how our world looked. But one promised to tell the others what she had seen and what she had thought the most beautiful on the first day of her visit; for their grandmother could not tell them enough—there was so much about which they wanted information. 明年姐妹之一是十五歲，但每個人一年一個，讓有整整五年等待，她來得及海底上來，發現我們世界如何看。
但一個承諾，告訴別人她看到和她認為麗她此行第一天，因為他們祖母不能告訴他們足夠，有這麼多關於他們想要信息。
Now the eldest Princess was fifteen years old, and might mount up to the surface of the sea. When she came back, she had a hundred things to tell,—but the finest thing, she said, was to lie in the moonshine on a sand-bank in the quiet sea, and to look at the neighboring coast, with the large town, where the lights twinkled like a hundred stars, and to hear the music and the noise and clamor of carriages and men, to see the many church steeples, and to hear the sound of the bells. Just because she could not get up to these, she longed for them more than for anything. O how the youngest sister listened! and afterwards when she stood at the open window and looked up through the dark-blue water, she thought of the great city with all its bustle and noise; and then she thought she could hear the church bells ringing, even down to the depth where she was. In the following year, the second sister received permission to mount upward through the water and to swim whither she pleased. She rose up just as the sun was setting, and this spectacle, she said, was the most beautiful. The whole sky looked gold, and as to the clouds, she could not properly describe their beauty. They sailed away over her head, purple and violet-colored, but far quicker than the clouds there flew a flight of wild swans, like a long white veil, over the water towards where the sun stood. She swam towards them; but the sun sank, and the roseate hue faded on the sea and in the clouds. In the following year the next sister went up. She was the boldest of them all, and therefore she swam up a broad stream that poured its waters into the sea. She saw glorious green hills clothed with vines; palaces and castles shone forth from amid splendid woods; she heard how all the birds sang; and the sun shone so warm that she was often obliged to dive under the water to cool her glowing face. In a little bay she found a whole swarm of little mortals. They were quite naked, and splashed about in the water; she wanted to play with them, but they fled in affright and a little black animal came,—it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog,—and it barked at her so terribly that she became frightened, and tried to gain the open sea. But she could never forget the glorious woods, the green hills, and the pretty children, who could swim in the water, though they had not fish-tails. The fourth sister was not so bold: she remained out in the midst of the wild sea, and declared that just there it was most beautiful. One could see for many miles around, and the sky above looked like a bell of glass. She had seen ships, but only in the far distance—they looked like sea-gulls; and the funny dolphins had thrown somersaults, and the great whales spouted out water from their nostrils, so that it looked like hundreds of fountains all around. Each of the sisters, as she came up for the first time to the surface of the water, was delighted with the new and beautiful sights she saw; but as they now had permission, as grown-up girls, to go whenever they liked, it became indifferent to them. They wished themselves back again, and after a month had elapsed they said it was best of all down below, for there one felt so comfortably at home. When the sisters thus rose up, arm in arm, in the evening time, through the water, the little sister stood all alone looking after them; and she felt as if she must weep; but the sea-maid has no tears and for this reason she suffers far more acutely. “O if I were only fifteen years old!” said she. “I know I shall love the world up there very much, and the people who live and dwell there.” “Now, you see, you are grown up,” said the grandmother, the old dowager. “Come, let me adorn you like your sisters.” And she put a wreath of white lilies in the little maid’s hair, but each flower was half a pearl; and the old lady let eight great oysters attach themselves to the Princess’ tail, in token of her high rank. “Yes, pride must suffer pain,” replied the old lady. O how glad she would have been to shake off all the tokens of rank and lay aside the heavy wreath! Her red flowers in the garden suited her better; but she could not help it. “Farewell!” she said, and then she rose, light and clear as a water-bubble, up through the sea. The sun had just set when she lifted her head above the sea, but all the clouds still shone like roses and gold, and in the pale red sky the evening-stars gleamed bright and beautiful. The air was mild and fresh, and the sea quite calm. There lay a great ship with three masts; one single sail only was set, for not a breeze stirred, and around in the shrouds and on the yards sat the sailors. There was music and singing, and as the evening closed in, hundreds of colored lanterns were lighted up, and looked as if the flags of every nation were waving in the air. The little Sea-maid swam straight to the cabin window, and each time the sea lifted her up she could look through the panes, which were clear as crystal, and see many people standing within dressed in their best. But the handsomest of all was the young Prince with the great black eyes: he was certainly not much more than sixteen years old; it was his birthday, and that was the cause of all this feasting. The sailors were dancing upon deck; and when the young Prince came out, more than a hundred rockets rose into the air; they shone like day, so that the little Sea-maid was quite startled, and dived under the water; but soon she put out her head again, and then it seemed just as if all the stars of heaven were falling down upon her. She had never seen such fire-works. Great suns spurted fire all around, glorious fiery fishes flew up into the blue air, and everything was mirrored in the clear blue sea. The ship itself was so brightly lit up that every separate rope could be seen, and the people therefore appeared the more plainly. O how handsome the young Prince was! And he pressed the people’s hands and smiled, while the music rang out in the glorious night. Now she saw in front of her the dry land—high blue mountains, on whose summits the white snow gleamed as if swans were lying there. Down on the coast were glorious green forests, and a building—she could not tell whether it was a church or a convent—stood there. In its garden grew orange and citron-trees, and high palms waved in front of the gate. The sea formed a little bay there; it was quite calm, but very deep. Straight toward the rock where the fine white sand had been cast up, she swam with the handsome Prince, and laid him upon the sand, taking especial care that his head was raised in the warm sunshine. Now all the bells rang in the great white building, and many young girls came walking through the garden. Then the little Sea-maid swam farther out between some high stones that stood up out of the water, laid some sea-foam upon her hair and neck, so that no one could see her little countenance, and then she watched to see who would come to the poor Prince. In a short time a young girl went that way. She seemed to be much startled, but only for a moment; then she brought more people, and the Sea-maid perceived that the Prince came back to life, and that he smiled at all around him. But he did not cast a smile at her: he did not know that she had saved him. And she felt very sorrowful; and when he was led away into the great building, she dived mournfully under the water and returned to her father’s palace. She had always been gentle and melancholy, but now she became much more so. Her sisters asked her what she had seen the first time she rose up to the surface, but she would tell them nothing. Many an evening and many a morning she went up to the place where she had left the Prince. She saw how the fruits of the garden grew ripe and were gathered; she saw how the snow melted on the high mountain; but she did not see the Prince, and so she always returned home more sorrowful still. Then her only comfort was to sit in her little garden, and to wind her arm round the beautiful marble statue that resembled the Prince; but she did not tend her flowers; they grew as if in a wilderness over the paths, and trailed their long leaves and stalks up into the branches of trees, so that it became quite dark there. At last she could endure it no longer, and told all to one of her sisters, and then the others heard of it too; but nobody knew of it beyond these and a few other sea-maids, who told the secret to their intimate friends. One of these knew who the Prince was; she too had seen the festival on board the ship; and she announced whence he came and where his kingdom lay. “Come, little sister,” said the other Princesses; and linking their arms together, they rose up in a long row out of the sea, at the place where they knew the Prince’s palace lay. This palace was built of a kind of bright yellow stone, with great marble staircases, one of which led directly down into the sea. Over the roof rose splendid gilt cupolas, and between the pillars which surrounded the whole dwelling, stood marble statues which looked as if they were alive. Through the clear glass in the high windows one looked into the glorious halls, where costly silk hangings and tapestries were hung up, and all the walls were decked with splendid pictures, so that it was a perfect delight to see them. In the midst of the greatest of these halls a great fountain plashed; its jets shot high up toward the glass dome in the ceiling, through which the sun shone down upon the water and upon the lovely plants growing in the great basin. Now she knew where he lived, and many an evening and many a night she spent there on the water. She swam far closer to the land than any of the others would have dared to venture; indeed, she went quite up the narrow channel under the splendid marble balcony, which threw a board shadow upon the water. Here she sat and watched the young Prince, who thought himself quite alone in the bright moonlight. Many an evening she saw him sailing, amid the sounds of music, in his costly boat with the waving flags; she peeped up through the green reeds, and when the wind caught her silver-white veil and any one saw it he thought it was a white swan spreading out its wings. Many a night when the fishermen were on the sea with their torches, she heard much good told of the young Prince; and she rejoiced that she had saved his life when he was driven about, half dead, on the wild billows: she thought how quietly his head had reclined on her bosom, and how heartily she had kissed him; but he knew nothing of it, and could not even dream of her. More and more she began to love mankind, and more and more she wished to be able to wander about among those whose world seemed far larger than her own. For they could fly over the sea in ships, and mount up the high hills far above the clouds, and the lands they possessed stretched out in woods and fields farther than her eyes could reach. There was much she wished to know, but her sisters could not answer all her questions; therefore she applied to the old grandmother; and the old lady knew the upper world, which she rightly called “the countries above the sea,” very well. “If people are not drowned,” asked the little Sea-maid, “can they live forever? Do they not die as we die down here in the sea?” “Yes,” replied the old lady. “They too must die, and their life is even shorter than ours. We can live to be three hundred years old, but when we cease to exist here, we are turned into foam on the surface of the water, and have not even a grave down here among those we love. We have not an immortal soul; we never receive another life; we are like the green sea-weed, which, when once cut through, can never bloom again. Men, on the contrary, have a soul which lives forever, which lives on after the body has become dust; it mounts up through the clear air, up to all the shining stars! As we rise up out of the waters and behold all the lands of the earth, so they rise up to unknown glorious places which we can never see.” “Why did we not receive an immortal soul?” asked the little Sea-maid, sorrowfully. “I would gladly give all the hundreds of years I have to live to be a human being only for one day, and to have a hope of partaking the heavenly kingdom.” “You must not think of that,” replied the old lady. “We feel ourselves far more happy and far better than mankind yonder.” “Then I am to die and be cast as foam upon the sea, not hearing the music of the waves, nor seeing the pretty flowers and the red sun? Can I not do anything to win an immortal soul? “No!” answered the grandmother. “Only if a man were to love you so that you should be more to him than father or mother; if he should cling to you with his every thought and with all his love, and let the priest lay his right hand in yours with a promise of faithfulness here and in all eternity, then his soul would be imparted to your body, and you would receive a share of the happiness of mankind. He would give a soul to you and yet retain his own. But that can never come to pass. What is considered beautiful here in the sea—the fish-tail—they would consider ugly on the earth: they don’t understand it; there one must have the clumsy supports which they call legs, to be called beautiful.” It was a splendid sight, such as is never seen on earth. The walls and the ceiling of the great dancing-saloon were of thick but transparent glass. Several hundreds of huge shells, pink and grass-green, stood on each side in rows, filled with a blue fire which lit up the whole hall and shone through the walls, so that the sea without was quite lit up; one could see all the innumerable fishes, great and small, swimming toward the glass walls; of some the scales gleamed with purple, while in others they shone like silver and gold. Through the midst of the hall flowed a broad stream, and on this the sea-men and sea-women danced to their own charming songs. Such beautiful voices the people of the earth have not. The little Sea-maid sang the most sweetly of all, and the whole court applauded with hands and tails, and for a moment she felt gay in her heart, for she knew she had the loveliest voice of all in the sea or on the earth. But soon she thought again of the world above her; she could not forget the charming Prince, or her sorrow at not having an immortal soul like his. Therefore she crept out of her father’s palace, and while everything within was joy and gladness, she sat melancholy in her little garden. Then she heard the bugle horn sounding through the waters, and thought, “Now he is certainly sailing above, he on whom my wishes hang, and in whose hand I should like to lay my life’s happiness. I will dare everything to win him and an immortal soul. While my sisters dance yonder in my father’s palace, I will go to the sea-witch of whom I have always been so much afraid: perhaps she can counsel and help me.” Now she came to a great marshy place in the wood, where fat water-snakes rolled about, showing their ugly cream-colored bodies. In the midst of this marsh was a house built of white bones of ship-wrecked men; there sat the Sea-witch, feeding a toad out of her mouth, just as a person might feed a little canary-bird with sugar. She called the ugly fat water-snakes her little chickens, and allowed them to crawl upward and all about her. “Yes!” said the little Sea-maid, with a trembling voice; and she thought of the Prince and the immortal soul. “But remember,” said the Witch, “when you have once received a human form, you can never be a sea-maid again; you can never return through the water to your sisters, or to your father’s palace; and if you do not win the Prince’s love, so that he forgets father and mother for your sake, is attached to you heart and soul, and tells the priest to join your hands, you will not receive an immortal soul. On the first morning after he has married another your heart will break, and you will become foam on the water.” “I will do it,” said the little Sea-maid: but she became as pale as death. “But you must pay me, too,” said the Witch; “and it is not a trifle that I ask. You have the finest voice of all here at the bottom of the water; with that you think to enchant him; but this voice you must give to me. The best thing you possess I will have for my costly draught! I must give you my own blood in it, so that the draught may be as sharp as a two-edged sword.” “But if you take away my voice,” said the little Sea-maid, “what will remain to me?” “Your beautiful form,” replied the Witch, “your graceful walk, and your speaking eyes: with those you can take captive a human heart. Well, have you lost your courage? Put out your little tongue, and then I will cut it off for my payment, and then you shall have the strong draught.” “It shall be so,” said the little Sea-maid. “Cleanliness is a good thing,” said she; and she cleaned out the pot with the snakes, which she tied up in a big knot; then she scratched herself, and let her black blood drop into it. The stream rose up in the strangest forms, enough to frighten the beholder. Every moment the Witch threw something else into the pot; and when it boiled thoroughly, there was a sound like the weeping of a crocodile. At last the draught was ready. It looked like the purest water. “There you have it,” said the Witch. And she cut off the little Sea-maid’s tongue, so that now the Princess was dumb, and could neither sing nor speak. She could see her father’s palace. The torches were extinguished in the great hall, and they were certainly sleeping within, but she did not dare to go to them, now that she was dumb and was about to quit them forever. She felt as if her heart would burst with sorrow. She crept into the garden, took a flower from each bed of her sisters, blew a thousand kisses toward the palace, and rose up through the dark blue sea. She now received splendid clothes of silk and muslin. In the castle she was the most beautiful creature to be seen; but she was dumb, and could neither sing nor speak. Lovely slaves, dressed in silk and gold, stepped forward, and sang before the Prince and his royal parents; one sang more charmingly than all the rest, and the Prince smiled at her and clapped his hands. Then the little Sea-maid became sad; she knew that she herself had sung far more sweetly, and thought,— Now the slaves danced pretty waving dances to the loveliest music; then the little Sea-maid lifted her beautiful white arms, stood on the tips of her toes, and glided dancing over the floor as no one had yet danced. At each movement her beauty became more apparent, and her eyes spoke more directly to the heart than the song of the slaves. All were delighted, and especially the Prince, who called her his little foundling; and she danced again and again, although every time she touched the earth it seemed as if she were treading upon sharp knives. The Prince said that she should always remain with him, and she received permission to sleep on a velvet cushion before his door. He had a page’s dress made for her, that she might accompany him on horseback. They rode through the blooming woods, where the green boughs swept their shoulders, and the little birds sang in the fresh leaves. She climbed with the Prince up the high mountains, and although her delicate feet bled so that even the others could see it, she laughed at it herself, and followed him until they saw the clouds sailing beneath them, like a flock of birds travelling to distant lands. At home in the Prince’s castle, when the others slept at night, she went out on to the broad marble steps. It cooled her burning feet to stand in the cold sea-water, and then she thought of the dear ones in the deep. Once, in the night-time, her sisters came, arm in arm. Sadly they sang as they floated above the water; and she beckoned to them, and they recognized her, and told her how she had grieved them all. Then she visited them every night; and once she saw in the distance her old grandmother, who had not been above the surface for many years, and the Sea-king with his crown upon his head. They stretched out their hands toward her, but did not venture so near the land as her sisters. “Do you not love me best of them all?” the eyes of the little Sea-maid seemed to say, when he took her in his arms and kissed her fair forehead. “Ah! he does not know that I saved his life,” thought the little Sea-maid. “I carried him over the sea to the wood where the temple stands. I sat there under the foam and looked to see if any one would come. I saw the beautiful girl whom he loves better than me.” And the Sea-maid sighed deeply—she could not weep. “The maiden belongs to the holy temple,” she said, “and will never come out into the world—they will meet no more. I am with him and see him every day; I will cherish him, love him, give up my life for him.” But now they said that the Prince was to marry, and that the beautiful daughter of a neighboring King was to be his wife, and that was why such a beautiful ship was being prepared. The story was, that the Prince travelled to visit the land of the neighboring King, but it was done that he might see the King’s daughter. A great company was to go with him. The little Sea-maid shook her head and smiled; she knew the Prince’s thoughts far better than any of the others. “I must travel,” he had said to her’ “I must see the beautiful Princess: my parents desire it, but they do not wish to compel me to bring her home as my bride. I cannot love her. She is not like the beautiful maiden in the temple whom you resemble. If I were to choose a bride, I would rather choose you, my dear dumb foundling with the speaking eyes.” And he kissed her red lips and played with her long hair, so that she dreamed of happiness and of an immortal soul. “You are not afraid of the sea, my dumb child?” said he, when they stood on the superb ship which was to carry him to the country of the neighboring King; and he told her of storm and calm, of strange fishes in the deep, and of what the divers had seen there. And she smiled at his tales, for she knew better than any one what happened at the bottom of the sea. The next morning the ship sailed into the harbor of the neighboring King’s splendid city. All the church bells sounded, and from the high towers the trumpets were blown, while the soldiers stood there with flying colors and flashing bayonets. Each day brought some festivity with it; balls and entertainments followed one another; but the Princess was not yet there. People said she was being educated in a holy temple far away, where she was learning every royal virtue. At last she arrived. The little Sea-maid was anxious to see the beauty of the Princess, and was obliged to acknowledge it. A more lovely apparition she had never beheld. The Princess’ skin was pure and clear, and behind the long dark eyelashes there smiled a pair of faithful, dark-blue eyes. “You are the lady who saved me when I lay like a corpse upon the shore!” said the Prince; and he folded his blushing bride to his heart. “O, I am too, too happy!” he cried to the little Sea-maid. “The best hope I could have is fulfilled. You will rejoice at my happiness, for you are the most devoted to me of them all!” And the little Sea-maid kissed his hand; and it seemed already to her as if her heart was broken, for his wedding morning was to bring death to her, and change her into foam on the sea. All the church bells were ringing, and heralds rode about the streets announcing the betrothal. On every altar fragrant oil was burning in gorgeous lamps of silver. The priests swung their censers, and bride and bridegroom laid hand in hand, and received the bishop’s blessing. The little Sea-maid was dressed in cloth of gold, and held up the bride’s train; but her ears heard nothing of the festive music, her eye marked not the holy ceremony; she thought of the night of her death, and of all that she had lost in this world. On the same evening the bride and bridegroom went on board the ship. The cannon roared, all the flags waved; in the midst of the ship a costly tent of gold and purple, with the most beautiful cushions, had been set up, and there the married pair were to sleep in the cool, still night. “We have given it to the witch, that we might bring you help, so that you may not die to-night. She has given us a knife; here it is—look! how sharp! Before the sun rises you must thrust it into the heart of the Prince, and when the warm blood falls upon your feet they will grow together again into a fish-tail, and you will become a sea-maid again, and come back to us, and live your three hundred years before you become dead salt sea-foam. Make haste! He or you must die before the sun rises! Our old grandmother mourns so that her white hair has fallen off, as ours did under the witch’s scissors. Kill the Prince and come back! Make haste! Do you see that red streak in the sky? In a few minutes the sun will rise, and you must die!” And they gave a very mournful sigh, and vanished beneath the waves. The little Sea-maid drew back the curtain from the tent, and saw the beautiful bride lying with her head on the Prince’s breast; and she bent down and kissed his brow, and gazed up at the sky where the morning red was gleaming brighter and brighter; then she looked at the sharp knife, and again fixed her eyes upon the Prince, who in his sleep murmured his bride’s name. She only was in his thoughts, and the knife trembled in the Sea-maid’s hand. But then she flung it far away into the waves—they gleamed red where it fell, and it seemed as if drops of blood spurted up out of the water. Once more she looked with half-extinguished eyes upon the Prince; then she threw herself from the ship into the sea, and felt her frame dissolving into foam. Now the sun rose up out of the sea. The rays fell mild and warm upon the cold sea-foam, and the little Sea-maid felt nothing of death. She saw the bright sun, and over her head sailed hundreds of glorious ethereal beings—she could see them through the white sails of the ship and the red clouds of the sky; their speech was melody, but of such a spiritual kind that no human ear could hear it, just as no human eye could see them; without wings they floated through the air. The little Sea-maid found that she had a frame like these, and was rising more and more out of the foam. “Whither am I going?” she asked; and her voice sounded like that of other beings, so spiritual, that no earthly music could be compared to it. And the little Sea-maid lifted her glorified eyes toward God’s sun, and for the first time she felt them fill with tears. On the ship there was again life and noise. She saw the Prince and his bride searching for her; then they looked mournfully at the pearly foam, as if they knew that she had thrown herself into the waves. Invisible, she kissed the forehead of the bride, fanned the Prince, and mounted with the other children of the air on the rosy cloud which floated through the ether. After three hundred years we shall thus float into Paradise! “And we may even get there sooner,” whispered a daughter of the air. “Invisibly we float into the houses of men where children are, and for every day on which we find a good child that brings joy to its parents and deserves their love, our time of probation is shortened. The child does not know when we fly through the room; and when we smile with joy at the child’s conduct, a year is counted off from the three hundred; but when we see a naughty or a wicked child, we shed tears of grief, and for every tear a day is added to our time of trial.”沒有人最年，只是一個誰等待時間擔心這些事情，誰總是和於深思。
多少個夜晚她站開著窗口，抬頭透過藍色水它們鰭和尾巴濺起魚。
月亮和星星，她可以看到，他們是，但水中，他們看起來他們出現我們眼前。
像一個黑色雲當中過去了，她知道這不是一條鯨魚游泳她頭上，或船舶許多人：他們肯定沒有想到，一個小海女僕站樓下伸展她雙手朝著他們船龍骨。
現在，最年公主十五歲，並且可能上到海面。
她回來時候，她有一個百廢待興告訴，，但事情，她説，是躺月光海邊沙子銀行，並尋求鄰近海岸，大鎮，那裡燈光閃爍著像百星，聽音樂和馬車和人噪音和喧囂，看到許多教堂尖塔，並聽到鈴鐺聲音。
只是因為她起牀到這些，她他們渴望超過任何東西。
Ø如何妹妹聽了！事後，她站敞開窗户，抬頭透過藍色水，她想到了城市，其所有喧囂和噪音，然後她以為她能聽到教堂鐘聲響起，下降到了深度地方她是。
接下來一年，第二個姐姐得到許可，安裝通過水和游泳那她高興。
她站起來，像太陽落山，而這一，她説，是麗。
整個天空看起來黃金，並以雲，她不能地描述自己。
他們乘船離開了她頭，紫色和紫色，但於雲有飛了飛行野生天鵝，像一條長長白色頭紗，那裡陽光站水中。
潛水深處下了水，她上漲高達浪之中，並以這種方式，她於來到了王子，誰無法游泳是驚濤駭浪。
接下來一年接下來妹妹去了。
她是她們中膽，因此她遊了流傾注其海域入海。
她看見身穿藤光榮綠色山丘，宮殿和城堡煥發出來之中樹林裡，她聽到如何將所有鳥唱，以及太陽照這麼温暖，她下了水下潛她臉上泛著。
一個小海灣，她發現小凡人整個羣。
他們是赤裸，並水花四濺，她想和他們一起玩，但他們和一個黑色小動物逃離出來， – 它是一隻狗，但她有見過一隻狗，和它咆哮她這麼可怕，她害怕起來，並試圖獲得公海。
但她會忘記樹林，綠色山丘，和孩子，誰能夠水裡游泳，雖然他們有沒有魚尾巴。
第四個姐姐沒有那麼大膽：她野外海中，並宣稱那裡它是麗。
人們可以看到許多英里左右，和上面天空看起來像一塊玻璃鐘。
她見過船，但只在遠處，他們看起來像大海，海鷗，以及海豚投擲了筋斗，鯨魚噴湧而出的水他們鼻孔，這樣它看起來像幾百噴泉四周。
現在來到了第五個姐姐交。
她生日排冬天，所以她看到了別人沒有看到第一次。
海染上了一片綠色，冰山四周移動，每一個分開像珍珠，她説，但人類建造教堂尖塔得多。
他們發現自己奇怪形式，和潔如鑽石。
她之一冰山上坐過，讓海風吹著她發，和所有帆船超越她坐著一個方式上漲：而是向著傍晚天空變成佈雲，它打雷和減輕，而黑色海浪冰塊塊起來，讓他們紅色刺眼光芒。
所有船隻帆reefed，並且有恐懼和痛苦。
但她悄悄地她浮動冰山坐在那兒，看見叉狀藍色閃爍鏢入海。
每一個姐妹，她想出了第一次到水表面，和東西，她看見了，但他們現在有了許可，作為成年女孩，走時，他們喜歡，它變得無動於衷。
他們希望自己回來了，過了一個月去了，他們説，這是向下跌破，因為有人覺得這樣在家裡。
一個多時晚會五個姐妹花了彼此胳膊，站起來一排過水。
他們有聲音，任何凡人可能，而風暴來臨之際，讓他們可以逮捕該船舶將大大下降，它們遊船前，唱可愛歌，它告訴它多麼底大海，並告誡水手不要害怕下來。
但這些明白話，並認為這是暴風雨嘆息，他們並沒有看到下面，因為如果船隻沉，他們淹死了，來了作為屍體海國王宮殿。
當姐妹倆這樣漲起來，手挽著手，晚上時間，通過水，小妹妹站照顧他們，她覺得好像她哭泣，但海女僕沒有眼淚，該她之所以遭受。
“啊，如果我只有十五歲！”她説。
“我知道我會喜歡上面世界那裡多，誰住和人民住那裡。
” “現在，你看，你了，”奶奶説，皇太后。
“來吧，讓我裝點你喜歡你妹妹。
” 她一個百合花編花環小女傭頭髮，但每朵花是半顆珍珠，和老太太讓八個牡蠣附著公主尾巴，她地位象徵。
“但是，這傷害了如此！”稱小海女傭。
“是，要，”老太太説。
延伸閱讀…
何等高興，她會擺脱秩所有標記和放下花環！她紅色花朵花園適合她，但她幫助它。
“了！”她説，然後她站起身，而水泡泡，透過大海。
太陽成立時，她抬起頭上海，但是所有雲依舊照耀像玫瑰和黃金，並紅色天空傍晚明星閃著。
微風和煦，空氣新鮮，大海。
這裡躺著一個船有三根桅杆;單一帆設置，攪拌一件輕而易舉事，和周圍整流罩和對碼坐水手。
有音樂和唱歌，和傍晚封閉，數百彩燈點亮起來，看起來好像每個國家國旗空中揮舞著。
小海女僕遊直奔艙窗，每一次海扶她起來，她可以去翻窗格，這是如水晶，並看到許多人站內穿著他們。
但所有英俊是王子與大黑眼睛：他肯定會超過十六歲，它他生日，這是所有這個燈酒原因。
水手們跳舞甲板上，而當年王子就出來了，一百多火箭升入空中，它們照耀白晝，讓小海女僕是，並水跳入水中，但她她頭一遍，然後它像天上星星她落下。
她有見過這麼火作品。
大太陽噴出火周圍一切，光榮火熱魚飛上了藍色空氣，一切反映湛藍大海。
船舶本身是如此起來，每一個繩子可以看出，因此，人們了。
Ø如何英俊年王子了！他下了人手，笑了，而音樂響起夜晚。
變得晚了，但小海女僕不能她眼睛從船上，距離王子。
那些彩色燈籠滅了，火箭飛入空氣中，並沒有多砲開，但有發怨言和嗡嗡內心深處海裡，她坐在水中，搖曳上下，讓她可以看看進入機艙。
但作為船舶得到了多方式，一個接一個帆傳播。
而現在波漲幅，大雲上前，遠處有閃電。
噢！這是可怕天氣，因此水手們收攏船帆。
SWIFT職業生涯巨輪飛越野生海：水漲起來像黑山脈，哪想翻身桅杆，但像一隻天鵝船潛入山谷這些高波之間，然後讓自己解除高了。
給小海女僕，這運動，但水手們顯得十分。
船呻吟著吱吱作響;木板是重拳彎曲;海突入船舶;主桅折斷兩個像薄葦，以及船舶奠定了她身邊，而水衝進舉行。
現在小海女僕看見人處於危險之中，她自己小心避免船舶橫梁和片段，是關於浮動水面上。
這一刻它是如此漆黑，沒有一個單一對象可以描述，但是它點亮它變得如此，以至於她可以區分每個人船上。
她看上去是年王子，而船分手，她看見他沉入大海。
然後，她，現在他會回落到她。
但後來她想起，人不能生活水中，並且，他進入她父親宮殿，他肯定會死。
，他不能死，所以她遊梁和木板是撒表面，完全忘了他們中一個可能粉碎了她之間。
潛水深處下了水，她上漲高達浪之中，並以這種方式，她於來到了王子，誰無法游泳是驚濤駭浪。
延伸閱讀…
他手臂和腿開始他不及格，他眼睛閉上了，他死了，小海侍女不來。
她握著他頭水面上，然後讓其浪揹她和他那他們上市。
當次日早晨，風暴通過。
船舶不是一個片段待觀察。
太陽升起來紅色和閃耀出來水，這是因為如果它梁帶回生命色調王子臉頰，但他眼睛關閉。
海女僕親吻他，公平額頭，放回他濕漉漉頭髮，他她要像大理石雕像她小花園：她吻了他一下，希望他能夠生存下去。
現在，她她面前看到了旱地藍山，其上山峯白雪閃閃發光，猶如天鵝躺那裡。
倒海岸是綠色森林，建築，她無法分辨它是否是一個教堂或修道院，站那裡。
花園成長橙色和柚子樹，和手掌一揮門前。
海形成一個小小的海灣那裡，這是，但。
徑直奔那裡細白沙灘拋在了岩石上，她遊英俊王子，並奠定了他沙土上，採取照顧，他頭温暖陽光上調。
現在，所有鐘聲響起白色建築，和許多年輕女孩們花園散步。
這時，小海女僕遊得一些石頭上站起來出去水，她頭髮和脖子奠定一些海上泡沫，所以沒有人能看到她面容，然後她看著，看看誰能夠之間來到了王子。
時間一個女孩去方式。
她很多一震，但只是片刻，然後她帶來了多人，和海女僕覺察到王子活過來了，他微笑著看著周圍一切。
但他沒有投笑著看她：他知道，她救了他。
她覺得，而當他領走成建築，她地潛入水下，回到她父親宮殿。
她是而，但現在她變得如此。
她姐姐們問她什麼，她她第一次上升到表面見過，但她會告訴他們什麼。
有好多晚上和許多清晨，她走到哪裡，她離開了王子地方。
她看到了如何花園生長和聚集;她看到了如何雪融化高山，但她並沒有看到王子，所以她總是回到家是。
然後她唯一安慰是坐在她小花園裡，以及風一隻手摟著美麗大理石雕像像王子，但她並沒有傾向於她花，他們成長彷彿曠野過路徑，並尾長葉和莖成樹枝，使其變得黑暗存在。
後她能忍受下去了，並告訴大家她一個姐妹，然後其他人聽説過它，但是沒有人知道它超越這些和其他一些海女傭，誰告訴秘密他們朋友。
其中一個知道誰是王子了;她看到了船上節日，她宣佈他那裡來，他王國奠定。
“來吧，小妹妹，”別的公主們説，他們武器聯繫一起，他們奮起一長排出來大海，那裡他們知道王子宮殿安放主地方。
這座宮殿始建一種黃色石頭，大理石樓梯，其中一個直接領導下到海中。
屋頂上升鍍金圓頂，並包圍了整個住宅柱子之間，站這看起來好像它們是活著大理石雕像。
透過玻璃一個視窗看著大廳，那裡絲綢帷幔和掛毯掛了，所有牆壁上掛滿了照片，所以這是一個高興看到他們。
這些大廳中間一個噴泉plashed;其喉射高了朝玻璃穹頂天花板，經水和可愛植物盆地成長，通過它陽光照下來。
現在，她知道他住地方，很多晚上和許多晚上，她那裡度過水面上。
她遊接近地比任何其他人風險，事實上，她去了通道下堂皇大理石陽台，可水面扔了電路板影子。
這裡，她坐在那裡，看著那年王子，誰想到自己月光下。
有好多晚上，她看見他航行，一片音樂聲音，他船揮舞著旗幟，她偷看了通過綠色蘆葦，風吹起她銀白色面紗，任何人看到它，他認為這是白天鵝展開它翅膀。
多少個夜晚，漁民們他們火把海，她聽到很多告訴王子，她，她救了他生命，他趕出左右，半死不活，對野生波瀾，她想怎麼腦袋斜躺她懷裡，地如何，她吻了他，他什麼知道它，無法想像她。
多，她開始人類，而且多，她希望能夠徜徉其中那些世界她自己。
因為他們可以飛過滄海船舶，並安裝了小山雲層之上，他們得樹林和田野伸出她眼睛土地能達到。
有很多她想知道，但她姐妹們不能回答她所有問題，因此她老祖母，和老太太知道世界上，她理地稱為“海拔國家，”。
“如果人們沒有淹死，”問小海女僕，“他們會活下去？我們死這兒海難道他們不是死了？“ “是，”老太太説。
“他們死，他們生活我們。
我們可以活到三百歲，不過我們存在這裡，我們變成了泡沫水表面，沒有到這裡那些我們所愛。
我們沒有一個不滅靈魂，我們沒有收到另一種生活，我們像是綠色海草，其中，當一次切透，不能開時候。
男人，相反，有生命，這生活後身體變得塵土，它裝載了透過空氣，直至所有閃亮星星！我們站起來走出水域，不料世上所有土地，所以他們上升到未知地方，我們無法看到。
“