Chapter 1-2

CHAPTER TwO Florizella will go to the ball- no pumpkin required One day an invitation came to the palace. It said "Princess Florizella" on the front in wonderful curly writing. It was an invitation for a ball, to be given by Prince Bennett in the next-door kingdom– the Land of Deep Lakes. He wanted to meet all the princesses in the neighbouring realms so that he could choose one to marry.

第二章 弗洛里泽拉要去舞会啦——不需要南瓜哦 有一天，王宫收到了一份邀请函。 信封正面用漂亮的花体字写着“弗洛里泽拉公主收”。 那是一场舞会的邀请函，是隔壁深湖王国的贝内特王子要举办的。 他想要见见邻国所有的公主，好从中选一位当妻子。

"I'd like to go," said Princess Florizella at breakfast when the invitation arrived. The king gave the queen a look, which meant that she must start the job of telling Florizella "no'. "I don't think you'd enjoy it," the queen said nicely. Florizella said she thought she would. The queen gave the king That Look, and he said, rather impatiently, for he was uncomfortable when he thought he might hurt Florizella's feelings: "Thing is, Florizella, Prince Bennett will never choose you to be his bride because there will be very, very pretty princesses there, trained in the Princess Rules. And you have never been like that. Not at all." "I know that," said Florizella. "But I'm not going there to get married to Prince Bennett. I'm going to see my friends and enjoy the party." "Ah," the king said. "Then you may go. Undoubtedly. Undootedly!" So she threw a clean pair of jeans in a bag, and

“我想去。”邀请函送到的时候，弗洛里泽拉公主正在吃早饭，她这么说道。 国王朝王后使了个眼色，意思是该由她去告诉弗洛里泽拉“不行”。 “我觉得你不会喜欢那场舞会的。”王后和和气气地说。 弗洛里泽拉说她觉得自己会喜欢的。 王后又给了国王一个“你懂的”眼神，国王便有点不耐烦地开了口，因为他怕伤到弗洛里泽拉的感受，心里正不自在呢：“是这样的，弗洛里泽拉，贝内特王子绝对不会选你当新娘的，因为到时候会有好多好多漂亮的公主，她们都受过《公主守则》的训练。 可你从来都不是那样的。 完全不是。” “我知道呀。”弗洛里泽拉说。 “但我去那儿又不是为了嫁给贝内特王子。 我是去见我的朋友们，好好享受派对的。” “哦，”国王说。 “那你可以去。 当然可以。 百分百可以！” 于是她把一条干净的牛仔裤塞进包里，然后

after lunch she hopped into the glass coach– for they had no cars and trains or buses in the Seven Kingdoms– and drove off with her horse, Jellybean, trotting behind. Prince Bennett's kingdom wasn't far from Florizella's home, and Florizella was the first to arrive. The prince had invited one hundred and twenty-one princesses, and Florizella waited at the gate to watch them all drive past. One hundred and twenty princesses went by, some in fine carriages, some in smaller ones, and one or two in carts. One very poor princess came in a wheelbarrow. Some of them were very beautiful and some were less so, but they all desperately wanted to marry Prince Bennett. They didn't have anything else to do in those days, and the Princess Rule no. 500 (the last) said: Marry a handsome prince. The one hundred and twenty-first princess, Florizella, was the only one not planning

午饭后，她跳上了玻璃马车——因为七个王国里没有汽车、火车，也没有公交车——驾着车出发了，她的马“软糖豆”跟在后面小跑。 贝内特王子的王国离弗洛里泽拉的家不远，弗洛里泽拉是第一个到的。 王子一共邀请了一百二十一位公主，弗洛里泽拉在门口等着，看着她们一个个乘车经过。 一百二十位公主走过去了，有的坐着华丽的马车，有的坐的马车小一点，还有一两个坐的是运货马车。 有个家里特别穷的公主是坐独轮手推车来的。 她们有的长得特别漂亮，有的没那么好看，但所有人都特别想嫁给贝内特王子。 那时候她们没别的事可做，而且《公主守则》第500条（也就是最后一条）规定：要嫁给英俊的王子。 第一百二十一位公主，也就是弗洛里泽拉，是唯一一个没打算

marriage. She was just there for the party. "And to eat the food!" said Princess Florizella longingly when she saw the banquet. She had a wonderful time. There were tons of cakes, and three hundred different sorts of ice cream and forty different coloured jellies. There were meringues, pizzas and hot dogs. There were sticks of rock and candyfloss. There were toffee apples, and strawberries still growing in the strawberry beds that you could pick yourself and eat– as many as you wanted. Florizella ate a very good dinner indeed.

结婚的人。 她来这儿就只是为了参加派对。 “还有来吃好吃的！”弗洛里泽拉看到宴席的时候，眼巴巴地说。 她玩得开心极了。 那儿有堆得像小山一样的蛋糕，还有三百种不同口味的冰淇淋，四十种不同颜色的果冻。 还有蛋白酥、披萨和热狗。 有棒糖和棉花糖。 还有糖苹果，以及还长在草莓地里的草莓，你可以自己摘来吃，想吃多少就吃多少。 弗洛里泽拉这顿晚餐吃得可满足了。

But the one hundred and twenty princesses ate a little bread and butter and nothing more. They were worried about spilling on their best ballgowns. They were worried about whether they would be able to dance lightly on their toes. They were worried that someone might think they were greedy. (Princess Rule no. 42: Princesses Live Off Air.) Florizella worried about nothing. She had seconds and thirds of nearly everything. She had a much better dinner than Prince Bennett, who had to dance with every single one

可那一百二十位公主只吃了一点点黄油面包，别的什么都没碰。 她们担心会把自己最好的舞裙弄脏。 她们担心自己还能不能踮着脚轻盈地跳舞。 她们担心别人会觉得她们贪吃。 （《公主守则》第42条：公主靠空气就能活。） 弗洛里泽拉什么都不担心。 几乎每样食物她都吃了第二份、第三份。 她这顿晚餐吃得比贝内特王子好多了，王子得和每一位

of the hundred and twenty-one princesses. He thought he had better make an early start. He danced with each princess, one after another, and they all smiled and agreed with whatever he said. They were lovely. They were the nicest girls he had ever met. They were so pleasant that he could not tell them apart. They were so charming that he had the horrid feeling that nobody could be that nice all the time. So how could he possibly know which were nice for most of the time? One or two might not be nice at all, but might just be putting it on for the party. And very sorry he would be if he married one of them! Prince Bennett's head was spinning by the time he came and sat down beside Florizella, who was just finishing a bowl of raspberries. "Would you like a dance?" he asked politely. "Not especially," said Florizella. "And I would have thought you might have had enough." "Yes, I have," Prince Bennett said honestly. "I think it's the worst party I've ever been to." "Have a choc-ice," said Florizella to cheer him up, and Prince Bennett started to feel better.

一百二十一位公主跳舞。 他觉得自己最好早点开始跳。 他一个接一个地和每位公主跳舞，不管他说什么，她们都笑着点头同意。 她们都很可爱。 她们是他见过的最友善的女孩。 她们都太亲切了，他根本分不清谁是谁。 她们都太有魅力了，可他有种可怕的感觉：没人能一直这么完美友善。 那他要怎么才能知道谁平时大多时候也很友善呢？ 说不定有一两个根本就不友善，只是在派对上装出来的而已。 要是他娶了这样的人，那可就太糟了！ 贝内特王子跳得头都晕了，终于走到弗洛里泽拉身边坐下，弗洛里泽拉刚吃完一碗树莓。 “你愿意和我跳支舞吗？”他礼貌地问。 “没太想跳。”弗洛里泽拉说。 “而且我觉得你可能已经跳够了吧。” “是啊，我确实跳够了。”贝内特王子老老实实地说。 “我觉得这是我参加过的最糟糕的派对。” “吃支巧克力冰棒吧。”弗洛里泽拉安慰他说，贝内特王子感觉好受一点了。