Chapter 1-4

CHAPTER FOUR The king becomes a tyrant- as unfortunately they so often do When Florizella got home, the king and queen were waiting for her at the door of the palace. "How did you get on?" asked the queen. "Who did he choose for his bride?" asked the king. "How many princesses were there at the ball?" asked the queen.

第四章 国王变成了暴君——很不幸，国王们常常会这样。弗洛里泽拉回到家时，国王和王后正在宫殿门口等她。 “你玩得怎么样呀？”王后问。 “他选了谁当他的新娘呀？”国王问。 “舞会上一共有多少位公主呀？”王后问。

"Did he choose the princess of Three Rivers?" the king asked. Florizella laughed and jumped out of the carriage. "I had a lovely time," she said. "And he decided not to marry anybody just yet. There were one hundred and twenty princesses there as well as me, and I didn't spot the princess of the Three Rivers, but the place was so awash with princesses that I didn't even see the princess of the Two Mountains, who promised to meet me there." "Not choosing a bride!" said the king. "Not choosing a bride!" said the queen. Then they both fell on Florizella at once, demanding to know what on earth could have made him decide not to choose a princess at a princess-choosing ball. They were secretly afraid that Florizella had somehow put him off marriage. So Florizella explained that Prince Bennett thought the nice princesses might have been just pretending to be nice and might be secretly rather

“他是不是选了三河王国的公主呀？” 国王问道。 弗洛里泽拉笑着跳下了马车。 “我玩得可开心啦。”她说。 “而且他决定暂时不娶任何人哦。 除了我之外，还有一百二十位公主到场，我没看到三河王国的公主，不过那里公主多得挤来挤去，我连答应和我在那儿碰面的两山王国公主都没见着呢。” “居然没选新娘！”国王说。 “居然没选新娘！”王后说。 接着俩人立刻围住了弗洛里泽拉，追问到底是怎么回事，他怎么会在选新娘的舞会上决定不选公主呢。 他俩私底下暗暗担心，是不是弗洛里泽拉不知怎么的，让王子不想结婚了。 于是弗洛里泽拉解释说，贝内特王子觉得，那些看起来温柔善良的公主可能都是装出来的，真的一起生活说不定脾气

awful to live with, and he hadn't wanted to take the chance. "Did he ask no one at all, then?" demanded the king. "Not one of them?" "Oh yes," said Florizella. "He asked me. But I told him I didn't want to marry yet." The king and queen stared at each other for a stunned moment, then they both rushed at Florizella again and made her sit down and tell them all about the ball and the breakfast and the horseride and the picnic for two and Prince Bennett asking her to marry him under the stars. They took a lot of interest in the stars. And if there was a nightingale singing. Then the king jumped to his feet and went to the window and said, "Undoubtedly! Undootedly!" a great many times, very softly. And the queen had a little smile on her face as she looked at Florizella. "What a match!" said the king. "Prince Bennett's kingdom! The Land of Deep Lakes! It's beyond my wildest dreams!" "What a triumph!" said the queen. "And

特别差，他不想冒这个险。 “那他难道谁都没问吗？”国王追问道。 “一个都没选？” “哦，他问啦。”弗洛里泽拉说。 “他问我愿不愿意嫁给他。 不过我告诉他，我现在还不想结婚。” 国王和王后震惊地对视了好一会儿，接着又一下子冲到弗洛里泽拉身边，让她坐下，把舞会、早餐、骑马、两个人的野餐，还有贝内特王子在星空下向她求婚的事，全都讲给他们听。 他们对当时的星星特别感兴趣。 还问有没有夜莺在唱歌。 然后国王猛地站起身走到窗边，嘴里念叨着：“太好了！ 太好了！” 他反反复复轻声说了好多遍。 王后看着弗洛里泽拉，脸上带着浅浅的笑容。 “这亲事太棒了！”国王说。 “贝内特王子的王国啊！ 那是深湖王国啊！ 我做梦都想不到有这么好的事！” “这太让人得意了！”王后说。 “而且

everyone always said she was such an odd sort of princess!" Florizella looked from one to the other. "I said I didn't want to marry him, and we agreed to be just friends," she said. But she could tell they weren't listening. The next day, her father the king laughed and teased her all day, calling her the Queen of the Land of Deep Lakes, which was rather irritating. The second day, the queen spoke of inviting Prince Bennett over to stay. The next couple of days there were lots of letters between Prince Bennett's parents and Florizella's mother and father. Then on the fifth day the king told Florizella that she was going to marry Bennett whether she wanted to or not. Florizella looked at him as if he were crazy. "You can't make me marry someone if I don't want to," she said. "It's just wrong." "Oh, can't I?" said the king.

以前大家总说她是个怪兮兮的公主呢！” 弗洛里泽拉看看这个，又看看那个。 “我说了我不想嫁给他，我们说好只当朋友的。”她说。 可她看得出来，他俩根本没在听她说话。 第二天，她的国王父亲笑了一整天，还一直逗她，叫她“深湖王国的王后”，烦得不行。 第三天，王后说起要邀请贝内特王子来家里住一阵子。 接下来的几天，贝内特王子的父母和弗洛里泽拉的父母来来回回写了好多信。 到了第五天，国王告诉弗洛里泽拉，不管她愿不愿意，都必须嫁给贝内特。 弗洛里泽拉看着他，就像看个疯子一样。 “你不能逼我嫁给我不想嫁的人，”她说， “这根本不对。” “哦？我不能吗？”国王说。

He snatched Florizella up and bundled her upstairs, and locked her in her bedroom. "You'll stay there until you agree to marry Prince Bennett!" he bawled through the keyhole. "Nonsense," said Florizella. She knew perfectly well that her father had no right to lock her up, or to order her to marry anyone. No one can tell a girl who she has to marry. She also knew that if she wanted to leave, nothing was easier than to open her bedroom window and climb down the drainpipe. After all, she went out like that most mornings to go horseriding. It was so much easier than opening the great double doors, raising the portcullis and lowering the drawbridge on her own. But, instead of running off, she thought she would wait until her father came to let her out and talk the whole thing over with him. So she got one of her favourite storybooks and settled down for a quiet morning's reading. Florizella's lunch was served on a tray in her

他一把抓住弗洛里泽拉，把她拖到楼上，锁在了她的卧室里。 “你就待在那儿，直到你同意嫁给贝内特王子为止！” 他对着钥匙孔大吼。 “胡说八道。”弗洛里泽拉说。 她心里清楚得很，她爸爸根本没有权利把她锁起来，也没有权利命令她嫁给任何人。 谁都不能强迫一个女孩嫁给她不想嫁的人。 她还知道，要是她想出去，再简单不过了，打开卧室窗户，顺着排水管爬下去就行。 毕竟，她大多数早上都是这么溜出去骑马的。 这可比自己去开那两扇巨大的宫门、升起吊闸、放下吊桥容易多了。 不过她没有跑走，而是想等她爸爸过来放她出去的时候，和他好好把这件事说清楚。 于是她拿出一本最喜欢的故事书，舒舒服服坐下来，准备安安静静读一上午书。 弗洛里泽拉的午餐是装在托盘里送过来的，摆在她的

room by ten footmen. At teatime they arrived again with a cup of tea and a slice of cake. By dinnertime Florizella had finished her book and was pretty bored. At bedtime her father came to the door and said in his most kingly voice, "My daughter, Princess Florizella, this is your father." "I did know that already," she said. "Do you agree to marry Prince Bennett?" Florizella, who was rather sulky, for she had wasted a whole day indoors while the sun was shining outside, said, "Certainly not! And you know you shouldn't treat a daughter like this. Not even in a fairy story." At that, the king stamped off to bed in a terrible temper. He was cross because Florizella would not do as he wanted, and he was cross because he knew perfectly well he was in the wrong. "She's acting like she thinks she's a prince!" he complained to the queen as they went to bed that night. "A princess is just a prince with more s's," she

十个男侍从打理的房间。 下午茶时间，他们又端着一杯茶和一块蛋糕来了。 到晚饭的时候，弗洛里泽拉已经看完了她的书，觉得无聊透了。 睡觉时间到了，她的父亲走到门口，用他最威严的国王嗓音说：“我的女儿，弗洛里泽拉公主，我是你的父亲。” “我早就知道啦。”她说道。 “你同意嫁给贝内特王子吗？” 弗洛里泽拉这会儿正憋了一肚子气，因为外面阳光正好，她却在屋里浪费了一整天，她回答：“当然不同意！ 而且你知道你不该这么对待自己的女儿。 就算是在童话里也不行。 一听这话，国王气得跺着脚回房睡觉去了，火气大得不得了。 他生气是因为弗洛里泽拉不肯听他的话，也因为他心里清楚得很，这件事本来就是他不对。 “她这副样子，倒像是觉得自己是个王子似的！” 那天晚上上床睡觉的时候，他跟王后抱怨道。 “公主啊，就是多了几个s的王子呗。”她