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Hans_Christian_Andersen_Little_Mermaid

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•The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.	•Die kleine Meerjungfrau von Hans Christian Andersen.
•(from Hans Andersen Forty-Two Stories [1930], translated by M. R. James).	•(aus Hans Andersen Forty-Two Stories [1930], übersetzt von M. R. James).
•Far out in the sea the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest of cornflowers, and as clear as the clearest glass; but it is very deep, deeper than any anchor-cable can reach, and many church towers would have to be put one on the top of another to reach from the bottom out of the water.	•Weit draußen im Meer ist das Wasser so blau wie die Blütenblätter der schönsten Kornblumen und so klar wie das klarste Glas; aber es ist sehr tief, tiefer als jedwedes Ankertau reichen kann, und viele Kirchtürme müsste man übereinander stapeln, um vom Meeresgrund bis aus dem Wasser zu reichen.
•Down there live the sea people.	•Dort unten lebt das Meervolk.
•Now you must not think for a moment that there is only a bare white sandy bottom there; no, no: there the most extraordinary trees and plants grow, which have stems and leaves so supple that they stir at the slightest movement of the water, as if they were alive.	•Also, du darfst keinen Moment glauben, dass es dort nur nackten, weißen Grund gibt; nein, nein, dort wachsen die außergewöhnlichsten Bäume und Pflanzen, die so feine Stengel und Blätter haben, dass sie sich bei der geringsten Bewegung des Wassers rühren, als ob sie lebendig wären.
•All the fish, big and little, flit among the branches, like the birds in the air up here.	•Alle Fische, groß und klein, flitzen zwischen den Ästen herum, wie die Vögel hier oben in der Luft.
•In the deepest place of all lies the sea king's palace.	•An der tiefsten aller Stellen befindet sich der Palast des Meereskönigs.
•The walls are of coral, and the tall pointed windows of the clearest possible amber, but the roof is of mussel-shells that open and shut themselves as the water moves.	•Die Wände sind aus Korallen und die hohen spitzen Fenster aus dem denkbar klarsten Bernstein, aber das Dach besteht aus Muschelschalen, die sich im Wellengang des Wassers öffnen und schließen.
•It all looks beautiful, for in everyone of them lie shining pearls, a single one of which would be the principal ornament in a Queen's crown.	•Es sieht alles wunderschön aus, denn in jeder von ihnen befinden sich glänzende Perlen, wobei eine einzige von ihnen die Hauptverzierung in der Krone einer Königin sein würde.
•The sea King down there had been a widower for many years, but his old mother kept house for him.	•Der Meereskönig dort unten war schon seit vielen Jahren Witwer, aber seine alte Mutter führte den Haushalt für ihn.
•She was a clever woman, but proud of her rank, for which reason she went about with twelve oysters on her tail, while the rest of the nobility might only carry six.	•Sie war eine kluge Frau, doch stolz auf ihren Stand, weshalb sie mit zwölf Austern am Schwanz herumlief, während der Rest des Adels nur sechs tragen durfte.
•For the rest she deserved high praise, especially because she was so fond of the little sea Princesses, her grandchildren.	•Für den Rest verdiente sie viel Lob, besonders weil sie die kleinen Meeresprinzessinnen, ihre Enkelkinder, so sehr mochte.
•There were six of them, beautiful children, but the youngest was the prettiest of them all.	•Es gab sechs von ihnen, wunderschöne Kinder, aber die Jüngste war die Hübscheste von allen.
•Her skin was as bright and pure as a rose-leaf, her eyes were as blue as the deepest lake; but like all the rest, she had no feet—her body ended in a fish's tail.	•Ihre Haut war so hell und rein wie ein Rosenblatt, ihre Augen waren so blau wie der tiefste See; aber wie alle anderen hatte sie keine Füße - ihr Körper endete in einem Fischschwanz.
•All the love-long day they might play down in the palace in the great halls where live flowers grew out of the walls.	•Den lieben langen Tag lang konnten sie im Palast in den großen Sälen spielen, dort wo lebende Blumen aus den Mauern herauswuchsen.
•The big windows of amber stood open, and the fishes swam in through them, just as with us swallows fly in when we open the windows; but the fishes used to swim right up to the little Princesses and feed out of their hands and allow themselves to be stroked.	•Die großen Fenster aus Bernstein standen offen und die Fische schwammen durch sie durch, genauso, wie die Schwalben hereinfliegen, wenn wir die Fenster öffnen; aber die Fische schwammen bis zu den kleinen Prinzessinnen hin und fraßen ihnen aus der Hand und ließen sich streicheln.
•Outside the palace there was a large garden with fiery red and dark blue trees, whose fruit shone like gold, and their flowers were like a flaming fire, because they were always moving their stems and leaves.	•Außerhalb des Palastes befand sich ein großer Garten mit flammendroten und dunkelblauen Bäumen, dessen Früchte wie Gold glänzten und deren Blumen wie ein loderndes Feuer waren, weil sie immer ihre Stiele und Blätter bewegten.
•The ground was of the finest sand, but blue like the flame of sulphur.	•Der Boden war aus feinstem Sand, aber blau wie die Flamme des Schwefels.
•Over the whole expanse down there lay a wonderful blue sheen.	•Auf der ganze Fläche lag dort unten ein wunderbarer blauer Glanz.
•You could more easily imagine that you were far up in the air and could see the sky above you and below you, than that you were at the bottom of the sea.	•Man konnte sich leichter vorstellen, dass man weit oben in der Luft wäre und den Himmel über sich und unter sich sehen könnte, als dass man auf dem Grund des Meeres wäre.
•In a dead calm you could see the sun: it looked like a purple flower out of whose cup all the light was streaming.	•Wenn das Meer völlig ruhig war, konnte man die Sonne sehen: sie sah wie eine violette Blume aus, aus deren Kelch alles Licht strömte.
•Each of the young Princesses had her little plot in the garden, where she could dig and plant as she liked.	•Jede der jungen Prinzessinnen hatte ihr kleines Beet im Garten, wo sie graben und pflanzen konnte, wie es ihr gefiel.
•One would make her flower-bed in the shape of a whale, another preferred to have hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest made hers quite round, like the sun, and would only have flowers that shone red like it.	•Die eine machte ihr Blumenbeet in der Gestalt eines Wals, die andere zog es vor, es wie eine kleine Meerjungfrau zu haben, aber die Jüngste machte ihres ganz rund, wie die Sonne, und wollte nur Blumen haben, die, wie sie, rot leuchten.
•She was an odd child, quiet and thoughtful, and whereas the other sisters would deck out their gardens with the quaintest things, that they had got from sunken ships, she would only have—besides the rose-red flowers that were like the sun far up in the sky—a pretty statue of marble.	•Sie war ein sonderbares Kind, ruhig und nachdenklich, und während die anderen Schwestern ihre Gärten immer mit den kuriosesten Dingen schmückten, die sie von gesunkenen Schiffen geholt hatten, hatte sie - neben den Blumen, rot wie Rosen, die wie die Sonne weit oben im Himmel waren -nur eine schöne Statue aus Marmor.
•It was of a handsome boy, carved out of bright white stone, which had come down to the sea bottom from a wreck.	•Es war ein hübscher Junge, aus einem leuchtenden, weißen Stein gemeißelt, der aus einem Wrack auf den Grund des Meeres heruntergekommen war.
•Beside the statue she planted a rose-red weeping willow, which grew splendidly and hung its fresh branches over it, right down to the blue sand bottom, on which the shadows showed violet, and moved with the branches; it looked as if the top and the roots of the tree were playing at kissing each other.	•Neben der Statue pflanzte sie eine rosenrote Trauerweide, die großartig wuchs und ihre frische Zweige über der Statue hing, bis hinunter zum blauen, sandigen Meeresgrund, auf dem sich die Schatten violett zeigten und mit den Zweigen bewegten; es sah aus, als ob die Spitze-und Wurzeln des Baumes sich gegenseitig küssen würden.
•She had no greater delight than in dreaming about the world of men up above.	•Sie hatte keine größere Freude, als über die Welt der Menschen da oben über ihr zu träumen.
•The old grandmother had to tell her all she knew about ships and horses and men and animals.	•Die alte Großmutter musste ihr alles erzählen, was sie über Schiffe und Pferde und Menschen und Tiere wusste.
•It seemed to her particularly delightful that up there on earth the flowers smelt sweet (which they did not at the sea bottom), and that the woods were green and the fish which one saw among the branches could sing so loud and prettily that it was a joy to hear them.	•Es schien ihr besonders reizvoll, dass dort oben auf der Erde die Blumen süß rochen (was sie auf dem Meeresgrund nicht taten), und dass die Bäume grün waren, und dass die Fische, die man zwischen den Ästen sah, so laut und hübsch singen konnten, dass es eine Freude war, sie zu hören.
•It was the little birds that the grandmother called fish, otherwise they could not have understood, for they had never seen a bird.	•Es waren die kleinen Vögel, die die Großmutter Fische nannte, sonst hätten sie es nicht verstehen können, denn einen Vogel hatten sie nie gesehen.
•"When you're full fifteen years old," said the grandmother, "you shall have leave to come up out of the sea and sit on the rocks in the moonlight, and see the big ships that come sailing by; and forests and houses you shall see."	•"Wenn du volle fünfzehn Jahre alt bist", sagte die Großmutter", sollst du die Erlaubnis haben, aus dem Meer aufzutauchen und auf den Felsen im Mondlicht zu sitzen und die großen Schiffe vorbeisegeln sehen; und Wälder und Häuser sollst du sehen."
•During the year that was passing one of the sisters was fifteen years old; but the rest—why, each was a year younger than the next, and so the youngest had a clear five years to wait before she could come up from the sea bottom and see how things go with us.	•Im laufenden Jahr war eine der Schwester fünfzehn Jahre alt; aber die anderen – nun, jede war ein Jahr jünger als die nächste Schwester, und die jüngste musste also fünf Jahre warten, bevor sie vom Meeresgrund nach oben aufsteigen und sehen konnte, wie es mit uns geht.
•But the first promised the next one to tell her what she had seen and had thought beautiful on the first day, for their grandmother didn't tell them enough: there were very many things they wanted to know about.	•Aber die Erste versprach der Nächsten, ihr alles zu erzählen, was sie am allerersten Tag gesehen und schön befunden hatte, denn ihre Großmutter erzählte ihnen nicht genug: es gab so viele Dinge, die sie wissen wollten.
•None of them was so full of longing as the youngest, the very one who had the longest time to wait, and was so quiet and thoughtful.	•Keine von ihnen war so voller Sehnsucht wie die Jüngste, eben jene, die am längsten warten musste, und die so still und nachdenklich war.
•Many a night she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue waters where the fish went waving their fins and tails.	•Viele Nächte lang stand sie am offenen Fenster und starrte durch das dunkle, blaue Wasser nach oben, wo die Fische schwammen und mit ihren Flossen und Schwänzen wedelten.
•She could see the moon and the stars; of course they were very pale, but, seen through the water, they looked much larger than they do to our eyes.	•Sie konnte den Mond und die Sterne sehen; natürlich waren sie sehr blass, aber durch das Wasser, sahen sie viel größer aus, als sie für unsere Augen erscheinen.
•If something like a black cloud passed along beneath them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming above her, or even a ship with a number of people in it.	•Wenn irgendetwas, wie eine schwarze Wolke, über ihr Reich dort unten hinwegzog, dann wusste sie, es war entweder ein Wal, der über ihr schwamm, oder sogar ein Schiff mit mehreren Leute drin.
•Certainly they never thought that beneath them there was a lovely little mermaid stretching her hands up towards the keel.	•Gewiss dachten sie nie, dass sich unter ihnen eine hübsche kleine Meerjungfrau befand, die ihre Hände nach oben zu dem Kiel streckte.
•And now the eldest Princess was fifteen years old and could rise up above the surface of the sea.	•Und jetzt war die älteste Prinzessin fünfzehn Jahre alt und konnte an die Meeresoberfäche emportauchen.
•When she came back she had a hundred things to tell; but the most beautiful thing, she said, was to lie on a sandbank in the moonlight in the calm sea, and to see close by the shore the big town where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars, and to hear the sound of music and the noise and stir of carts and people, and see all the church towers and steeples and hear the bells ringing; and just because she couldn't go up there, she longed after all that, most of all.	•Als sie zurück kam hatte sie hundert Dinge zu erzählen; aber das Schönste wäre, im Mondlicht auf einer Sandbank in der ruhigen See zu liegen, sagte sie, und das nahe Ufer zu sehen, wo die Lichter blinkten, wie Hunderte von Sternen, und den Klang der Musik und die Geräusche und Betriebsamkeit der Karren und Leute zu hören und all die Kirchtürme und Türme zu sehen und die Glocken klingen zu hören. Und gerade weil sie dort nicht hingehen konnte, sehnte sie sich nach all dem am meisten.
•Oh, how the youngest sister did listen!	•Oh, wie die jüngste Schwester zuhörte!
•And when, later on in the evening, she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue water, she thought about the big town and all the noise and stir, and then she fancied she could hear the church bells ringing down to her.	•Und als sie zur vorgerückten Stunde am offenen Fenster stand und durch das dunkle blaue Wasser schaute, dachte sie über die große Stadt und all ihren Lärm und das Aufregung nach, und dann stellte sie sich vor, sie könnte die Kirchenglocken zur ihr herunter läuten hören.
•The year after, the second sister had leave to rise up through the water and swim where she liked; she ducked up just as the sun was going down, and the sight of that she thought the most beautiful of all.	•Im nächsten Jahr durfte die zweite Schwester durch das Wasser hochsteigen und schwimmen, wohin sie wollte; sie tauchte auf gerade als die Sonne unterging, und sie dachte, dass dieser Anblick der allerschönste wäre.
•The whole heaven, she said, had looked like gold, and the clouds—oh! •the beauty of them she could not describe: red and violet, they sailed past above her, but far swifter than they there flew, like a large white ribbon, a skein of wild swans away over the water, to where the sun was.	•Der ganze Himmel, sagte sie, hatte wie Gold ausgesehen und die Wolken - oh! •sie konnte ihre Schönheit nicht beschreiben; rot und purpur schienen sie über ihr hinzusegeln, aber noch weit schneller als sie, flog wie ein großes, weißes Band eine Schar wilder Schwäne über das Wasser hinweg, dorthin, wo die Sonne war.
•She swam towards it, but it sank, and the rosy glow died from the clouds and the face of the sea.	•Sie schwamm auf sie zu, aber die Sonne ging unter, und das rosa Glühen verschwand von den Wolken und dem Gesicht des Meeres.
•Next year the third sister went up; she was the boldest of them all; and so she swam up a broad river that ran into the sea.	•Das nächste Jahr stieg die dritte Schwester hinauf; sie war die Kühnste von allen; und deshalb schwamm sie einen breiten Fluss hinauf, der in das Meer mündete.
•Beautiful green hills she saw, with rows of vines upon them. •Palaces and mansions peeped out from among stately woods.	•Sie sah wunderschöne grüne Hügel, auf denen sich Reihen von Weinstöcken befanden. •Paläste und Herrenhäuser lugten aus den prächtigen Wäldern heraus.
•She heard all the birds singing, and the sun shone so hot that she had to dive beneath the water to cool her burning face.	•Sie hörte all die Vögel singen und die Sonne schien so heiß, dass sie unter Wasser tauchen musste, um ihr brennendes Gesicht zu kühlen.
•In a little inlet she came upon a whole crowd of young human children; they were quite naked, and ran about and splashed in the water.	•Sie stieß in einem kleine Meeresarm auf eine ganze Schar junger Menschenkinder; sie waren völlig nackt und rannten herum und planschten im Wasser.
•She wanted to play with them, but they ran away in a fright, and then came a little black creature (it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before) and it barked at her so dreadfully that she was terrified and took refuge in the open sea; but never could she forget the splendid woods and the green hills and the pretty children who could swim in the water, though they had no fish-tails.	•Sie wollte mit ihnen spielen, aber sie rannten vor Schreck weg, und dann kam eine kleine schwarze Kreatur( es war ein Hund, aber sie hatte nie zuvor einen Hund gesehen)und sie bellte sie so fürchterlich an, dass sie im offenen Meer Zuflucht nahm; aber sie konnte nie die wundervollen Wälder und die grünen Hügel und die hübschen Kinder vergessen, die im Wasser schwimmen konnten, obwohl sie keine Fischschwänze hatten.
•The fourth sister was not so daring.	•Die vierte Schwester war nicht so wagemutig.
•She stayed out in the lonely sea, and told them that that was the most beautiful of all.	•Sie blieb draußen in der einsamen See, und erzählte ihnen, dass dies das Schönste von allem wäre.
•You could see many many miles all round, and the sky arched over you like a great bell of glass.	•Man konnte viele viele Kilometer rundum sehen, und der Himmel wölbte sich über einen wie eine große Glasglocke.
•Ships she had seen, but far away they looked like gulls.	•Sie hatte Schiffe gesehen, aber sie waren weit weg und sahen wie Möwen aus.
•The merry dolphins had turned somersaults, and the big whales had squirted up water out of their nostrils, so that it looked like hundreds of fountains all around her.	•Die fröhlichen Delfine hatten Purzelbäume gemacht und die großen Wale hatten Wasser aus ihren Nasenlöchern geblasen, sodass es aussah, als ob Hunderte von Fontänen um sie herum wären.
•Now came the turn of the fifth sister.	•Jetzt war die fünfte Schwester an der Reihe.
•Her birthday, it happened, was in winter, and so she saw what the others had not seen on their first visit.	•Ihr Geburtstag, der war im Winter, und so sah sie, was die anderen bei ihrem ersten Besuch nicht gesehen hatten.
•The sea was all green to look at, and round about there floated large icebergs, everyone looking like a pearl, she said, and yet they were far bigger than the church towers that men built.	•Das Meer sah ganz grün aus und rund herum trieben große Eisberge, jeder sah aus wie eine Perle, sagte sie, nur waren sie viel größer als die Kirchtürme, die die Menschen bauten.
•They showed themselves in the strangest shapes and were like diamonds.	•Sie zeigten sich in den seltsamsten Formen und waren wie Diamanten.
•She had seated herself on one of the largest, and all the ships made a wide circle in fear, away from the place where she was sitting and letting the wind set her long hair flying; but on towards evening the sky was covered with clouds, it lightened and thundered, while the black sea lifted the masses of ice high up, and made them glitter in the fierce lightning.	•Sie hatte sich auf einen der größten gesetzt, und alle Schiffe machten aus Angst einen großen Bogen weg von dem Ort, wo sie saß und den Wind ihr langes Haar wehen ließ; aber gegen Abend war der Himmel mit Wolken bedeckt, es blitzte und donnerte, während das schwarze Meer die Eismassen hochhob und sie in dem heftigen Blitzgewitter glitzern ließ.
•Aboard of all the ships they took in sail, and there was anxiety and fear, but she sat calmly on her floating iceberg and watched the blue flashes strike zig-zagging into the shining sea.	•An Bord aller Schiffe holten sie die Segel ein, und es gab Sorge und Angst, aber sie saß ruhig auf einem treibenden Eisberg und beobachtete die blauen Blitze, die in Zickzacklinien in die leuchtende See schlugen.
•The first time any of the sisters came to the top of the water, each one of them was always entranced by all the new pretty sights she saw, but now that, as grown girls, they had leave to go up whenever they liked, it became quite ordinary to them, and they longed to be at home again; and after a month had passed they said that after all it was far prettier down at the bottom, and there one was so comfortable at home.	•Jede der Schwestern war, wenn sie zum ersten Mal an die Wasseroberfläche kam, bezaubert von all den neuen schönen Bildern, die sie sah. Aber jetzt, als große Mädchen, hatten sie die Erlaubnis hinaufzusteigen, wann immer es ihnen gefiel. Es wurde für sie ganz normal, und sie sehnten sich nach Zuhause. Nach Ablauf eines Monats sagten sie, im Grunde genommen wäre es weit schöner drunten am Grund und dort hätte man es so gemütlich.
•On many an evening the five sisters would link arms together and rise in a row above the water.	•An vielen Abenden verschränkten die fünf Schwestern ihre Arme miteinander und erhoben sich in einer Reihe über das Wasser.
•They had lovely voices, more beautiful than any human being's, and when a storm was coming on, and they thought some ships might be lost, they would swim before the ships and sing most beautifully of how pretty it was at the bottom of the sea, and bade the seafarers not to be afraid of coming down there.	•Sie hatten wunderschöne Stimmen, viel schöner als die irgendeines Menschen, und wenn ein Sturm aufkam, und sie dachten, dass einige Schiffe verloren gehen würden, schwammen sie immer vor den Schiffen und sangen wunderbar davon, wie hübsch es auf dem Grund des Meeres wäre, und sagten den Matrosen (zum Abschied) sie sollten keine Angst haben, dort hinunterzukommen.
•But they could not understand their words; they thought it was the storm.	•Aber sie konnten ihre Worte nicht verstehen; sie dachten, es wäre der Sturm.
•Nor did they see any beautiful things down there either, for when the ship sank they were drowned, and only as dead corpses did they ever reach the sea King's palace.	•Sie sahen auch keine schöne Dingen dort unten, denn als das Schiff sank, ertranken sie und erreichten den Königspalast nur als Leichen.
•When of an evening the sisters rose like this, arm in arm, up through the sea, their little sister was left behind quite alone, looking after them, and it seemed as if she must have wept, but a mermaid has no tears, and that makes her suffer all the more.	•Als die Schwestern Abends so Arm in Arm im Meer hinaufstiegen, wurde ihre kleine Schwester ganz allein zurückgelassen, und schaute ihnen nach, und es schien, als ob sie hätte weinen müssen, nur hat eine Meerjungfrau keine Tränen und das ließ sie noch mehr leiden.
•"Oh! •if only I was fifteen," she said, "I know I shall become really fond of that world up there and of the people who have their homes there!"	•"Oh! •wenn ich nur fünfzehn wäre", sagte sie, " ich weiß, ich würde die Welt dort oben richtig liebgewinnen und die Menschen, die ihr Zuhause dort haben!"
•At last she was fifteen years old.	•Schließlich war sie fünfzehn Jahre alt.
•"There now! •We've got you off our hands," said the grandmother, the old widow Queen.	•"Also gut! •Wir sind nicht mehr verantwortlich für dich," sagte die Großmutter, die alte, verwitwete Königin.
•"Come here, and let me dress you out like your other sisters"; and she put a wreath of white lilies on her hair, only every petal in the flower was a half-pearl, and the old lady made eight large oysters take tight hold of the Princess's tail, to indicate her high rank.	•"Komm her und lass mich dich so anziehen, wie deine Schwestern"; und sie setzte einen Kranz aus weißen Lilien auf ihr Haar, nur dass jedes zweite Blütenblatt der Blume eine Halbperle war, und die alte Dame brachte acht große Austern dazu, sich auf dem Schwanz der Prinzessin festzusetzen, um ihren hohen Rang anzuzeigen.
•"But it hurts so," said the little mermaid.	•"Aber es tut so weh," sagte die kleine Meerjungfrau.
•"Yes, one must suffer a little for smartness' sake," said the old lady.	•"Ja," sagte die alte Dame, "man muss um der Eleganz willen etwas leiden.
•Oh dear! •She would gladly have shaken off all this finery and put away the heavy wreath.	•Ach herrje! •Sie hätte gerne all diese Pracht abgeschüttelt und den schweren Kranz weggelegt.
•The red flowers in her garden became her much better; but she dare not change it.	•Die roten Blumen in ihrem Garten standen ihr viel besser, aber sie wagte nicht, ihn zu verändern.
•"Good-bye," she said, and rose bright and light as a bubble, up through the water.	•"Auf Wiedersehen", sagte sie und stieg hell und leicht wie eine Luftblase, hinauf durch das Wasser.
•The sun had just gone down when she lifted her head above the sea, but all the clouds were still glowing like gold and roses, and in the midst of the pale red heaven the evening star shone clear and beautiful.	•Als sie ihren Kopf aus dem Wasser streckte, war die Sonne gerade untergegangen, aber alle Wolken leuchteten noch wie Gold und Rosen, und in der Mitte des bleichen, roten Himmels schien klar und schön der Abendstern.
•The air was soft and cool, and the sea dead calm.	•Die Luft war sanft und kühl, und das Meer völlig ruhig.
•There lay a great ship with three masts; only a single sail was set, for no wind was stirring, and round about on the rigging and on the yard, sailors were sitting.	•Da lag ein großes Schiff mit drei Masten; nur ein einziges Segel war gesetzt, denn kein Wind regte sich, und rund herum auf der Takelage und auf der Werft saßen Seeleute.
•There was music and singing, and as evening grew darker hundreds of variegated lamps were lit.	•Es gab Musik und Gesang, und als es abends dunkler wurde, wurden Hunderte vielfarbiger Lampen angezündet.
•They looked as if the flags of all nations were waving in the air.	•Sie sahen aus, als ob die Flaggen aller Nationen in der Luft wehen würden.
•The little mermaid swam straight up to the cabin window, and every time a wave lifted her, she could see through at the windows, clear as mirrors, numbers of gaily dressed people; but the handsomest of them all was the young Prince with the big black eyes: he was certainly not much over sixteen, and this was his birthday, and that was why there were all these fine doings.	•Die kleine Meerjungfrau schwamm geradewegs auf ein Kajütenfenster zu, und jedesmal, wenn eine Welle sie hochhob, konnte sie durch das kristallklare Fenster eine Reihe farbenfroh gekleidete Menschen sehen; aber der bestaussehende von ihnen war der junge Prinz mit den schwarzen Augen; er war gewiss nicht viel älter als siebzehn Jahre, und dies war sein Geburtstag, und deshalb gab es all diese feine Dinge.
•The sailors danced on the deck, and when the young Prince came out there, more than a hundred rockets shot up into the sky.	•Die Matrosen tanzten auf dem Deck und als der junge Prinz herauskam, schossen mehr als hundert Raketen in den Himmel.
•They shone as bright as day, and the little mermaid was quite frightened and dived down beneath the water, but soon she put up her head again, and then it seemed as if all the stars in the sky were falling down on her.	•Sie leuchteten so hell wie der Tag, und die kleine Meerjungfrau hatte ziemlich viel Angst und tauchte unter die Wasseroberfläche, aber bald streckte sie ihren Kopf wieder aus dem Wasser, und es schien, als ob die Sterne des Himmels auf sie fallen würden.
•She had never seen fireworks like that.	•Noch nie hatte sie ein solches Feuerwerk gesehen.
•Great suns whizzed round, splendid fire-fish darted into the blue heaven, and everything was reflected back from the bright calm sea.	•Große Sonnen schwirrten umher, prächtige Feuerfische flitzten in den blauen Himmel hinauf und alles wurde vom hellen, ruhigen Meer widergespiegelt.
•On the ship itself there was so much light that you could see every least rope, let alone the people.	•Auf dem Schiff selbst war so viel Licht, das man jede kleinste Leine sehen konnte, ganz abgesehen von den Menschen.
•Oh! •how handsome the young Prince was; he shook hands with the crew and smiled and laughed, while the music rang out into the beautiful night.	•Oh! •wie gutausehend der junge Prinz war; er gab der Mannschaft die Hand und lächelte und lachte, während die Musik durch die wunderschöne Nacht drang.
•It grew late, but the little mermaid could not take her eyes off the ship and the beautiful Prince.	•Es wurde spät, aber die kleine Meerjungfrau konnte den Blick nicht vom Schiff und dem schönen Prinzen abwenden.
•The coloured lamps were put out, no more rockets flew up into the sky, no more guns were let off, but deep down in the sea there was a murmur and a rumbling.	•Die bunten Lampen wurden ausgeschaltet, es flogen keine Raketen mehr in den Himmel, es wurden keine Kanonen mehr abgefeuert, aber tief unten im Meer gab es ein Rauschen und ein Rumpeln.
•Meanwhile she sat on the water and swung up and down, so that she could see into the cabin; but the ship now took a swifter pace, one sail after another was spread, the waves rose higher, great clouds came up in the distance, there was lightning.	•Währenddessen saß sie auf dem Wasser und bewegte sich auf und ab, sodass sie in die Kajüte hineinschauen konnte; aber das Schiff bewegte sich jetzt schneller, ein Segel nach dem anderen wurde gesetzt, die Wellen schwollen an, in der Ferne stiegen große Wolken auf, es gab Blitze
•Oh, there would be a terrible storm; and the seamen took in sail.	•Oh, es würde einen schrecklichen Sturm geben, und die Matrosen holten Segel ein.
•The great ship ploughed with the speed of a bird over the wild sea, the water piled itself into huge black mountains, as if to top the masts, but the ship dived down like a swan between the tall billows, and rose again over the heaving waters.	•Das große Schiff pflügte mit der Geschwindigkeit eines Vogels über das wilde Meer, das Wasser türmte sich zu riesigen schwarzen Bergen bis zur Spitze der Masten auf, aber das Schiff tauchte wie ein Schwan zwischen den hohen Brandungswellen ein, und erhob sich wieder über die wogenden Wasser.
•To the little mermaid it seemed just a pleasant jaunt, but not so to the sailors.	•Für die kleine Meerjungfrau schien es nur ein angenehmer Ausflug zu sein, nicht aber für die Matrosen.
•The ship creaked and cracked, the stout planks bent with the mighty blows that the sea dealt.	•Das Schiff knarrte und knackte, die stabilen Planken wölbten sich unter den gewaltigen Stößen, die das Meer austeilte.
•The mast snapped in the midst as if it had been a reed, and the ship heeled over on her side, while the water rushed into her hull.	•Der Mast brach in der Mitte, als ob er ein Schilfrohr gewesen wäre, und das Schiff kippte auf seine Seite, während das Wasser in seinen Schiffsrumpf strömte.
•Now the little mermaid saw they were in peril; she herself had to beware of the beams and broken pieces of the ship that were driven about in the sea.	•Die kleine Meerjungfrau sah nun, dass sie in Gefahr waren; auch sie musste sich vor den Balken und Bruchstücken des Schiffs hüten, die auf die See hinausgetrieben wurden.
•At one instant it was so pitch-dark that she could see nothing whatever; then, when it lightened, it was so bright that she could see everyone on board.	•Im nächsten Augenblick war es so stockdunkel, dass sie nichts mehr sehen konnte; dann, als es aufhellte, war es so grell, dass sie alle an Bord sehen konnte.
•Everyone was leaping off as best he could.	•Jeder sprang ab, so gut er konnte.
•The young Prince above all she looked for, and she saw him, when the ship parted, sink down into the deep.	•Sie suchte vor allem den jungen Prinzen, und sie sah ihn in die Tiefe sinken, als das Schiff zerbrach.
•For a moment she was full of joy that now he was coming down to her; but then she remembered that men could not live in the water, and that he could never come alive to her father's palace.	•Einen Moment lang freute sie sich, das er jetzt zu ihr herunterkam; aber dann erinnerte sie sich, dass die Menschen nicht im Wasser leben können, und das er nie lebend zum Palasst ihres Vaters kommen könnte.
•No, die he must not!	•Nein, er durfte nicht sterben!
•So she swam in among the beams and planks that drove about in the water, quite forgetting that they might have crushed her—dived deep beneath the water, and rose high among the billows, and so came at last to the young Prince, who could hardly keep himself afloat any longer in the stormy sea.	•So schwamm sie zwischen den Balken und Planken herum, die im Wasser trieben, und vergaß dabei ganz, dass diese sie hätten zerdrücken können - tauchte tief unter Wasser und stieg hoch zwischen den Wogen auf, und kam schließlich zu dem jungen Prinzen, der sich in der stürmischen See kaum noch über Wasser halten konnte.
•His arms and legs were beginning to tire, his beautiful eyes were closing; but he would perforce have died had not the little mermaid come to him.	•seine Arme und Beine wurden müde, seine schönen Augen fingen an sich zu schließen; aber er wäre unweigerlich gestorben, wenn die kleine Meerjungfrau nicht zu ihm gekommen wäre.
•She held his head above the water, and let the waves drive her with him whither they would.	•Sie hielt seinen Kopf über Wasser und ließ die Wellen sie mit ihm treiben, wohin sie wollten.

unit 1

The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 2

(from Hans Andersen Forty-Two Stories [1930], translated by M. R. James).
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unit 3

Far out in the sea the water is as blue as the petals of the loveliest of cornflowers, and as clear as the clearest glass; but it is very deep, deeper than any anchor-cable can reach, and many church towers would have to be put one on the top of another to reach from the bottom out of the water.
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unit 4

Down there live the sea people.
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unit 5

Now you must not think for a moment that there is only a bare white sandy bottom there; no, no: there the most extraordinary trees and plants grow, which have stems and leaves so supple that they stir at the slightest movement of the water, as if they were alive.
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unit 6

All the fish, big and little, flit among the branches, like the birds in the air up here.
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unit 7

In the deepest place of all lies the sea king's palace.
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unit 8

The walls are of coral, and the tall pointed windows of the clearest possible amber, but the roof is of mussel-shells that open and shut themselves as the water moves.
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unit 9

It all looks beautiful, for in everyone of them lie shining pearls, a single one of which would be the principal ornament in a Queen's crown.
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unit 10

The sea King down there had been a widower for many years, but his old mother kept house for him.
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unit 11

She was a clever woman, but proud of her rank, for which reason she went about with twelve oysters on her tail, while the rest of the nobility might only carry six.
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unit 12

For the rest she deserved high praise, especially because she was so fond of the little sea Princesses, her grandchildren.
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unit 13

There were six of them, beautiful children, but the youngest was the prettiest of them all.
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unit 14

Her skin was as bright and pure as a rose-leaf, her eyes were as blue as the deepest lake; but like all the rest, she had no feet—her body ended in a fish's tail.
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unit 15

All the love-long day they might play down in the palace in the great halls where live flowers grew out of the walls.
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unit 16

The big windows of amber stood open, and the fishes swam in through them, just as with us swallows fly in when we open the windows; but the fishes used to swim right up to the little Princesses and feed out of their hands and allow themselves to be stroked.
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unit 17

Outside the palace there was a large garden with fiery red and dark blue trees, whose fruit shone like gold, and their flowers were like a flaming fire, because they were always moving their stems and leaves.
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unit 18

The ground was of the finest sand, but blue like the flame of sulphur.
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unit 19

Over the whole expanse down there lay a wonderful blue sheen.
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unit 20

You could more easily imagine that you were far up in the air and could see the sky above you and below you, than that you were at the bottom of the sea.
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unit 21

In a dead calm you could see the sun: it looked like a purple flower out of whose cup all the light was streaming.
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unit 22

Each of the young Princesses had her little plot in the garden, where she could dig and plant as she liked.
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unit 23

One would make her flower-bed in the shape of a whale, another preferred to have hers like a little mermaid, but the youngest made hers quite round, like the sun, and would only have flowers that shone red like it.
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unit 24

She was an odd child, quiet and thoughtful, and whereas the other sisters would deck out their gardens with the quaintest things, that they had got from sunken ships, she would only have—besides the rose-red flowers that were like the sun far up in the sky—a pretty statue of marble.
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unit 25

It was of a handsome boy, carved out of bright white stone, which had come down to the sea bottom from a wreck.
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unit 26

Beside the statue she planted a rose-red weeping willow, which grew splendidly and hung its fresh branches over it, right down to the blue sand bottom, on which the shadows showed violet, and moved with the branches; it looked as if the top and the roots of the tree were playing at kissing each other.
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unit 27

She had no greater delight than in dreaming about the world of men up above.
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unit 28

The old grandmother had to tell her all she knew about ships and horses and men and animals.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 29

It seemed to her particularly delightful that up there on earth the flowers smelt sweet (which they did not at the sea bottom), and that the woods were green and the fish which one saw among the branches could sing so loud and prettily that it was a joy to hear them.
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unit 30

It was the little birds that the grandmother called fish, otherwise they could not have understood, for they had never seen a bird.
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unit 31

"When you're full fifteen years old," said the grandmother, "you shall have leave to come up out of the sea and sit on the rocks in the moonlight, and see the big ships that come sailing by; and forests and houses you shall see."
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unit 32

During the year that was passing one of the sisters was fifteen years old; but the rest—why, each was a year younger than the next, and so the youngest had a clear five years to wait before she could come up from the sea bottom and see how things go with us.
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unit 33

But the first promised the next one to tell her what she had seen and had thought beautiful on the first day, for their grandmother didn't tell them enough: there were very many things they wanted to know about.
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unit 34

None of them was so full of longing as the youngest, the very one who had the longest time to wait, and was so quiet and thoughtful.
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unit 35

Many a night she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue waters where the fish went waving their fins and tails.
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unit 36

She could see the moon and the stars; of course they were very pale, but, seen through the water, they looked much larger than they do to our eyes.
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unit 37

If something like a black cloud passed along beneath them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming above her, or even a ship with a number of people in it.
2 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 38

Certainly they never thought that beneath them there was a lovely little mermaid stretching her hands up towards the keel.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 39

And now the eldest Princess was fifteen years old and could rise up above the surface of the sea.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 40

When she came back she had a hundred things to tell; but the most beautiful thing, she said, was to lie on a sandbank in the moonlight in the calm sea, and to see close by the shore the big town where the lights twinkled like hundreds of stars, and to hear the sound of music and the noise and stir of carts and people, and see all the church towers and steeples and hear the bells ringing; and just because she couldn't go up there, she longed after all that, most of all.
1 Translations, 0 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 41

Oh, how the youngest sister did listen!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 42

And when, later on in the evening, she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue water, she thought about the big town and all the noise and stir, and then she fancied she could hear the church bells ringing down to her.
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unit 43

The year after, the second sister had leave to rise up through the water and swim where she liked; she ducked up just as the sun was going down, and the sight of that she thought the most beautiful of all.
2 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 44

The whole heaven, she said, had looked like gold, and the clouds—oh!
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 45

the beauty of them she could not describe: red and violet, they sailed past above her, but far swifter than they there flew, like a large white ribbon, a skein of wild swans away over the water, to where the sun was.
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unit 46

She swam towards it, but it sank, and the rosy glow died from the clouds and the face of the sea.
3 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 47

Next year the third sister went up; she was the boldest of them all; and so she swam up a broad river that ran into the sea.
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unit 48

Beautiful green hills she saw, with rows of vines upon them.
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unit 49

Palaces and mansions peeped out from among stately woods.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 50

She heard all the birds singing, and the sun shone so hot that she had to dive beneath the water to cool her burning face.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 51

In a little inlet she came upon a whole crowd of young human children; they were quite naked, and ran about and splashed in the water.
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unit 52

She wanted to play with them, but they ran away in a fright, and then came a little black creature (it was a dog, but she had never seen a dog before) and it barked at her so dreadfully that she was terrified and took refuge in the open sea; but never could she forget the splendid woods and the green hills and the pretty children who could swim in the water, though they had no fish-tails.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 53

The fourth sister was not so daring.
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unit 54

She stayed out in the lonely sea, and told them that that was the most beautiful of all.
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unit 55

You could see many many miles all round, and the sky arched over you like a great bell of glass.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 56

Ships she had seen, but far away they looked like gulls.
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unit 57

The merry dolphins had turned somersaults, and the big whales had squirted up water out of their nostrils, so that it looked like hundreds of fountains all around her.
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unit 58

Now came the turn of the fifth sister.
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unit 59

Her birthday, it happened, was in winter, and so she saw what the others had not seen on their first visit.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 60

The sea was all green to look at, and round about there floated large icebergs, everyone looking like a pearl, she said, and yet they were far bigger than the church towers that men built.
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unit 61

They showed themselves in the strangest shapes and were like diamonds.
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unit 62

She had seated herself on one of the largest, and all the ships made a wide circle in fear, away from the place where she was sitting and letting the wind set her long hair flying; but on towards evening the sky was covered with clouds, it lightened and thundered, while the black sea lifted the masses of ice high up, and made them glitter in the fierce lightning.
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unit 63

Aboard of all the ships they took in sail, and there was anxiety and fear, but she sat calmly on her floating iceberg and watched the blue flashes strike zig-zagging into the shining sea.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 64

The first time any of the sisters came to the top of the water, each one of them was always entranced by all the new pretty sights she saw, but now that, as grown girls, they had leave to go up whenever they liked, it became quite ordinary to them, and they longed to be at home again; and after a month had passed they said that after all it was far prettier down at the bottom, and there one was so comfortable at home.
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unit 65

On many an evening the five sisters would link arms together and rise in a row above the water.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 66

They had lovely voices, more beautiful than any human being's, and when a storm was coming on, and they thought some ships might be lost, they would swim before the ships and sing most beautifully of how pretty it was at the bottom of the sea, and bade the seafarers not to be afraid of coming down there.
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unit 67

But they could not understand their words; they thought it was the storm.
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unit 68

Nor did they see any beautiful things down there either, for when the ship sank they were drowned, and only as dead corpses did they ever reach the sea King's palace.
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unit 69

When of an evening the sisters rose like this, arm in arm, up through the sea, their little sister was left behind quite alone, looking after them, and it seemed as if she must have wept, but a mermaid has no tears, and that makes her suffer all the more.
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unit 70

"Oh!
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unit 71

if only I was fifteen," she said, "I know I shall become really fond of that world up there and of the people who have their homes there!"
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unit 72

At last she was fifteen years old.
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unit 73

"There now!
1 Translations, 1 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 74

We've got you off our hands," said the grandmother, the old widow Queen.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 75

"Come here, and let me dress you out like your other sisters"; and she put a wreath of white lilies on her hair, only every petal in the flower was a half-pearl, and the old lady made eight large oysters take tight hold of the Princess's tail, to indicate her high rank.
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unit 76

"But it hurts so," said the little mermaid.
1 Translations, 4 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 77

"Yes, one must suffer a little for smartness' sake," said the old lady.
1 Translations, 5 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 78

Oh dear!
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unit 79

She would gladly have shaken off all this finery and put away the heavy wreath.
1 Translations, 3 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 80

The red flowers in her garden became her much better; but she dare not change it.
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unit 81

"Good-bye," she said, and rose bright and light as a bubble, up through the water.
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unit 82

The sun had just gone down when she lifted her head above the sea, but all the clouds were still glowing like gold and roses, and in the midst of the pale red heaven the evening star shone clear and beautiful.
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unit 83

The air was soft and cool, and the sea dead calm.
1 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 84

There lay a great ship with three masts; only a single sail was set, for no wind was stirring, and round about on the rigging and on the yard, sailors were sitting.
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unit 85

There was music and singing, and as evening grew darker hundreds of variegated lamps were lit.
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unit 86

They looked as if the flags of all nations were waving in the air.
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unit 87

The little mermaid swam straight up to the cabin window, and every time a wave lifted her, she could see through at the windows, clear as mirrors, numbers of gaily dressed people; but the handsomest of them all was the young Prince with the big black eyes: he was certainly not much over sixteen, and this was his birthday, and that was why there were all these fine doings.
2 Translations, 2 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 88

The sailors danced on the deck, and when the young Prince came out there, more than a hundred rockets shot up into the sky.
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unit 89

They shone as bright as day, and the little mermaid was quite frightened and dived down beneath the water, but soon she put up her head again, and then it seemed as if all the stars in the sky were falling down on her.
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unit 90

She had never seen fireworks like that.
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unit 91

Great suns whizzed round, splendid fire-fish darted into the blue heaven, and everything was reflected back from the bright calm sea.
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unit 92

On the ship itself there was so much light that you could see every least rope, let alone the people.
1 Translations, 1 Upvotes, Last Activity 6 years, 9 months ago

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unit 93

Oh!
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unit 94

how handsome the young Prince was; he shook hands with the crew and smiled and laughed, while the music rang out into the beautiful night.
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unit 95

It grew late, but the little mermaid could not take her eyes off the ship and the beautiful Prince.
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unit 96

The coloured lamps were put out, no more rockets flew up into the sky, no more guns were let off, but deep down in the sea there was a murmur and a rumbling.
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unit 97

Meanwhile she sat on the water and swung up and down, so that she could see into the cabin; but the ship now took a swifter pace, one sail after another was spread, the waves rose higher, great clouds came up in the distance, there was lightning.
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unit 98

Oh, there would be a terrible storm; and the seamen took in sail.
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unit 99

The great ship ploughed with the speed of a bird over the wild sea, the water piled itself into huge black mountains, as if to top the masts, but the ship dived down like a swan between the tall billows, and rose again over the heaving waters.
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unit 100

To the little mermaid it seemed just a pleasant jaunt, but not so to the sailors.
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unit 101

The ship creaked and cracked, the stout planks bent with the mighty blows that the sea dealt.
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unit 102

The mast snapped in the midst as if it had been a reed, and the ship heeled over on her side, while the water rushed into her hull.
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unit 103

Now the little mermaid saw they were in peril; she herself had to beware of the beams and broken pieces of the ship that were driven about in the sea.
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unit 104

At one instant it was so pitch-dark that she could see nothing whatever; then, when it lightened, it was so bright that she could see everyone on board.
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unit 105

Everyone was leaping off as best he could.
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unit 106

The young Prince above all she looked for, and she saw him, when the ship parted, sink down into the deep.
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unit 107

For a moment she was full of joy that now he was coming down to her; but then she remembered that men could not live in the water, and that he could never come alive to her father's palace.
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unit 108

No, die he must not!
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unit 109

So she swam in among the beams and planks that drove about in the water, quite forgetting that they might have crushed her—dived deep beneath the water, and rose high among the billows, and so came at last to the young Prince, who could hardly keep himself afloat any longer in the stormy sea.
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unit 110

His arms and legs were beginning to tire, his beautiful eyes were closing; but he would perforce have died had not the little mermaid come to him.
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unit 111

She held his head above the water, and let the waves drive her with him whither they would.
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The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen.
(from Hans Andersen Forty-Two Stories [1930], translated by M. R. James).

Down there live the sea people.

All the fish, big and little, flit among the branches, like the birds in the air up here.

In the deepest place of all lies the sea king's palace.

The walls are of coral, and the tall pointed windows of the clearest possible amber, but the roof is of mussel-shells that open and shut themselves as the water moves.

It all looks beautiful, for in everyone of them lie shining pearls, a single one of which would be the principal ornament in a Queen's crown.

The sea King down there had been a widower for many years, but his old mother kept house for him.

She was a clever woman, but proud of her rank, for which reason she went about with twelve oysters on her tail, while the rest of the nobility might only carry six.

For the rest she deserved high praise, especially because she was so fond of the little sea Princesses, her grandchildren.

There were six of them, beautiful children, but the youngest was the prettiest of them all.

Her skin was as bright and pure as a rose-leaf, her eyes were as blue as the deepest lake; but like all the rest, she had no feet—her body ended in a fish's tail.

All the love-long day they might play down in the palace in the great halls where live flowers grew out of the walls.

The ground was of the finest sand, but blue like the flame of sulphur.

Over the whole expanse down there lay a wonderful blue sheen.

You could more easily imagine that you were far up in the air and could see the sky above you and below you, than that you were at the bottom of the sea.

In a dead calm you could see the sun: it looked like a purple flower out of whose cup all the light was streaming.

Each of the young Princesses had her little plot in the garden, where she could dig and plant as she liked.

It was of a handsome boy, carved out of bright white stone, which had come down to the sea bottom from a wreck.

it looked as if the top and the roots of the tree were playing at kissing each other.

She had no greater delight than in dreaming about the world of men up above.

The old grandmother had to tell her all she knew about ships and horses and men and animals.

It was the little birds that the grandmother called fish, otherwise they could not have understood, for they had never seen a bird.

None of them was so full of longing as the youngest, the very one who had the longest time to wait, and was so quiet and thoughtful.

Many a night she stood at the open window and gazed up through the dark blue waters where the fish went waving their fins and tails.

She could see the moon and the stars; of course they were very pale, but, seen through the water, they looked much larger than they do to our eyes.

If something like a black cloud passed along beneath them, she knew that it was either a whale swimming above her, or even a ship with a number of people in it.

Certainly they never thought that beneath them there was a lovely little mermaid stretching her hands up towards the keel.

And now the eldest Princess was fifteen years old and could rise up above the surface of the sea.

and just because she couldn't go up there, she longed after all that, most of all.

Oh, how the youngest sister did listen!

The whole heaven, she said, had looked like gold, and the clouds—oh! the beauty of them she could not describe: red and violet, they sailed past above her, but far swifter than they there flew, like a large white ribbon, a skein of wild swans away over the water, to where the sun was.

She swam towards it, but it sank, and the rosy glow died from the clouds and the face of the sea.

Next year the third sister went up; she was the boldest of them all; and so she swam up a broad river that ran into the sea.

Beautiful green hills she saw, with rows of vines upon them. Palaces and mansions peeped out from among stately woods.

She heard all the birds singing, and the sun shone so hot that she had to dive beneath the water to cool her burning face.

In a little inlet she came upon a whole crowd of young human children; they were quite naked, and ran about and splashed in the water.

but never could she forget the splendid woods and the green hills and the pretty children who could swim in the water, though they had no fish-tails.

The fourth sister was not so daring.

She stayed out in the lonely sea, and told them that that was the most beautiful of all.

You could see many many miles all round, and the sky arched over you like a great bell of glass.

Ships she had seen, but far away they looked like gulls.

The merry dolphins had turned somersaults, and the big whales had squirted up water out of their nostrils, so that it looked like hundreds of fountains all around her.

Now came the turn of the fifth sister.

Her birthday, it happened, was in winter, and so she saw what the others had not seen on their first visit.

The sea was all green to look at, and round about there floated large icebergs, everyone looking like a pearl, she said, and yet they were far bigger than the church towers that men built.

They showed themselves in the strangest shapes and were like diamonds.

She had seated herself on one of the largest, and all the ships made a wide circle in fear, away from the place where she was sitting and letting the wind set her long hair flying;

but on towards evening the sky was covered with clouds, it lightened and thundered, while the black sea lifted the masses of ice high up, and made them glitter in the fierce lightning.

Aboard of all the ships they took in sail, and there was anxiety and fear, but she sat calmly on her floating iceberg and watched the blue flashes strike zig-zagging into the shining sea.

and after a month had passed they said that after all it was far prettier down at the bottom, and there one was so comfortable at home.

On many an evening the five sisters would link arms together and rise in a row above the water.

But they could not understand their words; they thought it was the storm.

Nor did they see any beautiful things down there either, for when the ship sank they were drowned, and only as dead corpses did they ever reach the sea King's palace.

"Oh! if only I was fifteen," she said, "I know I shall become really fond of that world up there and of the people who have their homes there!"

At last she was fifteen years old.

"There now! We've got you off our hands," said the grandmother, the old widow Queen.

"But it hurts so," said the little mermaid.

"Yes, one must suffer a little for smartness' sake," said the old lady.

Oh dear! She would gladly have shaken off all this finery and put away the heavy wreath.

The red flowers in her garden became her much better; but she dare not change it.

"Good-bye," she said, and rose bright and light as a bubble, up through the water.

The air was soft and cool, and the sea dead calm.

There lay a great ship with three masts; only a single sail was set, for no wind was stirring, and round about on the rigging and on the yard, sailors were sitting.

There was music and singing, and as evening grew darker hundreds of variegated lamps were lit.

They looked as if the flags of all nations were waving in the air.

The little mermaid swam straight up to the cabin window, and every time a wave lifted her, she could see through at the windows, clear as mirrors, numbers of gaily dressed people;

but the handsomest of them all was the young Prince with the big black eyes: he was certainly not much over sixteen, and this was his birthday, and that was why there were all these fine doings.

The sailors danced on the deck, and when the young Prince came out there, more than a hundred rockets shot up into the sky.

She had never seen fireworks like that.

Great suns whizzed round, splendid fire-fish darted into the blue heaven, and everything was reflected back from the bright calm sea.

On the ship itself there was so much light that you could see every least rope, let alone the people.

Oh! how handsome the young Prince was; he shook hands with the crew and smiled and laughed, while the music rang out into the beautiful night.

It grew late, but the little mermaid could not take her eyes off the ship and the beautiful Prince.

The coloured lamps were put out, no more rockets flew up into the sky, no more guns were let off, but deep down in the sea there was a murmur and a rumbling.

Oh, there would be a terrible storm; and the seamen took in sail.

To the little mermaid it seemed just a pleasant jaunt, but not so to the sailors.

The ship creaked and cracked, the stout planks bent with the mighty blows that the sea dealt.

The mast snapped in the midst as if it had been a reed, and the ship heeled over on her side, while the water rushed into her hull.

Now the little mermaid saw they were in peril; she herself had to beware of the beams and broken pieces of the ship that were driven about in the sea.

At one instant it was so pitch-dark that she could see nothing whatever; then, when it lightened, it was so bright that she could see everyone on board.

Everyone was leaping off as best he could.

The young Prince above all she looked for, and she saw him, when the ship parted, sink down into the deep.

For a moment she was full of joy that now he was coming down to her; but then she remembered that men could not live in the water, and that he could never come alive to her father's palace.

No, die he must not!

His arms and legs were beginning to tire, his beautiful eyes were closing; but he would perforce have died had not the little mermaid come to him.

She held his head above the water, and let the waves drive her with him whither they would.