the hurds

jacob and wilhelm grimm

once upon a time there was a girl who was beautiful, but lazy and negligent1. when she had to spin she was so ill tempered that if there was a little knot in the flax, she at once pulled out a whole heap of it, and scattered2 it about on the ground beside her. now she had a servant who was industrious3, and who gathered together the discarded flax, cleaned it, spun4 it well, and had a beautiful dress woven out of it for herself.

a young man had courted the lazy girl, and the wedding was about to take place. on the eve of the wedding, the industrious girl was dancing merrily about in her beautiful dress, and the bride said,

ach, wat kann das mken5 springen

in minen slickerlingen!

ah, how that girl can jump about,

in my hurds!

the bridegroom heard this, and asked the bride what she meant by it. so she told him that the girl was wearing a dress made from the flax which she had thrown away. when the bridegroom heard this, and saw how lazy she was, and how industrious the poor girl was, he gave her up and went to the other girl, and chose her as his wife.

从前有位姑娘长得很漂亮，但很懒惰又马虎。如果叫她纺织，她总是心浮意躁，麻里有个小结，她就会扯掉一大堆麻，扔在身边的地上。有一个勤快的丫头，把摔掉的麻收拢来，洗乾净，又精心地纺了一遍，用它织成了一件漂亮的衣服。一个年轻人向那懒姑娘求婚，他们很快就要举行婚礼了。在结婚的前一晚，那勤快的丫头穿着她那美丽的衣服，高兴地来他家跳舞，新娘说：

“啊呀，那丫头穿着我不要的东西，

竟来堂而皇之地跳舞！“

新郎听见了，很是迷惑，问新娘说这话是甚么意思。於是她跟他说，那女孩穿的衣服，是她扔掉的麻织成的。新郎听到这话，晓得她懒，而那穷女孩勤快，就毫不犹豫地撇下了她，走到了那勤快的姑娘跟前，选了她做了自己的妻子。