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从前，有一家人有十个女儿，个个都很漂亮。一天，天气很热，她们在河里嬉戏时，一个陌生的老人走了过来。"漂亮的姑娘们，给我舀一些水吧。"他声音嘶哑地说，"我很渴啊!” "他好丑啊!”女孩们咯咯地笑着说，“像一只老青蛙。”姑娘们笑得无法控制自己，但是有一个例外，她为姐妹们的无礼感到羞耻。对于她们来说真是很不幸，因为这位老人是一个魔法师,一眨眼他就把九个女孩变成了高高细长的柳树，沿着河岸低垂着。那个有礼貌的女孩哭着跑回去找她的父母，把发生的一切告诉了他们。 悲痛欲绝的父母带着斧头跑到河岸，父亲想把最近的一棵树砍倒，但是鲜血却从裂开的树皮里渗出来。他吓坏了，又试了三次，可是每次鲜血都会流出来，他不得不停下来。父母很害怕那个魔法师,就伤心地把他们唯一的女儿送到遥远的地方居住，而他们就满脸泪水地永远住在柳树下面。 Weeping Willows There were ten beautiful girls belonging to one family. One day, while they were playing together in the river, the weather being very hot, a strange old man came by. "Dip me up some water, pretty girls, he croaked. “I am very thirsty.” "How ugly he is，" giggled the girls, "just like an old frog.” And they fell about laughing, all except one, who was ashamed of her sisters，rudeness. Unfortunately for them, the old man was really a magician，and in a twinkling had turned nine of the girls into tall slender trees, drooping along the river bank. The polite daughter ran crying to her parents and told them what had happened. The grief - stricken parents ran to the river bank with a chopper, and the father tried to chop the nearest tree down, but was horrified when blood oozed from the splintered bark. Three times he tried, but each time the blood ran and he had to stop. Sorrowfully, the parents sent their only daughter to live in a faraway land for fear of the magician, but they themselves dwell in tears beneath the drooping trees forever. |
