1、ONCE upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would haveliked very much to have a real princess.One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.“Well, we’ll soon find that out,” thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.On this the princess had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.“Oh, very badly!” said she. “I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It’s horrible!”Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds.Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.
2、从前有一位王子，他想找一位公主结婚，但是她必须是一位真正的公主。有一天晚上，有人在敲门，老国王就走过去开门。站在城外的是一位美丽的女孩。她说她是一个真正的公主。老皇后把所有的被褥全部搬开，在床榻上放了一粒豌豆于是她取出二十张床垫子，把它们压在豌豆上。随后，她又在这些垫子上放了二十床鸭绒被。早晨大家问她昨晚睡得怎样。“啊，一点儿也不舒服！”公主说。”我差不多整夜都没有合上眼！天晓得床下有什么东西？有一粒很硬的东西硌着我，弄的我全身发紫，这真是太可怕了！”大家看出来了，她的确是一位真正的公主。因为压在这二十层床垫子和二十床鸭绒被下面的一粒豌豆，她居然还能感觉得出来。除了真正的公主以外，任何人都不会有这么稚嫩的皮肤的。因此，那位王子就选她做妻子了，因为他知道他得到了一位真正的公主。