第11章01 Hiss! / 嘶嘶嘶嘶！

11. Hiss!

The princess's pleasure in the lake had grown to a passion, and she could scarcely bear to be out of it for an hour. Imagine then her consternation, when, diving with the prince one night, a sudden suspicion seized her that the lake was not so deep as it used to be. The prince could not imagine what had happened. She shot to the surface, and, without a word, swam at full speed towards the higher side of the lake. He followed, begging to know if she was ill, or what was the matter. She never turned her head, or took the smallest notice of his question. Arrived at the shore, she coasted the rocks with minute inspection. But she was not able to come to a conclusion, for the moon was very small, and so she could not see well. She turned therefore and swam home, without saying a word to explain her conduct to the prince, of whose presence she seemed no longer conscious. He withdrew to his cave, in great perplexity and distress.

Next day she made many observations, which, alas! strengthened her fears. She saw that the banks were too dry; and that the grass on the shore, and the trailing plants on the rocks, were withering away. She caused marks to be made along the borders, and examined them, day after day, in all directions of the wind; till at last the horrible idea became a certain fact—that the surface of the lake was slowly sinking.

The poor princess nearly went out of the little mind she had. It was awful to her to see the lake, which she loved more than any living thing, lie dying before her eyes. It sank away, slowly vanishing. The tops of rocks that had never been seen till now, began to appear far down in the clear water. Before long they were dry in the sun. It was fearful to think of the mud that would soon lie there baking and festering, full of lovely creatures dying, and ugly creatures coming to life, like the unmaking of a world. And how hot the sun would be without any lake! She could not bear to swim in it any more, and began to pine away. Her life seemed bound up with it; and ever as the lake sank, she pined. People said she would not live an hour after the lake was gone.

But she never cried.

11.嘶嘶！

公主在湖中得到的愉悦已经升华为一种激情，一个钟头不泡在水里她都无法忍受了。有一天晚上，当她和王子一起潜入水中的时候，她突然意识到湖水似乎没有平时那么深了，可想而知，她当时是多么地惊愕。王子猜不出到底发生了什么事情。公主浮出湖面，一句话也没有说，径直游向湖岸较高的一面。王子跟在后面，想要知道她是不是病了，或者发生了什么事情。公主头也不回，好像忘记了王子还在旁边。到达岸边之后，她绕着湖边的岩石看了一会儿。但是她还不能得出结论，因为月光很微弱，她看不太清楚。就这样，她转身离去，没有对王子做哪怕一个字的解释就回宫了，似乎根本没有意识到他的存在。王子只能带着满肚子的困惑不解和难过回到栖身的岩洞。

第二天，公主做了更细致的观察。哎呀！这下更加剧了她的担心。她看到河岸十分干燥，岸边的草和岩石间蔓生的植物都已经开始枯萎。她令人沿着河边做上标记，然后顺着各个方向，每天检查一遍；最后，可怕的想法变成了确定的事实——湖面真的在慢慢地下沉。

可怜的公主几乎绞尽了脑汁。现在对她来说，眺望这片湖成了一件可怕的事情。她是如此深爱这片湖，远胜于一切有生命的事物，而它就在她眼前一天天濒临死亡。它渐渐地下沉，慢慢地消失。以前从未看到的石头，开始从清澈的湖水中露出尖尖一角，在阳光的曝晒下很快变得干干的。想想都觉得可怕——那湖底的泥巴很快也会像这样暴露无遗，任由阳光肆虐；所有可爱的生灵都将死去，而丑陋的家伙都将苏醒，仿佛到了世界末日。如果没有湖水，太阳将会显得多么灼热啊！想到以后不能在湖中畅游，这让公主无法忍受，日见憔悴。她的生命似乎也在随着湖水一同消减，湖水每消失一成，公主便憔悴一分。人们纷纷说道，要是湖水彻底消失了，公主恐怕挨不过一个钟头。

但是，公主还是没有落下一滴眼泪。