第13章01 Here I Am / 我来了

13. Here I Am.

This was a very disheartening revelation to the king—not that he was unwilling to sacrifice a subject, but that he was hopeless of finding a man willing to sacrifice himself. No time was to be lost, however, for the princess was lying motionless on her bed, and taking no nourishment but lake-water, which was now none of the best. Therefore the king caused the co  ntents of the wonderful plate of gold to be published throughout the country.

No one, however, came forward.

The prince, having gone several days' journey into the forest, to consult a hermit whom he had met there on his way to Lagobel, knew nothing of the oracle till his return.

When he had acquainted himself with all the particulars, he sat down and thought,—

"She will die if I don't do it, and life would be nothing to me without her; so I shall lose nothing by doing it. And life will be as pleasant to her as ever, for she will soon forget me. And there will be so much more beauty and happiness in the world!—To be sure, I shall not see it." (Here the poor prince gave a sigh.) "How lovely the lake will be in the moonlight, with that glorious creature sporting in it like a wild goddess!—It is rather hard to be drowned by inches, though. Let me see—that will be seventy inches of me to drown." (Here he tried to laugh, but could not.) "The longer the better, however," he resumed: "for can I not bargain that the princess shall be beside me all the time? So I shall see her once more, kiss her perhaps,—who knows?—and die looking in her eyes. It will be no death. At least, I shall not feel it. And to see the lake filling for the beauty again!—All right! I am ready."

He kissed the princess's boot, laid it down, and hurried to the king's apartment. But feeling, as he went, that anything sentimental would be disagreeable, he resolved to carry off the whole affair with nonchalance. So he knocked at the door of the king's counting-house, where it was all but a capital crime to disturb him.

When the king heard the knock he started up, and opened the door in a rage. Seeing only the shoeblack, he drew his sword. This, I am sorry to say, was his usual mode of asserting his regality when he thought his dignity was in danger. But the prince was not in the least alarmed.

"Please your Majesty, I'm your butler," said he.

"My butler! you lying rascal! What do you mean?"

"I mean, I will cork your big bottle."

"Is the fellow mad?" bawled the king, raising the point of his sword.

"I will put a stopper—plug—what you call it, in your leaky lake, grand monarch," said the prince.

The king was in such a rage that before he could speak he had time to cool, and to reflect that it would be great waste to kill the only man who was willing to be useful in the present emergency, seeing that in the end the insolent fellow would be as dead as if he had died by his Majesty's own hand.

13.我来了

对于国王来说，这是一个令人沮丧的发现，倒不是他不想让谁去做这个牺牲，而是他根本就没指望找到一个愿意牺牲自己性命的人。然而时不我待，无论如何，公主正一动不动地躺在床上，什么药也没有用，除非湖水回来。这是唯一的救命稻草。于是国王下令将那个金盘子上的预言内容昭告全国。

然而，没有一个人自告奋勇地站出来。

这些日子，王子离开王宫去了森林，去拜访一位他来纳格贝尔旅途上遇到的隐士。

他回来之后才听说预言的事。

他坐下来想了想：

“如果我不去的话，她就会死掉，没了她，我活着也没什么意思，所以做这件事情对我来说没有什么损失。她又会和以前一样开心地活着了，她会很快就忘记我。这个世界上还有那么多奇妙美丽的东西！我肯定，再也看不到了。”想到这里，可怜的王子叹了一口气，“月光下的湖是多么地可爱，那个女孩在湖里简直就是充满野性的女神化身！我猜，一寸寸地被水淹没也不是一时半会儿就能搞定的。让我看看，要淹个七十英寸才把我淹死哦。”想到这里，他想挤出一点笑容，但是他做不到。“不管怎么说，越久越好。”他继续想道，“为什么不请求让公主一直陪在我身边呢？我可以再见她一次，没准还能亲亲她，天知道。最后在她的目光中死去，也没有多可怕。至少，到时候我就完全感觉不到了。为了再见公主一面，就去把湖填了！对！就这么办。”

他亲了亲公主的靴子，把它们放下来，起身赶往国王的房间。一路走过去，王子想到，所有伤感都只会带来更多 的不愉快，于是他决定要若无其事地把整件事情做完，什么都不去想。他敲了敲国王会计室的门，而这时候打扰国王差不多是罪不可恕的。

国王听到有人敲门，很快站起身来，生气地打开了门。看到是一个擦鞋匠站在门口，他立刻拔出宝剑。在这里，我不得不解释一下，只要国王觉得自己的尊严受到了威胁，拔出宝剑就是他维护权威的常用方式。不过王子面不改色地站在那里，眼睛眨都不眨一下。

“尊敬的陛下，我是您的奴仆。”他说道。

“我的奴仆！你这个撒谎的无赖！你到底在说些什么？”

“我是说，我要去塞住那个大瓶子。”

“这小伙子疯了吗？”国王大叫道，举起了他的宝剑。

“我将做一个塞子——瓶塞——随您怎么叫，塞进那个漏了的湖，伟大的君主。”王子说道。

国王的情绪非常激动，以至于一时无法冷静下来。不过他意识到，在这紧要关头杀掉唯一愿意挺身而出的人，会是很大的浪费，反正这个粗野的小伙子无论最后是死在他这个国王的手上，还是死在湖里，都是一样的。