SOMETHING
1872FAIRY TALES OF HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN
SOMETHING
by Hans Christian AndersenSOMETHING
"I MEAN to be somebody, and do something useful in the world,"said the eldest of five brothers. "I don't care how humble my positionis, so that I can only do some good, which will be something. I intendto be a brickmaker; bricks are always wanted, and I shall be reallydoing something."
"Your 'something' is not enough for me," said the secondbrother; "what you talk of doing is nothing at all, it is journeyman'swork, or might even be done by a machine. No! I should prefer to bea builder at once, there is something real in that. A man gains aposition, he becomes a citizen, has his own sign, his own house ofcall for his workmen: so I shall be a builder. If all goes well, intime I shall become a master, and have my own journeymen, and mywife will be treated as a master's wife. This is what I callsomething."
"I call it all nothing," said the third; "not in reality anyposition. There are many in a town far above a master builder inposition. You may be an upright man, but even as a master you willonly be ranked among common men. I know better what to do than that. Iwill be an architect, which will place me among those who possessriches and intellect, and who speculate in art. I shall certainly haveto rise by my own endeavors from a bricklayer's laborer, or as acarpenter's apprentice- a lad wearing a paper cap, although I now weara silk hat. I shall have to fetch beer and spirits for the journeymen,and they will call me 'thou,' which will be an insult. I shallendure it, however, for I shall look upon it all as a mererepresentation, a masquerade, a mummery, which to-morrow, that is,when I myself as a journeyman, shall have served my time, will vanish,and I shall go my way, and all that has passed will be nothing tome. Then I shall enter the academy, and get instructed in drawing, andbe called an architect. I may even attain to rank, and havesomething placed before or after my name, and I shall build asothers have done before me. By this there will be always 'something'to make me remembered, and is not that worth living for?"
"Not in my opinion," said the fourth; "I will never follow thelead of others, and only imitate what they have done. I will be agenius, and become greater than all of you together. I will create anew style of building, and introduce a plan for erecting housessuitable to the climate, with material easily obtained in the country,and thus suit national feeling and the developments of the age,besides building a storey for my own genius."
"But supposing the climate and the material are not good formuch," said the fifth brother, "that would be very unfortunate foryou, and have an influence over your experiments. Nationality mayassert itself until it becomes affectation, and the developments ofa century may run wild, as youth often does. I see clearly that noneof you will ever really be anything worth notice, however you maynow fancy it. But do as you like, I shall not imitate you. I mean tokeep clear of all these things, and criticize what you do. In everyaction something imperfect may be discovered, something not right,which I shall make it my business to find out and expose; that will besomething, I fancy." And he kept his word, and became a critic.
People said of this fifth brother, "There is something veryprecise about him; he has a good head-piece, but he does nothing." Andon that very account they thought he must be something.
Now, you see, this is a little history which will never end; aslong as the world exists, there will always be men like these fivebrothers. And what became of them? Were they each nothing orsomething? You shall hear; it is quite a history.
The eldest brother, he who fabricated bricks, soon discovered thateach brick, when finished, brought him in a small coin, if only acopper one; and many copper pieces, if placed one upon another, can bechanged into a shining shilling; and at whatever door a person knocks,who has a number of these in his hands, whether it be the baker's, thebutcher's, or the tailor's, the door flies open, and he can get all hewants. So you see the value of bricks. Some of the bricks, however,crumbled to pieces, or were broken, but the elder brother found ause for even these.
On the high bank of earth, which formed a dyke on the sea-coast, apoor woman named Margaret wished to build herself a house, so allthe imperfect bricks were given to her, and a few whole ones withthem; for the eldest brother was a kind-hearted man, although he neverachieved anything higher than making bricks. The poor woman builtherself a little house- it was small and narrow,ghd straighteners sale, and the window wasquite crooked, the door too low, and the straw roof might have beenbetter thatched. But still it was a shelter,cheap ghd straighteners, and from within you couldlook far over the sea, which dashed wildly against the sea-wall onwhich the little house was built. The salt waves sprinkled their whitefoam over it, but it stood firm, and remained long after he who hadgiven the bricks to build it was dead and buried.
The second brother of course knew better how to build than poorMargaret, for he served an apprenticeship to learn it. When his timewas up, he packed up his knapsack, and went on his travels, singingthe journeyman's song,-
"While young, I can wander without a care,
And build new houses everywhere;
Fair and bright are my dreams of home,
Always thought of wherever I roam.
Hurrah for a workman's life of glee!
There's a loved one at home who thinks of me;
Home and friends I can ne'er forget,
And I mean to be a master yet."And that is what he did. On his return home, he became a masterbuilder,- built one house after another in the town,cheap nike shoes, till theyformed quite a street, which, when finished, became really an ornamentto the town. These houses built a house for him in return, which wasto be his own. But how can houses build a house? If the houses wereasked, they could not answer; but the people would understand, andsay, "Certainly the street built his house for him." It was not verylarge, and the floor was of lime; but when he danced with his bride onthe lime-covered floor, it was to him white and shining, and fromevery stone in the wall flowers seemed to spring forth and decoratethe room as with the richest tapestry. It was really a pretty house,and in it were a happy pair. The flag of the corporation flutteredbefore it, and the journeymen and apprentices shouted "Hurrah." He hadgained his position, he had made himself something, and at last hedied, which was "something" too.
Now we come to the architect, the third brother, who had beenfirst a carpenter's apprentice, had worn a cap, and served as anerrand boy, but afterwards went to the academy, and risen to be anarchitect, a high and noble gentleman. Ah yes, the houses of the newstreet,ghd hair straightener, which the brother who was a master builder erected, may havebuilt his house for him, but the street received its name from thearchitect, and the handsomest house in the street became his property.That was something, and he was "something," for he had a list oftitles before and after his name. His children were called "wellborn,"and when he died, his widow was treated as a lady of position, andthat was "something." His name remained always written at the cornerof the street, and lived in every one's mouth as its name. Yes, thisalso was something."
And what about the genius of the family- the fourth brother- whowanted to invent something new and original? He tried to build a loftystorey himself, but it fell to pieces, and he fell with it and brokehis neck. However, he had a splendid funeral, with the city flagsand music in the procession; flowers were strewn on the pavement,and three orations were spoken over his grave, each one longer thanthe other. He would have liked this very much during his life, as wellas the poems about him in the papers, for he liked nothing so wellas to be talked of. A monument was also erected over his grave. It wasonly another storey over him, but that was "something," Now he wasdead, like the three other brothers.
The youngest- the critic- outlived them all, which was quite rightfor him. It gave him the opportunity of having the last word,cheap jordan shoes, which tohim was of great importance. People always said he had a goodhead-piece. At last his hour came, and he died, and arrived at thegates of heaven. Souls always enter these gates in pairs; so hefound himself standing and waiting for admission with another; and whoshould it be but old dame Margaret, from the house on the dyke! "It isevidently for the sake of contrast that I and this wretched soulshould arrive here exactly at the same time," said the critic. "Praywho are you, my good woman?" said he; "do you want to get in heretoo?"
And the old woman curtsied as well as she could; she thought itmust be St. Peter himself who spoke to her. "I am a poor old woman,"she said, "without my family. I am old Margaret, that lived in thehouse on the dyke."
"Well, and what have you done- what great deed have youperformed down below?"
"I have done nothing at all in the world that could give me aclaim to have these doors open for me," she said. "It would be onlythrough mercy that I can be allowed to slip in through the gate."
"In what manner did you leave the world?" he asked, just for thesake of saying something; for it made him feel very weary to standthere and wait.
"How I left the world?" she replied; "why, I can scarcely tellyou. During the last years of my life I was sick and miserable, andI was unable to bear creeping out of bed suddenly into the frost andcold. Last winter was a hard winter, but I have got over it all now.There were a few mild days, as your honor, no doubt, knows. The icelay thickly on the lake, as far one could see. The people came fromthe town, and walked upon it, and they say there were dancing andskating upon it, I believe, and a great feasting. The sound ofbeautiful music came into my poor little room where I lay. Towardsevening, when the moon rose beautifully, though not yet in her fullsplendor, I glanced from my bed over the wide sea; and there, justwhere the sea and sky met, rose a curious white cloud. I lay lookingat the cloud till I observed a little black spot in the middle ofit, which gradually grew larger and larger, and then I knew what itmeant- I am old and experienced; and although this token is notoften seen, I knew it, and a shuddering seized me. Twice in my lifehad I seen this same thing, and I knew that there would be an awfulstorm, with a spring tide, which would overwhelm the poor people whowere now out on the ice, drinking, dancing, and making merry. Youngand old, the whole city, were there; who was to warn them, if no onenoticed the sign, or knew what it meant as I did? I was so alarmed,that I felt more strength and life than I had done for some time. Igot out of bed, and reached the window; I could not crawl anyfarther from weakness and exhaustion; but I managed to open thewindow. I saw the people outside running and jumping about on the ice;I saw the beautiful flags waving in the wind; I heard the boysshouting, 'Hurrah!' and the lads and lasses singing, and everythingfull of merriment and joy. But there was the white cloud with theblack spot hanging over them. I cried out as loudly as I could, but noone heard me; I was too far off from the people. Soon would thestorm burst, the ice break, and all who were on it be irretrievablylost. They could not hear me, and to go to them was quite out of mypower. Oh, if I could only get them safe on land! Then came thethought, as if from heaven, that I would rather set fire to my bed,and let the house be burnt down, than that so many people shouldperish miserably. I got a light, and in a few moments the red flamesleaped up as a beacon to them. I escaped fortunately as far as thethreshold of the door; but there I fell down and remained: I couldgo no farther. The flames rushed out towards me, flickered on thewindow, and rose high above the roof. The people on the ice becameaware of the fire, and ran as fast as possible to help a poor sickwoman, who, as they thought, was being burnt to death. There was notone who did not run. I heard them coming, and I also at the sametime was conscious of a rush of air and a sound like the roar of heavyartillery. The spring flood was lifting the ice covering, whichbrake into a thousand pieces. But the people had reached the sea-wall,where the sparks were flying round. I had saved them all; but Isuppose I could not survive the cold and fright; so I came up hereto the gates of paradise. I am told they are open to poor creaturessuch as I am, and I have now no house left on earth; but I do notthink that will give me a claim to be admitted here."
Then the gates were opened, and an angel led the old woman in. Shehad dropped one little straw out of her straw bed, when she set iton fire to save the lives of so many. It had been changed into thepurest gold- into gold that constantly grew and expanded intoflowers and fruit of immortal beauty.
"See," said the angel, pointing to the wonderful straw, "this iswhat the poor woman has brought. What dost thou bring? I know thouhast accomplished nothing, not even made a single brick. Even ifthou couldst return, and at least produce so much, very likely, whenmade, the brick would be useless, unless done with a good will,which is always something. But thou canst not return to earth, and Ican do nothing for thee."
Then the poor soul, the old mother who had lived in the house onthe dyke, pleaded for him. She said, "His brother made all the stoneand bricks, and sent them to me to build my poor little dwelling,which was a great deal to do for a poor woman like me. Could not allthese bricks and pieces be as a wall of stone to prevail for him? Itis an act of mercy; he is wanting it now; and here is the veryfountain of mercy."
"Then," said the angel, "thy brother, he who has been lookedupon as the meanest of you all, he whose honest deeds to thee appearedso humble,- it is he who has sent you this heavenly gift. Thou shaltnot be turned away. Thou shalt have permission to stand without thegate and reflect, and repent of thy life on earth; but thou shaltnot be admitted here until thou hast performed one good deed ofrepentance, which will indeed for thee be something."
"I could have expressed that better," thought the critic; but hedid not say it aloud, which for him was SOMETHING, after all.
THE END.
相关的主题文章：
BEAUTY OF FORM AND BEAUTY OF MIND
皮皮鲁遇险记
THE GARDEN OF PARADISE 这是什么玩意？封贴吧。 出来扎倒 引用第1楼Hisoka于2010-10-27 10:46发表的:
这是什么玩意？封贴吧。 images/back.gif
鸟语啊 啥意思 什么玩意？？？ 封贴？
完全封ID！ 纯淫文
看不懂
页:
[1]