Full text of "English Ruskin King of the Golden River" | Appreciation | After-reading
John Ruskin (1819-1900) had an important influence on British art appreciation literary critic and writer. Influenced by his parents, he studied poetry at an early age and won the Newdigate Poetry Prize at the age of 20. Published between 1862 and 1865, "To This Day", "Honor Full of Dust", "Years", "Sesame and Lily" and other famous works that elaborated on utopian doctrines and advocated social reform won him a reputation. His works are full of imagination, with relaxed and smooth writing style, sharp satire, and simple and vivid language. Although his fairy tale "Golden River King" is not necessarily written for children, it is a famous British fairy tale in the history of children's literature in the world.
The full text of "The King of Jinhe" is 18,000 words, divided into five sections, describing the Jinhe and Jinhe Valley areas. The Golden River Valley belonged to the three brothers Swartz, Hans and Gluck. Gluck is kind-hearted, kind and hard-working, but his two brothers are cruel and vicious, known as the "Black Brothers". One day in the cold winter, a short gentleman with a very strange appearance came to Gluck and asked for something to eat. Gluck risked being severely beaten by his two brothers and gave the short gentleman some roast lamb. This short gentleman is the dwarf god, King of the Golden River. In order to punish the cruel "black brothers", King Jinhe first caused floods and then drought, turning the Jinhe River Valley into a desert. Later, the "Black Brother" changed his profession to be a goldsmith and asked Gluck to make gold. When Gluk threw a golden cup into the crucible, the golden water in the crucible spoke, and the golden water flowed out and became the dwarf god-the King of the Golden River. Later, the black brothers were turned into two black stones by the golden river because of their bad hearts. The kind-hearted Gluk turned the river water into golden water, which flowed into and irrigated the golden river valley.
"The Golden River King" is a fairy tale based on folklore that promotes good and suppresses evil. Promoting good and suppressing evil is an old theme in literature all over the world. As long as the writer's extraordinary talent is injected, new works can be produced one after another. In the work, Gluk is dedicated to good deeds and asks for nothing from the Golden River King, but the Golden River King rewards him with wealth and happiness. The writer is clearly trying to influence the reader's spiritual and moral choices between rewards and punishments. This story is beautifully written. It is spread throughout the world and recorded in the history of literature through art rather than preaching.
·Wei Wei·
King of Jinhe
(The Jinhe Valley was originally a beautiful valley with good weather and abundant grains, because The two brothers Swartz and Hans had evil intentions, and "their ancestral homeland became a desert", forcing the two brothers to find another way to make a living. )
"Shall we change our careers to goldsmiths?" One day, They came to a big city, and Swartz said to Hans, "This is a good deal to make a fortune! We can mix the gold with so much brass that no one will recognize it."
This wonderful plan was agreed upon. They rented an alchemy furnace and became goldsmiths. However, two small things affected their business: first, customers looked down upon gold mixed with copper; second, as long as the two brothers could make some money from the sale, they would go to the pub next door and drink until they spent all the money. The job was only done when the light was on, and the job of taking care of the alchemy furnace was always left to little Gluck. In this way, they melted all the metal they had and didn't make enough money to buy gold again. In the end, there was only a huge gold-mouthed cup left, which was given to little Gluck by one of his uncles. He loved the cup very much and would not give it up no matter what. Although he only used the cup to drink water and milk and had no other use for it. The shape of the cup is very strange: the handle is two inlaid garlands, the garlands are made of fluttering gold wire, the workmanship is very fine, it doesn't look like it is made of metal, it looks like it is made of silk brocade; the garland The strands of gold threads hang down and are connected with the equally exquisite beard, outlining a face covered with beards; no one can imagine how pure and pure gold this face is made of! It is vivid. It has a fierce look, and it is placed right in front of the cup; a pair of eyes on the face seem to be monitoring all directions. Whenever people use the cup, they are bound to be squinted strongly by those eyes. Swartz insisted that once, when he drank seventeen glasses of Rhine wine from that cup, he actually saw those eyes blinking. Now, it's the turn to beat this cup into a golden spoon! This time, little Gluck's heart almost broke. But the two brothers just laughed at him, threw the cup into the crucible, and staggered to the beer hall. As usual, only Gluck stayed at home, waiting for the gold to be refined and cast into gold bars.
After his brother left, Gluck looked down at his old friend in the crucible and said goodbye to him. The old friend's fluffy hair had completely melted away, leaving only his red nose and piercing eyes. The eyes looked more sinister than ever. "Alas! It's no wonder he was treated like this!" Gluck thought. To avoid the scorching heat of the furnace, he wandered sullenly to the window and sat down to breathe in the fresh evening air. ——I have already introduced to you before. Looking directly out of this window, the mountains dominating the Treasure Valley, especially the peak at the source of the Golden River, are vividly displayed in front of you. At this time, it was dusk.
Gluck sat down and looked out the window: he saw the rugged peaks of the mountains covered with deep red and purple glow in the sunset, and dazzling fire clouds burning between the peaks, dancing in and out of the sky; better than this. The even more dazzling and brilliant Golden River pours down, her sparkling golden water flows from one cliff to another, and a wide rainbow is like a double-decker arch bridge flying over the Golden River; she Pearl flowers splash, like colorful garlands, bursting out and disappearing suddenly.
"Alas!" Facing the Golden River, Gluck stared at it in reverie for a while, and couldn't help but sigh: "That river, if it were really all gold, how beautiful it would be!"
"No, Gluck, that's impossible!" A metallic, clear voice said loudly in his ear.
"Oh my God! What is this?!" Gluck jumped up and shouted in shock. There was no one around. He searched around the room and under the table, and turned around and looked behind him again and again. There was indeed no one! He sat in front of the window again. This time, he remained silent, but after a while, he couldn't help but think again: "It would be so convenient if that river was really all gold!"
"It's impossible. My child!" It was still the same voice, but louder than before.
"Oh my God!" Gluck said again, "What on earth is this?" He looked carefully in every corner of the house and opened the cupboard to search, thinking that someone must be hiding it. behind him, so he started spinning in the middle of the room. Turn, turn, it can't turn any faster! At this moment, the voice rang in my ears again, and it started to sing happily: "La la la la la!" However, what was being sung was not that. The lyrics are just a bubbly flowing melody, trembling lightly, a bit like the sound of a kettle boiling. Gluck looked out the window. No, not outside, it must be inside the house. But, is it upstairs or downstairs? Neither. Definitely, in this room. In an instant, the rhythm of the sound became faster and faster, and the pitch became clearer. "La la la la la!" Suddenly, Gluck discovered that the sound near the furnace was louder. He ran to the furnace door and looked inside. Yes, he guessed. The sound seemed to come not only from the furnace but also from the crucible. He opened the lid of the pot, looked frightened, turned around and ran away, because the pot was really singing non-stop! Gluck stood in the corner of the wall farthest from the furnace, with his hands raised and his mouth wide open. He stayed in a daze for a minute or two. At this time, the singing stopped and turned into clear voices.
"Hello, hello!" said the voice.
Gluck did not answer.
"Hey, Gluk, my child!" The cauldron spoke again.
Gluck summoned all his strength, walked straight to the crucible, pulled the crucible out of the gold melting furnace, and looked inside. All the gold in the pot melted. The surface of the gold water is as smooth and shiny as a small river. However, when Gluck took a closer look, he didn't see his head. Through the gold water, I caught a glimpse of the red nose and keen eyes of an old acquaintance on the cup. This red nose was many times redder than the red nose he had seen before! The eyes were also a thousand times more lively than before.
"Glak, my child, come here!" the voice called again from the crucible, "I am well, pour me out!"
However, Gluck was so frightened that he didn't know what to do.
"Hey, pour me out quickly!" the voice said a little roughly.
Gluck remained motionless.
"Please pour me out, can you?" the voice urged affectionately, "I'm really too hot!"
Gluk geared up and used all his strength, He picked up the crucible and tilted it down slowly. But what came out was not gold water, but first a pair of cute yellow calves, then the back of the coat, then the two arms on the waist, and finally the head of the old friend on the cup. ——This is something that everyone has long known. As soon as the various parts of the body came out, they were immediately connected together, turning into a golden dwarf god one and a half feet tall. He stood on the ground with great dignity.
"This is great!" The dwarf god said, first kicking his legs, stretching his arms, and then turning his head up and down, left and right, until he could no longer turn back. He kept shaking like this for five minutes, obviously to see if all parts of his body were installed perfectly. Gluk was on the side, watching every move of the dwarf god, and was so surprised that he could not speak. The dwarf god wore a slit bodice made of gold wire. The bodice was of exquisite texture, like mother-of-pearl, shining with all kinds of colors. His wavy hair and beard were scattered on the gorgeous tights, hanging down to his waist, and were so graceful and slender that it was difficult for Gluck to see where the ends of his hair and beard were, and finally they seemed to drift away. . However, his face is not as beautiful and elegant as his clothes, but rather rough. The complexion is light copper. This means, that is, it shows that the character of the short owner is very stubborn and stubborn.
After the dwarf god looked at himself for a while, he turned around and stared at Gluk with his sharp little eyes for a minute or two. At the end, he said: "No, Gluk, my child , that’s impossible!”
This is really a rather abrupt and incomprehensible way of talking. What he was talking about might really be referring to a series of thoughts in Gluck's mind. That's what the dwarf god had already observed in the crucible. No matter what the dwarf god said, Gluck did not intend to refute, but said very gently and truly submissively: "Sir, are you saying that that is impossible?"
" "Yes," the short god said decisively, "It's impossible." As he said that, he pulled his hat down to his eyebrows, walked around the room twice, each circle was no more than three feet long, and then raised his legs high. He stamped his feet vigorously and paced back and forth on the ground. Only then did Gerak have time to calm down and think about it. He felt that there was no reason to be afraid of this little visitor. Curiosity finally got the better of him, and Gluck no longer had any fear, so he plucked up the courage to ask a particularly embarrassing question.
"Sir," Gluk hesitated for a moment and asked, "Excuse me, are you my cup?"
Upon hearing this question, the dwarf god suddenly turned around Come, walk straight to Gluk, stand tall and answer: "Me, I am the King of the Golden River." Gluk was shocked when he heard the dwarf god's self-announcement. In order to give the listener time to calm down from his fright, the dwarf god turned around and turned twice more, this time each circle was six feet in size. Then, the dwarf god walked up to Gluk again and stood motionless, as if waiting for his reaction after announcing his name.
Gluk made up his mind and had to say something anyway, so he blurted out: "I wish your majesty good health!"
"Do you know?" The dwarf god did not Ignoring Gluck's polite wishes, he just continued, "I am the emperor you mortals call the Golden River. A more powerful monarch murdered me, and I became what you see now. It was you who rescued me and rescued me from his witchcraft in time. I saw with my own eyes what you did and your attitude towards the two evil-hearted brothers, so I am willing to serve you. Let me tell you: No matter who you are, as long as you climb to the top of that mountain - the top of the mountain that overlooks the source of my golden river, and drop three drops of holy water into the river at the source of the golden river, the river will It will turn into gold for him, and only for people like him. However, no matter who it is, they will never succeed again if they fail for the first time. The water drowned and turned into black stone." As he spoke, Jin He turned around and walked calmly into the scorching fire. Soon, his whole body burned red, and then turned white, completely transparent and dazzling - it was the intense firelight emitted by the burning flame -
Then, the flames rose into the sky, soaring upward, slowly. Disappeared, King Jinhe just turned into gas and floated away.
"Oh!" Poor little Gluck ran after him, looked again and again into the chimney, and cried: "Oh, my God! Oh my God! My God! My cup!" Ah! Cup!”
(Glak’s two brothers were punished by the King of the Golden River for being greedy for gold and turned into two black stones, washed away in the river for many years.)
Gluck felt very sad when Swartz didn't come back and didn't know what to do. He had no money at all, so he had to go back to work for the goldsmith. The goldsmith worked hard for him, but the wages he paid him were pitiful. Gluck worked for a goldsmith for only a month or two, and then he became too tired and couldn't stand it anymore. He decided to try his luck in Jinhe. He thought: "That little King of the Golden River looks very kind. I don't think he will turn me into a black stone." So he went to the priest and asked for holy water. As soon as Gluck opened his mouth, the priest readily gave it to him. Gluck put the bottle of holy water and some bread in a basket and went straight to the mountains early in the morning.
In the past, Gluck's two brothers were exhausted and embarrassed when crossing the glacier. Now, for Gluck, it was even more difficult and twenty times worse. Because he is not as strong as his two brothers, nor does he have the experience of climbing mountains and mountains like them. On the glacier, he fell down several times and lost his basket and bread. Under the ice, strange noises frightened him. He finally crossed the glacier, rested on a nearby grassland for a while, and then started climbing up the mountain again. Fortunately, this is the hottest time of the day. He crawled for an hour, thirsty as hell. Like his two brothers, he was about to take a drink of water when he suddenly saw a frail old man walking towards him from above on a cane.
"My child," said the old man, "I'm so thirsty that I'm about to faint! Give me some water from the bottle!" Gluck looked up and saw that his face was pale. He was haggard, so he handed the water to him and said, "Just please don't drink all the water!" But the old man drank enough, and when he returned the bottle to Gluck, only one-third of the water was left in it. . After drinking the water, the old man wished Grakma success. Gluck happily continued on his way.
Suddenly, he felt that his feet became lighter and the road became much easier to walk; two or three green grass appeared on the road, and grasshoppers sang folk songs on the hillside beside the road. Gluck had never heard such joyful singing.
He walked for another hour, and his thirst became more and more severe. He couldn't survive without drinking some water! However, when he just picked up the water bottle, he saw a small child lying panting. On the roadside, he cried pitifully for water. Gluck tried his best to restrain himself, determined to endure it for a while longer, and then put the water bottle to the child's mouth. The child almost drank all the water, leaving only a few drops. The child smiled at Gluck, got up and ran down the mountain. Gluck watched him until his back was as small as a speck, then turned around and continued climbing up the mountain. Afterwards, all kinds of flowers bloomed on the rocks, and their fragrance filled the air. On the emerald green moss, the small pink flowers are like dots of stars; the delicate bell-like gentian flowers are blue, bluer than the blue sky; the pure white lilies are sparkling and dazzling; the gorgeous colorful butterflies The mountains were flying; the bright sunshine spread all over the earth; Gluck enjoyed unprecedented joy and happiness.
However, after crawling for an hour, Gluck became unbearably thirsty again. Looking at the water bottle, there were only five or six drops of water left. He really couldn't drink it rashly! He was about to hang the water bottle back on his belt when he saw a puppy lying on the stone, out of breath - just like Han The scene was the same as what Si saw on the day he went up the mountain. Gluk stopped to look at the puppy, and then looked at Jinhe, which was less than five hundred feet away from him. He immediately remembered the dwarf god's warning: "No matter who fails the first time, he will never succeed again." Therefore, he wanted to go as far as possible from the puppy. However, the puppy's whine was so sad and sad that Gluck stopped again and said to himself: "Poor little thing, if I don't save it, it will definitely die when I come back from the mountain. It fell!" After saying that, he moved closer to the puppy to take a look. The puppy turned around and looked at him miserably. Gluck couldn't bear to die without saving him. "Oh, disgusting gold! Damn King Jinhe! Go to hell!" He said, then opened the water bottle and poured all the water into the puppy's mouth.
The puppy suddenly stood up on its hind legs. Suddenly, the dog's tail disappeared; its ears continued to lengthen, turning silver and then gold. The dog's nose became red and red, and its eyes were shining brightly. In less than three seconds, the puppy disappeared without a trace. At that moment, it was his old friend King Jinhe who appeared in front of Gluk.
"Thank you," the river god said, "but don't be afraid, everything is going well!" Gluk did not expect that what he just said would get such an answer, and he was quite frightened. The dwarf god then said: "Why didn't you come earlier? You actually asked your two bad guys to come here to cause trouble for me, and asked me to go to the trouble of turning them into stone! They have become hard stones!"
"Oh! Oh my God!" Gluk said, "Are you really so cruel?"
"Heartless?!" said the dwarf god, "They poured dirty water Enter my river, think about it, can I allow them to do this?"
"What are you talking about?" Gluck argued, "Sir, I mean, Your Majesty, I assure you, They got the holy water from the holy water basin in the church!"
"That's very possible," the dwarf replied. "But," he said, his face became serious, "water does not need to be used to help people in need. Even if it is given by the saints in heaven, it is not holy. Water in a true charity basin, even if given to What is dirty is also holy."
The dwarf god said, bending down and picking a lily at his feet. Three drops of sparkling dew hung on the snow-white petals. The dwarf god shook the petals, poured three drops of water into the bottle in Gerak's hand, and warned: "Put these drops of water into the Golden River, and then climb over the other side of the mountain to the Treasure Valley. I wish you success!"
As he spoke, the dwarf god’s body became blurry. His colorful gown turned into a colorful crystal mist, as thin as gauze, surrounding the dwarf god like a wide rainbow. He stayed for a moment, and the colorful mist gradually became thinner and rose lightly. Finally, the river god quietly disappeared.
Gluk boarded the bank of the Golden River. The surging water was as transparent as crystal and as bright as the sun. Gluck dropped three drops of dew into the river, and a small whirlpool immediately appeared on the surface of the water where the dew dropped. The river gurgled toward the whirlpool with the melodious music. Gluck stood on the shore and watched for a long time, feeling disappointed because not only did the river water not turn into gold, but the current seemed to have weakened greatly. However, Grak still followed the instructions of his old friend the dwarf god and turned back to the Treasure Valley from the other side of the mountain. Along the way, he seemed to hear the gurgling of river water underground. He approached Baogu, ah! What a surprise! He found a new crack in the rocks of Baogu, like a river from the Golden River pouring down from there, turning into countless streams, flowing into piles of dry ocher sand. . Gluk looked intently and saw green grass and vines creeping on the moist land beside the newly emerged stream. Along both sides of the river, flower buds bloomed in an instant, just like the twilight was getting darker and the stars were twinkling.
Clusters of myrtle and creeping vines grow vigorously, spreading slender shades over the mountains and valleys. Treasure Valley has become a beautiful garden again. This ancestral homeland, which was destroyed by cruelty and cruelty in the past, is now reborn due to kindness and fraternity. Gluck has moved back to the valley. Poor people came to his house and were no longer kicked out of the door. Soon, Gerak's house was full of grain and gold and silver. The dwarf god kept his promise: the river became a river of gold for Grak. To this day, residents in the Treasure Valley can still point out the place where the holy three drops of holy water were sprinkled into the river, and are still exploring the channel where the Golden River flows from underground into the Treasure Valley. At the source of Jinhe River, two black stones can still be seen. Every evening at dusk, when the river flows around the black stone, it always emits mournful wails. People in the valley still call those two stones "Black Brothers".
(Translated by Wu Guozhen and Zhao Jingmin)