首发：~第4章 卖火柴的小女孩 The Little Match－Seller
《卖火柴的小女孩》，1846 年
the little match-seller, 1846
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《卖火柴的小女孩》（在奥古斯滕堡公爵处逗留长达一个月期间创作）的灵感源于安徒生从一本历书编辑那里收到的插图，编辑请求他根据其中一幅写一个故事。
\"the little match girl\" (written during a month - long stay with the duke of augustenborg) was inspired by illustrations andersen received from the editor of an almanac, with the request that he write a story about one of them
有一幅由丹麦画家约翰托马斯伦德比所画的图像，画的是一个卖火柴的女孩。
one image, painted by the danish artist johan thomas lundbye, showed a girl selling matches
这幅画通过出现在 1843 年的一本日历上而广为人知，日历上的标题是 “施予时请行善”。
it had been popularized through its appearance in an 1843 calendar with the caption, “do good when you give”
“当我在格洛鲁普的时候，” 安徒生后来在他的旅行日记中回忆道，“在这个奢华富足的时期，一个出版商寄来了三幅木刻画，让我挑出一幅并围绕它写一个小故事。
“while i was at glorup,“ andersen later recalled in his travel diaries, “in this time of luxury and plenty, a publisher sent three woodcuts asking me to pick out one and write a little story around it
我选择了一个描绘贫穷和匮乏的场景，一个衣衫褴褛、手拿几根火柴的小女孩 ——《卖火柴的小女孩》—— 奥古斯滕堡的我们的生活和她的世界之间的反差。”
i chose a scene that depicted poverty and deprivation, a ragged little girl with a handful of matches—‘the little match - girl’—the contrast between our life at augustenborg and her world”
很少有儿童故事像《卖火柴的小女孩》这样饱含激情地展现苦难，一代又一代的孩子都钦佩她，并为她的死亡而哭泣。
few children’s stories celebrate suffering with the kind of passion brought to the tale of the match - seller, and generations of children have admired her and wept over her death
这个在新年前夜冻死的瘦弱流浪儿已经成为一种文化偶像。
the frail waif who freezes to death on new year’s eve has bee something of a cultural icon
她是一个残忍的父亲（比童话故事中的食人魔还要残忍得多）和一个无情的社会的受害者；
she is the victim of a brutal father (far more cruel than the ogres of fairy tales) and of a heartless social world;
甚至大自然也背弃了她，既不提供庇护也不给予食物。
even nature turns its back on her, offering neither shelter nor sustenance
童话故事中的魔法消失了，救援仅仅以神的干预这种形式到来。
the fairy - tale magic is absent, and rescue es only in the form of divine intervention
讲述卖火柴小女孩故事的叙述者把我们带入女主人公的精神世界，让我们在气温下降、寒风呼啸时感受到她的痛苦。
the narrator of the match girl’s story takes us into the heroine’s mental world, allowing us to feel her pain as the temperature drops and the wind howls
我们也能体会到她的幻想，首先是温暖，接着是食物、美丽，最后是人间的喜爱和同情。
we also share her visions, first of warmth, then of nourishment, beauty, and finally human affection and passion
如果故事的最后画面呈现给我们的是一具冻僵的尸体，这个卖火柴的小女孩的死亡仍然是一种 “美丽的死亡”，是闪耀着灵性和超凡意义的所在。
if the final image of the story gives us a frozen corpse, the little match girl’s death is still a “beautiful death,” the site of radiant spirituality and transcendent meaning
无论我们将她的苦难解读为 “伪装成虔诚的折磨”（就像 pl 特拉弗斯所做的那样），还是认为她的悲惨境遇是升入更高境界的先决条件，这个故事仍然是童年最令人难忘的故事之一，并且萦绕在我们的文化想象之中。
whether we read her sufferings as “tortures, disguised as pieties” (as did pltravers) or consider her wretchedness as the precondition for translation into a higher sphere, the story remains one of the most memorable stories of childhood and haunts our cultural imagination
许多人会认同，一本优秀儿童读物的一个必要条件是主人公的胜利。
many will agree that the one requirement for a good children’s book is the triumph of the protagonist
在过去的一个世纪里，《卖火柴的小女孩》中的死亡场景被多次改编和重写，最着名的是 1944 年的一个美国版本，它在护封上宣称：
the death scene in “the little match girl” has been adapted and rewritten many times over the last century, most notably in an american edition of 1944 that proclaimed on its dust jacket:
“孩子们会满怀欣喜地阅读这个着名的汉斯克里斯蒂安安徒生故事的新版本。
“children will read with delight this new version of the famous hans christian andersen tale
因为在这个版本中，那个很久以前的平安夜的卖火柴的小女孩没有死于严寒，而是找到了温暖、欢乐和一个可爱的家，从此过上了幸福的生活。”
for in it, the little match girl on that long ago christmas eve does not perish from the bitter cold, but finds warmth and cheer and a lovely home where she lives happily ever after”
安徒生在社会动荡和政治剧变的十年间创作了这个故事，毫无疑问，他会对这个原本旨在有力批判经济不平等的故事出现的社会救赎性转变感到痛心。
andersen wrote this story during a decade of social unrest and political upheaval, and would no doubt have been distressed by the socially redemptive turn in a story that was intended as a powerful critique of economic inequities
一本近期的自助书籍讲述了一位女性的经历，她童年最喜欢的故事是《卖火柴的小女孩》：
a recent self - help book reports the experience of a woman whose favorite childhood story was “the little match girl”:
“当我们问起她这件事时，她解释说，当卖火柴的小女孩点燃一根火柴时，那微小的火焰在她眼中变成了熊熊燃烧的圣诞炉火，周围有礼物、朋友和食物。
“when we asked her about it, she explained that, when the little match girl lit a match, the tiny flame became for her a roaring christmas fire with gifts, friends and food around
这也是她最深切的愿望。”
this was also her deepest desire”
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