意大利童話 The Little Shepherd 小羊倌

　　There was once a shepherd boy no bigger than a mite and as mean as could be On his way out to pasture one day, he passed a poultry dealer carrying a basket of eggs on her head So what did he do but throw a stone into the basket and break every single egg Enraged, the poor woman screamed a curse: "You shall get no bigger until you've found lovely Bargaglina of the three singing apples!"

　　From that time on, the shepherd boy grew thin and puny, and the more his mother attended to him, the punier he became Finally she asked, "What on earth has happened to you? Have you done a bad turn for which someone placed a curse on you?" He then told her about his meanness to the poultry dealer, repeating the woman's words to him, "You shall get no bigger until you've found lovely Bargaglina of the three singing apples!"

　　"In that case," said his mother, "you've no choice but to go in search of this lovely Bargaglina"

　　The shepherd set out He came to a bridge, on which a little lady was rocking to and fro in a walnut shell

　　"Who goes there?"

　　"A friend"

　　"Lift my eyelids a little, so I can see you"

　　"I'm seeking lovely Bargaglina of the three singing apples Do you know anything about her?"

　　"No, but take this stone; it will come in handy"

　　The shepherd came to another bridge, where another little lady was bathing in an eggshell

　　"Who goes there?"

　　"A friend"

　　"Lift my eyelids a little, so I can see you"

　　"I'm seeking lovely Bargaglina of the three singing apples Have you any news of her?"

　　"No, but take this ivory comb, which will come in handy"

　　The shepherd put it in his pocket and walked on until he came to a stream where a man was filling a bag with fog When asked about lovely Bargaglina, the man claimed to know nothing about her, but he gave the shepherd a pocketful of fog, which would come in handy

　　Next he came to a mill whose miller, a talking fox, said, "Yes, I know who lovely Bargaglina is, but you'll have difficulty finding her Walk straight ahead until you come to a house with the door open Go inside and you'll see a crystal cage hung with many little bells In the cage are the singing apples You must take the cage, but watch out for a certain old woman If her eyes are open, that means she's asleep If they're closed, she's surely awake"

　　The shepherd moved on He found the old woman with her eyes closed and realized she was awake "My lad," said the old woman, "glance down in my hair and see if I've any lice"

　　He looked, and as he was delousing her, she opened her eyes and he knew she had fallen asleep So he quickly picked up the crystal cage and fled But the little bells on the cage tinkled, and the old woman awakened and sent a hundred horsemen after him Hearing them almost upon him, the shepherd dropped the stone he had in his pocket It changed instantly into a steep, rocky mountain, and the horses all fell and broke their legs

　　Now horseless, the cavalrymen returned to the old woman, who then sent out two hundred mounted soldiers Seeing himself in new peril, the shepherd threw down the ivory comb It turned into a mountain as slick as glass, down which horses and riders all slid to their death

　　The old woman then sent three hundred horsemen after him, but he pulled out the pocketful of fog, hurled it over his shoulder, and the army got lost in it Meanwhile, the shepherd had grown thirsty and, having nothing with him to drink, removed one of the three apples from the cage and cut into it A tiny voice said, "Gently, please, or you'll hurt me" Gently, he finished cutting the apple, ate one half, and put the other in his pocket At length he came to a well near his house, where he reached into his pocket for the rest of the apple In its place was a tiny, tiny lady

　　"I'm lovely Bargaglina," she said, "and I like cake Go get me a cake, I'm famished"

　　The well was one of those closed wells, with a hole in the center, so the shepherd seated the lady on the rim, telling her to wait there until he came back with the cake

　　Meanwhile, a servant known as Ugly Slave came to the well for water She spied the lovely little lady and said, "How come you're so little and beautiful while I'm so big and ugly?" And she grew so furious that she threw the tiny creature into the well

　　The shepherd returned and was heartbroken to find lovely Bargaglina gone

　　Now his mother also went to that well for water, and what should she find in her bucket one day but a fish She took it home and fried it They ate it and threw the bones out the window There where they fell, a tree grew up and got so big that it shut out all the light from the house The shepherd therefore cut it down and chopped it up for firewood, which he brought inside By that time his mother had died, and he lived there all by himself, now punier then ever, since no matter what he tried, he couldn't grow any bigger Every day he went out to the pasture and came back home at night How great was his amazement upon finding the dishes and pans he'd used in the morning all washed for him when he came home! He couldn't imagine who was doing this At last he decided to hide behind the door and find out Whom should he then see but a very dainty maiden emerge from the woodpile, wash the dishes, sweep the house, and make his bed, after which she opened the cupboard and helped herself to a cake

　　Out sprang the shepherd, asking, "Who are you? How did you get in?"

　　"I'm lovely Bargaglina," replied the maiden, "the girl you found in your pocket in place of the apple half Ugly Slave threw me into the well, and I turned into a fish, then into fishbones thrown out the window From fishbones I changed into a tree seed, next into a tree that grew and grew, and finally into firewood you cut Now, every day while you're away, I become lovely Bargaglina"

　　Thanks to the rediscovery of lovely Bargaglina, the shepherd grew by leaps and bounds, and lovely Bargaglina along with him Soon he was a handsome youth and married lovely Bargaglina They had a big feast I was there, under the table They threw me a bone, which hit me on the nose and stuck for good

　　(Inland vicinity of Genoa)

　　NOTES:

　　"The Little Shepherd" (Il pastore che non cresceva mai) from Guarnerio (Due fole nel dialetto del contado genovese collected by P E Guarnerio, Genoa, 1892), Torriglia, near Genoa, told by the countrywoman Maria Banchero

　　A feature of this Genoese variant of the widespread tale of the "three oranges" includes encounters with creatures like those in the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch -- tiny fairies rocking in nutshells or eggshells We meet the same beings in another Genoese version (Andrews, 51)

　　Copyright: Italian Folktales Selected and Retold by Italo Calvino,

　　translated by George Martin,

　　Pantheon Books, New York 1980

　　小羊倌

　　從前有個小羊倌，他的個兒長得很小，很是調(diào)皮搗蛋。一天，他趕著羊去草地時，看到一個小販頭頂一籃子雞蛋從也他身旁經(jīng)過，他將一塊石頭扔進人家的籃子里，把雞蛋全砸碎了?？蓱z的賣蛋女人氣壞了，尖著嗓子詛咒說：“你呀這輩子莫想再長大了，除非你找到可愛的巴格琳娜，她有三只會唱歌的蘋果。”

　　從此，小羊倌變得又瘦又小。他媽媽越是疼愛他，他越變得瘦小。最后，他媽媽問道：“你到底出了什么事?你是不是做了壞事，人家詛咒你啦?”于是，他把對賣蛋小販惡作劇的事講了出來，把那個女人詛咒他的話又講了一遍：“你呀這輩子莫想再長大了，除非你找到可愛的巴格琳娜，她有三只會唱歌的蘋果。”

　　“這樣的話，”媽媽說，“你別無辦法，只好去尋找可愛的巴格琳娜了。”

　　小羊倌離開了家。他來到一座橋上，看見一個小女人坐在榛子殼里來回地搖晃著。

　　“那邊是誰呀?”小女人問。

　　“一位朋友。”

　　“向上撥一下我的眼皮，好讓我看一看你。”

　　“我正在尋找有三只會唱歌的蘋果的、可愛的巴格琳娜，你知道她的一點情況嗎?”

　　“不知道，不過你可以帶著這塊石頭，它遲早會有用的。”

　　羊倌又走到另一座橋邊，看見一個小女人正在一個雞蛋殼里洗澡。

　　“那邊是誰呀?”小女人問。

　　“一位朋友。”

　　“向上撥一下我的眼皮，好讓我看一看你。”

　　“我正在尋找有三只會唱歌的蘋果的、可愛的巴格琳娜，你聽說過有關(guān)她的消息嗎?”

　　“沒有。不過你可以把這把象梳子拿去，它早晚會有用的。”

　　羊倌把梳子裝入口袋，接著繼續(xù)趕路，后來走到一條小溪邊，看見一個人正在將霧裝入袋子。當小羊倌問這個人是否知道可愛的巴格琳娜時，他回答說一無所知，但給了小羊倌一口袋霧，說它總會有用的。

　　接著，他走到一座磨坊，磨坊主是一只會說話的狐貍。它說：“我知道可愛的巴格琳娜是誰，但你要找到她卻十分困難。你一直朝前走，走到一所敞開著大門的房子。走進去，你就會看到一只掛著許多小鈴鐺的水晶鳥籠?；\子里就放著會唱歌的蘋果。你要拿走這只鳥籠，可要留神看管它的老婆婆。如果她的兩眼睜著，那說明她睡著了;如果她的兩眼閉著，她肯定醒著。”

　　羊倌繼續(xù)趕路。到了那里他發(fā)現(xiàn)老婆婆的眼睛閉著，知道她并沒有睡覺。“小伙子，”老婆婆說，“低下頭看看我的頭發(fā)，找找里面有沒有虱子。”

　　當羊倌低著頭給她捉虱子的時候，老婆婆睜開了雙眼，他知道她睡著了。他連忙拿起水晶鳥籠逃走了?？墒?，籠子上的小鈴鐺叮叮噹噹地響起來，老婆婆驚醒了。她派了一百名騎兵去追他。聽到尾隨而來的騎兵馬上要追上了，小羊倌掏出口袋里的那塊石頭丟了出去，石頭馬上變成了一座陡壁懸崖的大山，追來的馬全倒在地上，跌斷了腿。

　　這些騎兵失去了馬，便步行回到老婆婆那兒。接著，老婆婆又派了二百名騎兵去追趕。小羊倌眼看自己又處在危險之中，便將那一把象牙梳子扔了出去，它變成了一座象玻璃山一樣光滑的高山，那些馬和騎兵全都滑下來摔死了。

　　接著，老婆婆又派了三百名騎兵去追趕。小羊倌又掏出那一口袋霧來，向身后猛擲出去，這支三百人的騎兵隊全都被大霧迷住了，失去了方向。跑了這么一陣子，羊倌感到口渴，但身邊沒有什么可解渴的東西，便將鳥籠中的三只蘋果拿出一只來，準備切開。這時他聽到一個細微的聲音說道：“請輕輕切，否則你要刺傷我啦。”他輕輕切開蘋果，吃了一半，將另一半裝到口袋里。最后，他來到自己家附近的一口井旁，伸手去摸口袋里的一半蘋果，卻掏出來一個很小、很小的小姑娘。

　　“我就是可愛的巴格琳娜，”她說，“我喜歡吃餅，去給我拿只餅來，我餓極啦。”

　　這口井的井口加了蓋，中間有一個圓洞可以汲水。羊倌讓小姑娘坐在井邊上，叫她等著，自己便去拿餅了。

　　這時，一個大家叫做“丑奴隸”的仆人前來打水。她發(fā)現(xiàn)這個小姑娘，便說：“你怎么會長得這么小巧、這么漂亮，而我卻生得這么粗、這么丑呢?”她越說越生氣，竟把這個小東西扔進了井里。

　　羊倌回來后發(fā)現(xiàn)可愛的巴格琳娜不見了，他的心都碎啦。

　　小羊倌的母親也是在這口井里打水用的。有一天，她發(fā)現(xiàn)自己的桶里有一條魚。她把魚拿回家，用油煎好。他們母子吃了魚，把骨頭丟在窗外。后來，丟魚骨頭的地方長出一棵樹來，它長得很高大，把整所房子的光線都擋住了。于是，羊倌把樹砍倒，劈成木柴后搬到家里。那時，他的母親已經(jīng)去世，羊倌獨自一人住在這兒。如今，他比以往更瘦小了，不管怎么想方設(shè)法，他總是長不大。他每天外出放羊，晚上回家。可是他每天回到家里時，發(fā)現(xiàn)早晨用過的鍋碗瓢勺都已洗好了，這是多么令人驚奇的事啊!他想不出是誰幫他做的這些。最后，他決定藏在門后觀察一下。這時，他看到的卻是一位秀麗的姑娘從柴堆里鉆出來，洗鍋碗，打掃房間，疊被子，然后她打開食櫥，拿出一只餅來吃。

　　小羊倌從門后猛地跳出來，問道：“你是誰?怎么進到房間里來的?”

　　“我就是可愛的巴格琳娜，”姑娘回答，“就是你掏那半只蘋果時看到的那個姑娘。‘丑奴隸’把我扔進井里，我變成了魚，接著又變成魚骨頭被丟在窗外。我又從魚骨頭變成樹種，破土而出變成樹，一個勁兒地往上長，最后又變成了你所劈的木柴。如今，你每天外出的時候，我就變成了可愛的巴格琳娜。”

　　由于重新找到了可愛的巴格琳娜，羊倌的身個兒飛快地向上長，可愛的巴格琳娜也跟他一起長大了。不久，羊倌就成了一位漂亮的年輕人，跟可愛的巴格琳娜結(jié)了婚。他們舉行了盛大的慶祝宴會。當時我也在場，是在桌子底下。他們丟給我一塊骨頭，正巧打在我的鼻子上，從此它就粘在那兒永遠掉不下來了。

　　(熱那亞內(nèi)陸地區(qū))

　　注釋：

　　材料來源：皮·埃·格納瑞奧搜集的《熱那亞方言故事兩篇》(熱那亞，1892年版);搜集地區(qū)：熱那亞附近的托里格利亞;講述者：鄉(xiāng)村婦女瑪麗亞·班奇露。

　　“三只桔子”的故事流傳很廣[1];這篇熱那亞民間故事的特點在于出現(xiàn)了象希諾尼謨·博西[2]油畫里的那些小東西——在果子殼里或蛋殼里搖晃著的小仙女。我們在熱那亞的另一篇民間故事(見安德魯斯所編《利古里亞故事集》第五十一篇)中也遇到同樣的小東西。

　　——————

　　[1] 參看序言及第八十七篇《美麗的綠島》和一○七篇《三只石榴的故事》的注釋部分。

　　[2] 希諾尼謨·博西(1460-1516)，荷蘭畫家。