Once a king made the unfortunate mistake of joking about the large nose of an enchantress who lived in the forest. Instantly the enchantress appeared before the King. Fixing her angry eyes on him and wagging her finger before his face, she said, "There will come a time when you shall have a son. This child shall be born with an enormous nose, a nose even bigger than your big mouth, a nose that will remain stuck upon your son's face until the moment he realizes what an ridiculous nose he indeed has."

"If my son's nose is going to be as long as all that," the king thought to himself, "he would always see it or feel it; at least, if he is not blind or without hands. Certainly by the time he walks and talks he'll realize he has an unusually large nose. At that moment it will be gone. This is not a matter for much concern."

Soon the Queen had a little son, who was named Andre. Little Prince Andre had large blue eyes, the prettiest eyes in the world, and a sweet little mouth, but, alas! His nose was so huge that it covered half his face. The Queen was inconsolable when she saw this great nose, but her ladies assured her that it was not really as large as it looked; that it was a Roman nose, and you had only to open any history to see that every hero has a large nose. The Queen, who was devoted to her baby, was pleased with what they told her, and when she looked at baby Andre again, his nose did not seem to her quite so large.

The Prince was brought up with great care. As soon as he could speak, they told him all sorts of dreadful stories about people who had short noses. No one was allowed to come near him whose nose did not more or less resemble his own. The courtiers, to get into favor with the Queen, took to pulling their noses several times every day to make them grow longer. But, do what they would, their noses were nothing in comparison with the Prince's.

When he grew older he learned history. Whenever any great prince or princess was spoken of, his teachers took care to tell him that they had very long noses. His room was hung with pictures, all of people with large noses. The Prince grew up convinced that a long nose was a feature of great beauty.

When his twentieth birthday was past, the Queen thought it was time that he married. She commanded that the portraits of several princesses should be brought for him to see, and among the others was a picture of the Princess Rosebud.

Now Princess Rosebud was the daughter of a great king, and would some day possess several kingdoms herself, but Prince Andre had not a thought to spare for anything of that sort, he was so much struck with her presence in the portrait. The Princess, whom he thought quite charming, had however, a saucy little nose, which in her face, was the prettiest thing possible, but it was a cause of great embarrassment to the courtiers, who had got into a habit of laughing at little noses. Sometimes they found themselves laughing at her nose before they had time to think. This did not do at all before the Prince, who quite failed to see the joke, and actually banished two of his courtiers who had dared to mention disrespectfully Princess Rosebud's tiny nose!

The others, taking warning from this, learned to think twice before they spoke, much less laughed. One courtier even went so far as to tell the Prince that, though it was quite true that no man could be worth anything unless he had a long nose, still, on a woman's face a smaller nose could be most attractive.

The Prince made that courtier a splendid present as a reward for this good news, and at once sent ambassadors to ask Princess Rosebud's hand in marriage. The King, her father, gave his consent. Prince Andre, in his anxiety to see the Princess, traveled many miles to meet her. At last, when the moment had arrived for him to kiss her hand, to the horror of all who stood by, the enchantress appeared as suddenly as a flash of lightning! Grabbing up Princess Rosebud, she whirled the princess out of sight!

The Prince declared that he would not return to his kingdom until he had found her again. Refusing to allow any of his courtiers to follow him, he mounted his horse and rode away.

As the Prince journeyed from town to town, he thought all the people he passed must be mad, for all they talked about was the size of his nose. He couldn't understand why they thought his nose so big, and assumed they were jealous because they suffered with such terribly small noses. Thus passed several years.

The enchantress had shut Princess Rosebud up in a palace of crystal, and had hidden this palace in a remote corner of the woods. Still, the Prince eventually stumbled upon that remote corner. One day, in the reflection of the crystal walls he caught the image of his bride, and felt joy extreme. The Prince set to work with all his might to try to break her prison; but in spite of all his efforts he failed utterly. In despair, he thought at least that he would try to get near enough to speak to Princess Rosebud. On her part, the Princess stretched out her hand through a crack in the crystal walls that he might kiss it. But turn which way he might, he never could raise her hand to his lips, for his long nose always prevented it. For the first time he realized how long his nose really was, and exclaimed:

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"Well, it must be admitted that my nose really is quite big!"

That instant the crystal prison flew into a thousand splinters.

"Foolish prince!" cried the angry enchantress. "It took all these years for you to realize what a ridiculous nose sits on your face! You've been so anxious to believe yourself perfect, you've refused to believe anything at all to the contrary, no matter how many people tried to tell you the truth! Not till the moment your nose stood in the way of your own interests did you reckon with it at all!" She laughed long and loud. "You foolish humans never cease to amaze me!" Then she vanished.

The Prince's nose had now returned to a normal size, the size it would have been if not for the enchantress'spell before he was born. He and Princess Rosebud were married as quickly as a grand wedding could be arranged. And in the years that followed, the Prince listened with but one ear to the flatteries of court attendants and kept his other ear open for honest remark. The Prince became known as a wise, thoughtful and admired King, and he ruled happily alongside his beloved wife, the Queen Rosebud.



從前有位國王，犯了個倒霉的錯誤——拿森林里女巫的大鼻子開玩笑。女巫立刻出現在他的面前，雙目怒視，指著國王的臉說：“你兒子快要降生了，一出生就長著大鼻子，比你的大嘴巴還要大，一直長在臉上，直到他真正認識到自己的鼻子有多可笑。”

國王心想：“如果我的兒子鼻子有那么長，只要他不瞎，長著雙手，他總能看到或摸到的。等到會走路和說話的時候，他就會意識到自己的鼻子大得不尋常。到那個時候，魔法也就解除了。沒什么好擔心的。”

不久王后生下一個小男孩，取名安德烈。小王子安德烈有一雙大大的藍眼睛，是世界上最好看的眼睛；嘴巴也是小巧玲瓏，惹人喜愛。可是，天啊！他的鼻子居然大到臉的一半！這讓王后很傷心。侍女安慰說，那是鷹勾鼻，其實沒有看起來的那么大，并且隨便翻開歷史，就會發現所有的英雄人物都長著大鼻子。王后把王子看得比自己生命還重要，聽了很高興，再看看孩子，覺得鼻子也沒那么大了。

王子受到了精心照顧。在他能開口說話的時候，人們就告訴他小鼻子的人怎樣可笑。并且小鼻子的人是不得接近王子的。侍臣們為了討好王后，每天都要扯幾次鼻子，希望變得更長些。可不管他們怎么費力，都遠不能與王子的鼻子相比。

王子長大后開始學習歷史。在講到偉大的王子和公主時，老師總要特意告訴他，那些英雄人物都長著大鼻子。在王子的房間里，掛的畫像也全是大鼻子的人。在這樣的熏陶下，王子對大鼻子是美的象征深信無疑。

在王子20歲生日過后，王后覺得他該結婚了，就命人找來幾位公主的畫像給他看，其中就有玫瑰公主的畫像。

玫瑰公主是一位偉大國王的女兒，將來幾個王國都歸她統治。不過安德烈王子在乎的不是這些，他一心迷上了畫像里的玫瑰公主。玫瑰公主美麗動人，但是長著滑稽的小鼻子，不過在她的臉上，卻顯得精致無比。然而，這可把侍臣們難住了，因為他們已經習慣了嘲笑小鼻子。有時，他們情不自禁地就笑話起公主的小鼻子。王子可容忍不下這樣的玩笑，一怒之下趕走了兩位侍臣，因為他們提到玫瑰公主的小鼻子時有失尊敬。

其他人受了這個教訓，說話前都要掂量掂量，不敢再隨便開玩笑了。有位侍臣甚至這樣討好王子說，雖然男人沒有大鼻子，就一無是處，但是，女人臉上的小鼻子也可能美麗絕倫。

王子聽了很高興，大大地獎賞了他，然后立刻派使者去求婚。玫瑰公主的父親同意了這樁婚事。心情急切的安德烈王子，不遠萬里來見玫瑰公主。然而，在王子和公主舉行婚禮時，令每位在場的人感到震驚的是，女巫像閃電一樣從天而降，抓起玫瑰公主，像一陣風消失了!

王子發誓，不找回公主，就決不回國。他沒有讓侍臣隨行，一個人騎上馬出發了。

王子從一個鎮找到另一個鎮，發現人們總在談論他的大鼻子。這些人肯定瘋了，他想，他們是因為自己的鼻子小，因而嫉妒他的鼻子。王子不斷地尋找公主，幾年就這樣過去了。

玫瑰公主被女巫關進樹林中偏僻的水晶宮殿里。然而王子歷盡千辛萬苦，最終找到了這個地方。一天，透過水晶墻，他看見了自己的新娘，頓時欣喜若狂。王子用盡全力，試圖砸開水晶墻。然而，一切努力都無濟于事。絕望的他想，至少可以靠公主近一些，能夠說些話。同時公主也透過墻上的裂縫伸出手來，讓王子親吻。可是，王子費盡了周折，也無法吻到公主的手，因為他的長鼻子總礙事。他平生第一次意識到，自己的鼻子真是太長了，抱怨道：

“唉，我必須承認自己的鼻子太大了！”

話一出口，水晶宮殿就消失了。

“愚蠢的王子！”女巫生氣地嚷道，“過了這么多年，你才認識到自己的鼻子有多可笑。你一心覺得自己是完美的，不管人們怎樣把真相告訴你，你也不愿相信自己有缺陷。直到鼻子礙了你的事，你才會反省。”女巫放聲大笑，“你們愚蠢的人類，總會做些稀奇古怪的事情。”說完，她就消失了。

王子的鼻子恢復了正常。他和玫瑰公主很快舉行了盛大的婚禮。隨后的日子里，面對大臣們的奉承，王子始終保持清醒，注意傾聽真話。就這樣，他成了遠近聞名、受人尊敬的英明國王，和玫瑰王后一起幸福地管理著自己的王國。

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