C'era una volta un principe che voleva sposare una principessa, ma doveva trattarsi di una principessa vera! Perciò si mise a viaggiare in lungo e in largo per il mondo, ma ogni volta non riusciva a decidersi: principesse ce n'erano un po' dappertutto, ma erano principesse vere? Non si riusciva mai a saperlo con sicurezza: ogni volta sembrava mancare qualche cosa. Alla fine decise di tornare a casa sua, ma era pieno di tristezza per non essere riuscito a trovare una principessa vera.
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she woul have to be a real princess. He travelled all over the world to find one, but nowhere could he get what he wanted. There were princesses enough, but it was difficult to find out whether they were real ones. There was always something about them that was not as it should be. So he came home again and was sad, for he would have liked very much to have a real princess.
Una notte che c'era un tempo orribile, con fulmini, tuoni, e acqua a catinelle, qualcuno bussò alle porte della città, e il vecchio re andò ad aprire.
One evening a terrible storm came on; there was thunder and lightning, and the rain poured down in torrents. Suddenly a knocking was heard at the city gate, and the old king went to open it.
Fuori dalle mura c'era una principessa: Dio mio, la pioggia e il brutto tempo l'avevano conciata proprio bene! L'acqua le picchiava sui capelli e sui vestiti, entrava nelle scarpe dalle punte e ne usciva dai tacchi: eppure lei sosteneva di essere una vera principessa.
It was a princess standing out there in front of the gate. But, good gracious! what a sight the rain and the wind had made her look. The water ran down from her hair and clothes; it ran down into the toes of her shoes and out again at the heels. And yet she said that she was a real princess.
"Questo si vedrà," pensò la vecchia regina, ma non disse nulla: andò in camera, tolse il materasso dal letto e mise sul fondo un pisello; poi prese venti materassi e li mise sul pisello, e sopra i materassi mise ancora venti grossi cuscini di piume.
"Well, we'll soon find that out," thought the old queen. But she said nothing, went into the bed-room, took all the bedding off the bedstead, and laid a pea on the bottom; then she took twenty mattresses and laid them on the pea, and then twenty eider-down beds on top of the mattresses.
Quella sera la principessa dormì lì.
On this the princess had to lie all night.
La mattina dopo le chiesero come aveva dormito.
In the morning she was asked how she had slept.
"Malissimo!" si lamentò la fanciulla, "non ho praticamente chiuso occhio per tutta la notte! Chissà cosa c'era in quel letto! Ero coricata su qualcosa di duro e mi sono fatta un enorme livido blu e marrone. È stato terribile!"
"Oh, very badly!" said she. "I have scarcely closed my eyes all night. Heaven only knows what was in the bed, but I was lying on something hard, so that I am black and blue all over my body. It's horrible!"
Così capirono che era una principessa vera, perché aveva sentito il pisello attraverso venti materassi e venti grossi cuscini di piume. Solo una principessa poteva avere una pelle così sensibile!
Now they knew that she was a real princess because she had felt the pea right through the twenty mattresses and the twenty eider-down beds. Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
Così il principe la prese in sposa, convinto finalmente di avere incontrato una vera principessa, e il pisello andò a finire in un museo, dove, se nessuno è venuto a rubarlo, lo si può vedere ancora.
So the prince took her for his wife, for now he knew that he had a real princess; and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it.
E questa è una storia vera, sapete?
There, that is a true story.