There were once a man and a woman who had long in vain wished for a child. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. These people had a little window at the back of their house from which a splendid garden could be seen, which was full of the most beautiful flowers and herbs. It was, however, surrounded by a high wall, and no one dared to go into it because it belonged to an enchantress, who had great power and was dreaded by all the world. One day the woman was standing by this window and looking down into the garden, when she saw a bed which was planted with the most beautiful rampion (rapunzel), and it looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, she quite pined away, and began to look pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed, and asked: ‘What ails you, dear wife?’ ‘Ah,’ she replied, ‘if I can’t eat some of the rampion, which is in the garden behind our house, I shall die.’ The man, who loved her, thought: ‘Sooner than let your wife die, bring her some of the rampion yourself, let it cost what it will.’ At twilight, he clambered down over the wall into the garden of the enchantress, hastily clutched a handful of rampion, and took it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad of it, and ate it greedily. It tasted so good to her--so very good, that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If he was to have any rest, her husband must once more descend into the garden. In the gloom of evening therefore, he let himself down again; but when he had clambered down the wall he was terribly afraid, for he saw the enchantress standing before him. ‘How can you dare,’ said she with angry look, ‘descend into my garden and steal my rampion like a thief? You shall suffer for it!’ ‘Ah,’ answered he, ‘let mercy take the place of justice, I only made up my mind to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rampion from the window, and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not got some to eat.’ Then the enchantress allowed her anger to be softened, and said to him: ‘If the case be as you say, I will allow you to take away with you as much rampion as you will, only I make one condition, you must give me the child which your wife will bring into the world; it shall be well treated, and I will care for it like a mother.’ The man in his terror consented to everything, and when the woman was brought to bed, the enchantress appeared at once, gave the child the name of Rapunzel, and took it away with her.
从前有一对夫妇，长久以来一直渴望拥有一个孩子。终于有一天，女人觉得上帝即将应允她的愿望。这户人家屋后有一扇小窗，透过它可以看到一座美丽的花园，里面种满了最娇艳的花朵和香草。然而，这座花园被一堵高墙环绕，无人敢进入，因为它属于一位法力高强的女巫，她威力巨大，令世人无不畏惧。一天，女人站在窗前向下眺望，看见园中有一片种植着最美萝卜缨（rapunzel）的菜床，那菜长得如此鲜嫩翠绿，令她心生渴望，日渐消瘦，面色苍白，痛苦不堪。丈夫见状十分惊慌，问道：‘亲爱的妻子，你怎么了？’她答道：‘唉，如果吃不到屋后花园里的那些萝卜缨，我就会死去。’这位爱妻的丈夫心想：‘与其让妻子死去，不如我自己去偷些萝卜缨回来，哪怕付出任何代价也在所不惜。’于是，他在黄昏时分翻过墙头，溜进女巫的花园，急忙抓了一把萝卜缨，带回家给妻子。她立刻用这些萝卜缨做了一道沙拉，贪婪地吃了起来。味道对她来说如此鲜美——实在太好吃了，以至于第二天她比以往更加渴望了三次。为了让她安生，丈夫不得不再次潜入花园。因此，在暮色笼罩的傍晚，他又一次翻下墙头，但当他下到地面时却惊恐万分，因为他看见女巫正站在面前。女巫怒目圆睁地质问：‘你竟敢像小偷一样潜入我的花园偷我的萝卜缨？你必须为此付出代价！’丈夫答道：‘啊，请仁慈代替正义吧，我这样做实属无奈。我的妻子从窗口看到您的萝卜缨，心生极度渴望，若得不到一些来吃，她就会死去。’女巫听后怒气稍消，对他说：‘既然情况如你所说，我可以让你带走任意数量的萝卜缨，但有一个条件：你必须把你妻子即将生下的孩子交给我；我会好好待他，像母亲一样抚养他。’丈夫在恐惧中答应了所有要求。当女人分娩时，女巫立刻出现，给孩子取名为长发姑娘（Rapunzel），随后便将她带走了。
Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child under the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower, which lay in a forest, and had neither stairs nor door, but quite at the top was a little window. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she placed herself beneath it and cried:
长发姑娘长成了太阳下最美丽的孩子。在她十二岁那年，女巫将她关进了一座位于森林中的高塔，塔里没有楼梯也没有门，只在塔顶开了一扇小窗。每当女巫想要进去时，她就会站在窗下喊道：
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’
“乐佩，乐佩，把你的头发放下来给我。”
Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold, and when she heard the voice of the enchantress she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them round one of the hooks of the window above, and then the hair fell twenty ells down, and the enchantress climbed up by it.
长发公主拥有一头如 spun gold 般纤细的绝美长发，当她听到女巫的声音时，便解开编好的发辫，将其缠绕在窗上方的一个钩子上，随后头发垂下二十肘尺长，女巫便顺着它爬了上去。
After a year or two, it came to pass that the king’s son rode through the forest and passed by the tower. Then he heard a song, which was so charming that he stood still and listened. This was Rapunzel, who in her solitude passed her time in letting her sweet voice resound. The king’s son wanted to climb up to her, and looked for the door of the tower, but none was to be found. He rode home, but the singing had so deeply touched his heart, that every day he went out into the forest and listened to it. Once when he was thus standing behind a tree, he saw that an enchantress came there, and he heard how she cried:
过了一两年，国王的儿子骑马穿过森林，经过那座高塔。这时他听到一首歌，歌声如此迷人，使他驻足聆听。那是长发姑娘在孤独中用她甜美的嗓音歌唱。国王之子想要爬上去见她，便寻找塔的入口，却一无所获。他骑马回家，但那歌声已深深打动他的心，于是每天他都来到森林中聆听。有一次，当他站在一棵树后时，看见一位女巫走来，并听到她喊道：
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’
“长发姑娘，长发姑娘，把你的头发垂下来给我。”
Then Rapunzel let down the braids of her hair, and the enchantress climbed up to her. ‘If that is the ladder by which one mounts, I too will try my fortune,’ said he, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and cried:
于是长发姑娘将她的长发辫子垂下，女巫便顺着爬了上去。“如果这就是登高的梯子，那我也来试试运气。”他说。第二天傍晚时分，他来到塔下喊道：
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’
“长发姑娘，长发姑娘，把你的头发垂下来给我。”
Immediately the hair fell down and the king’s son climbed up.
头发立刻垂了下来，王子的儿子便爬了上去。
At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man, such as her eyes had never yet beheld, came to her; but the king’s son began to talk to her quite like a friend, and told her that his heart had been so stirred that it had let him have no rest, and he had been forced to see her. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him for her husband, and she saw that he was young and handsome, she thought: ‘He will love me more than old Dame Gothel does’; and she said yes, and laid her hand in his. She said: ‘I will willingly go away with you, but I do not know how to get down. Bring with you a skein of silk every time that you come, and I will weave a ladder with it, and when that is ready I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.’ They agreed that until that time he should come to her every evening, for the old woman came by day. The enchantress remarked nothing of this, until once Rapunzel said to her: ‘Tell me, Dame Gothel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me to draw up than the young king’s son--he is with me in a moment.’ ‘Ah! you wicked child,’ cried the enchantress. ‘What do I hear you say! I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!’ In her anger she clutched Rapunzel’s beautiful tresses, wrapped them twice round her left hand, seized a pair of scissors with the right, and snip, snap, they were cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. And she was so pitiless that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery.
起初，当一位她从未见过的男子来到她身边时，长发姑娘吓得要命；但王子像朋友一样开始与她交谈，告诉她自己的心已被深深触动，无法安宁，因此不得不来见她。于是长发姑娘不再害怕，当他问她是否愿意嫁给他时，她看到他年轻英俊，心想：‘他一定比老葛索尔更爱我’，便答应了，并将手交给了他。她说：‘我愿意跟你走，但我不知道如何下去。每次你来时带一束丝线给我，我会用它织成梯子，等梯子织好后我便爬下来，然后你带我骑马离开。’他们约定在那之前他每晚都来，因为老妇人白天才会出现。女巫对此一无所知，直到有一天长发姑娘对她说：‘告诉我，葛索尔婆婆，为什么我拉你上来比拉年轻的王子还要费力得多？他在瞬间就能到我身边。’‘啊！你这坏孩子！’女巫喊道，‘我听到了什么！我以为我已将你与世隔绝，没想到你竟欺骗了我！’她愤怒地抓住长发姑娘美丽的秀发，将其在左手上绕了两圈，右手抓起一把剪刀，咔嚓一声，头发被剪断了，那美丽的辫子落在地上。她如此冷酷无情，便将可怜的长发姑娘带到一片荒漠中，让她在那里承受巨大的悲伤与痛苦。
On the same day that she cast out Rapunzel, however, the enchantress fastened the braids of hair, which she had cut off, to the hook of the window, and when the king’s son came and cried:
就在她驱逐长发姑娘的同一天，女巫将剪下的秀发系在窗钩上，当王子到来并喊道：
‘Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.’
‘长发姑娘，长发姑娘，把你的头发垂下来给我。’
she let the hair down. The king’s son ascended, but instead of finding his dearest Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who gazed at him with wicked and venomous looks. ‘Aha!’ she cried mockingly, ‘you would fetch your dearest, but the beautiful bird sits no longer singing in the nest; the cat has got it, and will scratch out your eyes as well. Rapunzel is lost to you; you will never see her again.’ The king’s son was beside himself with pain, and in his despair he leapt down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns into which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered quite blind about the forest, ate nothing but roots and berries, and did naught but lament and weep over the loss of his dearest wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, and at length came to the desert where Rapunzel, with the twins to which she had given birth, a boy and a girl, lived in wretchedness. He heard a voice, and it seemed so familiar to him that he went towards it, and when he approached, Rapunzel knew him and fell on his neck and wept. Two of her tears wetted his eyes and they grew clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom where he was joyfully received, and they lived for a long time afterwards, happy and contented.
她放下了头发。王子的儿子登上塔顶，却未找到他挚爱的长发姑娘，反而遇见了女巫，女巫用恶毒而阴险的目光盯着他。‘啊哈！’她嘲弄地喊道，‘你想去接你的挚爱吗？可那只美丽的鸟儿已不再在巢中歌唱；猫已经抓走了它，还要挖出你的双眼。长发姑娘对你来说已经失去了；你再也见不到她了。’王子悲痛欲绝，在绝望中从塔上跳下。他侥幸保住了性命，但落入的荆棘刺瞎了他的双眼。从此，他双目失明地在森林中游荡，只吃草根和浆果，终日哀叹哭泣，为失去挚爱的妻子而痛苦不堪。他在苦难中流浪了数年，最终来到一片荒漠，那里正是长发姑娘带着她刚出生的双胞胎——一个男孩和一个女孩——过着凄苦生活之地。他听到一个声音，那声音如此熟悉，便朝它走去；当他走近时，长发姑娘认出了他，扑进他的怀中痛哭。她的两滴泪水落在他眼睛上，双眼顿时重见光明，又能像从前一样视物了。他带她回到自己的王国，受到热烈欢迎，此后他们幸福满足地生活了很长时间。