Comparing: Rapunzel

There once lived a man and his wife who had long wished for a child in vain. At length the woman hoped that God was about to grant her desire. Through a small window in their house they could see a splendid garden full of beautiful flowers and herbs, but it was surrounded by a high wall and belonged to a powerful enchantress, whom no one dared approach. One day the wife was standing at the window looking into the garden when she saw a bed filled with the finest rapunzel (a type of lettuce). It looked so fresh and green that she longed for it, and she knew she could not have it. This craving increased every day, and as she knew that she could not get any, she pined away and looked pale and miserable. Then her husband was alarmed and asked, 'What ails you, dear wife?' 'Ah,' she replied, 'if I don't get some rapunzel from the garden behind our house, I shall die.' The man, who loved her dearly, thought, 'Before you let your wife die, you must get her some of the rapunzel, whatever the cost.' So at twilight he climbed over the wall into the enchantress's garden, hastily gathered a handful of rapunzel, and brought it to his wife. She at once made herself a salad and ate it greedily. It tasted so good that the next day she longed for it three times as much as before. If she was to have any peace, her husband must once more climb into the garden. So at dusk he crept in again, but as he was climbing down the wall, the enchantress suddenly appeared before him and was furious. 'How dare you,' she cried, 'climb into my garden and steal my rapunzel like a thief? You shall suffer for this!' 'Ah,' he answered, 'have mercy on me. I had to do it out of necessity. My wife saw your rapunzel from our window and felt such a longing for it that she would have died if she had not gotten some to eat.' The enchantress allowed her anger to be softened and said to him, 'If the case is as you say, I will let you have the rapunzel. But I have one condition: you must give me the child that your wife will bear. I will care for it as if it were my own.' The man, in his terror, agreed to everything. When the woman came to the childbed, the enchantress appeared at once, named the baby Rapunzel, and took her away. Rapunzel grew into the most beautiful child beneath the sun. When she was twelve years old, the enchantress shut her into a tower in the middle of a forest. The tower had neither stairs nor a door, but only a small window at the very top. When the enchantress wanted to go in, she stood below and called out: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Rapunzel had magnificent long hair, fine as spun gold. Whenever she heard the enchantress's voice, she unfastened her braided tresses, wound them around a window hook, let her hair fall twenty yards down, and the enchantress climbed up by it. After they had lived thus for a few years, it happened that the King's son was riding through the forest and passed by the tower. He heard a song so lovely that he stopped to listen. It was Rapunzel, who in her loneliness passed her time by letting her sweet voice ring out. The prince wanted to climb up to her and looked for the tower's door, but he could find none. He rode home, but the song had so touched his heart that he went into the forest every day and listened to it. One day, as he was standing behind a tree, he saw the enchantress approach and heard her call out: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Then Rapunzel let down 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 the prince, and the next day when it began to grow dark, he went to the tower and called out: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' Immediately the hair fell down, and the prince climbed up. At first Rapunzel was terribly frightened when a man came in, for she had never seen one before. But the prince began talking to her in a friendly way, told her that his heart had been so stirred by her singing that he could have no peace until he had seen her himself. Then Rapunzel lost her fear, and when he asked her if she would take him as her husband, she thought, 'He will love me more than Dame Gothel does.' She said yes and laid her hand in his. 'I will willingly go with you,' she said, 'but I do not know how to get down. Every time you come, bring a skein of silk with you, and I will weave a ladder. When it is finished, I will descend, and you will take me on your horse.' They agreed that until then he would come to her every evening, for the old woman came only in the daytime. Thus they lived for a while in joy and pleasure, and Rapunzel did not suspect that Dame Gothel was wicked. But one day she said to Rapunzel, 'Tell me, Rapunzel, how it happens that you are so much heavier for me?' 'Ah!' she replied, 'you are much lighter than the prince. When he climbs, I do not feel his weight at all.' Oh, you wicked child!' cried the enchantress. 'I thought I had separated you from all the world, and yet you have deceived me!' In her anger she seized Rapunzel's beautiful hair, wrapped it around her left hand a few times, seized a pair of scissors with her right, and snip, snap, the hair was cut off, and the lovely braids lay on the ground. She was so hardhearted that she took poor Rapunzel into a desert where she had to live in great grief and misery. On the same day, however, that she banished Rapunzel, the enchantress fastened the cut-off braids to the window hook. When the prince came that evening and called out: 'Rapunzel, Rapunzel, Let down your hair to me.' She let the hair down, and the prince climbed up, but instead of his beloved Rapunzel, he found the enchantress, who looked at him with wicked and venomous eyes. 'Aha!' she cried mockingly. 'You have come for your darling, but the beautiful bird is no longer in the nest, and she sings no more. The cat has got her, and will scratch your eyes out as well. Rapunzel is lost to you. You will never see her again.' The prince was beside himself with grief, and in his despair he threw himself down from the tower. He escaped with his life, but the thorns on which he fell pierced his eyes. Then he wandered about in the forest, eating nothing but roots and berries, and weeping and lamenting the loss of his beloved wife. Thus he roamed about in misery for some years, until at last he came to the desert where Rapunzel lived with her two children, twins, a boy and a girl, whom she had borne in her grief and poverty. When he heard a voice that he thought he recognized, the prince advanced toward it. Rapunzel recognized him and wept. Two of her tears fell on his eyes, and they became clear again, and he could see with them as before. He led her to his kingdom, where they were received with great joy, and they lived happily ever after.

Il etait une fois un homme et sa femme qui desiraient depuis longtemps un enfant en vain. A la fin, la femme esperait que Dieu allait exaucer son voeu. Derriere leur maison se trouvait un magnifique jardin entoure d'un haut mur, appartenant a une puissante sorciere que personne n'osait approcher. Un jour, la femme regardait par la fenetre et vit un carré de rapunzel (une sorte de salade) si frais et si vert qu'elle en eut une envie irresistibles. Cette envie grandissait chaque jour, et comme elle savait qu'elle ne pourrait en obtenir, elle depérissait et paraissait pale et miserable. Son mari, alarme, demanda : « Qu'as-tu, chere femme ? — Helas, repondit-elle, si je n'ai pas de rapunzel du jardin derriere notre maison, je mourrai. » L'homme, qui l'aimait tendrement, pensa : « Avant de laisser mourir ta femme, tu dois lui rapporter du rapunzel, quoi qu'il en coute. » Au crepuscule, il escalada le mur et cueillit une poignée de rapunzel qu'il apporta a sa femme. Elle en fit une salade qu'elle devora goulument. Cela lui parut si bon que le lendemain elle en avait trois fois plus envie. Son husband dut retourner au jardin. Mais en redescendant du mur, la sorciere apparut devant lui, furieuse. « Comment oses-tu escalader mon jardin et voler mon rapunzel comme un voleur ? Tu vas en souffrir ! — Ah, repondit-il, ayez pitie de moi. J'ai agi par necessite. Ma femme a vu votre rapunzel depuis notre fenetre et en a eu une telle envie qu'elle serait morte si elle n'en avait pas mange. » La sorciere se laissa attendrir et dit : « Si les choses sont comme tu le dis, je te laisserai prendre le rapunzel. Mais j'ai une condition : tu me donneras l'enfant que ta femme mettra au monde. J'en prendrai soin comme si c'etait le mien. » L'homme, epouvante, accepta tout. Quand la femme accoucha, la sorciere apparut aussitot, nomma le bebe Raiponce, et l'emporta. Raiponce devint la plus belle enfant sous le soleil. A l'age de douze ans, la sorciere l'enferma dans une tour au milieu d'une foret. La tour n'avait ni escalier ni porte, mais seulement une petite fenetre tout en haut. Quand la sorciere voulait entrer, elle se tenait en bas et criait : « Raiponce, Raiponce, laisse descendre tes cheveux jusqu'a moi. » Raiponce avait de magnifiques cheveux longs, fins comme de l'or file. Quand elle entendait la voix de la sorciere, elle defaisait ses tresses, les enroulait autour du crochet de la fenetre et laissait tomber ses cheveux vingt aunes plus bas, et la sorciere montait en s'y suspendant. Quelques annees plus tard, le fils du roi chevauchait dans la foret et passa devant la tour. Il entendit un chant si melodic qu'il s'arreta pour ecouter. C'etait Raiponce qui, dans sa solitude, faisait resonner sa douce voix. Le prince voulut monter jusqu'a elle mais ne trouva aucune porte. Il rentra chez lui, mais le chant lui avait touche le coeur si profondement qu'il retourna dans la foret chaque jour pour l'ecouter. Un jour, cache derriere un arbre, il vit la sorciere approcher et l'entendit crier : « Raiponce, Raiponce, laisse descendre tes cheveux jusqu'a moi. » Raiponce laissa tomber ses cheveux, et la sorciere monta. « Si c'est l'echelle pour monter, je vais tenter ma chance aussi, » dit le prince. Le lendemain soir, il alla a la tour et cria : « Raiponce, Raiponce, laisse descendre tes cheveux jusqu'a moi. » Aussitot les cheveux tomberent, et le prince monta. D'abord Raiponce fut terriblement effrayee de voir un homme entrer, car elle n'en avait jamais vu. Mais le prince lui parla gentiment et lui raconta comment son chant avait remue son coeur. Raiponce perdit sa peur et accepta de l'epouser. Elle lui dit : « Je viendrai volontiers avec toi, mais je ne sais pas comment descendre. Chaque fois que tu viendras, apporte une pelote de soie, et je tisserai une echelle. » Ils vecurent ainsi quelque temps dans la joie. Mais un jour, Raiponce dit involontairement a la sorciere : « Dites-moi, Madame Gothel, comment se fait-il que vous soyez beaucoup plus lourde a monter que le prince ? — Ah, mechante enfant ! » cria la sorciere. « Je croyais t'avoir separee du monde entier, et tu m'as trompee ! » Dans sa colere, elle saisit les beaux cheveux de Raiponce, les coupa aux ciseaux, et les belles tresses tomberent a terre. Elle exile la pauvre Raiponce dans un desert ou elle vecut dans le chagrin et la misere. Le jour meme, la sorciere attacha les tresses coupees au crochet. Quand le prince vint le soir et cria, elle laissa descendre les cheveux. Le prince monta, mais au lieu de sa bien-aimee Raiponce, il trouva la sorciere qui le regardait avec des yeux mechants et venimeux. « La belle Raiponce est perdue pour toi ! Tu ne la reverras jamais ! » Le prince, desespere, se jeta du haut de la tour. Il echappa a la mort, mais les epines sur lesquelles il tomba lui creverent les yeux. Il erra dans la foret, ne mangeant que des racines et des baies, pleurant la perte de sa femme bien-aimee. Ainsi il erra dans la misere pendant quelques annees, jusqu'a ce qu'il arrive au desert ou Raiponce vivait avec ses deux enfants, des jumeaux. Quand il entendit une voix qu'il crut reconnaitre, il s'avanca. Raiponce le reconnut et pleura. Deux de ses larmes tomberent sur les yeux du prince, et ils redevinrent clairs. Il la mena dans son royaume, ou ils furent recus avec grande joie et vecurent heureux.