“The Little Match Girl” is a story by Hans Christian Andersen. The story is famous not only because of its poignant tragedy but also because of its beauty. Our imagination (and literature) can give us comfort, solace, and reprieve from so many of life’s hardships. But literature can also act as a reminder of personal responsibility. In that sense, this short story recalls Charles Dickens’ Hard Times, which instigated change in the age of industrialization (Victorian England). This story could also be compared to A Little Princess, the 1904 novel by Frances Hodgson Burnett. Does this story make you re-evaluate your life, those things you cherish most?
The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen
It was terribly cold and nearly dark on the last evening of the old year, and the snow was falling fast. In the cold and darkness, a poor little girl with bare head and naked feet, roamed through the streets. It is true she had on1 a pair of slippers when she left home, but they were not of much use. They were very large, so large, indeed, for they had belonged to her Mother and the poor little girl had lost them in2 running across the street to avoid two carriages that were rolling3 at a terrible rate.
One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized the other and ran away with it saying he could use it as a cradle when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle4 of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, looking like the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her fair hair, which hung in curls5 on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.
Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year’s eve, yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses one of which projected6 beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn7 her little feet under her, but could not keep off the cold. And she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches.
Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike8 it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out- “scratch!” how it sputtered as it burnt. It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed as though she was sitting by a large iron stove. How the fire burned! And seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out! (if a fire or light goes out, it stops burning or shining)
The stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.
She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table cloth on which stood a splendid dinner service and a steaming9 roast goose stuffed with apples and dried plums.
to fill a space or container tightly with sth 填满；装满；塞满；灌满
~ A with B
She had 500 envelopes to stuff with leaflets.
她得在 500 个信封里装上传单。
And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in it, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.
She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one she had seen through the rich merchant’s glass door. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored pictures, like those she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out.
The Christmas lights rose higher and higher till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. “Someone is dying,” thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now in Heaven, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.
She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance.
“Grandmother,” cried the little one, “O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large glorious Christmas-tree.” And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day.
noonday: the middle of the day.
“the blinds were lowered to keep out the noonday sun”
And her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.
In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. She had been frozen on the last evening of the year; and the New-year’s sun rose and shone upon a little child. The child still sat, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt.
“She tried to warm herself,” said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year’s day.
Footnotes
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have (got) sth on: to be wearing sth; She had a red jacket on. He had nothing (= no clothes) on. ↩
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while doing sth; while sth is happening ↩
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to move smoothly (on wheels or as if on wheels); to make sth do this; The car began to roll back down the hill. The traffic rolled slowly forwards. Mist was rolling in from the sea. ↩
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a number of things tied or wrapped together; sth that is wrapped up ↩
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a piece of hair that is formed into a round shape（一绺）鬈发 Her daughter has cute blonde curls.她女儿有漂亮的金色鬈发。She likes to wear her hair in curls.她喜欢留鬈发。 ↩
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. to stick out beyond an edge or a surface 突出；外伸；伸出 SYN protrude a building with balconies projecting out over the street 阳台伸出到街上的楼房 ↩
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to move sth/sb by pulling it or them gently ↩
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to rub sth such as a match against a surface so that it produces a flame; to produce a flame when rubbed against a rough surface ↩
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very hot ↩