【牛津书虫L1】阿拉丁和神灯Chapter4

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Five years later, Aladdin had a shop in the market and three market-sellers worked for him. The sellers liked Aladdin because he was good to them. The market children liked Aladdin too, because he gave them money when he walked past. Everybody liked Aladdin.

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One day Aladdin heard a noise in the street and stopped to listen. 'The Sultan's daughter is coming,' he heard. 'Princess Badr-al-Budur is coming!'

Six slaves carried the Princess through the streets in a litter, and the people stopped to watch. 'Princess! Princess Badr-al-Budur!' they called.

Aladdin watched when the litter (抬轿) came past him, and he saw the Princess's face. She was beautiful, with big dark eyes — the most beautiful woman in Arabia. The litter went past Aladdin, but for some minutes he did not move. Then he ran home.

'Mother! Mother! I saw the Sultan's daughter, Princess Badr-al-Budur, in the street.' Aladdin's face was white. 'I must have the Princess for my wife!'

'But, Aladdin...' his mother began.

'No "buts", Mother. I love the Princess and I want to marry her. Go to the Sultan and ask for me.'

'Me? Go to the Sultan's palace? No, no, no,' Aladdin's mother said. 'Listen, my son. The daughters of a Sultan do not marry poor boys from the city.'

'But we are not poor now, Mother. And we can give the Sultan something for his daughter. Wait.'

Aladdin went away and got the fruit from the magic garden under the ground. Now, of course, he knew it was not fruit, but white, red, green, and yellow jewels.

'Take these jewels, Mother, on a gold plate,' he said, 'and give them to the Sultan.'

So the next day Aladdin's mother carried a gold plate with many beautiful jewels on it to the Sultan's palace. She went into a long room, but when she saw the Sultan, his Vizier, and all his slaves, she was very afraid. So she waited quietly in the room and spoke to nobody. In the evening she went back home again with the jewels. Aladdin was very angry with her.

'Mother, you must speak to the Sultan,' he said. 'I have no father to do this for me. You must help me—I must marry the Princess. I love her!'

So the next day, and for many days after that, Aladdin's mother went to the palace, but she was always afraid to speak.

In the end, the Sultan saw her and asked his Vizier: 'Who is that woman? Why does she come to the palace every day?'

The Vizier spoke to Aladdin's mother: 'Do you want to speak to the Sultan? Yes? Come with me.'

The Vizier took Aladdin's mother to the Sultan, and she put her head on the ground at his feet.

'Get up, woman. Why do you come here every day?' the Sultan asked. 'Speak, woman.'

'Your Majesty,' Aladdin's mother said quietly, 'I have a son, a good young man. He is called Aladdin. He loves your daughter, Princess Badr-al-Budur. He cannot sleep or eat because of her. He wants to marry her.'

The Sultan laughed. 'What? Marry my daughter? Your son?'

'Your Majesty, these jewels are for you, from my son Aladdin.' And Aladdin's mother put the gold plate with the jewels in front of the Sultan's feet.

Everybody looked at the jewels, and the long room was suddenly very quiet. Then the Sultan spoke.

'These are very beautiful jewels,' he said. 'No man in Arabia has jewels more wonderful than these. Your son is a rich man — a good husband for my daughter.'

The Vizier did not like to hear this, because he wanted the Princess to marry his son.

'Your Majesty,' he said quietly in the Sultan's ear, 'my son is a rich man, too. Give him three months, and he can find better jewels than these.'

'Very well,' said the Sultan. And to Aladdin's mother he said: 'Your son must wait for three months, and then perhaps he can marry my daughter.'

Aladdin's mother went home to tell Aladdin, and the Vizier went away to speak to his son. And every day, for two months, the Vizier's son came to the Sultan and gave him gold, and jewels, and many beautiful things.

For two months Aladdin waited happily, but one day his mother came home from the market and said:

'Oh, Aladdin! Aladdin! The Princess is going to marry the Vizier's son! I heard it in the market. Everybody's talking about it.'

When Aladdin heard this, he was very unhappy. 'What can I do?' he thought. He put his head in his hands and thought for a long time. And when night came, he took out the magic lamp and rubbed it...

WHOOSH! ' What is your wish, master?' said the jinnee of the lamp.

'Bring Princess Badr-al-Budur to me,' said Aladdin.

'To hear is to obey.'

In a second the jinnee was back with the Princess asleep in his arms. He put her carefully on a bed, and then the Princess opened her eyes and saw Aladdin.

'Who are you?' she asked, afraid.

Aladdin took her hand and looked into her eyes. 'My name is Aladdin, and I love you,' he answered. 'I cannot live without you, and I want to marry you.'

Badr-al-Budur saw the love in his eyes, and smiled.

She closed her eyes again, then the jinnee carried her back to the Sultan's palace. The next morning she remembered Aladdin's eyes. 'There is no love in the eyes of the Vizier's son,' she thought. 'He thinks only of gold and of jewels.' So the Princess went to her father.

'I do not want to marry the Vizier's son,' she said. 'I want Aladdin for my husband.'

The Sultan was very surprised. 'What can we do?' he said to his Vizier. 'My daughter wants to marry this man Aladdin. He is a rich man, it is true — but who is he?'

'Ask him,' said the Vizier quickly, 'for more of those beautiful jewels, on forty gold plates. And forty slave girls, with forty slaves. Nobody is that rich.'

'Very good,' smiled the Sultan, and said to his slaves: 'Bring Aladdin's mother to me.'

When Aiaddin's mother arrived, the Sultan said: 'So! Your son wants to marry my daughter. But first he must give me forty gold plates with jewels. Forty slave-girls, with forty slaves, must carry the plates to me. Then my daughter can be his wife.'

Aladdin's mother went home and told her son, and Aladdin smiled. This was easy for the jinnee of the lamp, of course, and the next day, when Aladdin went to the palace, everybody in the city came out to watch.

First came forty slave-girls in dresses of gold, and every girl carried a gold plate with wonderful jewels on it. After them walked forty slaves in coats of gold. And last came Aladdin, on a beautiful white horse.

'What do you say now?' the Sultan said quietly to the Vizier, when he saw all these wonderful things. 'Aladdin must marry my daughter. How can I say no?' And the Sultan went to Aladdin and took his hands. 'My son,' he said. 'You can marry my daughter tonight.'

'Tomorrow, Your Majesty,' said Aladdin. 'Because, before I marry your daughter, she must have a palace—the most beautiful palace in Arabia.'

The jinnee of the lamp worked all night, and the next morning the Sultan saw from his window a beautiful new palace, with gardens of fruit trees and flowers.

'Wonderful!' he said.

'Black magic!' said the Vizier quietly.

That night Aladdin married Badr-al-Budur and they lived happily in the new palace.