The Princess and the Pea
A free A2-level English story for language learners, readable online in 7 languages, with an option to listen via the free Storyteller app.
A storm-soaked princess appears at a palace gate, and the queen devises an unusual test to verify her royal sensitivity — by hiding a pea under twenty mattresses.
Once upon a time there was a prince who wanted to marry a princess; but she would 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.
Era uma vez um príncipe que queria se casar com uma princesa; mas ela tinha que ser uma princesa de verdade. Ele viajou pelo mundo todo para encontrar uma, mas em lugar nenhum conseguiu o que queria. Havia princesas de sobra, mas era difícil saber se eram de verdade. Sempre havia algo nelas que não estava como deveria. Então ele voltou para casa e ficou triste, pois gostaria muito de ter uma princesa de verdade.
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.
Certa noite, uma tempestade terrível se abateu; havia trovões e relâmpagos, e a chuva caía em torrentes. De repente, ouviu-se uma batida no portão da cidade, e o velho rei foi abri-lo.
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.
Era uma princesa parada ali fora, diante do portão. Mas, meu Deus! que aparência a chuva e o vento lhe tinham dado. A água escorria de seus cabelos e de suas roupas; escorria para dentro da ponta dos sapatos e saía de novo pelo calcanhar. E, mesmo assim, ela dizia que era uma princesa de verdade.
"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.
"Bem, logo descobriremos isso," pensou a velha rainha. Mas não disse nada, foi até o quarto, tirou toda a roupa de cama do estrado, e colocou uma ervilha no fundo; depois pegou vinte colchões e os colocou sobre a ervilha, e então vinte edredons de penas em cima dos colchões.
On this the princess had to lie all night. In the morning she was asked how she had slept.
Foi sobre isso que a princesa teve que deitar-se a noite toda. Pela manhã, perguntaram-lhe como havia dormido.
"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!"
"Ah, muito mal!" disse ela. "Mal fechei os olhos a noite toda. Só Deus sabe o que havia na cama, mas eu estava deitada sobre algo duro, de modo que estou toda roxa pelo corpo. É horrível!"
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.
Assim souberam que ela era uma princesa de verdade, pois havia sentido a ervilha através dos vinte colchões e dos vinte edredons de penas.
Nobody but a real princess could be as sensitive as that.
Ninguém, a não ser uma princesa de verdade, poderia ser tão sensível assim.
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.
Então o príncipe a tomou por esposa, pois agora sabia que tinha uma princesa de verdade; e a ervilha foi colocada no museu, onde ainda pode ser vista, se ninguém a roubou.
There, that is a true story.
Pronto, essa é uma história verdadeira.