小朋友们喜欢的故事来了！惠言童话——蝴蝶和小猫

编辑寄语

受疫情影响，自3月16日起，大纽约地区学校陆续关闭，孩子们在家，除了上网课外，各种活动受到限制。如何帮助孩子们度过这个非常时期的枯燥生活，让家长们十分操心。惠言先生在征得参与创作者和组织者同意后，主动向我们编辑部提议，把他正在筹划出版的《惠言童话》18篇绘画本稿子赠给我们网站连载，可以让孩子们在网上看到和听到这些故事，有助于提高他们的中文阅读和听力水平。

故事文稿是基于惠言先生前几年在《世界日报》上发表的故事修改的，中美两地34个孩子们参加了插画稿创作，上海五里桥文化中心张炜玮主任组织“音之魅”诵读沙龙的语言艺术家们创作了9个朗诵作品。希望这些生动有趣的故事、童趣洋溢的图画和美妙的朗诵艺术作品，能伴随孩子们度过新冠疫情这个困难时期。对此，我们向惠言先生；英文稿的校阅者Jason Kenny先生和赵蒙皓女士；上海五里桥文化中心及“音之魅”诵读沙龙语言艺术家们；参与画稿创作的孩子们及其家长表示衷心感谢！

本网站将于5月4日（周一）起，每逢周一、三、五连载推出，每次一篇《惠言童话》故事，大约持续六周，欢迎大家下载收看收听。

1 蝴蝶和小猫

文：惠言  

画：沈乐佳（9岁）丁博睿（9岁）

英文校阅：Jason Kenny & 赵蒙皓

朗诵：童国雄

春天来了，风和日丽，花园里鲜花盛开。一只长着黑白相间绒毛的小猫，闻着花香、眯着眼，懒洋洋地躺在草地上晒太阳。

Spring was here. The sun was bright, and the wind was calm. Flowers were in full bloom in the garden. A fluffy kitten with black and white fur was lying down lazily on the grass under the sun with her eyes half closed, smelling the fragrant air.

这时候，飞来一只漂亮的红色黑斑纹蝴蝶，小猫看到了，立刻兴奋起来。等蝴蝶停在花朵上采蜜时，小猫蹑手蹑脚地接近，正待扑向蝴蝶时，蝴蝶警觉地飞了起来，生气地责备小猫：“你为什么要抓我？”

All of a sudden, the kitten saw a beautiful red butterfly with black stripes flying into the garden. The kitten became very excited. When the butterfly settled on a flower to drink some nectar, the kitten crept up close to the butterfly. Just when the kitten was about to pounce on her, the butterfly became alarmed and started to fly up. She chided the kitten angrily, “Why do you try to catch me?”

小猫嘻皮笑脸地说：“没有啊，我只是想要和你玩玩。”蝴蝶转怒为喜，问小猫：“你想玩什么呢？”小猫说：“玩躲猫猫吧，比谁的眼力好。”蝴蝶说：“行呀，既然是你提出来，那我先躲起来。你把眼闭上，数到五时来找我。”

The kitten responded with a playful smile, “No, I just wanted to play with you.” The butterfly’s anger turned to delight. “What do you want to play?” the butterfly asked. “Let’s play hide and seek, to see who has better eyesight.” the kitten replied. The butterfly said, “Ok, since it is your idea, I get to hide first. Close your eyes, count to 10, and then come look for me.”

蝴蝶趁小猫闭眼的时候，立马飞向一株盛开的红牡丹，藏到硕大的红色花朵的花瓣里。小猫先在地面费力寻找，不见蝴蝶；又爬到树上，只见满园色彩斑斓，不见红蝴蝶的踪影，小猫泄气地回到地面。

While the kitten closed his eyes, the butterfly quickly flew to a red peony flower, and hid inside the big red flower petals. The kitten looked for the butterfly on the ground first, but could not find her. Then she climbed up the tree. She saw the colorful garden, but still could not find the red butterfly.

在花草树丛中寻觅久了，小猫觉得身上有点痒，看到身边有一棵粗壮的牡丹花柱，顺势靠在上面蹭痒，摇动了上面的花朵；躲在花朵里的蝴蝶误以为小猫发现了自己，就飞了出来。小猫看到，高兴地说：“原来你躲在这里，让我找得好苦，我赢了。”蝴蝶懊恼自已没有沉住气，只好认输。

The kitten was discouraged and got back down to the ground. After searching for a long time in the trees and flowers, the kitten got a bit of an itch on her back. She saw a thick trunk of peony nearby so she leaned against the trunk and used it to rub her back, shaking the flowers. The butterfly thought that the kitten had found her and flew out. The kitten saw the butterfly and exclaimed, “Wow, you were hiding here? It’s so hard for me to find you, but I won.” The butterfly regretted not having patience and losing the game.

小猫说：“这回该轮到你找我了。”趁蝴蝶闭眼的时候，小猫一溜烟地躲进一块大石头底下的空洞里。

The kitten then said, “Now it’s your turn to find me.” While the butterfly closed her eyes, the kitten hid in a cave under a big rock.

蝴蝶飞上天空，往下细细观察，很快发现了小猫露在洞外频频摆动的长尾巴，于是悄无声息地飞到小猫的尾巴尖上，用它的触角轻轻拨动猫尾巴上的绒毛，小猫感到尾巴发痒，扭头一看，蝴蝶停在尾巴上为自己挠痒呢，只好认输。

The butterfly flew up into the sky and looked down. She quickly found the kitten’s tail swishing outside the cave. She quietly flew to the tip of the kitten’s tail, and gently touched its hair. The kitten felt an itch on her tail, turned her head and saw the butterfly sitting on her tail. She had to admit defeat.

一比一，打成平局，蝴蝶说：“又该轮到我躲起来了。”小猫赶紧讨饶：“蝴蝶姑娘，不用比了，我能找到你，不是我眼力好，全凭侥幸。你飞得高，看得远，眼力好，是真本事。”

One to one, it was a tie. The butterfly announced, “It’s my turn to hide again.” The kitten immediately offered, “Oh no, there is no need for more contests, beautiful butterfly. I found you because of sheer luck, not because I saw you with good eyesight. You can fly high and see far. That is real ability.”

蝴蝶则摇摇头，对小猫道出了内中的奥秘：“你没看到我，不是你眼力不够，是我利用了保护色。我能找到你，要怪你太粗心大意，谁让你学鸵鸟，顾头不顾尾？你要是钻在洞里，夹紧尾巴，那我眼力再好，也无法在天空看到你。”

The butterfly shook her head and told the kitten the secret, “You didn’t find me because I used camouflage, not because you cannot see well. I found you because you were careless. You are just like the ostrich; you hid your head in the cave, but kept the tail exposed. If you hid in the cave, and tucked in your tail, I would not be able to see you from the sky even if my eyesight was superior.”