雙語散文:水晶鞋

Crystal Shoes

“Hi! John.” Mary ran towards me with a rare bright smile on her face, saying, “I’m gonna have a dance performance tonight. I hope you’ll come. Here is the ticket. Don’t forget!” She left in a hurry, disappearing in the throngs of people quickly.

“What?!” I just came to my mind, “What performance? Dance? Is that credible?” I asked myself. Mary was not such kind of girl. She was a quite ordinary one. I had never seen her making up or wearing attractive clothes, moreover, she always wore her big black-frame glasses, for she did not know how to dress up indeed. What a terrible thing, especially for a plain girl!

“I should go to, I must go to. That’s a miracle!” I thought.

I arrived at the hall with the ticket, and found my seat. Her performance was the seventh one. I knew I would suffer from a hard time before her turn, for I had no sense of art, but her performance was worth of watching, no matter how long I would wait for.

Time went slowly, I struggled with myself not to fall asleep.

“Let’s welcome the next exciting dance — Latin!” Applause fulfilled the hall at once.

I opened my eyes as large as possible, fearing to lose anything. Wearing a golden and shinning skirt, Mary appeared on the glorious stage. Her dress went well with the brilliant lights. Such scene seemed to be a mermaiden showing up under the glittering sunshine, meanwhile, I could feel all the audience in the hall focused their eyes on her and it was also hard for me to remove my sights from her. She was so beautiful: her stature was slim; her long golden hair lay back in curls over her delicate ears. Dancing with a charming smile, she was fully absorbed in the Latin music. At this moment, she looked like a pretty butterfly flying on the splendid stage… I could hardly believe my eyes.

After all the performance ended, I waited for her at the gate.

“Hi!” She stood in front of me with a bag and her crystal high-heeled shoes in her hands, and dressed as she used to be, but the making-up still could be seen.

“How do you feel?” There was not a little bit tired expression appeared on her face.

“Fantastic!” I answered.

“Ha, ha. I knew it would be.” She could not conceal her excitement, laughing like a child.

“May I lend a hand?”

“Thank you!” She handed her crystal shoes to me which were shinning in the wonderful starry night; at the mean time, I realized that every girl has a pair of special shoes which are like the crystal shoes of Cinderella.

【中文譯文】：

“嗨，約翰！”瑪麗臉上帶着罕見的笑容向我跑來，口中還說着，“今晚我要參加一個演出，希望你能來。這是門票，別忘了啊！”說完，她就匆匆忙忙地離開了，很快消失在人羣中。

“什麼？！”我這纔回過神來，“什麼演出啊？跳舞？是真的嗎？”我自言自語道。瑪麗不是那種女孩。她非常普通。我從沒見過她穿過漂亮的衣服，並且，她總是戴着那幅黑邊大眼鏡，因爲她真的不知該如何打扮。真是不幸啊，尤其對一個相貌平平的女孩來說。

我想：“我應該去，我必須去。這簡直是個奇蹟！”

我拿着票走進演出大廳，找到座位。她的表演排在第七位，我知道我得忍受一段艱難的時間了，因爲我對藝術根本就沒有什麼感覺。但是不論等多久，她的表演都值得一看。

時間過得很慢，我努力不使自己睡着。

“讓我們歡迎下一個精彩的舞蹈——拉丁舞！”掌聲立刻響徹全場。

我儘量睜大眼睛，生怕會漏掉什麼。瑪麗穿着一條閃閃發光的金色裙子出現在舞臺上。她的打扮與閃耀的燈光正好相配。這個場景就像是美人魚出現在耀眼的陽光下。這時，我感到整個大廳裏的觀衆都將目光集中在她身上，我也無法把視線從她身上移開。她是如此美麗，身材如此婀娜。她長長的頭髮捲曲着，遮住她精美的耳朵。她帶着迷人的笑容，翩翩起舞，完全沉醉在拉丁音樂中。那一刻，她就像一隻美麗的蝴蝶在輝煌的舞臺上起舞。我簡直不敢相信自己的眼睛。

演出結束之後，我在門口等她。

“嗨！”她站在我面前，提着一個手袋和水晶高跟鞋，穿着她平常穿的衣服，但還能看出淡淡的化妝痕跡。

“感覺怎麼樣？”她的臉上沒有顯出一絲疲倦的神情。

我答道：“棒極了！”

“哈哈，我就知道是這樣。”她掩飾不住興奮，露出孩子般的笑容。

“我幫你拿吧？”

“謝謝！”她把水晶鞋遞給我。它們在星夜的天空下閃閃發光。這時，我意識到，每個女孩都有一雙屬於自己的特殊的鞋，就像灰姑娘的水晶鞋一樣。