The Boy And The Cabbage

男孩和空心菜

There was once a boy who - although very good and obedient - hated eating cabbage. Whenever he had to eat it he would complain and get extremely angry. One day, his mother decided to send him to the market to buy... a cabbage! So the boy was, of course, disgusted at this turn of events.

从前有个小男孩，尽管很乖很听话，但他十分讨厌吃空心菜。每当他不得不吃空心菜时，他就会抱怨，并非常愤怒。有一天，男孩的妈妈决定让他去市场买空心菜。结果毫无悬念，小男孩对此十分反感。

At the market, the boy reluctantly purchased one, but this wasn't just any old cabbage. It happened to be a cabbage which hated children. After an enormous argument, the boy and the cabbage set off for home, in silence, their anger barely below the surface the whole time. On the way, while crossing the river, the boy slipped and both of them fell into the rapids and were pulled under by the current. With great effort, they managed to come to the surface, grab onto a plank of wood, and stay afloat.

到了市场，男孩不情不愿地买了一颗空心菜。但是，这并不是一颗普通的空心菜。恰好这颗空心菜也不喜欢小孩子。一番激烈的争执之后，小男孩和空心菜都勉强压下怒火，一言不发地往家走去。路上，穿过一条河流时，男孩滑了一下，然后他们都掉进了湍急的河流里被冲走了。费了很大的劲他们才浮出水面，抓住了一块木板，浮在水面上。

They had to spend so much time together, adrift on that plank, that after becoming mightily bored, they ended up conversing. They got to know each other, and became friends. They played many bizarre games, like the fish without a rod, the tiny hiding place, and the King of the mountain.

无奈，他们在那块木板上漂泊了很长时间，在极度厌烦之后，最终还是聊了起来。他们开始了解彼此，成了朋友，还玩了很多稀奇古怪的游戏，像没有钓竿的鱼，小小的藏身之处，还有山之王。

Chatting with his new friend, the boy understood the importance, at his young age, of vegetables like the cabbage, and how wrong it is to always be bad-mouthing them. The cabbage, for his part, realized that sometimes his flavour was a touch strong, and strange to children. So they agreed that when they reached home, the boy would treat the cabbage with great respect, and the cabbage would do its best to taste like spaghetti.

在和新朋友聊天时，这个男孩意识到，空心菜这样的蔬菜对于小孩子的重要性，也意识到总是说他们坏话是多么错误。空心菜也认识到自己的味道有点重，对孩子们来说很怪。于是他们约定，当回到家时，男孩会对空心菜改观，而卷心菜会尽量吃起来像意大利面条。

Their agreement was nothing if not a great success. The boy's mother was greatly surprised at how willingly he ate the cabbage, and the boy prepared the best hiding place in his tummy for the cabbage, shouting "Mmm! What great spaghetti!"

如果没有做到的话，他们的约定将毫无意义。男孩的妈妈对于男孩愿意吃空心菜十分惊讶，小男孩将空心菜吃进肚子里，高呼：“嗯...... 意大利面太棒了！