月亮是如何变得美丽的（初级）

别人说话太快的时候，你听得懂英语吗？

Is it hard for you to understand English when people speak fast?

我是《Listening Time》播客的康纳，我的目标是帮你更好地理解英语。

I'm Connor from the Listening Time Podcast, and my goal is to help you understand English better.

所以我做了《Listening Time》这个播客，专门帮助英语学习者在自然的环境中提升听力。

That's why I created Listening Time, a podcast designed to help English learners improve their listening naturally.

每期节目，我都会用缓慢清晰的语速，聊聊旅行、美国文化这类话题，还会提供完整的文字稿，让你看到我说的每一个词。

In each episode, I talk slowly and clearly about a different topic like travel or US culture, and I give you the transcript that shows every word that I say.

《Listening Time》是你提升英语听力的绝佳工具。

Listening Time is the perfect tool to help you understand English better.

《Listening Time》播客可以在你常用的任何播客平台收听。

The Listening Time podcast is available wherever you listen to podcasts.

大家好，亲爱的英语学习者们，欢迎来到《Easy Stories In English》，这个节目能帮你把英语从一般提升到不错，再从不错提升到出色。

Hello, my lovely learners, and welcome to EasyStoriesInEnglish, the podcast that will take your English from okay to good and from good to great.

我是这档节目的主持人，阿里尔·古德贝迪。

I am Ariel Goodbody, your host for this show.

今天这个初级故事叫《月亮是怎么变美的》。

Today's beginner level story is called How the Moon Became Beautiful.

和往常一样，文本和PDF都可以在easystoriesinenglish.com上找到，链接在简介里。

As always, the transcript and PDF are available at easystoriesinenglish.com, and you can find the link in the description.

这个故事是中国民间传说，由玛丽·海耶斯·戴维和周龙翻译成英文。

This story is a Chinese folktale translated into English by Mary Hayes David and Chow Long.

但和往常一样，我用自己的风格重新改写了一遍。

But as always, I have rewritten it in my own style.

我先来解释一下故事里的一些词。

I'll just start by explaining some words that are in the story.

天文学，a-s-t-r-o-n-o-m-y，是一门科学。

Astronomy, a s t r o n o m y, is a science.

它是研究太空、恒星和行星的科学。

It is the science of space, stars, and planets.

天文学家就是研究天文学的人。

Astronomers are people who do astronomy.

天文学家研究恒星和星系。

Astronomers study stars and galaxies.

当天文学家发现新的恒星时，会给它们起名字，比如天狼星或者昴星团。

When astronomers discover new stars, they give names to them, such as Sirius or Pleiades.

一首诗，p o e m，是一种介于歌曲和口语之间的艺术形式。

A poem, p o e m, is a piece of artwork somewhere between a song and speech.

诗歌有时会押韵。

Poems sometimes rhyme.

比如，玫瑰是红的，紫罗兰是蓝的，这是一档你正在听的播客。

For example, roses are red, violets are blue, this is a podcast that you're listening to.

在那首很糟糕的诗里，‘蓝’和‘听’押韵，因为它们结尾的元音音相同。

In that very bad poem, blue and to rhyme because they end in the same vowel sound.

写诗很有趣，但靠写诗赚钱可太难了，诗人就是写诗的人。

Poems are fun to write, but it's very hard to make money as a poet, someone who writes poems.

唉，算了。

Oh, well.

你把花从土里拔出来，就是摘花。

When you pull a flower out of the ground, you pick it.

比如，你可以摘很多花，扎成一束。

You can pick lots of flowers to make a bouquet, for example.

现在的人一般不自己摘花了。

These days, people don't usually pick flowers.

他们都是去花店买花。

Instead, they buy flowers from a florist.

东西要是锋利，就容易划伤人。

When something is sharp, it can cut you.

比如，锋利的刀切东西特别顺手。

For example, a sharp knife is good at cutting food.

要是桌子边儿太锋利，家长往往会加个护角，免得孩子撞伤。

If the edge of a table is sharp, then parents might put something on it so that children don't hurt themselves on the sharp edge.

温柔的意思是柔软或者和善。

Gentle, g e n t l e, means soft or kind.

温和的人不会大声说话，也不会说伤人的话。

Gentle people don't talk loudly and they don't say mean things.

对小孩子要温和一点，因为他们很容易受伤。

It's good to be gentle with young children as they can get hurt easily.

可笑的，r-i-d-i-c-u-l-o-u-s，意思是特别傻、特别蠢。

Ridiculous, r I d I c u l o u s, means very silly, very stupid.

如果你觉得某件事很可笑，通常是因为你不认同，觉得它不够严肃。

If you think something is ridiculous, then you usually don't like it and don't think it is serious.

比如，有学生跟我说：‘我永远也学不好英语。’

For example, if a student tells me, I'll never be good at English.

我会说：‘这话说得可笑。’

I say ridiculous.

继续学下去，你一定会越来越好的。

Keep studying and you'll definitely get better at English.

‘可笑’这个词字面上的意思是，让人想笑的事。

Ridiculous literally means something that you should laugh at.

但在这个故事里，你唯一会笑的，只会是我的笑话。

But the only thing you'll be laughing at in this story is my jokes.

但愿如此。

I hope.

请笑一笑吧。

Please laugh.

你看，我有一颗温柔的心。

I have a gentle heart, you see.

我知道这听起来有点荒唐，有时候别人说话确实很刺耳，但请你对我温柔一点。

I know it sounds ridiculous, and sometimes people's words can be sharp, but please be gentle with me.

好的。

Okay.

说到这里，大家请认真听，好好享受。

On that note, please listen and enjoy.

月亮是如何变得美丽的。

How the moon became beautiful.

今天月亮很漂亮，但过去它可丑得很。

Today, the moon is beautiful, but in the past, the moon was ugly.

现在的月亮脸蛋亮堂堂的，人人都爱看。

Today, the moon's face is bright and everyone likes to look at it.

可过去月亮的脸黑漆漆的，没人愿意瞧它一眼。

But in the past, the moon's face was dark and nobody looked at it.

这变化是怎么发生的呢？

How did things become this way?

其实，六千年前的一个晚上，月亮的脸就变了样。

Well, the moon's face changed one night six thousand years ago.

那时候，月亮很伤心，因为它长得丑，没人愿意看它。

At that time, the moon was sad because he was ugly and nobody liked to look at him.

于是，有一晚，月亮跟花儿和星星说了话。

So one night, the moon talked to the flowers and the stars.

它们都很美，也是唯一愿意正眼看月亮脸的人。

They were beautiful, and they were the only things that looked at the moon's face.

哦，花朵。

Oh, flowers.

哦，星星，月亮说。

Oh, stars, said the moon.

我不喜欢当月亮。

I do not like being the moon.

真希望我能像你们一样，变成一朵花或一颗星。

I wish I were a flower or a star like you.

你们真美。

You are so beautiful.

如果我是一颗小星星，也许天文学家每天晚上都会看我。

If I were a small star, then maybe an astronomer would look at me every night.

天文学家，一颗星星说。

Astronomers, said one of the stars.

天文学家每天晚上都看我们，还给我们起名字。

Astronomers look at us every night, and then they make names for us.

你能相信吗？

Can you believe it?

我们根本不需要名字，可那些天文学家偏偏给我们起些奇怪的名字，比如天狼星、北河三、普勒俄涅。

We don't need names, but the astronomers give us stupid names, like Sirius and Pollux and Pleony.

不行。

No.

还是当个丑月亮比较好。

It is better to be an ugly moon.

可是花儿啊，星星啊，月亮说。

Oh, but flowers, but stars, said the moon.

我真的不喜欢当月亮。

I really do not like being the moon.

我希望自己是一朵花。

I wish I were a flower.

如果我是朵花，也许会有漂亮的女士来看我，还为我写诗。

If I were a flower, maybe beautiful women would come and look at me and write poems about me.

有一朵花说：‘你可别想那样。’

You do not want that, said one of the flowers.

先是写诗，接着就把你摘走。

First they write poems, then they pick you.

你能想象吗？

Can you imagine?

有一天你还好好地长在地上，第二天就被连根拔起，塞进玻璃瓶里，或者送给哪个傻姑娘，然后慢慢枯萎。

One day, you're sitting there, and the next day, you've been picked out of the ground, and they put you inside some horrible glass or give you to some stupid girl, and then you slowly die.

不行。

No.

还是当个丑月亮好。

It is better to be an ugly moon.

没人能把月亮从天上摘下来。

Nobody can pick the moon from the sky.

可也不是所有花都这样，月亮说。

But not all flowers are like that, said the moon.

我可以长在远离人群的山上。

I could grow on a mountain far away from people.

我能看见这美丽的世界，却没人会来摘我。

I would see the beautiful world, and nobody would pick me.

星星和花朵们厌倦了和月亮说话，于是都沉默了。

The stars and the flowers were tired of talking to the moon, and they said nothing.

但有一朵花对此很感兴趣。

But there was one flower who is interested.

这朵花又丑又尖锐。

This flower was ugly and sharp.

没人愿意摘这朵花，因为它又丑又尖锐，所以它特别能理解月亮。

Nobody liked to pick this flower because he was ugly and sharp, and so this flower understood the moon very well.

有一个花园，

There is a garden, said the sharp flower.

这个花园里开着世界上最美的花，也住着世界上最美的女人。

In this garden, there are the most beautiful flowers in the world and there lives also the most beautiful woman in the world.

她叫嫦娥。

Her name is Kang.

人特别温柔。

Is very kind.

也许你去和她聊聊，心情会好一些。

Perhaps if you talk to her, you might feel better.

于是第二天晚上，月亮来到这个花园，找到了嫦娥。

So the next night, the moon went to this garden and found Cheng'e.

她确实美得惊人，是世界上最美的女人，月亮一眼就爱上了她。

She was indeed beautiful, the most beautiful woman in the world, and the moon fell in love immediately.

于是他决定上前和她说话。

So he decided to talk to her.

嫦娥姑娘，您真美。

Lady Chong, you are so beautiful.

您的笑容就像太阳一样。

Your smile is like the sun.

你的眼睛像宝石一样闪亮。

Your eyes are like jewels.

你的嘴唇像一颗甜美的樱桃。

Your mouth is like a delicious cherry.

你的一举一动都像平静的海面一样温柔。

You move slowly and gently like a calm sea.

我希望你能跟我走，成为我的面容。

I wish that you would come with me and become my face.

如果你是我的面容，我们每晚都能照亮这个世界。

If you were my face, we could shine down on the world every night.

连最坏的人看见我们，也会变得善良。

Even bad people would see us and become good.

告诉我，嫦娥，你是怎么变得这么美的？

Tell me, Cheng E, how did you become so beautiful?

嫦娥微笑着。

Cheng E smiled.

我一直和温柔快乐的人生活在一起，我想这就是我美丽的缘故。

I have always lived with those who are gentle and happy, and I believe that is why I am beautiful.

月亮每晚都来查看成乐那张温柔的脸。

The moon came every night to see Cheng Le's gentle face.

他每晚都告诉她有多美，每晚对她的爱也更深一分。

Every night he told her how beautiful she was and every night his love for her grew.

渐渐地，嫦娥也开始对他产生了感情。

Slowly, Chang'e started to feel love for him too.

有一天，嫦娥对妈妈说：妈妈，我爱上月亮了。

One day, Chang said to her mother, mother, I have fallen in love with the moon.

是啊，他长得不好看，可心地特别善良。

Yes, he is ugly, but he has such a kind heart.

我可以去和他一起生活吗？

May I go and live with him?

妈妈觉得这太荒唐了，只说了一句：可嫦娥本来就是个爱幻想的姑娘。

Her mother thought this was ridiculous, so she only said, But Cheong E was a romantic girl.

所以她妈妈说完话，她就听成了同意，高高兴兴地走了。

So when her mother said, she heard yes, and she went away very happy.

她跑去告诉所有朋友，说她要嫁给月亮了。

She went and told all her friends that she was going to marry the moon.

几天后，嫦娥就不见了。

A few days later, Chang'e was gone.

她妈妈到处找她，最后问嫦娥的朋友她去哪儿了。

Her mother looked everywhere and finally asked Chang'e's friends where she was.

他们说，她去陪月亮住了。

Why she's gone to live with the moon, they said.

别开玩笑了，她妈妈说。

Don't be ridiculous, said her mother.

这怎么可能。

That can't be.

是真的，另一个女孩说。

But it's true, said another girl.

今晚抬头看看天空吧。

Look up at the sky tonight.

嫦娥的母亲还是觉得这事儿太荒唐了。

Chang'e's mother still thought this was all ridiculous.

但那天晚上，她从窗户望向月亮，真的看到了。

But that night, she looked out of her window up at the moon, and there she saw it.

月亮的脸不再阴暗丑陋了。

The moon's face was not dark and ugly anymore.

它变得明亮又美丽。

It was bright and beautiful.

嫦娥的母亲流下了眼泪。

Cheng Le's mother started to cry.

夜空中，她看见了女儿的脸，满是爱意，温柔地照耀着人间。

There in the night sky was her daughter's face, full of love shining down on the world.

六千年来，一直如此。

And so it has been for six thousand years.

如今的月亮，美得像世上任何一位女子，夜复一夜地为我们静静发光。

Now the moon is as beautiful as any woman on earth, and it shines bright for us night after night.

故事讲完了。

The end.

希望你们喜欢今天这个故事。

I hope you enjoyed today's story.

这个故事不长，是个经典的起源传说，讲的是某样东西怎么变成了现在这样——在这里，就是月亮如何变得美丽。

It was quite a short one, a classic origin myth, why something became something or how something became something, in this case, how the moon became beautiful.

我是在一本叫《中国寓言与民间故事》的书里读到这个故事的。

I found this story in a collection of Chinese folk tales, it's called Chinese fables and folk tales.

这其实是二十世纪初第一本以英文出版的中国民间故事集，但也因此带来了一些问题。

It was actually the first collection of Chinese folk tales published in English in the early twentieth century, and because of that, it comes with a few problems.

作者是一位美国女性和一位旅居美国的中国男性，他帮她记录下了这些故事。但出版时，中文还没有标准化。

The authors were an American woman and a Chinese man who lived in America, and he helped her write down these stories, But it was published at a time before the standardization of the Chinese language.

虽然中国各地用的都是同样的文字系统，但方言众多，发音各异，当时也没有统一的拼音方案能把中文发音准确转写成英文。

So although the same writing system was used throughout China, there were many different dialects with many different pronunciations, and there was no standardized way to transcribe the pronunciation of Chinese into English.

所以这个问题导致书里的所有名字在现代汉语中都很难理解。

So the problem that this causes is all of the names in the book are very hard to understand in terms of modern Chinese.

书里那位美女的名字被拼作 'Mǎ Yè - N'ī O'。

The name of the beautiful woman in the book is written as maybe, t s e h hyphen n apostrophe I o.

这和现代普通话对不上，很可能源自某种汉语方言，而不是标准语，而且还经过了英语转写的过滤。

This does not correspond with modern Mandarin, it probably comes from a dialect of Chinese, not the standard language, and then it's also been filtered through writing in English.

因此，我几乎不可能查到这个名字原本到底是啥，无论是用汉字写出来，还是用现代普通话念出来。

So it's pretty much impossible for me to find out what the original name actually was, either in written Chinese or modern spoken Mandarin.

后来我请教了DeepSeek，它建议用'嫦娥'这个名字，这个神话人物在一些故事里飞到月亮上居住，在另一些故事里直接化作了月亮，我们可以广义地称她为月宫仙子。

Now I asked DeepSeek for some help with this, and it suggested to use the name Chang'e, which is the name of this mythical figure who in some stories goes and lives on the moon, in some stories she becomes the moon, very broadly we can call her the lady of the moon.

我提这个是因为后续节目中还会出现其他关于嫦娥的故事，但那个版本的她会有所不同。

I'm mentioning this now because there will be some other stories in the podcast with Chang Le in them, but the version of her will be different.

神话和民间故事里，同一个故事有不同版本是很正常的事。

It's very normal in myths and folk tales to have different versions of the same stories.

同一个角色在不同故事里可能完全不一样，或者遭遇的事情也完全不同。

One character might be very different in one story versus another or different things might happen to them.

所以我不确定这个故事里的角色是不是就是同一个嫦娥，但看起来足够接近，我就干脆用这个名了，不然的话，我只能随便挑一个中文名字。

So I don't really know if the character in this story is supposed to be the same Chang Le, but it seemed to be close enough that I might as well choose it because otherwise, I would be just choosing a random name in Chinese.

总之，再次感谢收听，今年敬请期待更多收录在《Easy Stories In English》里的中国民间故事。

Anyway, thanks again for listening and look out for more Chinese folktales coming up this year on Easy StoriesInEnglish.

我真的很享受深入探索这个全新的神话与民间传说领域。

I'm really enjoying diving into this new area of mythology and folklore.

我以前在播客里讲过几个中国故事，但今年我特别想深入挖掘。

I've done a few Chinese tales on the podcast before, but this year I really want to dig in.

再次感谢收听，我们很快再见。

So thanks again for listening and see you soon.