Many a night she heard the fishermen, who were fishing by torchlight, talking over the good deeds of the young prince;

有好几个夜里，当渔夫们打着火把出海捕鱼的时候，她听到他们不停的称赞这位王子。

and she was happy to think that she had saved his life when he was drifting about on the waves, half dead,

她高兴的想是她把王子从惊涛骇浪中救了出来;

and she could not forget how closely his head had pressed her breast, and how passionately she had kissed him;

她永远忘不了王子的头是怎样紧紧地躺在她的怀里，她又是怎样热情地吻着他。

but he knew nothing of all this, and never saw her even in his dreams.

可是这些事儿王子一点也不知道，他连做梦也不会想到她的。

She became fonder and fonder of mankind, and longed more and more to be able to live among them;

她渐渐地爱上了人类，开始盼望能够生活在他们中间。

their world seemed so infinitely bigger than hers;

她觉得人类的世界比她的天地大得多。

with their ships they could scour the ocean, they could ascend the mountains high above the clouds,

的确，他们能够乘船在海上行驶，能够爬上高耸入云的大山，

and their wooded, grass-grown lands extended further than her eye could reach.

那连带着森林和田野的土地，放眼望去都看不见边际。

There was so much that she wanted to know, but her sisters could not give an answer to all her questions,

她希望要知道的东西实在是太多了，可是她的姐姐们都不能回答她所有的问题。

so she asked her old grandmother, who knew the upper world well, and rightly called it the country above the sea.

因此她只有问她的老祖母。老祖母对于“上层世界”——这是她给海上国家所起的恰当的名字——的确知道得相当清楚。