On this day, she came to a small town and brought the pure beauty of snowflakes to the people here. As she flew through the streets in her pure white carriage, a pure gaze stayed with her, yes, so pure and beautiful! Just like the snowflakes by her own palace!
Gai and Gerda lived in this town, they were not brother and sister, but they were very dear to each other, as if they were brother and sister. Their respective parents lived in two attics facing each other. The roofs of the two houses almost touched each other; there was a water pipe under each roof; and each house had a small window. One could go from one window to the other by crossing the water pipe. In winter the windows were often covered with ice. But then they would heat a copper plate on the stove, stick it to the window glass, and dissolve a small, round peephole! Behind the peep-hole in each window was a beautiful, gentle eye peeping out. It was the little boy and the little girl. Gaj always liked to look across the window, because across it was Gerda's room. Gerda always did the same.
But this day, Gaj saw a few snowflakes falling slowly outside, and the largest of them landed on the side of the flower box. This snowflake grew larger and larger, and finally turned into a woman. She was clad in the finest, white veil woven from snowflakes like countless stars. She was very beautiful and delicate, though she was formed of ice - glowing, shining ice. Yet she was alive: her eyes glowed like two bright stars; though why were they always so sad and cold in her eyes!
The next day there was a frost ...... followed by a thaw ...... Spring came. But Gerda realized that Gaj had changed; he looked at everything and blew everything out of proportion, and all that was good and kind was so bad in his eyes. He also became worse and worse to Gerda, but Gerda didn't care, she always thought of the many good things she used to do together, and just stayed by Gaj's side.
Why was this? The devil was snickering in heaven because he had created a mirror. This mirror had one feature: that is, everything that was good and beautiful, when shone in it, shrank and became nothing; but something worthless and ugly stood out and looked worse than its original form. The fairest landscape would look like boiled spinach in this mirror; and if you had a freckle, you need not doubt that it could expand to cover your nose and mouth. But while they were holding it to show it off to God, they accidentally made it fall out of their hands to the ground, and fall into hundreds of millions, hundreds of billions, and countless fragments. In this way the mirrors do something even more unfortunate than before, for there are many fragments smaller than grains of sand. They fly about the world, and as soon as they come into the eyes of men, they stick there and do not move. These people look at everything out of place, or see only the bad side of things, for each tiny shard still has the magic of a whole mirror.
Poor Gaj got a piece stuck in his eye too, and we remember well that it was a magic mirror, an ugly piece of glass. It illuminated all that was great and good as contemptible and abominable, but reflected all that was vile and sinful prominently, while at the same time making the faults of every thing noticeable to all. So he found that the whole world had changed, and was hated everywhere, even Gerda, whom he had always loved, and how now it had changed to make him so sad.
But little Gaj loved to look at the snow, because only the pure white, flawless snowflakes were beautiful in his eyes, and beyond that, he couldn't find anything beautiful anymore!
A year passed like this!
On a snowy day, the lonely Snow Queen came back to the town, looking for that pure gaze again, for she had not seen such bright eyes!
In the square in the center of the town, which is a good place for everyone to play after the snowfall, little Gaj was skating alone, with Gerda following from afar. At that moment there was a sudden gust of cold wind, and the Ice Queen's flying carriage wore into the square, and Gaj saw again the woman he had once seen at the window before, and the man dropped his head and nodded kindly to Gaj. It was as if they knew each other. So Gaj hastened to fasten his sled to it and slid after it. It slid faster and faster until it reached a neighboring street. But the wagon went faster and faster, and kept going out and sliding forward like the wind. At this he screamed loudly, but no one paid any attention to him. The snowflakes were flying, and so were the sleds. From time to time they jumped upward as if they were flying over fences and ditches. He got very frightened. Prayed without ceasing.
The snow got heavier and heavier. The sledge suddenly jumped to the side and stopped; the man sledding stood up. The man's leather coat and hat were made entirely of snow. She was tall and slim, and her whole body shone white. She was the Snow Queen. She gathered him into her arms, and Gaj's face was by this time purple from the cold. The carriage flew, slowly but comfortably. The Queen asked Gaj, "O my little Gaj, I am the Snow Queen, why have you come with me!" Gaj looked at her. She was so beautiful, he could not imagine a more beautiful and intelligent face. Unlike the way she used to look when she sat outside the window and beckoned to him, she was not at all made of snow now. To his eyes, she was perfect.
He said, "O Queen! Where have you come from? Take me away! For I can see no more beauty except in you!"
The Queen kissed Gaj's forehead, and at that point Gaj did not feel the cold anymore, and the Queen wrapped him more tightly in her coat again and asked, "O my little Gaj! Will you be my friend?"
Ghai said, "I do, my queen, for my life is full of sadness and loneliness now, take me away! May I never see a thing again"
The Queen kissed Gaj's forehead again, at this point Gaj's memories seemed to fade and fade with the cold wind! He felt no fear at all now he told her that he could do mental math, even fractions; that he knew the entire size of the country and its inhabitants. She just smiled. It seemed to him at this point that he did not know very much. He looked up into the vast sky; she took him with her above the dark clouds. The storm winds were blowing and howling as if they were singing an old song. They flew over woods and lakes, over sea and land; beneath them the cold winds roared, the jackals whistled, and the snowflakes sent up flashes. Above flew a flock of shrieking crows. But farther up was lighted a bright moon, and Ghai had looked at it all through this long winter night. At dawn, he fell asleep in the arms of the Snow Queen!
In the hollow, vast and cold Queen's hall there was a frozen lake - it cracked into a thousand pieces; but each piece was exactly the same shape as the other little pieces, so it was like a very perfect set of art. When the Snow Queen was at home she sat in the center of this lake. She said herself that she was sitting in the mirror of reason, and that it was the only and best mirror in the world. Little Gaj was frozen blue-indeed, almost black with cold-but he didn't feel it, for the Snow Queen kissed the shivers out of him. The Queen said, "O little Gaj! In a palace and in this world are both mine and yours! You will live here with me!"
Little Ghai looked at the Queen and said, "O Queen, I will stay here with you! Then my eyes will never see ugliness again, and I will no longer be lost!" Then he fell into a deep sleep!
The Queen looked at Kogaj and murmured, "O Kogaj, just seeing you makes me not lonely anymore!"
I don't know how long it took, but Little Gaj slowly woke up and he saw the Ice Queen looking at him! "O little Gaj! You have no happiness or warmth here, so you will die slowly, do you still want to stay here?"
Gaj said, "I will stay here, my queen!"
The Queen said, "O Gaj, why do you wish to be my friend?"
"Because of the love 。。。。。。 My Queen!" Little Gaj looked blankly into the distance, "I want to find the beauty that was once there, you see, Queen, only love is the best 。。。。。。"
After saying this, Kogaj closed her eyes, and her whole body seemed to turn into ice! The Ice Queen looked at Little Gaj and let out a long sigh! Suddenly, a shimmering snowflake filled the sky throughout the hall!
I don't know how long it took, but the Queen said coldly, "O Little Gaj, thank you!" She drifted off to a sleigh pulled by 4 ice sculpted Pegasus. "I, too, am off to pursue my own love, that which is best of all!"
"Now I'm anxious to fly away to warmer lands!" The Snow Queen said, "I'm going to see those black jars!" She was referring to the volcanoes, which we call Mount Etna and Mount Vesuvius. "I will make them a little whiter! There is a need for that; it is good for grapes and lemons."
The Queen thus clothed the volcanoes in silver and white with her own body, and the inhabitants by the volcanoes were in no need of disaster! But that is another story!
When our little Gaj was waking up, he saw Gerda, and it was Gerda's tears that had melted the ice and snow from Gaj's body, and she was crying on her own! She fell upon him and embraced him, clinging to him, and at the same time calling out, "Gaj, dear little Gaj! I've found you at last!" Looking at her, he knew how much she had cried and suffered on the road, and Ghai said, "O Gerda! Why have you come with me?" Gerda's face glistening with tears smiled down, "For love, Gaj, for love 。。。。。。" Looking at Gerda's tears, Gaj cried out, the shard of the magic mirror running down her face along with her tears!
Gaj and Gerda set out on their journey home, holding hands tightly! At this point, they were adults, but at the same time children - still children at heart. It was summer when they got home, warm, pleasant summer. Gaj and Gerda each sat in their own chairs and shook hands with each other. They had forgotten all about the cold and hollow grandeur of the Snow Queen's place, as if they had dreamed a great dream. Grandmother sat in God's bright sunlight and read aloud from the Bible, "Unless you become a child, you will never enter the kingdom of God!