The Queen of Riddles

The Queen of Petersburg^① pro-mised that she would marry anyone who could ask her three riddles she could not answer. Many young men tried to win her hand^②, but to no avail. Finally, along came Ivan the peasant and he said, “I saw one good thing with another good thing in it^③. In order to do good, I took the second good thing out of the first good thing.”

The Queen did not know what to say so she pretended she had a headache to put off^④ her answer. She got her maidservant to coax^⑤ the answer out of Ivan. The next day the Queen said to Ivan, “Here is the answer. A horse was in wheat field and I chased it out.”

Then Ivan put his second riddle:

“On the road I saw a bad thing. I took up a second bad thing and hit it. So one bad thing killed another bad thing.”

Once again, the Queen got her maidservant to find out the answer from Ivan. The next day the Queen said, “Here is the answer. I saw a snake on the road and killed it with a stick.”

Then Ivan asked her the third riddle:

“How did you know the answers to the first two riddles?”

The Queen didn’t want to admit that she had found out by cheating.

“I don’t know,” she answered.

That was how Ivan married the Queen.

Notes: ① Petersburg 表示两个地名：一是彼得斯堡(美国城市)；另一是圣彼得堡(前苏联城市列宁格勒旧称)。从上下文看，此处应指后者。

② win her hand：短语动词，意思是“赢得某人的爱”。

③ it：指上文的one good thing。

④ put off v. 推迟, 拖延, 搪塞

⑤ coax v. 哄, 耐心使……

女王猜谜语

彼得堡的女王向人们承诺：谁能用三个谜语难倒她，她就嫁给谁。许多青年人都想得到她，可都是一场空。最后，农民伊万前来出谜语，他说：“我看见一样好东西，里面藏着另外一样好东西。为了做好事，我把另外那样好东西从第一样好东西里面赶走。”

女王不知道如何回答，就假装头痛拖延过去。她驱使侍女从伊万口中哄出了谜底。第二天，她对伊万说：“我知道答案了：一匹马待在麦田里，我把马从麦田里驱逐出去。”

伊万又提出了第二道谜：

“我在路上看到一样坏东西，我拾起了第二样坏东西重重敲击它。因此，我用一样坏东西除掉了另外一样坏东西。”

女王再次让侍女从伊万那里找到了答案。第二天，她对伊万说：“我知道答案了：我在路上看到一条蛇，用棍子打死了它。”

接着，伊万问了她第三个谜语：

“你是怎么知道前面的两个谜底的？”

女王不想承认自己的舞弊行为。

“我不知道，”她回答。

就这样，伊万把女王娶到了手。

责任编辑:yingyubao