鵝媽媽之五十一——一化四四化一的伊丽莎白
51 ELIZABETH
Elizabeth, Elspeth, Betsy, and Bess, They all went together to seek a bird’s nest; They found a bird’s nest with five eggs in, They all took one, and left four in.
51 伊丽莎波丝
伊丽莎波丝,埃尔斯佩丝,俾缇丝还有贝丝, 一块儿她们去寻鸟窝; 姑娘们找着了一个,里头还下着蛋五个, 她们一人拿一个,还留了四个在窝里。
PS.为了体现出简/昵称来,这里 Elizabeth 就不翻译成常用的伊丽莎白了,弱音也一并出现。
[NOTES] This is a riddle. It makes us think there are four girls. The four girls go to look at a bird’s nest that has five eggs. Each girl takes one egg, but there are four still in the nest. How is this possible? Anyone named Elizabeth is also often called Elspeth, Betsy and Bess by people who shorten the name Elizabeth. So all four names are for one girl. There is only one girl who goes to look at the bird’s nest and only one girl who takes an egg. [注释]这是个谜语。它让我们以为有四个女孩。四个女孩一起去找一个有五个蛋的鸟窝。每个女孩都拿走了一个鸟蛋,但是,还有四个蛋留在了窝里。这怎么可能? 任何一个名叫伊丽莎波丝的人都经常会被简称为埃尔斯佩丝,俾缇丝,或者,贝丝 。所以,这四个名字都是同一个女孩的。只有一个女孩去找鸟窝,也只有一个女孩她拿走了一个鸟蛋。(PS.姑娘还挺有可持续发展的意识~嘿嘿)
一看到这首童谣我就立刻想到了下面这首:

就上口程度而言,这首可行多了。 大概因为是用来埋汰人的,唱起来都格外带劲~
博基斯,布斯和狴 一个圆一个短一个细 三个吓人的混球 面上一点不一样 芯儿都是一般黑
PS. 翻成中文……呃,对我还是很困难的。把Bean翻译成“狴”也是我实在找不出能用的现代汉语单字了,虽然用这个字很剧透。可是这样一来,和前两个名字就不配对了……暂时没法办。等我水准再上一线再看吧...
#等待玉回的抛砖·私译#