A Donzela com a Rosa na Testa

Era uma vez um príncipe e uma princesa, irmãos muito unidos. O príncipe tinha um jardim que só ele cultivava. Quando foi chamado à guerra, ficou preocupado com o jardim, mas a irmã prometeu tratar dele com todo o cuidado. Para não se afastar nem um instante, a princesa mandou instalar a sua cama debaixo de uma grande roseira. Passado algum tempo, nasceu-lhe uma filha com uma rosa na testa. A princesa ficou muito angustiada com aquilo, pois tinha estado sempre no jardim, dia e noite, e não conseguia perceber o que tinha acontecido.

Once there was a prince and a princess, brother and sister very close to one another. The prince had a garden that only he cultivated. When he was called to war, he worried about the garden, but his sister promised to tend it with all care. So as not to leave for even an instant, the princess had her bed set up under a large rose tree. After some time, a daughter was born to her with a rose on her forehead. The princess was greatly distressed by this, as she had been in the garden at all times, day and night, and could not understand what had happened.

A criança cresceu e a mãe enviou-a para a escola, ordenando-lhe muito seriamente que nunca se desse a conhecer a ninguém, pois se o fizesse a mataria. A menina ia à escola com a cabeça sempre coberta para que a rosa na testa não fosse vista. Em breve o príncipe regressaria da guerra, e sabia-se que, ao chegar à capital, visitaria todas as escolas. A princesa avisou a filha: "O príncipe virá à tua escola. Não te deixes conhecer. Se o fizeres, mato-te."

The child grew up and her mother sent her to school, very sternly ordering her never to make herself known to anyone, for if she did she would kill her. The girl went to school always with her head covered so the rose on her forehead would not be seen. Soon the prince would return from the war, and it was known that upon arriving at the capital he would visit all the schools. The princess warned her daughter: "The prince will come to your school. Do not let yourself be known. If you do, I will kill you."

Quando o príncipe visitou a escola, reparou logo numa cara nova. As outras meninas faziam barulho e riam, mas aquela nunca levantava a cabeça. O príncipe perguntou quais das meninas lhe queria fazer uma camisa. Todas responderam: "Eu! Eu! Eu!" — menos aquela. O príncipe disse: "Então é precisamente a que ficou calada quem terá a honra de ma fazer." A menina acenou com a cabeça que sim. Foi a casa contar à mãe. A princesa disse-lhe para fazer a camisa, mas não se dar a conhecer de modo nenhum ao príncipe.

When the prince visited the school, he immediately noticed a new face. The other girls made noise and laughed, but that one never once raised her head. The prince asked which of the girls would make him a shirt. They all answered: "I will! I will! I will!" — except that one. The prince said: "Then it is precisely the one who stayed silent who will have the honour of making it for me." The girl nodded her head yes. She went home and told her mother. The princess told her to make the shirt but on no account to make herself known to the prince.

A menina fez a camisa num só dia. Quando o príncipe voltou à escola, ela entregou-lha acabada. Ele agradeceu com toda a gentileza e achou-a muito bem costurada, mas nunca reparou na rosa na testa, pois ela andava sempre de cabeça coberta. Num outro dia o príncipe levou cerejas para as meninas. Todas as comeram com alegria — menos aquela. O príncipe perguntou: "Não queres provar?" Ela fez sinal que não. Numa brincadeira, uma das outras atirou uma cereja e foi cair precisamente na cabeça da menina da rosa.

The girl made the shirt in a single day. When the prince returned to the school, she handed it to him finished. He thanked her most graciously and found it very well sewn, but never noticed the rose on her forehead, as she always went about with her head covered. On another day the prince brought cherries for the girls. They all ate them with delight — except that one. The prince asked: "Will you not try some?" She made a sign that she would not. During the playfulness that followed, one of the others threw a cherry and it landed right on the head of the girl with the rose.

Na manhã seguinte, quando a mãe penteava a filha para ir à escola, encontrou uma cereja presa no cabelo. Disse logo, furiosa: "Ah, tirana! Deste-te a conhecer!" E espetou o pente na cabeça da filha com tal força que a matou. Mandou colocar o cadáver numa arca de ferro com todas as joias da rapariga, e fechou a arca num quarto do palácio. Mas o remorso e a dor consumiram-na, e antes de morrer entregou ao príncipe a chave desse quarto, pedindo-lhe que nunca tocasse em nada lá dentro.

The next morning, when the mother was combing her daughter's hair to go to school, she found a cherry caught in it. She said at once, furiously: "Ah, tyrant! You made yourself known!" And she drove the comb into her daughter's head with such force that she killed her. She had the corpse placed in an iron chest with all the girl's jewels, and locked the chest in a room of the palace. But remorse and grief consumed her, and before she died she handed the prince the key to that room, asking him never to touch anything inside.

O príncipe, sentindo-se só, decidiu casar. Deu à mulher todas as chaves, dizendo que podia abrir todos os quartos menos aquele. Um dia, enquanto o príncipe foi à caça, a sogra insistiu em abrir o quarto proibido. A mulher resistiu no início, mas a mãe disse que se o príncipe não queria que abrissem era porque tinha algo a esconder. Acabou por ceder. Abriram a arca — e dentro encontraram uma donzela belíssima sentada a bordar, com uma estrela na testa.

The prince, feeling lonely, decided to marry. He gave his wife all the keys, saying she could open every room except that one. One day, while the prince went hunting, his mother-in-law insisted on opening the forbidden room. The wife resisted at first, but her mother said that if the prince did not want it opened it was because he had something to hide. She eventually gave in. They opened the chest — and inside they found a most beautiful maiden seated doing embroidery, with a star on her forehead.

A mulher, tomada de ciúme da beleza da donzela, pegou num ferro em brasa e queimou-lhe toda a pele, ficando ela negra de queimaduras. Quando o príncipe regressou da caça, a mulher disse-lhe que tinha comprado uma rapariga mulata para fazer recados. O príncipe mandou-a perguntar o que queria que lhe trouxesse da feira. A rapariga pediu apenas um amuleto. O príncipe trouxe-lho. Ela foi para o quarto, deitou-se na cama e começou a contar a sua história ao amuleto.

The wife, seized with jealousy at the maiden's beauty, took a red-hot iron and burned all her skin, leaving her blackened with burns. When the prince returned from hunting, the wife told him she had bought a mulatto girl to run errands. The prince had her asked what she would like him to bring from the fair. The girl asked only for a talisman. The prince brought it to her. She went to her room, lay down on the bed and began to tell her story to the talisman.

O príncipe, curioso, tinha-se escondido debaixo da cama. Ouviu tudo: que ela era filha da sua irmã, a princesa; que estivera encantada na arca de ferro; que a mulher e a sogra lhe tinham queimado a pele com um ferro em brasa e dito ao príncipe que era uma rapariga mulata. O príncipe saiu de debaixo da cama e abraçou a sobrinha. Perguntou-lhe o que queria que fizesse à mulher. Ela respondeu: "Faz-lhe o mesmo que ela me fez." O príncipe mandou queimar a mulher com o mesmo ferro, e emparedar viva a ela e à sogra. E viveu no palácio com a sobrinha, sem nunca mais pensar em casar.

The prince, curious, had hidden himself under the bed. He heard everything: that she was the daughter of his sister, the princess; that she had been enchanted in the iron chest; that the wife and mother-in-law had burned her skin with a red-hot iron and told the prince she was a mulatto girl. The prince came out from under the bed and embraced his niece. He asked her what she wished him to do to his wife. She replied: "Do to her what she did to me." The prince had the wife burned with the same iron, and had both her and the mother-in-law walled up alive. And he lived in the palace with his niece, never again thinking of marrying.