引导语：安徒生出生于丹麦一个鞋匠家庭，年轻时当过学徒，学过裁缝，也曾在济贫学校上过学，1828年进哥本哈根大学学习。下面是小编收集他的安徒生童话故事《赛跑者》，有中英文版本，欢迎大家阅读!
有人贡献出一个奖品——也可以说是两个奖品吧：一大一小——来奖励速度最快的赛跑者。但这不是指在一次竞赛中所达到的最快的速度，而是在全年的赛跑中所达到的速度。
“我得到了头奖!”野兔说。“有人在评奖委员会中有亲戚和朋友，所以我们必须主持公道。蜗牛居然得到了二等奖!我不禁要认为这是对我的一种侮辱。”
“不对!”亲眼看到过发奖的篱笆桩说，“热忱和毅力也必须考虑进去。许多有地位的人都这样说过，我也懂得这话的意义。蜗牛的确要花半年的时间才能走过门口。而且因为他要赶时间，还把大腿骨折断了。他是全心全意地赛跑!而且背上还要背着自己的屋子!这都是值得奖励的!因此他得到了二等奖!”
“你们也应该把我考虑进去呀!”燕子说。“我相信，在飞翔方面，谁也没有我快。我什么地方都去过：我飞得才远呢，远呢，远呢!”
“对，这正是你的不幸!”篱笆桩说。“你太喜欢流浪了。天气一冷，你就老不在家，跑到外国去了。你一点儿爱国心也没有。你没有被考虑的资格!”
“不过整个冬天我是住在沼泽地里呀!”燕子说。“假如我把这段时间都睡过去，我值不值得考虑呢?”
“如果你能从沼泽女人①那儿得到一张证明书，证明你有一半的时间是睡在你的祖国，那么人们就会考虑你的!”
“我应该得到头奖，而不是二等奖!”蜗牛说。“我知道得很清楚，野兔是因为懦弱才拼命跑。他老是以为他停下来就要碰到危险。相反，我把赛跑作为一种任务，而且在完成这个任务时还挂了彩!如果说有人应该得到头奖，这个人就是我!不过我不愿意小题大做——我讨厌这种做法!”
于是他就吐了一口粘液。
“我可以向你们正式保证，每个奖品都是经过慎重考虑的——至少我投的票是经过慎重考虑的!”作为树林的界标的那根木桩说;他也是评奖委员会中的一员。“我总是依照次序、经过深思熟虑以后才决定问题的。从前有七次我荣幸地参加过给奖工作，但是今天我才能有机会贯彻我的主张。我每次给奖的时候，总是从一个固定的原则出发。决定第一奖的时候，我总是从头一个字母朝下顺数;决定第二奖的时候，我总是从最后一个字母朝上倒数。如果你注意一下，你就可以看出：从A朝下顺数的第八个字母是H。到这儿我们就得到‘野兔’②这个字，因此我就投票赞成把头奖送给野兔。从最后一个字母向上倒数的第八个字母——我故意漏掉它，因为这个字母的声调不好听，而不好听的字在我看来是不算数的——是S③。因此我投票赞成蜗牛得二等奖。下一次得轮到I得头奖，R得二等奖!无论什么事情都应该有一个次序;任何人都应该有一个出发点!”
“假如我不是一个评奖人，我一定会投我自己的票，”骡子说;他也是评奖委员之一。“人们不仅应该考虑跑的速度，同时还应该考虑其他的条件。比方说吧：一个人能背多重的担子。不过这次我不愿着重地把这一点提出来，也不愿意讨论野兔在赛跑时所表现的机智，或者他为了迷惑行人的视线而向侧路一跳，使人找不出他藏在什么地方的那种狡猾。不，还有别的东西值得人注意，一点也不能忽略，那就是大家所谓的‘美’。我这个人特别喜欢在‘美’这一点上着眼。我喜欢看野兔那一对美丽而丰满的耳朵。它们该是多么长啊：看看它们真是一桩快事!我好像看到了我自己的儿时一样。因此我投他的票!”
“嘘!”苍蝇说，“我不愿意发表演说，我只想讲一件事情!我可以肯定他说，我不止一次跑在野兔的前面。前不久我还压断了一只野兔的后腿呢。那时我是坐在一列火车前面的车头上——我常常做这样的事情，因为一个人只有这样才能看清自己的速度。一只小野兔在前面跑了很久;他一点也没有想到我就坐在火车头上。最后他不得不让开，但是他的后腿却被火车头轧断了。这是因为我在上面呀。野兔倒下来，但是我继续向前跑。这可算是打垮了他吧!但是我并不需要头奖!”
“我觉得——”野玫瑰想，但是她却不说出口来，因为她天生不喜欢多发表意见，虽然即使她发表了也没有什么关系，“我觉得太阳光应该得到头等光荣奖和二等奖。他在转瞬之间就走完一条无法计算的路程;他直接从太阳走向我们，而且到来的时候力量非常大，使整个大自然都醒过来。他具有一种美，我们所有的玫瑰一见到他就红起来，散发出香气!我们可尊敬的评奖先生们似乎一点也没有注意到这件事情!假如我是太阳光，我就要使他们害日射病④。不过这会把他们的头脑弄糊涂，然而他们可能本来就是糊涂的。我还是不发表意见吧!”野玫瑰想。“但愿树林里永远是和平的!开花、散发出香气、休息、在歌声和故事声中生活——这是很美丽的。太阳光的寿命，比我们所有的人都长!”
“头奖究竟是什么呢?”蚯蚓问。他睡过了时间，到现在才来。
“是免费进入菜园!”骡子说。“这个奖是我建议的。野兔应该得到它。我作为一个有头脑和活跃的评奖委员，特别考虑到得奖人的福利：现在野兔可以不愁衣食了。蜗牛可以坐在石围墙上舔青苔和晒太阳光，同时可以得到一个赛跑头等评判员的职位，因为在人们所谓的委员会中有一个专家总是好的。我可以说，我对于未来的期望很大，我们已经有了一个良好的开端!”
①据丹麦传说，沼泽地里住着一个巫婆，她一直在熬酒，所以沼泽地里弥漫着雾气。
②原文是Hare(野兔)。
③原文是sneglen(蜗牛)。
④原文是Solstik，即因晒太阳过久而中暑的意思。
赛跑者英文版：
The Races
APRIZE, or rather two prizes, a great one and a small one, had been awarded for the greatest swiftness in running,—not in a single race, but for the whole year.
“I obtained the first prize,” said the hare. “Justice must still be carried out, even when one has relations and good friends among the prize committee; but that the snail should have received the second prize, I consider almost an insult to myself”
“No,” said the fence-rail, who had been a witness at the distribution of prizes; “there should be some consideration for industry and perseverance. I have heard many respectable people say so, and I can quite understand it. The snail certainly took half a year to get over the threshold of the door; but he injured himself, and broke his collar-bone by the haste he made. He gave himself up entirely to the race, and ran with his house on his back, which was all, of course, very praiseworthy; and therefore he obtained the second prize.”
“I think I ought to have had some consideration too,” said the swallow. “I should imagine no one can be swifter in soaring and flight than I am; and how far I have been! far, far away.”
“Yes, that is your misfortune,” said the fence-rail; “you are so fickle, so unsettled; you must always be travelling about into foreign lands when the cold commences here. You have no love of fatherland in you. There can be no consideration for you.”
“But now, if I have been lying the whole winter in the moor,” said the swallow, “and suppose I slept the whole time, would that be taken into account?”
“Bring a certificate from the old moor-hen,” said he, “that you have slept away half your time in fatherland; then you will be treated with some consideration.”
“I deserved the first prize, and not the second,” said the snail. “I know so much, at least, that the hare only ran from cowardice, and because he thought there was danger in delay. I, on the other hand, made running the business of my life, and have become a cripple in the service. If any one had a first prize, it ought to have been myself. But I do not understand chattering and boasting; on the contrary, I despise it.” And the snail spat at them with contempt.
“I am able to affirm with word of oath, that each prize—at least, those for which I voted—was given with just and proper consideration,” said the old boundary post in the wood, who was a member of the committee of judges. “I always act with due order, consideration, and calculation. Seven times have I already had the honor to be present at the distribution of the prizes, and to vote; but to-day is the first time I have been able to carry out my will. I always reckon the first prize by going through the alphabet from the beginning, and the second by going through from the end. Be so kind as to give me your attention, and I will explain to you how I reckon from the beginning. The eighth letter from A is H, and there we have H for hare; therefore I awarded to the hare the first prize. The eighth letter from the end of the alphabet is S, and therefore the snail received the second prize. Next year, the letter I will have its turn for the first prize, and the letter R for the second.”
“I should really have voted for myself,” said the mule, “if I had not been one of the judges on the committee. Not only the rapidity with which advance is made, but every other quality should have due consideration; as, for instance, how much weight a candidate is able to draw; but I have not brought this quality forward now, nor the sagacity of the hare in his flight, nor the cunning with which he suddenly springs aside and doubles, to lead people on a false track, thinking he has concealed himself. No; there is something else on which more stress should be laid, and which ought not be left unnoticed. I mean that which mankind call the beautiful. It is on the beautiful that I particularly fix my eyes. I observed the well-grown ears of the hare; it is a pleasure to me to observe how long they are. It seemed as if I saw myself again in the days of my childhood; and so I voted for the hare.”
“Buz,” said the fly; “there, I’m not going to make a long speech; but I wish to say something about hares. I have really overtaken more than one hare, when I have been seated on the engine in front of a railway train. I often do so. One can then so easily judge of one’s own swiftness. Not long ago, I crushed the hind legs of a young hare. He had been running a long time before the engine; he had no idea that I was travelling there. At last he had to stop in his career, and the engine ran over his hind legs, and crushed them; for I set upon it. I left him lying there, and rode on farther. I call that conquering him; but I do not want the prize.”
“It really seems to me,” thought the wild rose, though she did not express her opinion aloud—it is not in her nature to do so,—though it would have been quite as well if she had; “it certainly seems to me that the sunbeam ought to have had the honor of receiving the first prize. The sunbeam flies in a few minutes along the immeasurable path from the sun to us. It arrives in such strength, that all nature awakes to loveliness and beauty; we roses blush and exhale fragrance in its presence. Our worshipful judges don’t appear to have noticed this at all. Were I the sunbeam, I would give each one of them a sun stroke; but that would only make them mad, and they are mad enough already. I only hope,” continued the rose, “that peace may reign in the wood. It is glorious to bloom, to be fragrant, and to live; to live in story and in song. The sunbeam will outlive us all.”
“What is the first prize?” asked the earthworm, who had overslept the time, and only now came up.
“It contains a free admission to a cabbage-garden,” replied the mule. “I proposed that as one of the prizes. The hare most decidedly must have it; and I, as an active and thoughtful member of the committee, took especial care that the prize should be one of advantage to him; so now he is provided for. The snail can now sit on the fence, and lick up moss and sunshine. He has also been appointed one of the first judges of swiftness in racing. It is worth much to know that one of the members is a man of talent in the thing men call a ‘committee.’ I must say I expect much in the future; we have already made such a good beginning.”
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