（一）

在宽阔的海面上，放眼望去，海水象天空那样一片蔚蓝，象明亮的水晶那样清盈纯洁。然而那大海很深很深，深得要想从海底到达水面，必须有许许多多的教堂尖塔一个摞一个地堆起来才行，海底的人们就住在那里。
    你千万不要以为那里除了海水下的沙子就没有别的什么东西了。实际上远远不止于这些！ 海底生长着奇异美丽的树木和植物，它们的枝干和叶子是那样柔软，伴随着海水的流动，它们总是在摇曳着，好象活的东西。所有大大小小的鱼在这些枝杈中间游来游去,好象天上的鸟在树林四周飞来飞去一样。
    在大海的最深处是海王的宫殿。它的墙是用珊瑚砌成的，很高、很高。那尖顶的窗子是用琥珀做成的。而旦屋顶上还铺着蚌壳，随着海水流动不时地张开又合拢，看起来非常好看。尤真是每一个蚌壳里都含有亮晶晶的珍珠，任何一颗珍珠都可以成为世界上国王王冠上最豪华的装饰。

Far out in the wide sea, where the water is blue as the loveliest cornflower, and clear as the purest crystal, where it is so deep that very, very many church towers must be heaped one upon another in order to reach from the lowest depth to the surface above, dwell the marine people.

Now you must not imagine that there is nothing but sand below the water； no, indeed, far from it! Trees and plants of wondrous beauty grow there, whose stems and leaves are so light, that they are waved to by the slightest motion of the water, almost as if they were living beings. Fishes, great and small, glide in and out among the branches, just as birds fly about among our trees.

Where the water is deepest stands the palace of the Mer-king. The walls of this palace are of coral, and the high, pointed windows are of amber； the roof, however, is composed of mussel shells, which, as the billows pass over them, are continually opening and shutting. This looks exceedingly pretty, especially as each of these mussel shells contains a number of bright, glittering pearls, one only of which would be the most costly ornament in the diadem of a king in the upper world.