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When the people of Hamelin, Germany had a problem with rats, they called the Pied Piper. With his bewitching pipe and enchanting music, he lured the rats away from the city and into a watery grave. But when the people of Hamelin refused to pay the Pied Piper what they had promised, he turned his entrancing music on their children, leading them away to never be seen again. This key moment in a familiar fairy tale carries many insights. It is, at once, a commentary on social values, a vivid example of family tragedy, and a bit of personal psychology. Folklore is compacted wisdom-literature that yields more information with each reading. 当德国哈默尔恩的人们遇上鼠疫的难题,他们请来了一个花衣魔笛手。借助其魔笛的迷人乐声,他把老鼠引出城,引进水里淹死。但当哈默尔恩的人们拒绝兑现承诺向魔笛手支付报酬时,魔笛手转而向他们的孩子们奏起迷乐,引孩子们出走,不再出现。在这个耳熟能详的童话故事里,这一关键的情节隐含着很多深层的东西。它既反映出社会价值观,又鲜活地展现了某种家庭悲剧,还呈现了一点个人心理。民间故事是一种浓缩的智慧文学,每看一次都能获取更多信息。 There is much we can learn by reflecting on the stories heard in childhood. Magical characters are likely to remain in the imagination for a lifetime. Fairytale is a sub-genre of folktale, something that is handed down from person to person for generations; one of the most important identifying features of a folktale is that it belongs to an entire culture, rather than to an individual. That is why folktales give us many insights into the cultures from which they spring. | 
