“Someone is now dying!” said the little girl, for her old granny, who was the only one that had been kind to her, but who was now dead, had said that when a star falls a soul goes up to God.

“有人要上天堂了！”小女孩说道。因为她的老奶奶曾经跟她说过，当有星星陨落的时候，那就是一个灵魂要去天堂了，可是这世间唯一疼爱她的奶奶已经过世了。

Once more she struck a match on the wall. It lit up the darkness round about her, and in its radiance stood old granny, so bright and shining, so wonderfully kind.

小女孩再次在墙上擦亮一根火柴，火光照亮了她四周的黑暗，她看到老奶奶出现在了火光中，身影闪亮，是那么慈祥！

“Granny!” cried the little girl. “Oh, take me with you! I know you’ll go away when the match goes out --- you’ll go away just like the warm stove and the lovely roast goose and the wonderful big Christmas tree!” --- And she struck all the rest of the matches in the bundle, for she wanted to keep her granny there. Granny had never before been so tall and beautiful; she lifted the little girl up on her arm, and they flew away, high, high up towards heaven. And there was no more cold and no more hunger and no more fear …

“奶奶！”小女孩喊道，“哦，把我也带走吧！我知道，火柴一熄灭，您就会不见了，就会像那暖暖的火炉、好吃的烤鹅、还有那漂亮的大圣诞树一样消失的！”她赶紧把手里剩下的整把火柴都擦着了，因为她太想把奶奶留下了。奶奶从来也没有像现在这样高大美丽过。奶奶伸出手抱起小女孩，然后带着她一起飞走了，她们沉浸在光亮和欣喜中，越飞越高，飞向了天堂。那里再也没有寒冷，再也没有饥饿，再也没有恐惧……

But in the corner by the house, in the cold of the early morning, the little girl sat, with red cheeks and a smile upon her lips --- dead frozen to death on the last evening of the old year. The morning of the New Year rose over the little dead body sitting there with her matches, one bundle nearly burnt out. She wanted to keep herself warm, they said; but no one knew what beautiful things she had seen, nor in wha t radiance she had gone with her old granny into the joy of the New Year.

而第二天的清晨，寒冷依旧，在整个房子的墙角，小女孩坐在那里，小脸通红，嘴角边挂着一丝的微笑，冻死在了新年来临前的最后一个晚上。新年黎明的破晓，人们看见死去的小女孩坐在那里，手里还捏着她的火柴，整把几乎都已经燃尽了。大家纷纷猜测，她想要让自己暖和一点，可是没有人知道小女孩昨晚看见了多么美妙的东西，也没有人知道小女孩是多么高兴地和奶奶一起踏进了快乐的新年。