【双语】乔治王子过周岁生日 父母恳求“不要送礼”

Prince George got too many presents

After all, on his first public engagement in New Zealand back in April, George unwittingly managed to make a female playmate cry by snatching her toy from her.

The second photograph released by Kensington Palace yesterday shows the clearly enchanted young family in the midst of the ‘Sensational Butterflies’ exhibition at the Natural History Museum, in London, as several dozen live butterflies hover in the distance.

Kate is wearing an appropriately summery £475 ‘Budding Hearts’ tea-dress by designer Suzannah, which she has worn previously on public occasions.

Meanwhile George, who, like his mother is becoming something of a trend setter, is wearing blue and white stripped dungarees and a navy top by French label Petit Bateau, which sold out within minutes of another picture from the same set being released at the weekend.

It's one of the her favourite colours, apart from red, and here the Duchess of Cambridge proves once again how amazing emerald green looks on her. This dress, with its gorgeous floral print, is by British designer, Suzannah.

The Duke and Duchess also issued a statement thanking members of the public for the hundreds of presents, cards and letters of good wishes they have received since their son’s birth last July.

‘We would like to take this opportunity on George’s first birthday to thank everyone over the last year, wherever we have met them, both at home and overseas, for their warm and generous good wishes to George and our family,’ they said.

Although keen to ensure that their son is allowed to grow up away from the spotlight, William and Kate acknowledged that they needed to mark the future king’s special day with a public gesture.

The Duchess was, however, determined to ensure that one of their patronages would benefit from the occasion, and chose to visit the Natural History Museum’ s pop-up tropical house, full of live, free-flying butterflies and moths. She became patron of the museum in April last year.

The exhibition, which runs until September, was opened up especially for the Cambridges and their team earlier this month but, says one closely involved in the proceedings, things didn’t entirely run to plan.

As it was early morning, the butterflies, which normally swarm around visitors, needed time to warm up, and it was ‘touch and go’ as to whether the shoot would work.

Fortunately a blue morpho butterfly (Morpho peleides) from South America landed in front of the curious little prince and with a click, the carefree shot, so unlike normal royal portraits, was captured for posterity.

According to his parents, George is already ‘racing around and opening doors’ at their Kensington Palace apartment, in advance of many of his peers.

He has a fine set of lungs on him, makes bath-time ‘quite painful’ but adores his ‘best buddy’, Lupo the spaniel.

‘Like most new parents they are just in awe of this little man they have created,’ said one source.

He really is the apple of their eye.

The couple plan to celebrate George’s birthday today with a low-key tea party for family and friends at Kensington palace.

Michael and Carole Middleton – both extremely hands-on grandparents – will attend, alongside Aunty Pippa and Uncle James.

Unfortunately his royal grandparents Prince Charles (also a doting grandpa, in his own way) and the Duchess of Cornwall are in Scotland on official duties.

But the Queen – who is now the first monarch for more than a century to have three living heirs - has no public engagements in her diary.

Staff say they cannot rule out her popping over from Buckingham Palace between meetings to wish her great-grandson a very happy day.

 

（本文为编译）

综合外国媒体报道，7月22日是英国乔治小王子的周岁生日，继公布小王子蹒跚学步的萌照后，英国王室21日再度分享两张“全家福”照片，让外界一览小王子一家三口的幸福生活。

***“他可是个小坏蛋”

公布的两张照片于本月初小王子随父母参观英国自然历史博物馆蝴蝶户外展览时拍摄。自然而然，蝴蝶成为照片的“主角”。

照片里，身穿一袭绿色印花连衣裙的凯特王妃怀抱爱子，与站在一旁的丈夫威廉王子看向不远处翩翩飞舞的蝴蝶。小王子左手伸出、手指微张，眼神里充满好奇和期待，似乎很想抓住美丽的蝴蝶把玩一番。

很快，机会来了。发现一只热带蓝闪蝶停在爸爸的手背上，小王子迫不及待地伸出胖乎乎的右手大拇指和食指，想要一把捏住蝴蝶翅膀。凯特王妃显然很清楚儿子的意图，于是她双手紧扶小王子的腰部，避免伤到蝴蝶。

“按照剑桥公爵夫妇的说法，小王子可是个小坏蛋，蝴蝶能够逃出生天真是一个奇迹。”英国《每日邮报》重提乔治的过往‘劣迹’，“大家一定记得，今年4月出访新西兰时，乔治抢了一个小女孩的玩具害得她大哭不已。”

***“不要再送礼物了！”

21日，剑桥公爵夫妇发表声明，向所有给小王子送来礼物、贺卡和祝愿信的人致以谢意。“我们想借乔治周岁生日的机会向所有人表示感谢。乔治出生一年来，不论是在国内还是海外，我们都能接收到大家送来的温暖、慷慨的美好祝愿。”

对此，英国《每日电讯报》解读称，鉴于小王子出生至今已经收到超过4000份来自世界各地的礼物，“他的父母作此声明实则是在恳求大家不要再给未来的国王送礼物了”。

在过去12个月里，乔治小王子收到的礼物可谓是五花八门。这些礼物来自全球48个国家，包括澳大利亚北领地赠送的一只名为“乔治”的鳄鱼、英国西米德兰兹郡杜德利动物园以乔治小王子的中间名——乔治、亚历山大和路易斯——命名的三名猫鼬，以及肯尼亚桑布鲁部落赠予的5头牛和1只山羊等等。

除了这些活物之外，乔治小王子也收到了许多常见的礼物，例如婴儿服、毛毯和玩具等。“自小王子出生后，这些东西就源源不断地涌来。如今他的周岁生日到了，礼物肯定会更多。”《每日电讯报》称，乔治小王子收到的绝大多数礼物，尤其是玩具，都被转送给儿童慈善机构，但也有部分被小王子的父母收好备用。

***“他是父母的心肝宝贝”

尽管剑桥公爵夫妇不止一次公开抱怨小王子有些调皮捣蛋、难以驾驭，但据消息人士透露，“像许多新晋父母一样，他们敬畏这个自己创造出的小生命，乔治真的是他们的心肝宝贝。”

据悉，乔治小王子的周岁生日当天，剑桥公爵夫妇计划在肯辛顿宫举办一场低调的茶话会以示庆祝，仅限至亲好友参加。

届时，凯特王妃的父母迈克尔和卡罗尔、她的妹妹皮帕及其弟弟詹姆斯都会出席，但威廉王子的父母查尔斯王储和康沃尔公爵夫人卡米拉因在苏格兰执行公务而无法参加。至于小王子的曾祖母伊丽莎白女王，根据其行程安排，她22日没有公共活动，则有可能会突然现身给乔治制造一个惊喜。

（译者 谌融 编辑 丹妮）

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