It is an honour, but, also, a great responsibility, to introduce through
the dangerous medium of a translation one of the most distinguished
writers of our time, and, probably, the greatest living master of style,
to a new world--the world of childhood. One is conscious that it is as
impossible to translate the charm and art of Anatole France as it is to
describe in dull, colourless words the exquisite perfume of the rose.
Such as this translation is I offer it with diffidence, realising that I
have undertaken a difficult task. And yet I venture to do so for I long
to make known to English and American children one of the loveliest and
noblest of stories--a story overflowing with poetic imagination, wisdom
and humour, divine qualities to which the heart of the child is always
open as the flower to the dew.
I want young children as well as others, older only by accident of
years, but whose hearts are always young--which is the eternal youth--to
know the greatest French writer of his day, when, by the magic of his
pen, he, like them, becomes young, gentle and charming. I want them to
learn to love his “Honey-Bee,” newest and sweetest of those darlings of
childhood who have come down to us from bygone ages, distant lands
and half-forgotten races, but who in their eternal charm appeal to all
children since children first heard those wonderful stories or pored
over treasured books that awaken the ardent young imagination to love,
beauty, romance and goodness.
So, too, some day will “Honey-Bee” the golden-haired princess of the
dear, good dwarfs, join her enchanting companions, Cinderella, Beauty
and the Beast, Red Riding Hood, The Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince,
Puss in Boots, Aladdin, and all the others of that immortal galaxy
whose glorious destiny it has been to be beloved by childhood. May they
welcome “Honey-Bee,” youngest of all. And so the Master, supreme when he
writes for men and women, will find open to him a new world, purer and
more beautiful, in the hearts of English and American children.