A kind old wizard decides to teach his hardhearted son a lesson by giving him a taste of the local Muggles' misery. 一位善良的老巫师，想给铁石心肠的儿子一个教训，让他尝尝当地麻瓜们的苦难。

　　The young wizard's conscience awakes, and he agrees to use his magic for the benefit of his non-magical neighbours. 年轻巫师的良知觉醒了，他同意利用自己的魔法去帮助那些不会魔法的邻居。

　　A simple and heart-warming fable, one might think – in which case, one would reveal oneself to be an innocent nincompoop. 读者会认为这是一个简单而温馨的寓言故事——在这种情况下，读者会暴露自己是一个天真的傻瓜。

　　A pro-Muggle story showing a Muggle-loving father as superior in magic to a Muggle-hating son? 这是一个亲麻瓜的故事，表明爱麻瓜的父亲在魔法上比恨麻瓜的儿子高明，是不是？

　　It is nothing short of amazing that any copies of the original version of this tale survived the flames to which they were so often consigned. 因此，这个故事的原版书没有一本能够逃脱火焰而保存下来，也就毫不令人吃惊了，这样的书是经常会被丢进火里焚烧的。

　　Beedle was somewhat out of step with his times in preaching a message of brotherly love for Muggles. 彼豆宣传对麻瓜要怀有手足之情，这跟他的时代有点格格不入。

　　The persecution of witches and wizards was gathering pace all over Europe in the early fifteenth century. 十五世纪早期，迫害巫师的行径在欧洲愈演愈烈。

　　Many in the magical community felt, and with good reason, that offering to cast a spell on the Muggle-next-door's sickly pig was tantamount to volunteering to fetch the firewood for one's own funeral pyre. 魔法界的许多人觉得，向隔壁麻瓜邻居的瘟猪施咒语，就等于是在主动往焚烧自己的火堆上添加柴火，这么想也是有道理的。

　　Note 1. It is true, of course, that genuine witches and wizards were reasonably adept at escaping the stake, block and noose (see my comments about Lisette de Lapin in the commentary on “Babbitty Rabbitty and her Cackling Stump” ) . 注释一：这当然是真的，那些真诚的巫女和巫师们开始熟练的逃避火刑，石块和套索（参见“芭比蒂兔兔和饶舌树桩”注释里我对利塞特的兔子的评论）。

　　However, a number of deaths did occur: Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-Porpington (a wizard at the royal court in his lifetime, and in his death-time, ghost of Gryffindor Tower) was stripped of his wand before being locked in a dungeon, and was unable to magic himself out of his execution; 然而，一些杀戮还是发生了，西敏汀的尼古拉斯爵士（生前是宫廷的御用巫师，死后是格兰芬多塔的常驻幽灵）在关入地牢前被剥夺了魔杖，因此他无法使用魔法来让自己免于处决。

　　And wizarding families were particularly prone to losing younger members, whose inability to control their own magic made them noticeable, and vulnerable, to Muggle witch-hunters. 巫师的家庭尤其容易失去年轻的家庭成员，由于他们没有控制魔法的能力使得自己引人注目，对于麻瓜巫师狩猎者来说他们十分脆弱。

　　“Let the Muggles manage without us!” was the cry, as the wizards drew further and further apart from their non-magical brethren, culminating with the institution of the International Statute of Wizarding Secrecy in 1689, when wizardkind voluntarily went underground. 他们的口号是：“让麻瓜们自生自灭吧！”巫师跟他们的非魔法兄弟的距离越来越远，最后于一六八九年颁布了《国际巫师保密法》，从此巫师界便自动转入地下。

　　Children being children, however, the grotesque Hopping Pot had taken hold of their imaginations. 然而，孩子就是孩子，古怪滑稽的跳跳埚占据了他们的想象。