從前有個窮人，窮得連自己的兒子都養不活。兒子便對他說：“好爸爸，我們現在的日子過得太糟了，而我又是你的一個負擔。我現在想離開家，看能不能掙到飯吃。”父親祝福了他，然後悲痛欲絕地送他出了家門。這時候，一個強大帝國的國王正和人打仗，於是他便參加了國王的部隊，上前線去打仗。他到達前線時正好趕上激烈的戰鬥，而且情況非常危急，他的戰友們紛紛倒在敵人的彈雨中。當指揮官也犧牲時，剩下的人打算逃跑，可是這位年輕人站出來大着膽子對他們叫道：“我們決不能讓自己的祖國滅亡!”於是其他人跟在他的後面，在他的帶領下打敗了敵人。當國王得知這場勝利全靠他一個人時，就把他提升到最高的位置，給了他許多財富，使他一下子成了全國最顯赫的人物。
國王有一個女兒，雖長得非常美麗，脾氣卻非常古怪，她只答應嫁給一個保證在她死後願意被活埋在她身邊的人。“如果這個人真心實意地愛我，”她說，“我死了之後他活着還有什麼用?”反過來，她也是一樣。如果她丈夫先死，她願意和他一起被埋進墳墓。她這古怪的誓言嚇得人一直不敢向她求婚，可是這位年輕人被公主的美貌迷住了，不顧一切地請求國王把女兒嫁給他。“你知道你要作出什麼樣的承諾嗎?”國王問。 “要是我活得比她長，就得爲她做陪葬，”他回答，“可是我非常愛她，根本不在乎這種危險。”國王於是便答應了，他們舉行了盛大的婚禮。
這對年輕人幸福美滿地生活了一段時間，妻子便突然得了重病，醫生們沒有一個能治好她。她死了之後，年輕的丈夫想起了自己的諾言，知道自己得活生生地被關在墳墓裏，不由得驚恐萬狀，可也沒有什麼別的辦法。國王在王宮的各個大門口都派了崗哨，所以他根本不可能逃避這厄運。安葬屍體的那一天，他也被帶進了王室的陵墓，然後墓門就被關上了，而且還上了插銷。
棺材旁有張桌子，上面放着四支蠟燭、四條麪包和四瓶酒。等這些東西消耗完後，他就會餓死。他萬分痛苦、萬分傷心地坐在那裏，每天只吃一丁點麪包，只喝一口酒，可死神還是一天天地在向他逼近。正當他出神地坐在那裏時，他看到一條蛇從墓穴的角落裏鑽了出來，向死屍爬去。他以爲蛇是去咬她的肉，便拔出寶劍說：“只要我還活着，你就休想碰她一下。”說完就把蛇砍成了三段。過了一會兒，又一條蛇從洞裏爬了出來。當它看到第一條蛇被砍成了三段，已經死了，它便爬了回去。可不一會兒它又爬了出來，嘴裏銜着三片綠色的葉子。然後，它把死蛇的三段拼在一起，在每一處傷口上蓋上一片葉子。頃刻之間，那條斷蛇的的幾個部分又長在了一起。蛇動了幾下便活了過來，然後和第二條蛇一起逃走了，而那三片葉子卻留在了地上。這位目睹了這一切的不幸青年突然產生了一個想法：不知道這些把死蛇重新救活的葉子的魔力能不能把人也救活。於是，他撿起葉子，在他亡妻的嘴上放了一片，又把另外兩片放在她的眼睛上。他剛把葉子放好，血液便開始在她的血管裏流動，慢慢涌上了她蒼白的臉頰，使它重新變得緋紅。接着，她吸了口氣，睜開眼睛，說：“啊，上帝，我這是在哪裏呀?”“你和我在一起，親愛的妻子，”他回答，然後把所發生的一切，以及他救活她的經過告訴了她。他給她喝了點酒，又給她吃了點麪包。等她重新恢復精力後，他扶她站起來走到墓門口，又是敲門又是叫喊。衛兵們聽到後便去報告國王。國王親自來打開墓門，發現他倆健康而富有活力，不禁爲悲傷的事情終於結束而欣喜萬分。年輕人把那三片蛇葉帶了出來，把它們交給一個侍從，說：“給我小心保管好，要時刻帶在身邊。天知道我們還會遇到什麼麻煩呢?說不定我們還用得着它們呢!”
可他的妻子發生了變化，她死而復生之後好像完全失去了對丈夫的愛。過了一段時間，年輕人想過海去看看他的老父親。他們上船之後，她就忘記了她丈夫對她所表現出的深深的愛和忠誠，也忘記了他對她的救命之恩，可惡地迷上了船長。一天，當年輕人睡着時，她叫來船長，自己抱住丈夫的頭，船長抓住他的腳，兩個人一起把他扔進了大海。幹完了這可恥的勾當之後，她說：“我們現在回去，就說他死在路上了。我會在我父親的面前大大地誇獎你，讚揚你，使他同意把我嫁給你，並且讓你做王位的繼承人。”可是那位忠心耿耿的侍從在暗中目睹了一切。他從大船上解下一隻小船，坐上去尋找他的主人，不再管那兩個壞傢伙駛向哪裏。他從水裏撈起年輕人的屍體，把身上帶着的三片蛇葉分別放在他的眼睛和嘴巴上，幸運地救活了他。
他倆日夜奮力地划船，小船行駛如飛，結果他們比其他人先回到老國王的王宮。老國王看到他倆獨自回來自然感到很驚訝，便問發生了什麼事。他聽說自己女兒的可惡行徑後說：“我不相信她會幹出這樣卑鄙的事情，但是很快就會真相大白的。”他命令他倆躲進一間密室，不要讓任何人看見。不久，大船駛了回來，那個不知羞恥的女人滿臉愁容地來見父親。老國王問：“你怎麼獨自回來了?你丈夫呢?”“唉，親愛的父親，”她回答，“我的心都要碎了。我丈夫在途中突然得病死了，要不是這位好心的船長幫助我，我就慘嘍!我丈夫死的時候他也在場，他可以把一切告訴你。”國王說：“我要讓死去的人復活!”說着就打開了密室，叫那主僕二人出來。那女人一看見自己的丈夫，就像被雷打了一樣跪了下去，請求饒恕。國王說：“絕不能饒恕!他願意和你一起去死，而且把你救活，可你卻趁他睡着時害死他，你是罪有應得。”接着，她和她的幫兇被放在一條鑿了洞的船上。船被推到海上，很快就在洶涌的浪濤中沉沒了。
格林童話三片蛇葉的故事讀後感勇敢忠誠的小夥子信守承諾，在公主死去後爲其陪葬，而用三片蛇葉將死去的公主救活之後，公主卻恩將仇報將小夥子殺害，最終公主獲得了應有的懲罰。這個童話告訴我們要怎樣對待美與醜、善與惡。善良美好的人最終能夠得到幸福，而惡人們儘管開頭十分囂張，最終都落得個被消滅的下場。
Once upon a time there was a poor man who could no longer afford to keep his only son. So his son said:" Dear father, you have fallen on very hard times and I'm a burden to you; it will be better if I go away and try to earn my living." His father gave him his blessing1 and took leave of him with great sadness. At this time the king of a powerful kingdom was engaged in a war; the young man took service with him and joined the fighting. And when they met the enemy a battle took place, and there was great peril2 and a great hail of bullets, with his comrades falling all round him. And when even the commander was killed the rest wanted to take to their heels, but the young man stepped forward and rallied them, crying:" We must not let our fatherland perish." At this the others followed him, and he pressed forward and defeated the enemy. When the king heard that he owed the victory to him alone, he raised him above all the others, gave him great wealth and made him the first man in his kingdom.
The king had a daughter who was very beautiful, but there was also something very strange about her. She had made a vow3 to take no man for her lord and husband unless he promised to let himself be buried alive with her if she died before him. "If he truly loves me," she said, "why would he want to go on living?" In return she was prepared to do the same for him and go down into the grave with him if he died first. This strange vow had hitherto deterred4 all suitors, but the young man was so entranced by her beauty that he was heedless of everything, and asked her father for her hand. "But do you know what promise you will have to make?" said the king. "I shall have to go to her grave with her if I outlive her," he replied, "but my love is so great that I care not for this danger." Then the king consented and the marriage wascelebrated5 with great magnificence.
They now lived happily and contentedly6 for a time, and then it happened that the young queen fell seriously ill and no doctor could help her. And when she lay there dead, the young king remembered what he had had to promise, and he was filled with horror at the thought of being buried alive, but there was no help for it: the king had ordered all the gates to be watched, and there was no way of escaping his fate. When the day came for the queen's dead body to be laid to rest in the royal vault7, he was taken down into it with her, and then the door was locked and bolted.
Beside the coffin8 stood a table on which there were four candles, four loaves of bread and four bottles of wine. As soon as these provisions gave out he would have to die of hunger. So there he sat full of grief and sorrow, eating only a morsel9 of bread each day and drinking only a mouthful of wine, and yet he realized that his death was coming closer and closer. Now as he sat there staring in front of him, he saw a snake crawl out of one corner of the vault and approach the coffin. Thinking it was going to gnaw10 at the dead body, he drew his sword and exclaimed:" You shan't touch her so long as I am alive!" And he hacked11 the snake into three pieces. A few moments later a second snake came crawling out of the corner, but when it saw the other one lying dead and dismembered it turned back, and presently approached again carrying three green leaves in its mouth. Then it took the three pieces of the snake, put them together the way they belonged, and laid one of the leaves on each of the wounds. At once the dismembered parts joined, the snake stirred and came to life again, and both snakes crawled quickly away leaving the leaves behind them.
The unfortunate prince had watched all this, and he now began to wonder whether themiraculous12 power of the leaves which had restored the snake to life might also help a human being. So he picked up the leaves and laid one of them on the dead woman's mouth and the other two on her eyes. and scarcely had he done so when her blood stirred in her veins13, rose into her pallid14 countenance15 and gave it the flush of life again. She drew breath, opened her eyes and said:" Alas16, where am I?" "You are with me, my dear wife," he answered and told her all that had happened and how he had revived her. Then he gave her some wine and bread and when she had recovered her strength she stood up, and they went to the door and knocked on it and shouted so loudly that the guards heard them and reported it to the king. The king himself came down and opened the door; he found both of them in full health andvigor17, and rejoiced with them that now all their troubles were over. But the young king took the three snake-leaves with him, gave them to a servant and said:" Keep them carefully for me, and carry them on you wherever you go; who knows what trouble they may yet help us out of."
But since being brought back to life his wife had undergone a change: it was as if all her love for husband had been drained out of her heart. Some time later he decided18 to make a voyage across the sea to visit his old father, and after they had boarded the ship she forgot the great love and grace he had shown her and how he had saved her from death, and conceived a guilty passion for the ship's captain. One day when the young king was lying there asleep, she called the captain and seized her sleeping husband by the head and made the captain take him by the feet, and thus they threw him into the sea. When this shameful19 deed had been done she said to the captain:" Now let's go home, and we'll say he died at sea. You can leave it to me to keep singing your praises to my father till he marries me to you and makes you heir to his crown." But the faithful servant, who had witnessed the whole thing, secretly lowered a small boat from the ship and set out in it, following his master and letting the traitors20 sail away. He fished up the drowned man, and by putting the three snake-leaves, which he had with him, on the young king's eyes and mouth, he successfully restored him to life.
Then they both rowed day and night with might and main, and their boat sped along so quickly that they got home to the old king before the others. He was astonished to see them arriving alone, and asked what had happened to them. When he heard of his daughter's wickedness he said:" I can't believe that she did so evil a thing, but the truth will soon come to light." He told them both to go into a secret room and let no one know of their presence. Soon after this the big ship came sailing in, and the prince's godless wife appeared before her father with a sorrowful air. He said:" Why have you returned alone? Where is your husband?" "Oh, dear father," she replied, "I have come home in great grief: during the voyage my husband suddenly fell sick and died, and if the kind ship's captain had not helped me it would have gone ill with me. But he was present at my husband's death and can tell you all that happened." The king said:" I will bring this dead man back to life." And he opened the door of the room and told the two men to come out. When the woman saw her husband she stood as if thunderstruck, then fell to her knees and begged for mercy. The king said:" There can be no mercy for you: he was ready to die with you, and he gave you your life back again, but you murdered him in his sleep and you shall have your just reward." Then she and her accomplice were put on board a ship full of holes and sent out to sea, where they soon perished in the waves.
