Crystal Balls – Learning Advanced Colors and Descriptives

This is possibly the girliest essay ever written, with crystals, dolls, little elfs and pretty colors described with great rapture. The writer is describing a gift given to her by a friend, which she loved as a child.
Advanced / Intermediate Chinese Essays and Reading ExerciseThe sentence structure never gets too complex to follow in this, so if you’re an intermediate reader feeling up for a lot of new words, go for it. But this essay is a bit new-word heavy, so unless you are fairly good with descriptive vocabulary, don’t expect an uninterrupted read. I love this essay for its use of unusual color words, like “glistening yellow”, “vibrant red”, and “transparent”.
In terms of the item the author describes, it’s a bit hard to tell from the Chinese text that the writer is describing multiple crystal dolls inside of crystal balls in a crystal bottle until you get partway into the description, and while the girl paints a very vivid picture of this pretty bauble, I don’t know that I’ve ever seen anything like it in real life. It sounds like the crystal figurine version of Inception. Anyway, without further ado:
The Chinese title is: 　水晶球
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水晶- shuǐ jīng – Crystal
一闪一闪 – yī shǎn yī shǎn – Twinkle
各异 – gè yì – Each is different / each has its own
盈 – yíng – Filled
黄澄澄 – huáng dèng dèng – Glistening yellow
红通通- hóng tōng tōng – Vibrant Red
透明 – tòu míng – Transparent
笛子 – dí zi – Bamboo flute
五彩缤纷 – wǔ cǎi bīn fēn – A wild profusion of color
映衬 – yìng chèn – To set off by contrast
夺目- duó mù – Dazzle the eyes
小巧 – xiǎo qiǎo – Small and exquisite
玲珑 – líng lóng – The sound of clinking jewels
脚尖 – jiǎo jiān – On tiptoe
轻盈 – qīng yíng – Graceful, lithe
飞舞 – fēi wǔ – Flitter, dance in the breeze
小精灵 – xiǎo jīng líng – Elf
舞姿 – wǔ zī – Dancer’s posture and movement
九霄云外 – jiǔ xiāo yún wài – Beyond the topmost clouds [lit: dropped into the clouds and the nine heavens]
在我生日的时候，朋友送给了我一个小小的“水晶瓶”，我非常喜欢它，爱不释手。
这个“水晶瓶”一闪一闪，漂亮极了！在“水晶瓶”里有一只只亮晶晶“水晶球”。那“水晶球”形状各异，颜色不一。紫盈盈的是星星形的，黄澄澄的是足球形的，红通通的是皮包形的，透明发亮的是笛子形的。这些美丽的“水晶球”在五彩缤纷的灯光的映衬下，显得更夺目耀眼。
在“水晶球”里，有一个小小的“舞台”，在这个小巧玲珑的“舞台”上，有一个“舞蹈家”——水晶娃娃。水晶娃娃的手一晃一晃的，伴随着美妙的音乐，立着脚尖旋转起来，多像一个轻盈飞舞的小精灵。我看着，看着，沉醉在这优美的舞姿当中，我不由自主地也跟它跳起舞来。在这个时候，所有的烦恼全都抛到九霄云外去了。
可是有一次我不知怎么了，突然间不喜欢这个水晶球了，还把他随便放在衣橱里一直到这位好朋友转学了以后才知道它的重要性.
我喜欢这个“水晶瓶”，因为它陪我渡过了美好的童年，它将一直陪着我走下去……
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On my birthday, my friend gave me a little “crystal bottle”, I really liked it, loved it so much I never wanted to part with it.
This “crystal bottle” twinkled very beautifully! Inside the crystal bottle, there were shining “crystal balls”. Those crystal balls were all shaped differently, and were all different colors. The one filled with a purple color was shaped like a star, the glistening yellow one was shaped like a football, the bright red one was shaped like a handbag, the shining clear one was shaped like a flute. These beautiful “crystal balls” contrasted with each other in a radiant profusion of light, dazzling to behold.
Inside each of the crystal balls, there was a very small “dancing stage” and on each exquisitely small, clinking stage there was a “dancer” — a crystal doll. The crystal dolls’ hands flashed, accompanying wonderful music, and [the dolls] rotated while standing on tiptoe, like graceful little elves dancing in the breeze. I watched and watched, intoxicated by the dancer’s elegant movements, and I couldn’t help but begin dancing with them. Whenever I watched them, all of my worries dropped away, vanishing beyond the topmost clouds.
But one day, and I don’t know why, I suddenly no longer liked to look at the crystal balls, and I put them somewher in my closet, and it was only when that friend moved to a different school that I realized their importance.
I like this crystal bottle because it was with me as I passed through a beautiful childhood, and it will always be with me as I go through life.