Read a passage in Lawrence Pun(潘國靈)'s book "Bi-gaze"(你看我看你) this afternoon, I found this meaningful short story from Mark Twain written in 1902.There are 5 gifts to choose : Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure and Death. It seems they can be easily chosen. However, you need to consider the time factor. A black humour?
- Sources of quote below
- Chinese Translation
Chapter I
In the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:
"Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary(謹慎), chose wisely; oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable."
The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth said, eagerly:
"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure.
He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youth delights in. But each in its turn was short-lived and disappointing, vain and empty; and each, departing, mocked(嘲笑) him. In the end he said: "These years I have wasted. If I could but choose again, I would choose wisely.
Chapter II
The fairy appeared, and said:
"Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember-- time is flying, and only one of them is precious."
The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark(注意) the tears that rose in the fairy's eyes.
After many, many years the man sat by a coffin, in an empty home. And he communed(親密交談) with himself, saying: "One by one they have gone away and left me; and now she lies here, the dearest and the last. Desolation(哀傷) after desolation has swept over me; for each hour of happiness the treacherous(殘忍的) trader, Love, as sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of my heart of hearts I curse him."
Chapter III
"Choose again." It was the fairy speaking.
"The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts remain. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily."
The man reflected(考慮) long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went her way.
Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat solitary in the fading(腿色的) day, thinking. And she knew his thought:
"My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Then came envy; then detraction(責難); then calumny(誹謗); then hate; then persecution(迫害). Then derision(嘲笑) ;, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all came pity, which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown! target for mud in its prime, for contempt(恥辱,) and compassion(憐憫) in its decay."
Chapter IV
"Chose yet again." It was the fairy's voice.
"Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but one that was precious, and it is still here."
"Wealth--which is power! How blind I was!" said the man. "Now, at last, life will be worth the living. I will spend, squander(揮霍), dazzle(燒銀紙). These mockers(嘲笑別人的人) and despisers(小看別人的人) will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed my hungry heart with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all enchantments(魅力) of the spirit, all contentments (享受) of the body that man holds dear. I will buy, buy, buy! deference(服從), respect, esteem(尊敬), worship -- every pinchbeck(廉價仿製) grace(恩典) of life the market of a trivial world can furnish forth. I have lost much time, and chosen badly heretofore, but let that pass; I was ignorant then, and could but take for best what seemed so."
Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in a mean garret(閣樓) ; and he was gaunt(憔悴) and wan(面無血色) and hollow-eyed, and clothed in rags; and he was gnawing(咬) a dry crust (麵包皮) and mumbling:
"Curse all the world's gifts, for mockeries(嘲笑) and gilded(粉飾) lies! And miscalled, every one. They are not gifts, but merely lendings. Pleasure, Love, Fame, Riches: they are but temporary disguises for lasting realities--Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty. The fairy said true; in all her store there was but one gift which was precious, only one that was not valueless. How poor and cheap and mean I know those others now to be, compared with that inestimable one, that dear and sweet and kindly one, that steeps(浸透) in dreamless and enduring sleep the pains that persecute the body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind and heart. Bring it! I am weary, I would rest."
Chapter V
The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting. She said:
"I gave it to a mother's pet, a little child. It was ignorant, but trusted me, asking me to choose for it. You did not ask me to choose."
"Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?"
"What not even you have deserved: the wanton(肆無忌憚的) insult of Old Age."
0 意見:
張貼意見