雙語 ● Where Can You Find the Riches　尋找你內(nèi)心深處的寶藏

Where Can You Find the Riches　尋找你內(nèi)心深處的寶藏

◎ Rowland Croucher

An African farmer had heard tales about other farmers who had made millions of dollars by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself.

一個非洲農(nóng)民聽說過很多關于其他農(nóng)民因為發(fā)現(xiàn)鉆礦而一夜暴富的故事。這些故事讓這位農(nóng)民如此心潮澎湃，他迫不及待地要賣掉他的農(nóng)場，踏上尋寶之路。

So he sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent, searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world.

于是他賣掉了農(nóng)場，整個余生都游蕩在非洲大陸，尋找著那在世界市場上價格始終高居不下的閃閃發(fā)光的寶石。

Finally, broke, worn out, and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.

最后，他破產(chǎn)了，筋疲力盡了，一時絕望之下，他投河自盡。

Meanwhile, back at the farm, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing a small stream on the property one day when he saw something gleaming at the bottom of the stream. He picked it up. It was a sparkling stone—a good size stone—and, admiring it, he later put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.

與此同時，在原來那個農(nóng)場，那個買下農(nóng)場的人有一天碰巧跨過農(nóng)場里的一條小溪，他看見溪底有什么東西在閃閃發(fā)光。他把它撿了起來，是一塊發(fā)光的石頭——很大一塊——他欣賞著它，并把它當做一個有趣的珍藏放在壁爐架上。

Several weeks later, a visitor admired the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he’d found. When the farmer said no, that he thought it was just a piece of crystal, the visitor told him that he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered.

幾個星期后，一位游客來欣賞那塊石頭，他仔細觀賞著，放在手上掂量著，然后幾乎昏厥過去。他問農(nóng)民是否知道自己發(fā)現(xiàn)的是什么。當農(nóng)民說不知道，還以為只是一塊水晶時，訪問者告訴他，他撿到的是迄今為止人類發(fā)現(xiàn)的最大的鉆石。

The farmer was astonished. He told the man that his creek was full of these brilliant stones, and his farmland was covered with them. Not all were as large, perhaps, as the one on his mantel, but they were sprinkled generously throughout his property.

那個農(nóng)民震驚極了。他告訴那位客人，他的小溪里到處都是這種閃閃發(fā)光的石頭，他的農(nóng)田也被這種石頭覆蓋著。也許不是所有的都像壁爐架上的那塊一樣大，但是它們遍布農(nóng)場的每一個角落。

Needless to say, the farm the first farmer had sold, so that he could search for a diamond mine, turned out to be the most productive diamonds mine on the entire African continent.

不用說，第一個農(nóng)民為了搜尋鉆礦而賣掉的農(nóng)場，結(jié)果卻是整個非洲大陸上最多產(chǎn)的鉆礦。

The first farmer had owned, free and clear, acres of diamonds, but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere.

第一個農(nóng)民本來名正言順地擁有幾畝的鉆石，但他卻為了去其他地方找鉆石而把它們賣了，賣得一文不值。

The moral is clear: If the first farmer had only taken the time to study and prepare himself—to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state—and, since he had already owned a piece of land, to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, his wildest dreams would have come true.

這個故事的寓意很清晰：如果第一個農(nóng)民花一點時間去學習和準備——認真學習未經(jīng)打磨的鉆石長什么樣——并在探索其他地方之前，先在自己擁有的那塊土地上徹底探索一番，他的美夢就可以成真。

超多雙語閱讀，盡在聽力課堂