双语美文：贫穷或富有？只是个视角问题

huagongkeji · 发表于 1970-1-1 08:00:00

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

一天，一个豪门之家的父亲带着儿子去乡村游玩，他的首要目的是让儿子看看那里人们的生活是多么的贫穷。他们待了几天，晚上就住在农场上的一个赤贫之家。

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

在他们的返程途中，父亲问儿子；“旅程结束有什么感想？”

"It was great, Dad."

“感觉不错呢，爸爸。”

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

“你看到穷人们是怎么生活了吧？”父亲问道

"Oh yeah," said the son.

“当然”儿子答道

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

“那你说说，你从中学到了什么？”父亲说道。

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

儿子回答： “我们家有一条狗，而他们有四条，我们的泳池的边界到花园的一半，他们的溪流没有尽头。我们花园里有进口的灯笼，他们晚上能看到满天的繁星。

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

我们的露台只到前院，地平线之前都是他们的地盘。我们只居住在一小块地方，他们的土地在目力所及之外。我们有佣人服务我们，而他们服务他人。我们的食物要买，他们的自己种。我们要靠墙来保护自己的财产，他们有自己的朋友。”

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

父亲无言以对，随后儿子补充说：“谢谢爸爸让我体会到我们是多么的贫穷。”

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

所以看待事物的角度也是一个非常有意思的事情。这不禁让人想：如果每件事情我们都心存感恩，而不是觊觎更多，那收获是不是会有大不同？