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, choose wisely! For only one of them is valuable."
在生命之初，一位仙女帶著籃子走來，對一位年輕人說道：“這里有幾份禮物，你可以從中選一份，留下其它的。你要小心，做一個明智的選擇；啊，你要明智地進行選擇！因為這里面只有一份禮物是珍貴的。”
The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death.The youth, said, eagerly:"There is no need to consider"; and he chose Pleasure。
一共有五份禮物：名聲，愛情，財富，快樂，還有死亡。年輕人迫不及待地說：“沒有必要多想。”他選了快樂。
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 him. In the end he said:"These years i have wasted. If i could but choose again, I would choose wisely."
此后他就開始步入世界，追逐年輕人所喜愛的快樂。然而每一種快樂都是如此短暫，令人感到空虛和失望。每當一種快樂棄他而去時，還要把他嘲弄一番。最后，年輕人感嘆道：“這些年我都浪費了。如果我可以再選一次，我一定會做一個明智的選擇。”
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."
這時仙女又出現了，她說：“這里還有四份禮物。再選一次吧。噢，記住時間飛逝，而其中只有一件是珍貴的。”
The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark 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 with himself, saying:"One by one they have gone away and left me; and now she lies here, the dearest and the last. Desolation after desolation has swept over me; but each hour of happiness the treacherous trader, Love, sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief! Out of my heart of hearts I curse him!"
他思考了很久，最終選擇了愛情；他沒有注意到仙女眼里泛起的淚光。許多許多年之后，這個人坐在一口棺材旁邊，屋子里空蕩蕩的。他自言自語道：“他們一個一個地走了，只剩下我。現在，她就躺在這兒，我最親愛的人兒，我最后的親人。孤獨一次又一次把我包圍。都是因為愛情這個陰狡詐的商人，他出售給我的每個甜蜜的小時，我現在都要用數千個小時的悲傷來償還！我從心底里詛咒他！”
"Choose again."It was the fairy speaking."The years have you wisdow-surely it must be so.There gifts remain.Only one of them has anyworth-remember it ,and choose warily."
“你在選一次吧。”仙女又一次說話了，“這些年已經教予你智慧——也理當如此。這里還有三份禮物，其中只有一份是有價值的——切記，你好好挑吧。”
The man reflected 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 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; then hate; then persecution. Then derision, which is the begining of the end. And last of all came pity,which is the funeral of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown!"
他想了很久，然而選擇了名聲。仙女嘆了口氣，徑自離開了。歲月流轉，仙女又回來了，站到他的身旁。已邁入遲暮之年的他孑然一身，心情重重。他在想些什么，她都了然于心。“我的名字傳遍世界，每個人都爭相贊頌，有一陣子好像讓我心滿足。可那是多么短暫的一陣子啊！隨之而來的是妒忌；然后是詆毀；然后是憎惡；然后是迫害。之后是嘲諷，從一切開始步入完結。最后便是憐憫，這也是我的名聲的葬禮。啊，名聲原來是這般苦澀和痛苦！”
"Choose yet again." It was the fairy's voice。
“不過你還可以重新現挑一次。”仙女的聲音再度響起。
"Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the begining there was but one that was precious, and it is still here。
“還剩下兩份禮物。不要灰心喪氣，從一開始就只有一份是寶貴的，而現在它還在那里啊。”
"Wealth-which is power! How blind I was!" Said the man, "Now, at last, life will be worth the living. I will spend, squander, dazzle. These mockers and despisers 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 enchant-times of the spirit I will buy, buy, buy! 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."
“財富——財富就是力量！我過去多盲目啊！”他說，“現在，終于，我的生命將要變得有意義。我要縱情歡度此生，我要揮霍我的人生。那些對我冷嘲熱諷，輕蔑詆毀我的人將要在我面前的泥土里掙扎，而我空乏的心也將因為他們的妒忌而得到滿足。我將要享盡榮華富貴，所有歡樂和所有銷魂的時光。我要買，買！以前我做錯了選擇，失去了許多時間，就讓它過去吧；當時我很無知，我只能選我覺得最好的東西。”
Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering in a mean garret; and he was gaunt and wan and hollow-eyed, and clothed in rags; and he was gnawing a dry crust and mumbling:"Curse all the world's gifts for mockeries and gilded 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. Bring it! I am weary. I would rest."
短短的三年又過去了。到了這么一天，這個人蜷縮在一個簡陋的小閣樓里，古瘦如柴，蒼白無力，雙眼深陷，身上裹著碎布衣衫，渾身顫抖不停。他一邊啃著一塊干面包皮，一邊咕噥著：“該死的禮物，都是為了讓我受人嘲笑和欺詐！每一樣都叫錯了！它們都不是禮物，根本只是租借品！快樂，愛情，名聲還有財富－都只不過是長久現實的暫時偽裝－它們其實是永遠的痛苦，悲哀，恥辱和貧窮！那個仙女說的沒錯啊，她所有的東西里只有一樣是珍貴的，只有那么一樣不是毫無價值的。我現在才明白，其它禮物是多么低賤與卑劣！把它帶來吧－那真正寶貴的禮物！我累了，我想休息了。”
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."
仙女出現了，帶著以前的那四件禮物，但惟獨沒有最后那一件——死亡。她說道：“我把它給了一位母親的寵兒子：一個小孩子。他什么也不懂，但他相信我，讓我來幫他挑選。而你并沒有這么做。”
"Oh, miserable me! What is left for me ?"
“啊，我多可悲啊！那還剩下什么給我呢？”
"What not even you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age."
“一件你也不配得到的東西：接受年老體衰的折磨。”
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