十一 27
Jacobxx双语美文
One windy spring day, I observed young people having fun using the wind to fly their kites. Multicolored creations of varying shapes and sizes filled the skies like beautiful birds darting and dancing. As the strong winds gusted against the kites, a string kept them in check.
在一个有风的春日，我看到一群年轻人正在迎风放风筝玩乐，各种颜色、各种形状和大小的风筝就好像美丽的鸟儿在空中飞舞。当强风把风筝吹起，牵引线就能够控制它们。
Instead of blowing away with the wind, they arose against it to achieve great heights. They shook and pulled, but the restraining string and the cumbersome tail kept them in tow, facing upward and against the wind. As the kites struggled and trembled against the string, they seemed to say, “Let me go! Let me go! I want to be free!” They soared beautifully even as they fought the restriction of the string. Finally, one of the kites succeeded in breaking loose. “Free at last,” it seemed to say. “Free to fly with the wind.”
风筝迎风飘向更高的地方，而不是随风而去。它们摇摆着、拉扯着，但牵引线以及笨重的尾巴使它们处于控制之中，并且迎风而上。它们挣扎着、抖动着想要挣脱线的束缚，仿佛在说：“放开我！放开我！我想要自由！”即使与牵引线奋争着，它们依然在美丽地飞翔。终于，一只风筝成功挣脱了。“终于自由了，”它好像在说，“终于可以随风自由飞翔了！”
Yet freedom from restraint simply put it at the mercy of an unsympathetic breeze. It fluttered ungracefully to the ground and landed in a tangled mass of weeds and string against a dead bush. “Free at last” free to lie powerless in the dirt, to be blown helplessly along the ground, and to lodge lifeless against the first obstruction.
然而，脱离束缚的自由使它完全处于无情微风的摆布下。它毫无风度地震颤着向地面坠落，落在一堆乱草之中，线缠绕在一颗死灌木上。“终于自由”使它自由到无力地躺在尘土中，无助地任风沿着地面将其吹走，碰到第一个障碍物便毫无生命地滞留在那里了。
How much like kites we sometimes are. The Heaven gives us adversity and restrictions, rules to follow from which we can grow and gain strength. Restraint is a necessary counterpart to the winds of opposition. Some of us tug at the rules so hard that we never soar to reach the heights we might have obtained. We keep part of the commandment and never rise high enough to get our tails off the ground.
有时我们真像这风筝啊！上苍赋予我们困境和约束，赋予我们成长和增强实力所要遵从的规则。约束是逆风的必要匹配物。我们中有些人是如此强硬地抵制规则，以至我们从来无法飞到本来能够达到的高度。我们只遵从部分戒律，因此永远不会飞得足够高，使尾巴远离地面。
Let us each rise to the great heights, recognizing that some of the restraints that we may chafe under are actually the steadying force that helps us ascend and achieve.
让我们每个人都飞到高处吧，并且认识到这一点：有些可能会令我们生气的约束，实际上是帮助我们攀升和实现愿望的平衡力。
十一 11
Jacobxx双语美文
When i was growing up, I had an old neigbbor named Dr.Gibbs. He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known. He never yelled at us for playing in his yard. I remember him as someone who was a lot nicer than circustances warranted.
在我还小时，有一个老邻居叫做吉布斯的医生。他不像我所认识的任何一个医生。他从不不会因为我们在他的庭院里玩耍而对我们大声叫喊。我记得他是一个相当和蔼的人，就算有时我们太过于捣蛋。
When Dr. Gibbs wasn’t saving lives, he was planting trees. His house sat on ten acres, and his life’s goal was to make it a forest.
当吉布斯退休不再从事神圣的救人生命时，他开始种树。他的房子有十亩大，他的人生目标就是将它变成一片森林。
The good doctor had some interesting theories concerning plant husbandary. He came from the “No pain, no gain” shcool of horticulture. He never watered his new trees, which flew in the face of conventional wisdom. Once i asked why. He said that watering plants spoiled them, and that if you water them, each succcessive tree generation will grow weaker and weaker. So you have to make things rough for them and weed out the weenie trees early on.
关于种植耕作这位善良的医生还有一套非常有趣的理论。他毕业于以“不劳无获”为校训的园艺学校。他从来不给他的新树苗浇水，这通常是有悖常理的。有一回我问他为什么，他说给植物浇水会宠坏了它们，如果你给树浇水，它们就会一代越不如一代。因此，你需要把他们的的成长环境变得更艰苦些，并且尽早剔除娇小的树。
He talked abouth how watering trees made for shallow roots, and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of moisture. I took him to mean that deep roots were to treasured.
他还教我浇水的树根是如何浅，而那些没有浇水的树根得扎得很深才能吸收到水份。我想他是在说深根才是珍贵的。
So he never watered his trees. He’d plant an oak and, instead of watering it every morning, he’d beat it with a rolled-up newspaper. Smack! Slap! Pow! I asked him why he did that, and he said it was to get the tree’s attentions.
因此，他从不给树浇水。他种了一棵橡树，他没有每天给它浇水，而经常用一张卷起的报纸打它，“啪”“噼”“砰”。我问他为什么，他说是为了引起树的注意。
Dr. Gibbs went to glory a couple of years after i left home. Every now and again, I walked by his house and looked at the trees that I’d watched him plant some twenty-five years ago. They’re granite strong now. Big and robust. Those trees wake up in the morning and beat their chests and drink their coffee black.
I planted a couple of trees a few years back. Carried water to them for a solid summer. Sprayed them. Prayed over them. The whole nine yards. Two years of coddling has resulted in trees that expect to be waited on hand and foot. Whenever a cold wind blows in, they tremble and chatter their branches. Sissy trees.
在我离家两年后，吉布斯医生就去世了。我常常经过他的房子，看着那些25年前我曾看着他种下的那些树。如今它们已是像石头般硬朗了。枝繁叶茂、生气勃勃。这些树在早晨醒过来，拍打着胸脯，啜饮着苦难的汁水。几年前我也种下两三棵树。整整一个夏天我都坚持为它们浇水。为它们喷杀虫剂，为它们祈祷。整整9平方码大的地方。两年的悉心呵护，结果两棵树弱不禁风。每当寒风吹起，它们就颤抖起来，枝叶直打战。娇里娇气的两棵树。
Funny things about those trees of Dr. Gibbs’. Adversity and deprivation seemed to benefit them in ways comfort and ease never could. Every night before I go to bed, I check on my two sons. I stand over them and watch their little bodies, the rising and falling of life within. I often pray for them. Mostly I pray that their lives will be easy. But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer.
吉布斯医生的树真是有趣。逆境和折磨带给它们的益处似乎是舒适和安逸永远无法给予的。每天晚上睡觉前，我都要看看两个儿子。我俯视着他们那幼小的身体，生命就在其中起落沉浮。我总是为他们祈祷，总是祈祷他们的生活能一帆风顺。但后来我想是该改变我的祈祷词的时候了。
This change has to do with the inevitability of cold winds that hit us at the core. I know my children are going to encounter hardship, and I’m praying they won’t be naive. There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere.
这改变是因为将吹在我们要害的不可避免的寒风。我知道我的孩子们将遇到困难，我祈祷他们不会幼稚而脆弱。在某些地方总会有寒风吹过。
So I’m changing my prayer. Because life is tough, whether we want it to be or not. Too many times we pray for ease, but that’s a prayer seldom met. What we need to do is pray for roots that reach deep into 18)the Eternal, so when the rains fall and the winds blow, we won’t be swept asunder.
所以我改变了我的祈祷词。因为不管我们愿不愿意，生活总是艰难的。我们已祈祷了太多的安逸，但却少有实现。我们所需要做的是祈祷深植我们的信念之根，这样我们就不会被雨打风吹所伤害。
十一 04
Jacobxx双语美文
For attractive lips, speak words of kindness.
要有吸引人的双唇，请说好意的言语。
For lovely eyes, seek out the good in people.
要有美丽的双眼，请寻索他人的优点。
For a slim figure, share your food with the hungry.
要有纤细的身材，请与饥民分享你的食物。
For beautiful hair, let a child run his or her fingers through it once a
day.
要有亮丽的头发，请让小孩每日触摸你的头发。
For poise, walk with the knowledge that you never walk alone.
要有自信的态度，请学习你不曾学过的知识。
People, even more than things, have to be restored, revived, reclaimed and
redeemed; never throw out anyone.
人之所以为人，是必须充满精力、自我悔改、自我反省、自我成长；并非向人抱怨。
Remember, if you ever need a helping hand, you”ll find them at the end of
each of your arms. As you grow older, you will discover that you have two
hands, one for helping yourself, the other for helping others.
请记得，如果你需要帮助，你永远有你的手可以自己动手。当你成长后，你会发觉
你有二只手，一只帮助自己，一只帮助它人。
The beauty of a woman is not in the clothes she wears, the figure that she
carries, or the way she combs her hair. The beauty of a woman must be seen
from in her eyes, because that is the doorway to her heart, the place where
love resides.
女人的美丽不存在于她的服饰、她的珠宝、她的发型；女人的美丽必须从她的眼中
找到，因为这才是她的心灵之窗与爱心之房。
The beauty of a woman is not in a facial mode, but the true beauty in a
woman is reflected in her soul. It is the caring that she lovingly gives,
the passion that she shows.
女人的美丽不是表面的，应该是她的精神层面－是她的关怀、她的爱心以及她的热
情。
The beauty of a woman grows with the passing years.
女人的美丽是跟著年龄成长。
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