The Five Boons of Life

In the morning of life came a good fairy with her basket, and said:

生命的清晨，一位善良的仙女提着她的篮子来了，她说：

“Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary, choose wisely; oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable.”

“这里有几件礼物。拿一件，把其余的留下。你要当心，要选得明智； 哦，一定要选得明智！因为其中只有一件是真正宝贵的。”

The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth said, eagerly:

礼物一共有五件：名望、爱情、财富、欢愉、死亡。年轻人 急切地说：

“There is no need to consider”; and he chose Pleasure.

“用不着考虑”；于是他选了欢愉。

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.”

他走入世间，去追寻青春所钟爱的一切欢愉。可是每一样欢愉都 昙花一现，令人失望，虚妄而空洞；每一样离去时，都在嘲弄他。到了最后，他说： “这些年月我白白虚度了。倘若能重新选择，我一定会选得明智。”

The fairy appeared, and said:

仙女又出现了，她说：

“Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember—time is flying, and only one of them is precious.”

“还剩下四件礼物。再选一次吧；哦，请记住——时光 飞逝，其中只有一件是珍贵的。”

The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears that rose in the fairy's eyes.

那人思量了很久，然后选了爱情；他没有留意到仙女眼中 涌起的泪水。

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; for each hour of happiness the treacherous trader, Love, has sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of my heart of hearts I curse him.”

许多许多年过去了，那人坐在一具棺材旁，屋里空空荡荡。他 默默自语道：“他们一个接一个地离我而去；如今 她也躺在这里，是最亲爱的，也是最后一个。一次次的凄凉 接踵而至，笼罩着我；因为爱情这个奸诈的商人给我的每一小时欢乐， 我都要用一千个小时的悲伤去偿还。我打心底里 诅咒它。”

“Choose again.” It was the fairy speaking.

“再选一次吧。”是仙女在说话。

“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.”

“这些年月教会了你智慧——想必如此。还剩下三件礼物。 其中只有一件有真正的价值——记住这一点，谨慎地选择。”

The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy, sighing, went her way.

那人沉思良久，然后选了名望；仙女叹息一声， 转身离去。

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:

许多年过去了，她又来了，站在那人身后，那时他正独自坐在 渐暗的暮色里沉思。她洞悉了他的心思：

“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 calumny; then hate; then persecution. Then derision, 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 and compassion in its decay.”

“我的名字传遍了世界，人人称颂，一时之间似乎 一切都很美好。可这美好的时光是多么短暂啊！随后 嫉妒来了；接着是诋毁；接着是诽谤；接着是憎恨；接着是迫害。 再接着是嘲笑，那是终结的开端。最后来的 是怜悯，那是名望的葬礼。哦，盛名是多么苦涩、多么悲惨啊！ 在它鼎盛之时是众矢之的，在它衰败之时又遭人轻蔑与怜悯。”

“Chose yet again.” It was the fairy's voice.

“再选一次吧。”是仙女的声音。

“Two gifts remain. And do not despair. In the beginning there was but one that was precious, and it is still here.”

“还剩下两件礼物。不要绝望。从一开始就 只有一件是珍贵的，而它如今依然还在。”

“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 enchantments of the spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds dear. I will buy, buy, buy! deference, respect, esteem, worship—every pinchbeck grace 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.”

“财富——那就是权力！我曾是多么盲目！”那人说道。“如今，终于， 生活将变得值得一过了。我要挥霍，要炫耀，要令人目眩。那些 嘲笑我、鄙视我的人将匍匐在我脚下的尘土中，我要用他们的 嫉妒来喂养我那颗饥渴的心。我要拥有一切奢华，一切欢乐，一切 心灵的迷醉，一切世人所珍视的肉体的满足。我要买，买，买！ 去买来敬重、尊敬、崇拜、膜拜——这个庸俗世界的市场所能 提供的每一分虚假的荣耀。我虚度了太多光阴，此前选择得也不好， 但那都过去了；那时我无知，只能把看似最好的当作最好。”

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:

短短三年过去了，一天，那人坐在一间简陋的阁楼里瑟瑟发抖； 他形容枯槁，面色苍白，双眼深陷，衣衫褴褛；他正 啃着一块干硬的面包皮，喃喃自语：

“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, compared with that inestimable one, that dear and sweet and kindly one, that steeps 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.”

“诅咒这世上所有的礼物吧，它们不过是嘲弄和镀金的谎言！ 每一件都被误称了。它们根本不是礼物，只是暂借之物。欢愉、 爱情、名望、财富：它们不过是永恒之物的暂时伪装——那永恒之物 是痛苦、悲伤、耻辱、贫穷。仙女说得对；在她所有的 储藏里，只有一件礼物是宝贵的，只有一件不是虚无的。如今我才知道， 比起那件无价之宝——那亲切、甜美、慈悲的礼物，那能让 折磨躯体的痛楚、啃噬心灵的耻辱与悲伤都沉入无梦长眠的礼物—— 其余那些是多么廉价、多么卑微。把它带来吧！我 累了，我想要安息了。”

The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting. She said:

仙女来了，又带来了四件礼物，唯独没有死亡。 她说：

“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.”

“我把它给了一个母亲的宝贝，一个小孩子。她一无所知，却 信任我，请我替她选择。而你，从未请我为你选择。”

“Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?”

“哦，我真是可怜！还有什么留给我呢？”

“What not even you have deserved: the wanton insult of Old Age.”

“连你都不配得到的东西：那便是老年的无情羞辱。”