为你读书：《生命的拼搏》Life Struggle

蝴蝶破茧，方能展翅而飞；凤凰浴火，迎来涅槃重生。艰难困苦，玉汝于成。本期选文的主人公因看见蝴蝶破茧时的痛苦而心生怜悯助其破茧而出，然而事情的结果却出乎他的意料……而这个简短的小故事也告诉了我们：磨砺，让我们破茧成蝶……

——编者语

 

Once upon a time in a land far far away, there was a wonderful old man who loved everything. Animals, spiders, insects...

从前，在一个非常非常遥远的国度，有一位心地善良的老人。他喜爱一切东西，动物啦、蜘蛛啦、昆虫啦。

 

One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a cocoon of a butterfly. He took it home.

一天，这位善良的老人在树林里散步的时候，发现了一个蝴蝶的茧。他把茧带回了家。

 

A few days later, a small opening appeared; he sat and watched the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then it seemed to stop making any progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and it could go no farther.

几天后，茧裂开了一道小缝。老人几小时地坐在那里，看着蝴蝶挣扎着让自己的身体从小缝中挤出来。后来，蝴蝶破茧好像停了下来，没有什么进展了。看来蝴蝶好像是撑到了最后，再也不可能前进了。

 

Then the man decided to help the butterfly, so he took a pair of scissors and snipped off the remaining bit of the cocoon.

看到这里，老人决定帮助蝴蝶。于是他找出一把剪刀，把茧剩余的部分剪破了。

 

The butterfly then emerged easily.

这样，蝴蝶就轻易地从茧中脱出来了。

 

But it had a swollen body and small, shriveled wings. The man continued to watch the butterfly because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would enlarge and expand to be able to support the body, which would contract in time. Neither happened! In fact, the butterfly spent the rest of its life crawling around with a swollen body and shriveled wings.

但是，蝴蝶的身子肿胀着，翅膀又小又皱。老人继续观察着蝴蝶，因为他期望着这样一个时刻的到来：蝴蝶的翅膀会变大，大到能支持它的身体，而蝴蝶的身体届时也会缩小。可是什么也没有发生。事实上，这只蝴蝶的余生中就只能拖着臃肿的身体和萎缩的翅膀爬来爬去了。

 

It never was able to fly.

它永远也不能飞起来了。

 

What the man in his kindness and haste did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening were Nature's way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon.

在好心和匆忙间，老人并不理解，蝴蝶破茧而出时需要的那种束缚和挣扎其实是大自然用来将蝴蝶的体液挤到翅膀中的方法，这样，蝴蝶一旦能从茧中脱出，就能准备好飞翔了。

 

Sometimes struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If we were allowed to go through our life without any obstacles, it would cripple us. We would not be as strong as what we could have been.

有时候，挣扎正是我们生活中所需要的。如果我们能得以毫无障碍地走过一生，这会使我们软弱。我们就不可能变得强壮。

 

And we could never fly.

重要的是，我们就不可能腾飞。 

词汇点津：

cocoon [kə'kuːn] n. 茧；卵囊

例句：One day while walking through the woods the nice old man found a cocoon of a butterfly.

一天，这位善良的老人在树林里散步的时候，发现了一个蝴蝶的茧。

scissor ['sɪzə] n. 剪刀

例句：Mangrove poles are also used for scissor nets in housing construction.  

在建房中， 红树林木桩还用于剪刀网。

shrivel [ʃrɪv(ə)l] vi. 枯萎；皱缩

例句：The plant shrivels and dies.

那棵植物枯死了。

cripple ['krɪp(ə)l] vt. 削弱

例句：The Chinese government has actively tried to cripple foreign competitors, for instance.

比如，中国政府一直在积极尽力削弱外国竞争对手。