快乐学英语（102）--Life Is to Be Whole

各位好：

昨天我想了好久，每天讲《新概念英语1》的话有点单调，而且我讲课的水平一般，可能有的朋友不太喜欢听我的录音。所以我决定《新概念英语1》和《英文诵典》的内容轮流发布，昨天发了新概念的第一课，今天发英文诵典的第一篇文章，后面就按照这样的顺序来。《新概念英语1》部分会有我的简单讲解，《英文诵典》则是原文的文字加上音频，不知道你们喜欢这样的方式吗？

1.Life Is to Be Whole 人生在于完整

Once a circle missed a wedge. The circle wanted to be whole, so it went around looking for its missing piece. But because it was incomplete and therefore could roll only very slowly, it admired the flowers along the way. It chatted with worms. It enjoyed the sunshine. It found lots of different pieces, but none of them fit. So it left them all by the side of the road and kept on searching. Then one day the circle found a piece that fit perfectly. It was so happy. Now it could be whole, with nothing missing. It incorporated the missing piece into itself and began to roll. Now that it was a perfect circle, it could roll very fast, too fast to notice the flowers or to talk to the worms. When it realized how different the world seemed when it rolled so quickly, it stopped, left its found piece by the side of the road and rolled slowly away.

从前，有一只圆圈缺少了一块楔子。圆圈想要保持完整，于是四处寻找失去的那块楔子。可是，由于它不完整，所以只能很馒地滚动。一路上，它对花儿露出羡慕之色。它与蠕虫 谈天说地。它还享受到了阳光之美。圆圈找到了很多不同的配 件，可是没有一件能够完美地与其相配。所以，它将它们全部弃 置路边，继续寻找。终于有一天，它找到了一个完美的配件。圆 圈是那样軎出望外。既然它已经成为了一个完整的圆圈，所以 滚动得非常快,快得以至于无暇观赏花儿，也无暇与蠕虫倾诉心 声。圆圈飞奔急骋，发觉眼中的世界变得如此不同，于是，它禁 不住停了下来，将找到的那个配件留在路旁，又开始了慢慢地滚 动。

The lesson of the story, I suggested, was that in some strange sense we are more whole when we are missing something. The man who has everything is in some ways a poor man. He will never know what it feels like to yearn, to hope, to nourish his soul with the dream of something better. He will never know the experience of having someone who loves him give him something he has always wanted or never had.

我认为这个故事告诉我们，从某种奇妙的意义上说，当我们 失去一些东西的时候反而感到更加完整。一"拥有一切的人其 实在某些方面是一个贫穷的人。他永远也体会不到什么是渴 望、期待以及对美好梦想的感悟。他也永远不会有这样一种体 验:一个爱他的人送给他某种他梦寐以求的或者从未拥有过的 东西意味什么。

There is a wholeness about the person who has come to terms with his limitations, who has been brave enough to let go of his unrealistic dreams and not feel like a failure for doing so. There is a wholeness about the man or woman who has learned that he or she is strong enough to go through a tragedy and survive, who can lose someone and still feel like a complete person.

人生的完整性在于一个人知道如何去面对他的缺陷，如何 勇敢地放弃那些不现实的幻想而且又不以此为缺憾。人生的完 整性还在于一个男人或者女人懂得这样一个道理:他（她）发现 自己能够勇敢面对人生悲剧而继续生存，能够在失去亲人之后 依然表现出一个完整的人的风范。

Life is not a trap set for us by God so that he can condemn us for failing. Life is not a spelling bee, where no matter how many words you've gotten right, you're disqualified if you make one mistake. Life is more like a baseball season, where even the best team loses one-third of its games and even the worst team has its days of brilliance. Our goal is to win more games than we lose.

人生不是上帝为谴责我们的缺陷而给我们设下的陷阱。人 生也不是一场拼字游戏淘汰赛。无论你拼出多少单词，一旦出 现了一个错误，你便前功尽弃。人生更像是一个棒球赛季。即 使最好的球队比赛也会输掉1/3，而最差的球队也有舂风得意 的曰子。我们的目标就是多贏球，少输球。

When we accept that imperfection is part of being human, and when we can continue rolling through life and appreciate it, we will have achieved a wholeness that others can only aspire to. That, I believe, is what God asks of us - not "Be perfect", not "Don't even make a mistake", but "Be whole".

我们接受了不完整性是人类本性的一部分，我们不断地进行人生滚动并能够意识到其价值，我们便会完成完整人生的过 程。而对于别人来说，这只能是一个梦想。我相信这就是上帝 对于我们的要求：不求“完美”，也不求“永不犯错”，而是求得人 生的“完整”。

If we are brave enough to love, strong enough to forgive, generous enough to rejoice in another's happiness, and wise enough to know there is enough love to go around for us all, then we can achieve a fulfillment that no other living creature will ever know.

假如我们勇敢得能够去爱，坚强得能够去宽恕，大度得能够 去分享他人的幸福，明智得能够理解身边充满着爱，那么我们就能取得其他生物所不能取得的成就。