英語故事:玫瑰是泥土的笑臉

【英文原文】

摘要：我在花園裏種了芬芳的玫瑰花，遠遠望去，像一片燃燒的晚霞。我想等朋友們來做客的時候，讓他們帶一些玫瑰回家。我相信朋友們捧着火紅的玫瑰漸漸消失在遠方，一定能被重新點燃往日的情懷。

All over my garden I’ve planted nothing but roses, fragrant and—if looked at from afar—ablaze with color like sunset clouds, I’d be very happy if anyone of my visiting friends should desire to pick and take some for their homes. I trust that any friend of mine carrying the rose would vanish into the distance feeling that his emotions had been rekindled.

A close friend came for a visit the other day. I know her to be a lover of flowers and plants. And for that reason I told her at her departure that she should pick a bunch of roses to grace her boudoir. I promised that the scent of the roses would be wafted far, far away.

That girl friend of mine, tiptoeing into the garden in high spirits, sniffed here and smelt there, but in the end she didn’t pick a single rose. I said there were so many of them that she would pick as many as she’d like to; I told her that I was not a florist and didn’t make a living out of them. Saying so I raised the scissors for the sacrifice of the flowers, but she stopped me, crying no, no, no!

To cut such beautiful roses would hurt one, she said. With her hands clutching at my sleeves, she told me that by no means should they be cut. Roses are the smiling face of the earth, and who could be so iron-hearted as to destroy a smile so intoxicating?

My mind was thoroughly boggled: the ugly earth, the humble earth, the plain earth—it is for the sake of that smile that it wins the care and pity of people.

【中文譯文】

我在花園裏種了芬芳的玫瑰花，遠遠望去，像一片燃燒的晚霞。我想等朋友們來做客的時候，讓他們帶一些玫瑰回家。我相信朋友們捧着火紅的玫瑰漸漸消失在遠方，一定能被重新點燃往日的情懷。

有一天，一位要好的女友來探望我，我知道她平常最喜愛花花草草。她臨別時，我告訴她說，採一束玫瑰裝點你的閨房吧，芳香四溢。

女友輕手輕腳跨進花園，東聞聞西嗅嗅，神采飛揚，就是不肯採摘。我說，沒關係，多的是，我又不是花店老闆，不靠玫瑰賺錢的。說完，我就舉起剪刀準備獻美。女友急忙攔住，高聲叫着，不可不可。

這麼美麗的玫瑰剪下來，讓人心疼。她抓緊我的袖子叮嚀：千萬不能剪啊，玫瑰是泥土的笑臉，誰能忍心毀壞美得醉人的微笑呢？

我的靈魂猛然一驚：醜陋的泥土，卑微的泥土，樸素的泥土，因爲玫瑰，露出了驚豔一笑，正因爲這一笑，才贏得了人們的愛惜。