雙語故事:照亮黑暗角落的光芒

"deros, what is the meaning of life?"
The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.
"I will answer your question."
Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.
And what he said went like this:
"When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
"I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one, and, by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine---in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
"I kept the little mirror, and, as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child's game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light---truth, understanding, knowledge---is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it.
"I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world---into the black places in the hearts of men---and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life."

“帕帕德羅斯博士，人生的意義是什麼呢？”
問題照例引來了人們的笑聲，人們騷動着要離開了。
帕帕德羅斯舉手示意，讓教室裏的人安靜下來。接着，他久久地注視着我，用眼神詢問我是不是認真的，並從我的眼神中得到了肯定。
“我來回答你的問題。”
他從褲子後袋裏掏出錢包，在這個皮夾子裏摸索着，然後拿出一片二角五分硬幣大小的小圓鏡。
接着，他說了下面一段話：
“我小時候，家裏很窮，住在一個偏僻的小村莊。那時正是戰爭時期。一天，我在公路上發現了一些鏡子碎片。一輛德國摩托車在那裏失事了。”
“我試圖找到所有的碎片，把它們拼起來，但這是不可能的，所以我只把最大的一塊留了下來。就是這塊，我把它在石頭上磨圓了。我開始把它當成玩具，十分着迷，因爲我能把光線反射到太陽永遠照不到的漆黑之處，深洞啊、裂縫或者漆黑的壁櫥。對我來說，把光線反射到我所能找到的最隱祕的地方，成了一種遊戲。”
”我一直保存着這塊小鏡子，隨着年齡的增長，我周遊四方，還會在閒暇時分把它拿出來，繼續着這帶有挑戰性的遊戲。等我長大成人後，我漸漸懂得了這不僅僅是一個小孩的遊戲，而且象徵着一種人生觀。我意識到我既不是光也不是光源，可光（真理、理解和知識）就在那兒，只要我反射它，它就會照亮許多漆黑的地方。“
“我是一面鏡子的一塊碎片，我不知道整面鏡子的樣式和形狀。不過，我傾盡所有，能夠把光線反射進這個世界漆黑的地方，反射進人們心靈的陰暗處，給他們帶來某些改變。也許其他人看到後，也會仿效着做。這就是我之爲我，這就是我人生的意義。”