雙語·《伊索寓言》 貓頭鷹和其他鳥

THE OWL AND THE BIRDS

The Owl is a very wise bird; and once, long ago, when the first oak sprouted in the forest, she called all the other Birds together and said to them, “You see this tiny tree? If you take my advice, you will destroy it now when it is small: for when it grows big, the mistletoe will appear upon it, from which birdlime will be prepared for your destruction.” Again, when the first flax was sown, she said to them, “Go and eat up that seed, for it is the seed of the flax, out of which men will one day make nets to catch you.” Once more, when she saw the first archer, she warned the Birds that he was their deadly enemy, who would wing his arrows with their own feathers and shoot them. But they took no notice of what she said: in fact, they thought she was rather mad, and laughed at her. When, however, everything turned out as she had foretold, they changed their minds and conceived a great respect for her wisdom. Hence, whenever she appears, the Birds attend upon her in the hope of hearing something that may be for their good. She, however, gives them advice no longer, but sits moping and pondering on the folly of her kind.

貓頭鷹和其他鳥

貓頭鷹是一種非常聰明的鳥，很久之前，當森林中第一棵橡樹剛開始萌芽的時候，貓頭鷹將其他鳥都召集過來，對他們說：“你們看到這棵小樹了嗎？如果你們愿意接受我的建議，那么就趁現(xiàn)在它還小的時候毀掉它，因為它會長大，而槲寄生會出現(xiàn)在樹上，槲寄生能提煉出黏鳥膠，到時候就是你們毀滅的時候了?！钡谝恢曷楸环N下的時候，貓頭鷹對其他鳥說：“去把那種子吃掉，那是麻的種子，人類會用麻編成羅網(wǎng)來抓捕你們。”還有一次，貓頭鷹看到了第一個弓箭手，便警告其他鳥那是他們的死敵，他會用鳥羽裝飾箭支，然后再射向鳥類。但是鳥兒們都沒有聽從貓頭鷹的忠告，實際上，大家都認為她瘋了，還嘲笑她。但是當事情的發(fā)展果然同她的預言一樣時，他們便改變了看法，開始非常佩服貓頭鷹的智慧。從此，無論何時，只要貓頭鷹出現(xiàn)，百鳥便聚集在她身邊，希望能夠聽到一些對他們有好處的事情，但是貓頭鷹卻不再給他們建議，只是悠閑地棲息在枝頭，心里思索著鳥類的愚蠢。