◎ CaveHermit
Once upon a time, a man punished his 5-year-old daughter for using up the family’s only roll of expensive gold wrapping paper. Money was tight[42] , and he became even more upset when on Christmas Eve, he saw that the child had pasted the gold paper so as to decorate a shoebox to put under the Christmas tree.
從前,一位父親懲罰了自己5歲的女兒,因?yàn)樗霉饬思依飪H有的一卷昂貴的金色包裝紙。家里用錢(qián)緊張,在圣誕節(jié)前夜,父親變得更加心煩意亂。他看到圣誕樹(shù)下的一個(gè)鞋盒,明白了女兒原來(lái)是把金紙貼在這個(gè)鞋盒上做裝飾。
Nevertheless, the next morning the little girl, filled with excitement, brought the gift box to her father and said, “This is for you, Daddy!”
然而,圣誕日的早上,小女孩滿是興奮地把這個(gè)圣誕禮盒拿給了父親,說(shuō)道:“爸爸,這個(gè)送給你!”
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction.
當(dāng)父親打開(kāi)禮盒時(shí),他為自己先前的過(guò)激反應(yīng)而倍感尷尬。
But when he opened it, he found it was empty and again his anger flared[43] . “Don’t you know, young lady,” he said harshly, “when you give someone a present there’s supposed to be something inside the package!”
但是,當(dāng)他打開(kāi)盒子后,發(fā)現(xiàn)里面空空如也,他的怒火再次爆發(fā)。“你不知道嗎,小姐,”他嚴(yán)厲地說(shuō),“當(dāng)你送禮物給別人時(shí),盒子里面應(yīng)該是有東西的!”
The little girl looked up at him with tears rolling from her eyes and said: “Daddy, it’s not empty. I blew kisses into it until it was all full.”
小女孩抬頭看著氣頭上的父親,淚水在眼眶中打圈:“爸爸,它不是空的。我的吻,它里面裝滿了我的吻?!?
The father was crushed. He fell on his knees and put his arms around his precious little girl. He begged her to forgive him for his unnecessary anger.
父親頓時(shí)被擊垮了。他跪下雙膝,張開(kāi)雙臂擁抱著自己珍愛(ài)的小女孩,祈求她的原諒。
An accident took the life of the child only a short time later. It is told that the father kept that little gold box by his bed for all the years of his life. Whenever he was discouraged or faced difficult problems he would open the box, take out an imaginary kiss, and remember the love of this beautiful child who had put it there.
不久之后,一場(chǎng)事故奪走了小女孩的生命。據(jù)說(shuō),父親便將那個(gè)小金盒子放在床頭,一直陪伴著他度過(guò)余生。無(wú)論何時(shí)他感到氣餒或遇到困難,他就會(huì)打開(kāi)禮盒,取出一個(gè)假想的吻,記起美麗的女兒給予自己的特殊的愛(ài)。
In a very real sense, each of us as human beings have been given an invisible golden box filled with unconditional love and kisses from our children, family, friends and God.
從一個(gè)非常真實(shí)的意義上說(shuō),我們每個(gè)人都曾被贈(zèng)予一個(gè)無(wú)形的金色禮盒,那里裝滿了來(lái)自孩子、家人、朋友和上帝無(wú)條件的愛(ài)和吻。
There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
人們所能擁有的最珍貴的禮物,也就莫過(guò)于此。