◎ 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,因為她用光了家里僅有的一卷昂貴的金色包裝紙。家里用錢緊張,在圣誕節(jié)前夜,父親變得更加心煩意亂。他看到圣誕樹下的一個鞋盒,明白了女兒原來是把金紙貼在這個鞋盒上做裝飾。
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圣誕禮盒拿給了父親,說道:“爸爸,這個送給你!”
As he opened the box, the father was embarrassed by his earlier overreaction.
當父親打開禮盒時,他為自己先前的過激反應而倍感尷尬。
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,當他打開盒子后,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,”他嚴厲地說,“當你送禮物給別人時,盒子里面應該是有東西的!”
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.
父親頓時被擊垮了。他跪下雙膝,張開雙臂擁抱著自己珍愛的小女孩,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,一場事故奪走了小女孩的生命。據(jù)說,父親便將那個小金盒子放在床頭,一直陪伴著他度過余生。無論何時他感到氣餒或遇到困難,他就會打開禮盒,取出一個假想的吻,記起美麗的女兒給予自己的特殊的愛。
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.
從一個非常真實的意義上說,我們每個人都曾被贈予一個無形的金色禮盒,那里裝滿了來自孩子、家人、朋友和上帝無條件的愛和吻。
There is no more precious possession anyone could hold.
人們所能擁有的最珍貴的禮物,也就莫過于此。