雙語美文：貧窮或富有？只是個視角問題

One day, the father of a very wealthy family took his son on a trip to the country with the express purpose of showing him how poor people live. They spent a couple of days and nights on the farm of what would be considered a very poor family.

一天，一個豪門之家的父親帶著兒子去鄉(xiāng)村游玩，他的首要目的是讓兒子看看那里人們的生活是多么的貧窮。他們待了幾天，晚上就住在農(nóng)場上的一個赤貧之家。

On their return from their trip, the father asked his son, "How was the trip?"

在他們的返程途中，父親問兒子;“旅程結(jié)束有什么感想?”

"It was great, Dad."

“感覺不錯呢，爸爸。”

"Did you see how poor people live?" the father asked.

“你看到窮人們是怎么生活了吧?”父親問道

"Oh yeah," said the son.

“當(dāng)然”兒子答道

"So, tell me, what did you learn from the trip?" asked the father.

“那你說說，你從中學(xué)到了什么?”父親說道。

The son answered: "I saw that we have one dog and they had four. We have a pool that reaches to the middle of our garden and they have a creek that has no end. We have imported lanterns in our garden and they have the stars at night.

兒子回答： “我們家有一條狗，而他們有四條，我們的泳池的邊界到花園的一半，他們的溪流沒有盡頭。我們花園里有進(jìn)口的燈籠，他們晚上能看到滿天的繁星。

Our patio reaches to the front yard and they have the whole horizon. We have a small piece of land to live on and they have fields that go beyond our sight. We have servants who serve us, but they serve others. We buy our food, but they grow theirs. We have walls around our property to protect us, they have friends to protect them."

我們的露臺只到前院，地平線之前都是他們的地盤。我們只居住在一小塊地方，他們的土地在目力所及之外。我們有傭人服務(wù)我們，而他們服務(wù)他人。我們的食物要買，他們的自己種。我們要靠墻來保護(hù)自己的財產(chǎn)，他們有自己的朋友。”

The boy's father was speechless. Then his son added, "Thanks Dad for showing me how poor we are."

父親無言以對，隨后兒子補(bǔ)充說：“謝謝爸爸讓我體會到我們是多么的貧窮。”

Isn't perspective a wonderful thing? Makes you wonder what would happen if we all gave thanks for everything we have, instead of worrying about what we don't have.

所以看待事物的角度也是一個非常有意思的事情。這不禁讓人想：如果每件事情我們都心存感恩，而不是覬覦更多，那收獲是不是會有大不同?