勇敢之根

浙江省绍兴市冯萍供稿

勇敢之根

Roots Deep into the Brave Heart

浙江省绍兴市冯萍供稿

When I was growing up,I had an old neighbor named Dr.Gibbs.He didn’t look like any doctor I’d ever known.He never invited us to play in his yard,but he was a kind person.

在我成长的过程中,我有一位老邻居,他叫吉布斯医生。他和我认识的其他医生不一样。他从来没有邀请我们去他的庭院里玩耍,但他是一个善良的人。

When Dr.Gibbs wasn’t not saving people,he was planting trees.He had a large field and wanted to make it a forest.

吉布斯医生不是在治病救人,就是在种树。他有一块很大的地,他想把这块地变成一片森林。

The good doctor had some interesting ideas about planting trees.He never watered his new trees.Once I asked why.He said that watering plants spoiled1them,and that if you watered them,each baby tree would grow weaker and weaker,so you had to make things difficult for them and picked out the weaker trees early on.

这位好医生对种树方面有一些有意思的想法。他从来不给树浇水。有一次我问他为什么,他说给新种的树浇水是溺爱它们。如果你给它们浇水,每棵小树苗就会越长越弱,所以你必须让它们在逆境中生长,尽早挑出病秧子。

He talked about how watering trees made for shallow roots,and how trees that weren’t watered had to grow deep roots in search of water under the earth by themselves.Deep roots were very important.

他接着谈到：给树浇水,树根就浅；不浇水,它们就只能自己在地底深深扎根,根扎得深很重要。

So he never watered his trees.He’d planted an oak2tree and,instead of watering it every morning,he’d beat it with a rolled-up3newspaper.I asked him why he did that,and he said it was to get the tree’s attention.

所以他从来不给他的树浇水。他种了一棵橡树,不过每天早上都不给它浇水,相反,他用卷起来的报纸敲打这棵橡树。我问他为什么这样做,他说这样是为了引起橡树的注意。

Dr.Gibbs died several years after I left home.Every now and then,I walked by his house and looked at the trees that he planted twenty-five years ago.They’re big and strong now.I planted some trees a few years ago and carried water to them for a whole summer.After two years of caring too much,whenever a cold wind blows in,they shake a lot.

我离开家几年后,吉布斯医生去世了。我时常从他的房子前面走过,看看他25年前种的那些树,它们现在已经长得又大又壮。几年前,我也种了几棵树。整个夏天,我都抬水过去浇灌它们。经过两年的精心照料,可每次冷风呼啸时,它们还是摇晃得很厉害。

Every night before I go to bed,I check on my two sons.I often pray that their lives will be easy.But lately I’ve been thinking that it’s time to change my prayer.I know my children are going to face difficulties.There’s always a cold wind blowing somewhere in life,so what we need to do is to pray for roots that reach deep into the brave heart,so when the rains fall and the winds blow,they could face it bravely and won’t be beaten down.

每天晚上睡觉前,我都会去看一下我的两个儿子。我总是祈祷他们的生活会一帆风顺。但是后来我想,是时候该改变我的祈祷了。我知道我的孩子将来会面临困难。人生路上总会有冷风呼啸,所以我们要祈祷的是,勇敢之心在他们心里深深扎根,这样,当狂风暴雨来临时,他们都能勇敢面对,不被打倒的。