The Dreaming Priest牧师做梦

张祖平

Long time ago there lived a priest who was very lazy and poor. He did not want to do any hard work but used to dream of being rich one day. He got his food from others. One morning he got a pot of milk. He was very happy and went home with the milk. He boiled the milk， drank some of it and put the remaining milk in a pot.

很久以前，这里住着一位牧师，他又懒又穷。他不想干任何累活，但是他曾梦想有朝一日变得富有。他靠别人的施舍得到食物。一天，别人施舍给他一壶牛奶。牧师非常高兴，他带着牛奶回家了。他煮了牛奶，喝了一些，把剩余的牛奶放在一个壶里。

Soon he started imagining about the pot of milk while he lay asleep. He dreamed that if he could become rich， all his hardships would be gone. He dreamed on， “Tomorrow morning the pot of milk would be turned into curd2. I would make butter from it， and heat the butter and make ghee3 out of it. I will then go to that market and sell that ghee， and make some money. With that money I will buy a hen4. The hen will lay may eggs which will hatch5 and there will be many chickens. These chickens will in turn lay hundreds of eggs and I will soon have a poultry6 farm of my own.”

躺下睡着后，牧师很快开始想象那一壶牛奶。他梦想着：如果他有钱了，所有的苦难都会烟消云散。他接着梦到：“明天早上，牛奶将变成凝乳，我把凝乳做成黄油，再加热黄油做成酥油。然后，我去集市上把酥油卖掉赚回一些钱。我用那些钱买回一只母鸡。母鸡可能会下蛋，然后孵化出很多小鸡，这些小鸡以后也会下许多鸡蛋，我将很快拥有自己的鸡场。”

“I will sell all the hens and buy some cows， and open a milk dairy7. All the town people will buy milk from me. I will be very rich and soon I shall buy jewels. The king will buy all the jewels from me. I will be so rich that I will be able to marry a beautiful girl from a rich family. Soon I will have a handsome son. If he makes any mistakes， I will be very angry and teach him a lesson. I will beat him with a stick.” During this dream， he picked up the stick next to his bed， thinking that he was beating his son， raised the stick and hit the pot. The pot of milk broke and he awoke from his day dream.

“我会卖掉所有的母鸡来买奶牛，并开一个牛奶场。镇里所有的人将从我这里买牛奶。我会很有钱，很快就买得起宝石。国王会买走我所有的宝石，我会变得很富有，娶豪门美女为妻，很快，我会有一个俊俏的儿子。如果他犯了错，我会生气，并给他一个教训。我会用棍子揍他。”在他的梦中，牧师拿起了床边的一根棍子，他以为自己在打儿子，拿起木棍敲打壶罐，牛奶破罐而出，牧师从白日梦中惊醒了。

Moral8： Dreams cannot be fulfilled without hard work.

寓意：没有艰辛的努力，梦想是不可能实现。endprint