Narcissus had a twin [1] sister who is the dearest person in the world to him. Because they were twins, they looked very much alike. When they were very young, Narcissus' sister died, which made him so sad that he was thinking about dying too.

One day, as he was sitting on the edge [2] of a spring, missing his sister. He saw in the water his own reflection. But he didn't know that his sister looked exactly the same as he himself, neither did he have any idea of reflection, and thought he saw his sister.

He was very happy and spoke to her, but she never answed. This made him all the more sadder and he came to the spring ever day, trying to find out what happened.

At last, the gods were moved and took pity on [3] him and changed him into a flower which is also called narcissus.

纳西索斯有一个双胞胎姐姐，是他最亲的人。因为他们是双胞胎，所以长相非常相似。他们小的时候，他的姐姐死了，这使得他非常伤心，甚至想着也去死。

有一天，纳西索斯坐在泉边想他的姐姐。他看到了水中的倒影。但是他不知道他的姐姐和他长相酷似，他也不懂得倒影，于是他以为看到了姐姐。

他非常高兴，就对她说话，可是她却不回答。他更加伤心了，就每天来到泉边，想看看到底发生了什么事情。

最后，众神被感动了，并且非常同情他，于是就把他变成一朵花，名字叫水仙。

注释：

1．Twin：“孪生的”、“成对的”等意思，如：twin girls (孪生女孩)。twin engine (双发动机)。关于这个twin我还闹过一个笑话。有一天，我看见同学床头有一对漂亮的小灯，上面写着twin lights (情侣灯)，我脱口而出：“双胞胎灯”，引得大家哈哈大笑。可见，英文中的翻译是很灵活的。

2．Edge：是“边缘”、“界限”、“棱角”的意思，trim the edge of a lawn (修剪草地的边缘)。另外，edge还有一个意思，表示（言辞、声调）“尖刻”、“尖锐”，如：the remark has a bitting edge to it（评语很尖刻）。这是个引申义，大家想想看，用有“棱”、有“尖”的东西刺你，是不是很难受呀？

3．Take pity on：“怜悯”、“同情”的意思，如：He took pity on the homeless animal.（他很可怜这无家可归的动物）。