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带着一个从未感动过的心生活会是多么令人悲哀呀！

The Perfect Heart

One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley.There was not a mark or a flaw in it. A large gathering crowd all agreed that it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said,“Why, your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.”

The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

The young man laughed, saying,“You must be joking. Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears”.

“Yes”, said the old man,“Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love—I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges—giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too. So now do you see what true beauty is?”

The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He ripped a piece of his perfect young and beautiful heart and offered it to the old man with trembling hands.

The old man took his offering, and then took a piece of his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges.

The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his.They embraced and walked away side by side.

参考译文

完美之心

一天，一个年轻人站在城镇的中央，宣称他拥有整个流域最美的心。一大群人聚拢过来，对此羡慕不已，因为它确实完美无暇。突然一个老人出现了，他说：“哎呀，你的心可不如我的美啊！”

大家都向老人的心看去，却只见它伤痕累累，到处是拼凑过的痕迹，而且拼凑得很不合适，有好多边边角角，还有好几处是不曾修补过的空洞。

年轻人笑道：“比比就知道，你的心满是伤疤，我的心才美。”

“不错”老人说道：“你的心看上去很完美，但我永远不会和你交换。你瞧，这上面每处伤疤都代表我曾经爱过的人。从我的心上撕下一片给了他们，他们也常撕下一片补在我的心上。”

“但这些碎片的大小不是很合适，它就有了很多毛边，我格外珍惜，它们使我想起我们曾经的爱。”

“有时我把很多片给出去了，别人却一片也不曾还回来，所以这里有好多空洞等待修补。”

“尽管这些空洞使我痛苦，它们依旧张开着，使我想起曾经付出的那些爱。可我还是等待着,希望有一天他们能回来修补它。这才是真正的美,你现在知道它是什么样的了吧？”

年轻人走上前去，伸手抓住他自己那颗完美的心，撕下一片出来，把它递给老人。

老人接过来放在自己的心上，接着从他那颗旧伤累累的心上也撕下一片来放在年轻人的心的伤口上。它大小合适，但不完美，因为有好多毛边。

年轻人看着自己的心，不再完整但比以往更加美了，因为有爱从老人的心田流入他的心田。他们彼此拥抱了一下，肩并肩地离开了。