The Crow and the Peacock1 烏鴉和孔雀

張祖平

A crow lived in the forest and was absolutely satisfied with his life. But one day he saw a swan2. “This swan is so white，” he thought， “and I am so black. This swan must be the happiest bird in the world.”

一只烏鴉住在森林里，對(duì)生活相當(dāng)滿意。但是有一天，他看到了一只天鵝。“天鵝真潔白。”烏鴉想，“我卻是一身黑。天鵝肯定是世界上最快樂的鳥兒?！?/p>

He told his thoughts to the swan. “Actually，” the swan replied， “I was feeling that I was the happiest bird around until I saw a parrot， which has two colors. I now think the parrot is the happiest bird in creation.” The crow then came up to the parrot. The parrot said，“I lived a very happy life until I saw a peacock. I have only two colors， but the peacock has multiple3 colors.”

烏鴉把自己的想法告訴了天鵝。“確實(shí)，”天鵝回答道，“我一直都感覺自己是最快樂的鳥，直到我看見了一只鸚鵡，它有兩種顏色?，F(xiàn)在我認(rèn)為，鸚鵡是生物界最快樂的鳥。”烏鴉走到鸚鵡跟前，鸚鵡說道：“我過著很開心的生活，直到有一天，我看到了一只孔雀。我只有兩種顏色，而孔雀有很多種顏色。”

The crow then visited a peacock in the zoo and saw that thousands of people came to see him. After the people left， the crow asked the peacock. “Dear peacock， you are so beautiful. Every day thousands of people come to see you. When people see me， they immediately shoo4 me away. I think you are the happiest bird on the planet.”

然后烏鴉去動(dòng)物園看孔雀，看到成千上萬的人來看孔雀。在人們離開后，烏鴉問孔雀：“親愛的孔雀，你如此美麗。每天都有成千上萬的人過來看你。當(dāng)人們看到我的時(shí)候，他們立刻‘噓地一聲把我趕走。我認(rèn)為你是這個(gè)地球上最快樂的鳥兒。”

The peacock replied， “I always thought that I was the most beautiful and happiest bird. But because of my beauty， I am locked5 in this zoo. I have examined the zoo very carefully， and I have found that the crow is the only bird not kept in a cage. So for the past few days I have been thinking that if I were a crow， I could happily fly everywhere.”

孔雀回答說：“我總是認(rèn)為我是最美麗、最快樂的鳥兒。但是因?yàn)槲业拿利?，我被關(guān)進(jìn)了這個(gè)動(dòng)物園。我仔細(xì)查看過這個(gè)動(dòng)物園，我發(fā)現(xiàn)：烏鴉是唯一一種沒有被關(guān)在籠子里的鳥兒。因此，在過去的日子里，我一直在想，如果我是一只烏鴉，我就可以快樂地到處飛翔?！眅ndprint