中国经典神话故事英语版:愚公移山的故事
网络2015-09-17 16:22
愚公移山,出自《列子·汤问》里的一篇文章,作者为战国的列御寇,叙述了愚公不畏艰难,坚持不懈,挖山不止,最终感动天帝而将山挪走的故事。
the taihang and wangwu mountains, which had a periphery of seven hundred li and were a hundred thousand feet high, originally lay south of jizhou and north of heyang.
the foolish old man of the north mountain, nearly ninety years of age, lived behind these mountains. he was unhappy about the fact that the mountains blocked his way to the south and he had to walk round them whenever he went our or came back, so he called the whole family together to talk about the matter. " what would you say," he said to them,"if i suggest that all of us work hard to level the two mountains, so as to open a way to places south of yu prefecture and the han river?" many voices said they agreed to the idea.
but his wife had her doubts. "with your strength," she said, "you could hardly remove a small hill like kuifu. what could you do with the taihang and wangwu mountains? besides, where could you deposit the earth and rocks.?"
"carry them to the shores of the bohai sea and north of yintu," said several people.
the old man, helped by his son and grandson who could carry things, began to break rocks and dig earth, which they carried in baskets and dustbins to the shores of the bohai sea. the seven-year-old son of a widow named jingcheng, one of the old man's neighbours, came running up to offer his help. one trip to the sea took them a long time: they left in winter and came back in summer.
the wise old man at the river bend stopped the old man. he laughed and said, "how unwise you are! at your age, old and feeble as you are, you cannot even remove one hair on the mountain, let alone so much earth and so many rocks!"
the foolish old man of the north mountain heaved a long sign and said, "you are so conceited that you are blind to reason. even a widow and a child know better than you. when i die, there will be my sons, who will have their sons and grandsons. those grandsons will have their sons and grandsons, and so on to infinity. but the mountains will not grow. why is it impossible to level them?" the wise old man at the river bend could not answer him.
the old man's words were heard by a god with snakes in his hands. he was afraid that the old man would really level the two mountains, and reported the whole thing to the heavenly god. moved by the old man's determination, the heavenly god ordered the two sons of kua'ershi to carry the two mountains on their backs and put one east of shuo and the other south of yong. after this, there were no more mountains between jizhou and the han river.
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