The Two Roads兩條道路

By John Ruskin

It was New Year’s night. An aged man was standing at a window. He raised his mournful eyes towards the deep blue sky, where the stars were floating like white lilies on the surface of a clear calm lake. Then he cast them on the earth, where few more hopeless people than himself now moved towards their certain goal--the tomb. He had already passed sixty of the stages leading to it, and he had brought from his journey nothing but errors and remorse. Now his health was poor, his mind vacant, his heart sorrowful, and his old age short of comforts.

這是新年的夜晚。一位老人站在窗邊，憂傷的眼睛眺望著深藍的天空。空中的繁星猶如漂浮在清澈如鏡的湖面上的朵朵百合。他慢慢將目光投向地面，此刻，沒有什 么人比他還絕望，邁向他最終的歸宿--墳墓。他已走過通向墳墓的六十級臺階，除了錯誤和悔恨，他一無所獲。現在，他體弱多病，精神空虛，心哀神傷，人到晚 年無慰藉。

The days of his youth appeared like dreams before him, and he recalled the serious moment when his father placed him at the entrance of the two roads--one leading to a peaceful, sunny place, covered with flowers, fruits and resounding with soft, sweet songs; the other leading to a deep , dark cave, which was endless, where poison flowed instead of water and where devils and poisonous snakes hissed and crawled.

年輕歲月，如夢般展現在他面前，老人想起父親把他帶到岔路口的那個莊嚴時刻--一條路通向安寧，快樂的世界，鮮花遍布，果實豐碩，甜美輕柔的歌聲在空中回蕩;另一條路則通向幽深黑暗，沒有盡頭的洞穴，洞內流淌著的不是水而是毒液，群魔亂舞，毒蛇嘶嘶爬動。

He looked towards the sky and cried painfully, "O, youth, return! O, my father, place me once more at the entrance to life, and I’ll choose the better way!" But both his father and the days of his youth had passed away.

他仰望星空，痛苦的大喊：”啊，青春，回來吧!啊，父親，再一次帶我到人生的岔路口吧，我會選一條更好的道路。“但是，他的父親和青春歲月都已經一去不復返了。