有時候阻礙我們前行的不是恐懼本身，而是我們對恐懼的恐懼。如果能克服內心的障礙，勇敢前行，我相信每個人的潛力都是很大的。相信自己，勇者無懼。

It must have been eight or nine when I read this story. I never forgot its horror.

我看到這個故事時只有八九歲。打那以后，我一想起這個故事就毛骨悚然。

Ivan was a timid little man---so timid that the villages called him “Pigeon” or mocked him with the title “Ivan the Terrible.”

伊萬是一個膽小如鼠的小個子男人,他的膽子太小了，所以村子里人都叫他“膽小鬼”，或者嘲諷的成他為“怕死鬼伊萬”。

Every night Ivan stopped in at the tavern which was one the edge of the village graveyard. Ivan never crossed the graveyard to get to his lonely shack on the other side. That path would save many minutes, but he had never taken it---not even in the full light of noon.

每天晚上，伊萬都要到村字墓地邊上的那個小酒店去，但每次從酒店回到他在墓地另一邊那做孤伶伶的小木屋時，他都不會從墓地當中穿過來。雖然走那條路可以節省好多時間，他卻從來沒走過。即使在陽光最明亮的大白天，他也沒有走過。

Late one winter’s night, when bitter wind and snow beat against the tavern, customers took up the familiar mockery. Ivan’s mother was scared by a canary when she carried him in her womb. “Ivan the Terrible---Ivan the Timid One.”

一個冬天的深夜，寒風呼嘯，風夾著雪花不停的拍打著小酒館。酒館里的客人們又聊起了那個老話題，對伊萬進行嘲弄：伊萬他媽媽在懷它的時候給一只金絲雀給嚇著了，“怕死鬼伊萬;膽小鬼伊萬。”

Ivan’s weak protest only encouraged them, and they jeered cruelly when the Cossack captain flung his horrid challenge at their victim.

伊萬軟弱無力的抗議只能是他們更來勁兒，更加肆無忌憚的嘲弄他。這時，酒館的那個哥薩克老板又極不友好的向伊萬，這個他們捉弄的對象，發出了挑釁。

“You are a pigeon, Ivan. You’ll walk around the graveyard in this cold---but you dare not cross it.” Ivan murmured, “The graveyard is nothing to cross, Captain. It is nothing but earth, like all the other earth.”

“你是一個膽小鬼，伊萬。在這樣一個大冷天，你也只敢繞遠路，繞著墓地走回家;就是不敢穿過去。”伊萬喃喃的說：“穿過墓地也沒什么意思，老板。那里只有泥土，和其他地方的泥土沒什么兩樣。”

The captain cried, “A challenge, then! Cross the graveyard tonight, Ivan, and I’ll give you five rubles---five gold rubles!”

老板大聲吼道：“好吧!來一次挑戰怎么樣?伊萬，今天晚上你穿過墓地走回去，我就給你5個金盧布; 5個金盧布!”