品味人生篇03：The Miller and His Son磨坊主和儿子

A miller¹ and his son were one day taking their donkey to the market for sale.
一天，磨坊主和他的儿子牵着驴去集市，准备把驴卖掉。

On the road they met a man riding a horse who said to them, "How stupid you are; you have a donkey and neither of you ride him!"
路上，他们遇到一个骑马的人。骑马的人对他们说：“你们可真傻呀，你们有驴，可是你们俩谁也没骑。”

The father immediately told his son to mount the donkey.
父亲立刻让儿子骑上了驴。

After a little while they met a man who was sitting in his cart full of vegetables; He shouted to the son,"Shame on you! A young man like you riding a donkey while your father has to walk!"
过了一会儿，他们遇到了一个人，他正坐在装满蔬菜的马车上。他冲着这位儿子喊道：“你可真丢人呀，你这么年轻骑着驴，却让你的父亲走着。”

When the son heard this he jumped down immediately and gave his place to his father.
儿子听了这话，马上从驴上下来，把位置让给了父亲。

After a few more miles they met a country woman who said to the old man," You must have a heart of stone. You sit on the donkey and travel in comfort while your son has to travel on this hard road!"
他们又走了几里路，遇到了一位乡村妇人，她对这位父亲说：“你一定有一副铁石心肠。你骑着驴，舒舒服服地，却让你的儿子在这么难走的路上走！”

When the father heard this, he told his son to get on the donkey with him.
听到这些话，父亲让儿子和他一起骑着驴走。

A shepherd who was guarding his flock on the road side, looked at them and said," Oh, the poor donkey! It will certainly collapse² under such a weight!"
一位牧羊人正赶着羊群在路边走，看见他们说道：“天呀，可怜的驴！这样沉的重量它一定受不了的！”

Father and son got off the donkey and the lad said to his father," What shall we do now? Should we carry the animal on our shoulder? Perhaps in this way the people will be satisfied!"
父亲和儿子从驴上下来，儿子问父亲：“我们现在该怎么做呢？我们是不是要把驴扛在肩上呢？也许这样的话大家就满意了！”

But the wise father said to his son," You see, my son, that you can never please everyone; so always do your duties as you think best and let evildoers say what they may."
但是聪明的父亲却对儿子说：“我的孩子，你要明白，你不可能让每个人都满意，所以用你认为最好的方式去做事情吧，让那些不怀好意的人随便说吧。”

1 miller   

n.磨坊主

参考例句：

• Every miller draws water to his own mill.磨坊主都往自己磨里注水。
• The skilful miller killed millions of lions with his ski.技术娴熟的磨坊主用雪橇杀死了上百万头狮子。

2 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。