時間
On Time
席慕蓉
Xi Murong
時間
一鍋米飯，放到第二天，水氣就會幹了一些，放到第三天，味道恐怕就有問題了。第四天，我們幾乎可以發現，它已經變壞了。再放下去，眼看就要發黴了。
A pot of cooked rice, if left out overnight, will become a bit dry because of loss of water. On the third day, it may not taste as good; and on the fourth day, as you’ll discover, it becomes sour. If kept even longer, it will surely get mouldy.
是什麼原因，使那鍋米飯變餿變壞？
Why? What has made this happen?
是時間。
It is time.
可是，在浙江紹興，年輕的父母生下女兒，他們就會在地窖裡，埋下一罈罈米做的酒。十七八年後，女兒長大了，這些酒就成為了嫁女兒婚禮上的佳釀。它有一個美麗惹人遐思的名字，叫女兒紅。
However, there is another story about it. In Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, young parents brew a kind of wine with rice and store it underground in jars when they have a daughter. When the girl grows to the age of marriage, the wine is used to entertain guests at the wedding banquet. So it is given a fascinating name Nü Er Hong, literally “Daughter Red”.
是什麼使那些平凡的米，變成芬芳甘醇的酒？
What turns the ordinary grains of rice into good wine?
也是時間。
時間
The answer is also time.
到底，時間是善良，還是邪惡的魔術師呢？不是，時間只是一種簡單的乘法，使原來的數值倍增而已。開始變壞的米 ，每一天都在不斷的變得更腐臭。而開始變醇的美酒，每一分鐘，都在繼續增加它的芬芳。
Is time a benevolent magician, or a wicked witch? It is neither. It only serves as a multiplier, which makes the original number increase by several times. When cooked rice begins to go bad, it will become worse with each passing day; however, when it begins to turn into wine, it will become mellower minute by minute.
在人世間，我們也曾看到過天真的少年一旦開始墮落，便不免越陷越深，終於變得滿臉風塵，面目可憎。但是相反的，時間卻把溫和的笑痕，體諒的延伸，成熟的風采，智慧的神韻添加在那些追求善良的人身上。
Our society has witnessed how naïve and innocent young men become detestable villains: once they begin to degenerate morally, they sink deeper and deeper into the mire of sin and cannot get out. Yet for those in constant pursuit of kindness, time is a factor that makes them wiser and more mature, ever more ready to extend warmth and understanding to the people around them.
同樣是煮熟的米，壞飯與美酒的差別在哪裡呢？就在那一點點酒麴。
Cooked rice may grow mouldy, yet it may also turn into good wine. What is it that makes the difference? It is the tiny bit of yeast mixed in.
時間
同樣是父母所生的，誰墮落如禽獸，而誰又能提升成完美的人呢？是內心深處，緊緊環抱不放的，求真求善求美的渴望。
We were all born to be human, yet some sink as low as beasts and some attain perfection of character. What again makes the difference? It is the desire for truth, kindness and beauty so dearly cherished in our hearts.
時間怎樣對待你我呢？這就要看我們自己是以什麼樣的態度來期許我們自己了。
In which way do you want time to produce its effect on you? It all depends on what you expect of yourself.
（李運興 譯）
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