禿鷲的視力

王婉寧

It was said that the eye of the vulture（禿鷹;禿鷲）could see everything clearly as he gazed down from high above. A vulture once bragged to the crow， “No one’s eyesight can be better than mine.”“You’re just boasting about your eyesight without any evidence（證據;證明），”said the crow. “If it were so， then tell me what you can see in the wilderness（荒地;荒野）.”The vulture answered， “Don’t mock（嘲弄;嘲笑）me when I say this， that there is a wheat grain in the wasteland（不毛之地）of the wilderness.”

The crow was skeptical（懷疑的）over what the vulture said， so both of them flew down towards that place to have a look. As the vulture’s position was just above the grain，a net was cast from above and he was trapped. It never occurred to the vulture that he could be trapped as he prepared to peck at the grain.

The crow sighed and said，“Oh vulture， what is the use if you can see the small grain but could not see the trap set up by the enemy？”Trapped in the net， the vulture was resigned（認命的;順從的）to his fate. He said，“One cannot escape losing his life in a vast and boundless（無限的;無邊無際的）ocean no matter how good a swimmer he is.”

精彩譯文

據說，禿鷲從高處向下俯視，一切都能清楚地盡收眼底。一次，禿鷲對烏鴉吹噓：“誰的視力也不如我的好。”烏鴉說：“空口無憑，既然你夸耀自己的眼力，那請說說在曠野上你看到了什么東西。”禿鷲答：“我若說出來，你可別笑我，有一顆谷粒掉落在曠野的土地上。”

烏鴉聽了心中置疑。于是它們一同往下飛去看個究竟。當禿鷲飛到那顆谷粒上方時，忽然背后有一張大網撒了下來，它被罩住了。禿鷲萬萬沒想到就在它啄那顆谷粒的時候，卻被罩住了。

烏鴉嘆息道：“禿鷲啊，你看到谷粒有何用？你卻看不到敵人設置的陷阱。”而那落入獵人網中的禿鷲感嘆著它的命運。它說：“在一片浩瀚無際的大海里，再高明的游泳者也在劫難逃。”