第九回 離開(kāi)老婦人

Paulo Coelho

在牧羊少年早期的成長(zhǎng)過(guò)程中，老婦人可能充當(dāng)了什么樣的角色呢？ 本回小說(shuō)中，有沒(méi)有一句話打動(dòng)了你呢？

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The boy was surprised, and then irritated（惱 怒）. He didn't need to seek out the old woman for this! But then he remembered that he wasn't going to have to pay anything.

“I didn't need to waste my time just for this,” he said.

“I told you that your dream was a difficult one. It's the simple things in life that are the most extraordinary; only wise men are able to understand them. And since I am not wise, I have had to learn other arts, such as the reading of palms.”

“Well, how am I going to get to Egypt?”

“I only interpret dreams. I don't know how to turn them into reality. That's why I have to live off what my daughters provide me with.”

“And what if I never get to Egypt?”

“Then I don't get paid. It wouldn't be the first time.”

And the woman told the boy to leave, saying she had already wasted too much time on him.

So the boy was disappointed; he decided that he would never again believe in dreams. He remembered that he had a number of things he had to take care of: he went to the market for something to eat, he traded his book for one that was thicker, and he found a bench in the plaza（露天廣場(chǎng)） where he could sample the new wine he had bought. The day was hot, and the wine was refreshing. The sheep were at the gates of the city, in a stable（馬廄） that belonged to a friend. The boy knew a lot of people in the city.That was what made traveling appeal to him—he always made new friends, and he didn't need to spend all of his time with them. When someone sees the same person every day, as had happened to him at the seminary （神學(xué)院）, they wind up becoming a part of that person's life.And then they want the person to change. If someone isn't what others want them to be, the others become angry. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of how other people should lead their lives, but none about his or her own.

He decided to wait until the sun sunk a bit lower in the sky before following his flock back through the fields. Three days from now, he would be with the merchant's daughter.

He started to read the book he had bought.On the very first page, it described a burial ceremony. And the names of the people involved were very difficult to pronounce. If he ever wrote a book, he thought, he would present one person at a time, so that the reader wouldn't have to worry about memorizing a lot of names.

Reading Check

How do you understand the underlined sentence in this chapter according to your life story?