英文短篇小说有哪些

CREEPY STORY...few years ago,a mother and father decided they needed a break,so they wanted to head out for a night on the town.

So they called their most trusted babysitter.

When the babysitter arrived,the two children were already fast asleep in bed.

So the babysitter just got to sit around and make sure everything was okay with the children.

Later at night,the babysitter got bored and went to watch tv

but she couldn't watch it downstairs because they didnt have cable downstairs

(the parents didn't want the children watching too much garbage).

So she called them and asked them if she could watch cable in the parents' room.

Of course the parents said it was ok,

but the babysitter had one final request.

She asked if she could cover up the clown satue in their bedroom

with a blanket or cloth,because it made her nervous.

The phoneline was silent for a moment,

(and the father who was talking to the babysitter at the time)

said....take the children and get out of the house....

we'll call the police...we don't have a clown statue...

the children and the babysitter got murdered by the clown.

It turned out to be that the clown was a killer that escaped from jail.

If u don't repost this within 5 minutes

the clown will be standing next to your bed at 3:00 am

with a knife in his hand. There i said it so the evil clown won't kill me.I hate chain letters!!!

蠕动的故事... 少量岁月前, 母亲和父亲决定他们需要断裂, 因此他们想朝向夜在镇。 如此他们告诉他们的被信任的保姆。 当保姆到达了, 二个孩子已经是熟睡在床。 如此保姆得到无所事事并且确定一切是好与孩子。 以后在晚上, 保姆得到了乏味和去看电视 但她couldn't 手表它楼下因为他们didnt 有缆绳楼下 (父母didn't 想要孩子观看许多垃圾) 。 如此她叫他们和问他们如果她能观看缆绳在parents' 室。 当然父母说它是好, 但保姆有一个最后的请求。 她问如果她能盖小丑satue 在他们的卧室 与毯子或布料, 因为它使她紧张。 phoneline 一会儿是沈默的, (和与保姆当时谈话) 的父亲 前述....take 孩子和离开房子.... we'll 电话警察... 我们don't 有一个小丑雕像... 孩子和保姆得到了由小丑谋杀。 它结果是, 小丑是从监狱逃脱的凶手。 如果u don't repost 这在5 分钟内 小丑站立在您的床旁边在上午3:00 与一把刀子在他的手里。我在那边说它因此邪恶的小丑won't 杀害me.I 怨恨链信件!!!

Sanjiang College definitely has a very negative aura. So the construction of the school is based on the Eight Diagrams. Students there all wear stuff for protection like talismans. Each floor has bathrooms on the southwest end of the Eight-Diagram-shaped building. Men’s Room has three stalls seperated from one another by wood-board walls. Students are only allowed to use bathrooms on the first floor when they study by themselves at night. One night, a boy got a sudden urge to go to the bathroom during his study. But all stalls of the men’s room on the first floor were occupied. For fear of losing it, he raced to the bathroom on the second floor. Opening the door, he saw a woman with long hair dressed in white. (I never get it why all ghosts dress this way.) She sat on the wall of the middle stall and seemed like she was dangling on the ceiling. The woman gave him a glance and was like: “What are you doing here?” The boy first thought he went to the Lady’s Room and hurried out. But then he found he didn’t and suddenly realized what he witnessed. Scared to death, he ran for his life

三江学院阴气重是肯定的了,所以学校的建筑都是按照八卦的样式造的,在那里上学的人也都会戴护身符之类的.就是那懂八卦状的教学楼,西南角是卫生间,从上到下都是的,男厕所里有三格蹲位,用木板隔开的.学生上自习一般只允许在一楼上.有一天晚上,一个男生上自习上到一半突然想上厕所,就到一楼的厕所去,结果三格都没满了,他憋不住,就跑到二楼的厕所,一进门就看见一个长发白衣的女子(一直很费解为什么鬼都是这种打扮)坐在中间一格的档板上,似乎是吊在天花板上的.那女子看了他一眼,说“你来干什么?“那个男生第一反应是自己走错厕所了,赶紧退出来,发现自己没走错,这才反应过来自己看见了什么,拔腿就跑~~~~

石头和沙子

两个朋友结伴穿越沙漠，旅途中二人突然吵了起来，其中一个掴了对方一记耳光。被打的人感到自己受了伤害，但什么也没有说，只是在沙地上写下了这样一句话：“今天我最好的朋友掴了我耳光。他们继续前行，看见到处绿洲，他们正打算在那里洗澡时，刚才被打的人不小心陷入了泥潭，开始深陷，他的朋友救了他。等他从几近淹死的边缘苏醒过来后，他在石头上刻下：“今天我最好的朋友救了我的命。”他的朋友问：“为什么我伤你之后，你在沙子上写字，现在却把字刻在石头上？” 他回答道：“当有人伤害了我们，我们应该把它写进沙里，宽恕的风会把仇恨抹去。而当有人为我们做了好事，我们应当把它刻在石头上，没有风可以将它抹去。”

Sand and Stone

The story goes that two friends were walking through the desert. During some point of the journey they had an argument, and one friend slapped the other one in the face.

The one who got slapped was hurt, but without saying anything, wrote in the sand: "Today my best friend slapped me in the face."

They kept on walking until they found an oasis, where they decided to take a bath. The one who had been slapped got stuck in the mire and started drowning, but the friend saved him.

After he recovered from the near drowning, he wrote on a stone: "Today my best friend saved my life."

The friend who had slapped and saved his best friend asked him, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand and now you write on a stone. Why?"

The other friend replied: "When someone hurts us we should write it down in sand where winds of forgiveness can erase it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave it in stone where no wind can ever erase it."

LEARN TO WRITE YOUR HURTS IN THE SAND AND TO CARVE YOUR BENEFITS IN STONE.

They say it takes a minute to find a special person an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but an entire life to forget them.

Send this phrase to the people you'll never forget. It's a short message to let them know that you'll never forget them

Take the time to live.

​One day the staff members of a zoo called a meeting to discuss the problem--how to deal with the kangaroos that were found out of the cage. They came to the conclusion that the cage was placed too low and decided to raise it from one to two meters high. But the next day the kangaroos were still at large and they again raised the cage to three meters.

Quite beyond their expectation the next morning they saw the kangaroos still free to go about. They were alarmed and determined to go to all the length by raising the cage to the height of ten meters.

Later a giraffe, while chatting with some kangaroos, asked them, “Do you think they will go on raising your cage?”

“Hard to say,” said a kangaroo, “if they continue forgetting to fasten the cage door.”

《大师的盛宴》

时间移民机器人短篇欧·亨利短篇

卡佛《当我们谈论爱情时我们在谈论什么》

奥康纳好人难寻

麦克尤恩最初的爱情 最后的仪式

阿乙鸟，看见我了

乙一《Zoo》

白先勇《台北人》

苏童《香椿树街故事》

风和太阳(The Wind And The Sun)

One day the wind said to the sun, “Look at that man walking along the road. I can get his cloak off more quickly than you can.” (有一天风跟太阳说: “看看那个沿着路上走的人.我可以比你快让他把披风脱下来.)“We will see about that,” said the sun. “I will let you try first.” (“我们等着看吧,”太阳说, “我让你先试.)So the wind tried to make the man take off his cloak. He blew and blew, but the man only pulled his cloak more closely around himself. (因此风尝试让那个人把披风脱下来.他用力地吹,可是那个人把披风拉得更紧.)“I give up,” said the wind at last. “I cannot get his cloak off.” Then the sun tried. He shone as hard as he could. The man soon became hot and took off his cloak. (“我放弃了,”风最后说, “我无法让他把披风脱下来.”然后由太阳试试看.他尽可能地晒他.不久,那个人很热就把披风脱下来了.)

2. Long ago in a small, faraway village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he hounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and firendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

很久以前的一个很远的小村庄里，有一个以"千镜屋"而著名的地方。一个乐观的小狗听说了这个地方并决定去参观。当来到这个地方，他蹦蹦跳欢恰快的上了台阶，来到房门口，他高高竖起耳朵，欢快地摇着尾巴，从门口往里张望，他惊奇地看到有1000只欢乐的小狗像他一样快的摇尾巴。他灿烂地微笑着，回报他的是1000张热情，友好的灿烂笑脸。离开时他心想："这是一个精彩的地主，我一定要经常来参观。"

在这个村里还有另一只想参观"千镜屋"的小狗，他不及第一只小狗乐观，他慢吞吞地爬上台阶，然后耷拉着脑袋往屋子里看。一看到有1000只小狗不友好地盯着他，他便开始冲他们狂吠，镜中的1000只小狗也冲着他狂吠，把他给吓坏了，他在离开时心想："这是一个恐怖的地方，我再也不会来了。"

世界上所有的脸都是镜子，在你所遇见的人的脸上你看到反射出来的是什么?

3、An old cock and a foxIt is evening.An old cock is sitting in a tree.A fox comes to the tree and looks up at the cock."Hello,Mr Cock,I have good news for you,"says the fox."Oh"says thecock,"What good news for me?""All the animals are friends now."says the fox."Fine!"says the cock."I'm very glad to know that."Then he looks up、

"Look!A dog ia coming this way.""What?A dog?"says the fox."Well....well,I must go now.Goodbye,Mr Cock!""Wait,Mr Fox,Don't you like dogs?"Don't you like playing with the dog?Dogs are our friends now.""But,...but they may not know the news yet."Then he runs away."I see,I see,"says the cock.He smiles and goes to sleep

翻译：一只老公鸡和一只狐狸是夜。一只老公鸡呆在树上。一只狐狸走向大树要拜访公鸡。"你好，公鸡先生，我有一个关于你的好消息。"狐狸说。"噢，"公鸡说，"是什么关于我的好消息?""所有动物现在都是朋友了。"狐狸说。"好，"公鸡说，"我听到那非常高兴!"然后他看到了。

"看，一只狗正在往这边来。""什么?一只狗?"狐狸问。"好的好的，现在我该走了，再见，公鸡先生!""等等，狐狸先生，你难道不喜欢狗吗?难道你不喜欢和狗玩么?狗现在是我们的朋友。""但是，但是它们现在可能还不知道。"然后他跑走了。"我知道了，我知道了，"公鸡说。他微笑着然后去睡觉了。

4、The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Once there were two mice. They were friends. One mouse lived in the country; the other mouse lived in the city. After many years the Country mouse saw the City mouse; he said, "Do come and see me at my house in the country." So the City mouse went. The City mouse said, "This food is not good, and your house is not good. Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have nice food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city."

The Country mouse went to the house of the City mouse. It was a very good house. Nice food was set ready for them to eat. But just as they began to eat they heard a great noise. The City mouse cried, " Run! Run! The cat is coming!" They ran away quickly and hid.

After some time they came out. When they came out, the Country mouse said, "I do not like living in the city. I like living in my hole in the field. For it is nicer to be poor and happy, than to be rich and afraid."

【译文】

城里老鼠和乡下老鼠

从前，有两只老鼠，它们是好朋友。一只老鼠居住在乡村，另一只住在城里。很多年以后，乡下老鼠碰到城里老鼠，它说：“你一定要来我乡下的家看看。”于是，城里老鼠就去了。乡下老鼠领着它到了一块田地上它自己的家里。它把所有最精美食物都找出来给城里老鼠。城里老鼠说：“这东西不好吃，你的家也不好，你为什么住在田野的地洞里呢？你应该搬到城里去住，你能住上用石头造的漂亮房子，还会吃上美味佳肴，你应该到我城里的家看看。”

乡下老鼠就到城里老鼠的家去。房子十分漂亮，好吃的东西也为他们摆好了。可是正当他们要开始吃的时候，听见很大的一阵响声，城里的老鼠叫喊起来：“快跑！快跑！猫来了！”他们飞快地跑开躲藏起来。

过了一会儿，他们出来了。当他们出来时，乡下老鼠说：“我不喜欢住在城里，我喜欢住在田野我的洞里。因为这样虽然贫穷但是快乐自在，比起虽然富有却要过着提心吊胆的生活来说，要好些。”

1.莫泊桑的短篇小说有哪些：

短篇：

《羊脂球》《项链》我的叔叔于勒

中短篇:

《菲菲小姐》《项链》我的叔叔于勒一个农庄女工的故事、戴丽叶春楼、瞎子、《真实的故事》、小狗皮埃罗、一个诺曼底佬、在乡下、一次政变、绳子、《老人》、《洗礼》、穷鬼、小酒桶、归来、图瓦等

长篇:

《一生》《俊友》（《漂亮朋友》）等

2.中篇、短篇、长篇的区别：

短篇小说一般认为，篇幅在二万字以下的小说会被划归短篇小说。在它的特色中有所谓三一律——一人一地一时，也就是减少角色、缩小舞台、短化故事中流动的时间。另外，虽然它们时常惜墨如金，但一般认为短篇小说仍应符合小说的原始定义、也就是对细节有足够的刻划，绝非长篇故事的节略或纲要。

中篇小说一般认为，篇幅在二万字至八万字之间的小说，一般认为是较容易成功的小说。因为对初涉创作领域的人而言，写作长篇易陷入多数的情节造成凌乱难收的困境，而写作短篇不是转折太少而单调、就是转折太多却显得拥挤。这时考虑将原本的构想改成中篇是一个广受推荐的建议。

长篇小说一般认为，字数在八万字以上的则为长篇小说。长篇小说反映的事情很多，内容很丰富，字数过少不可能是长篇，而长篇小说字数最为不定，字数差距最大。有十多万字的，更有上百万字甚至数百万字的长篇小说。如此长篇小说还可分为小长篇（一般的在十数万到三十万间），中长篇（一般的在五十万至七十万间），大长篇（要在八十万字以上），超长篇（一般的过一百万字的），巨长篇（往往是数百万字数的）。

风和太阳(The Wind And The Sun)

One day the wind said to the sun, “Look at that man walking along the road. I can get his cloak off more quickly than you can.” (有一天风跟太阳说: “看看那个沿着路上走的人.我可以比你快让他把披风脱下来.)“We will see about that,” said the sun. “I will let you try first.” (“我们等着看吧,”太阳说, “我让你先试.)So the wind tried to make the man take off his cloak. He blew and blew, but the man only pulled his cloak more closely around himself. (因此风尝试让那个人把披风脱下来.他用力地吹,可是那个人把披风拉得更紧.)“I give up,” said the wind at last. “I cannot get his cloak off.” Then the sun tried. He shone as hard as he could. The man soon became hot and took off his cloak. (“我放弃了,”风最后说, “我无法让他把披风脱下来.”然后由太阳试试看.他尽可能地晒他.不久,那个人很热就把披风脱下来了.)

2. Long ago in a small, faraway village, there was a place known as the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and decided to visit. When he arrived, he hounced happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail wagging as fast as it could. To his great surprise, he found himself staring at 1000 other happy little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was answered with 1000 great smiles just as warm and firendly. As he left the House, he thought to himself, "This is a wonderful place. I will come back and visit it often."

In this same village, another little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, decided to visit the house. He slowly climbed the stairs and hung his head low as he looked into the door. When he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was horrified to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a horrible place, and I will never go back there again."

All the faces in the world are mirrors. What kind of reflections do you see in the faces of the people you meet?

很久以前的一个很远的小村庄里，有一个以"千镜屋"而著名的地方。一个乐观的小狗听说了这个地方并决定去参观。当来到这个地方，他蹦蹦跳欢恰快的上了台阶，来到房门口，他高高竖起耳朵，欢快地摇着尾巴，从门口往里张望，他惊奇地看到有1000只欢乐的小狗像他一样快的摇尾巴。他灿烂地微笑着，回报他的是1000张热情，友好的灿烂笑脸。离开时他心想："这是一个精彩的地主，我一定要经常来参观。"

在这个村里还有另一只想参观"千镜屋"的小狗，他不及第一只小狗乐观，他慢吞吞地爬上台阶，然后耷拉着脑袋往屋子里看。一看到有1000只小狗不友好地盯着他，他便开始冲他们狂吠，镜中的1000只小狗也冲着他狂吠，把他给吓坏了，他在离开时心想："这是一个恐怖的地方，我再也不会来了。"

世界上所有的脸都是镜子，在你所遇见的人的脸上你看到反射出来的是什么?

3、An old cock and a foxIt is evening.An old cock is sitting in a tree.A fox comes to the tree and looks up at the cock."Hello,Mr Cock,I have good news for you,"says the fox."Oh"says thecock,"What good news for me?""All the animals are friends now."says the fox."Fine!"says the cock."I'm very glad to know that."Then he looks up、

"Look!A dog ia coming this way.""What?A dog?"says the fox."Well....well,I must go now.Goodbye,Mr Cock!""Wait,Mr Fox,Don't you like dogs?"Don't you like playing with the dog?Dogs are our friends now.""But,...but they may not know the news yet."Then he runs away."I see,I see,"says the cock.He smiles and goes to sleep

翻译：一只老公鸡和一只狐狸是夜。一只老公鸡呆在树上。一只狐狸走向大树要拜访公鸡。"你好，公鸡先生，我有一个关于你的好消息。"狐狸说。"噢，"公鸡说，"是什么关于我的好消息?""所有动物现在都是朋友了。"狐狸说。"好，"公鸡说，"我听到那非常高兴!"然后他看到了。

"看，一只狗正在往这边来。""什么?一只狗?"狐狸问。"好的好的，现在我该走了，再见，公鸡先生!""等等，狐狸先生，你难道不喜欢狗吗?难道你不喜欢和狗玩么?狗现在是我们的朋友。""但是，但是它们现在可能还不知道。"然后他跑走了。"我知道了，我知道了，"公鸡说。他微笑着然后去睡觉了。

4、The City Mouse and the Country Mouse

Once there were two mice. They were friends. One mouse lived in the country; the other mouse lived in the city. After many years the Country mouse saw the City mouse; he said, "Do come and see me at my house in the country." So the City mouse went. The City mouse said, "This food is not good, and your house is not good. Why do you live in a hole in the field? You should come and live in the city. You would live in a nice house made of stone. You would have nice food to eat. You must come and see me at my house in the city."

The Country mouse went to the house of the City mouse. It was a very good house. Nice food was set ready for them to eat. But just as they began to eat they heard a great noise. The City mouse cried, " Run! Run! The cat is coming!" They ran away quickly and hid.

After some time they came out. When they came out, the Country mouse said, "I do not like living in the city. I like living in my hole in the field. For it is nicer to be poor and happy, than to be rich and afraid."

【译文】

城里老鼠和乡下老鼠

从前，有两只老鼠，它们是好朋友。一只老鼠居住在乡村，另一只住在城里。很多年以后，乡下老鼠碰到城里老鼠，它说：“你一定要来我乡下的家看看。”于是，城里老鼠就去了。乡下老鼠领着它到了一块田地上它自己的家里。它把所有最精美食物都找出来给城里老鼠。城里老鼠说：“这东西不好吃，你的家也不好，你为什么住在田野的地洞里呢？你应该搬到城里去住，你能住上用石头造的漂亮房子，还会吃上美味佳肴，你应该到我城里的家看看。”

乡下老鼠就到城里老鼠的家去。房子十分漂亮，好吃的东西也为他们摆好了。可是正当他们要开始吃的时候，听见很大的一阵响声，城里的老鼠叫喊起来：“快跑！快跑！猫来了！”他们飞快地跑开躲藏起来。

过了一会儿，他们出来了。当他们出来时，乡下老鼠说：“我不喜欢住在城里，我喜欢住在田野我的洞里。因为这样虽然贫穷但是快乐自在，比起虽然富有却要过着提心吊胆的生活来说，要好些。”

世界三大短篇小说之王

莫泊桑、契诃夫和欧~亨利

莫泊桑（Maupassant1850～1893）19世纪后半期法国优秀的批判现实主义作家。年仅43年生命历程竟创作了6部长篇小说和356多篇中短篇小说，莫泊桑短篇小说布局结构精巧合理。典型细节选用真实可信、叙事抒情的手法如行云流水，充分体现了这种的文学传统。莫泊桑的最出色的短篇代表作是《羊脂球》。《项链》、我的叔叔于勒；其作品在我国影响很大，近几年来，一直被作为中学生必课的文学作品.

欧~亨利（1862～1910）善于描写美国社会尤其是纽约百姓的生活。他的作品构思新颖，语言诙谐，结局常常出人意外；欧~亨利一生创作了270多个短篇小说和一部长篇小说，还有数量很少的诗歌他颇善情节设计，处处留下玄机，结局常常以出人意料出外而收场。读后使人不禁使人豁然开朗，拍案叫绝,被称为"欧~亨利式结尾".又因描写了众多的人物，富于生活情趣，被誉为“美国生活的幽默百科全书”.黑色幽默,“含泪水的微笑”。代表作有爱的牺牲、《警察与赞美诗》、带家具出租的房间、《麦琪的礼物》、《最后一片叶子》等.

契诃夫（1860-1904）他常以十九世界俄国社会中所常见的凡人小事为素材，用语言简练、讽刺尖刻笔触描写小人物和知识分子两类人的命运。代表作有小职员之死《变色龙》。《套中人》等。契河夫是19世纪末俄国伟大的剧作家和短篇小说家，俄国现实主义文学流派的杰出代表

其他的有:

茨威格短篇小说集

马克.吐温短篇小说集

窃贼(阿·康帕尼尔)

情书(岩井俊二)

永远占有(格雷厄姆·格林)

化石街(岛田庄司)

棋逢对手(西瑞尔·哈尔)

首领(卡拉维洛夫)

热爱生命(杰克·伦敦)

蚂蚁 (博里斯·维昂)

蠢猪 (马莱巴)

品酒 (罗·达尔)

打不碎的鸡蛋 (马莱巴)

劳驾，快点！(图戈依)

品酒 (罗·达尔)

经典短篇小说好多呢！用词比较简单，但意义深刻！更重要的是每一篇都短小精悍！（符合你的要求哦）

1.《生火》杰克.伦敦 To Build a Fire (Jack LondonP

2.厄谢尔府的倒塌 爱伦.坡

The Fall of the House of Usher (Edgar Allan Poe)

3.《项链》莫泊桑 The Necklace (Guy de Maupassant)

4.《警察与赞美诗》欧.亨利 The Cop and the Anthem

(O Henry)

5.《麦琪的礼物》欧.亨利 Magi's gift (O Henry)

6.《最后一片藤叶》欧.亨利 The Last Leaf (O Henry)

7.加利维拉县有名的跳蛙马克.吐温 The Notorious Jumping Frog of Calaveras County

（Mark Twain)

8.人生的五种恩赐马克.吐温

The Five Boons of Life （Mark Twain)

9.三生客 托马斯.哈代 The Three Strangers

(Thomas Hardy)

10.敞开的落地窗萨基 The Open Window (Saki)

11.末代佳人菲茨杰拉德 The Last of the Belles

(F.S.Fitzgerald)

12.《手》舍伍德.安德森 Hands

13.伊芙琳詹姆斯.乔伊斯 Eveline

14.教长的黑色面纱纳撒尼尔.霍桑

短篇励志英语美文篇1

找寻自己find yourself

who are we? that is the first question. it’s a question that’s almost impossible to answer.

我们到底是谁?这是我们要解答的第一个问题，是一个几乎回答不了的问题

but we all agree that one’s busy or daily self is not quite one’s real self. we’re quite sure that we’ve lost something in the course of just making our living.。

但是我们都同意这一点，那个每天在日常生活中奔忙的自己，并不是我们真实的自己。我们都很清楚，我们在为生计奔波的过程中失去了某些东西。

a crowd is watching a person running about looking for something in a field, and a wise man asks, “what has that person lost?” someone may guess a watch, another a diamond ring. when everyone has guessed, the wise man who like everyone else there has no idea, says, “i’ll tell you one thing for sure. he’s lost some breath.”

当一群人看着一个人在田野中奔跑着寻找某个东西时，智者向他们出了一个谜题：“那个人到底丢失了什么?”有个人认为是一块手表，另一个人认为是一枚钻石戒指。其他人也有不同的答案，智者也不知道那个人丢失了什么，但他却说：“我可以明确地告诉你们一件事，他丢失了一些生命力。”

and no one can deny that he’s right. the point is that we often forget our true selves in pursuit of things that are external1 to us, like a bird forgetting its own danger in pursuit of a mantis, which in turn forgets its own danger in pursuit of some other prey.

没有人认为智者所言是错的。其实我们经常在为生计奔波时忘记了我们自己，就像一只鸟在捕捉螳螂时忘记了自己的安危，相应地，螳螂在捕捉它的猎物时也忘记了自己的安危。