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东方有一个富人，他对音乐一窍不通，却假装懂得很多。每当一位著名的歌手来到他这儿，他就会把绳子的一头绑在他衣服的后摆上，把另一头给他很懂音乐的妻子。按照东方的习俗,妇女应该坐在屏障后面。他们约好了，每当歌唱中有特别值得赞扬的地方，妻子就会拉动绳子,富人就会点点头以示认可。 有一次，一位伟大的歌手正在表演，绳子突然断了。那个富人就叫道：“好歌手，等等呀，绳子断了！” 所有的观众都很吃惊，最后都明白了他真正的用意，说道:“如果没有人指点，鹦鹉和傻瓜什么也做不了！” The Wealthy Man and the String A wealthy man in the East had no knowledge of music； yet he pretended to know a great deal about it. So, whenever a famous singer came to him, he would tie one end of a string to his coat-tail, and give the other end to his wife, who understood music well, and who generally sat behind a screen, according to the custom of ladies in the East. The understanding was that whenever there was anything in the singing that was specially praiseworthy, the wife should pull, that the man might nod his approbation of it. Once a great singer was displaying his skill, and suddenly the string snapped. The man cried, “Wait a bit, good singer； the string hath snapped!” The whole audience was amazed, and in the end, knowing what he really meant, exclaimed,“A parrot and a fool can do nothing without prompting!” |
