|
一个武士一气之下杀死了自己的主人。自己一旦被抓住就会被处死，于是逃跑了。 他流浪到一偏僻的山村。那里有一座山，很多村民过山时丢了性命。武士决定只身一人修路。: 四年里，他每天从黎明干到黄昏，有一天一个年轻人喊他出去。他是被害者的儿子 "我的确该死。”曾经是武士的人说，‘孩子，能否等我把路修好以后。” 年轻人同意等他。武士一天天地忙碌，他要挖掘的岩石实在太大了，以至于年轻人开始佩服敌人的毅力和决心。最终,他自己也去帮忙。 多年之后的一天，两人穿透了大山，工程终于结束了。 “现在我已准备好死了。"武士跪在年轻人面前，年轻人大叫一声，举起剑，可是他无法下手。他慢慢地放下了剑。 "你是一个杀人犯。'’他说，"然而在过去我从你身上学习了很多东西，我怎么能伤害自己的老师呢。” 他装剑入鞘，离开了。 Learning from the Enemy A samurai warrior slew his master in a fit of rage. He repented immediately but the eed was done and he knew that if he was caught he would be put to death. He fled. His wanderings took him to a remote village that was separated from the rest of the (orld by a mountain. The path across the mountain was narrow and treacherous and many illagers had lost their lives while traversing it. The murderer decided to atone for his sin by ingle-handedly cutting a road through the mountain to end the isolation of the village. He worked from dawn to dusk and in four years had penetrated halfway into the moun-lin. One morning when he was hard at work in the tunnel, a young man called out to him to come out. He was the son of the man who had been murdered. He wanted revenge. “I deserve to die," sad the former samurai. “Slay me by all means but wait until I’ve □mpleted this tunnel. ’’ The young man agreed to wait. He watched fascinated as day after day the samurai ibored at a seemingly impossible task. The rocks he was digging through were so mas- ve that at the end of a day's work they seemed not to have been touched at all. The Dung man began to develop a grudging respect for his enemy's tenacity and determina- )n. Eventually he found himself helping the man-digging side by side with him and car- ,ing out the rubble. Years passed and then one day the two men broke through to the other side. The lountain had been conquered at last and the centuries-old isolation of the village had een ended. “Now I am ready to die,” said the samurai, kneeling before the young man. Cleave my head in two.” The youth raised his sword with a cry, the blood rushing to his head. At last his father’s death would be avenged. But he found he could not bring himself to do it. Slowly he lowered his sword. “You’re a murderer,” he said. “But I’ve learnt much from you in these last few years. How can I harm my teacher?” And he sheathed his sword and walked away. |
