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Luck 好运气 Mark Twain 马克·吐温 I was at a dinner in London given in honor of one of the most celebrated English military menof his time. I do not want to tell you his real name and titles. I will just call him LieutenantGeneral Lord Arthur Scoresby. I cannot describe my excitement when I saw this great andfamous man. There he sat, the man himself, in person, all covered with medals. I could not takemy eyes off him. He seemed to show the true mark of greatness. His fame had no effect onhim. The hundreds of eyes watching him, the worship of so many people did not seem tomake any difference to him. 事情发生在伦敦的一次宴会上。这次宴会是为当代英国威名显赫的两三位军事将领之一举行的。由于下面即将说明的原因，我将不提他的真实姓名和各种头衔。我将称他为陆军中将阿瑟·斯考兹比勋爵、皇家护卫骑士、巴斯爵士，等等，等等，等等。鼎鼎大名的人物具有多大的魅力130年前他在克里米亚战役中崭露头角，名声大噪，历久不衰。从那时以后我曾无数次听见人们谈到他，而此刻他本人就坐在那儿。我盯着这位半神半人似的人物，看呀，看呀，看呀，好像这就是我的美酒佳肴。我注视着他，搜寻他的一切特点并默记在心：他的面部表情安详、矜持、高贵、严肃;他的气质中具有朴素、诚实的品格，这是一眼就看得出的;他对自己的丰功伟绩虽然踌躇满志，但却不露声色——好像不知道成百双充满崇敬之情的眼睛正注视着他;好像不知道出自人们内心的一股深厚的爱慕之情，一种真诚的崇拜，正朝他涌来。 Next to me sat a clergyman, who was an old friend of mine. He was not always a clergyman. During the first half of his life he was a teacher in the military school at Woolwich. There was astrange look in his eye as he leaned toward me and whispered – "Privately – he is a completefool." He meant, of course, the hero of our dinner. 坐在我左边的牧师是我的老相识。他现在是牧师，可前半辈子却是在戎马生涯中度过的，而且还当过伍立奇军事学校的教官。就在我刚谈到的这个时刻，他眼中隐隐约约闪现出一种十分离奇的目光，一边用手势指着宴会上的那位英雄，一边俯过头来轻轻地，但却是满有把握地对我说：“私下说说一他是个头号大傻瓜。” This came as a shock to me. I looked hard at him. I could not have been more surprised if hehas said the same thing about Nepoleon, or Socrates, or Solomon. But I was sure of two thingsabout the clergyman. He always spoke the truth. And, his judgment of men was good. Therefore, I wanted to find out more about our hero as soon as I could. 这个评语使我大吃一惊。如果他说的是拿破仑、苏格拉底或是所罗门，我也不会感到更惊奇了。有两点我是清楚的：这位牧师说话句句真实可靠;而且他很有知人之明。因此我断定，毫无疑问，世人是错看了这位英雄：他的确是个傻瓜。于是我就想在方便的时候向这位孤身独处的牧师问清楚，他是怎样发现这个秘密的。 Some days later I got a chance to talk with the clergyman, and he told me more. These are hisexact words: 过了些日子，机会来到了，下面就是这位牧师告诉我的话： About forty years ago, I was an instructor in the military academy at Woolwich, when youngScoresby was given his first examination. I felt extremely sorry for him. Everybody answeredthe questions well, intelligently, while he – why, dear me – he did not know anything, so tospeak. He was a nice, pleasant young man. It was painful to see him stand there and giveanswers that were miracles of stupidity.I knew of course that when examined again he wouldfail and be thrown out. So, I said to myself, it would be a simple, harmless act to help him asmuch as I could. I took him aside and found he knew a little about Julius Ceasar's history. But, he did not know anything else. So, I went to work and tested him and worked him like a slave. Imade him work, over and over again, on a few questions about Ceasar, which I knew he wouldbe asked.If you will believe me, he came through very well on the day of the examination. Hegot high praise too, while others who knew a thousand times more than he were sharplycriticized. By some strange, lucky accident, he was asked no questions but those I made himstudy. Such an accident does not happen more than once in a hundred years. Well, all throughhis studies, I stood by him, with the feeling a mother has for a disabled child. And he alwayssaved himself by some miracle. 大约40年前，我在伍立奇军事学校当教官。年轻的斯考兹比参加初试时，我在他那个小组。班上别的学员回答问题都很漂亮，而他一一唉，天啊，他可说是一无所知，我的怜悯之心不禁为之大动。谁都看得出他是个好孩子，可亲可爱，又很天真;此刻他站在那儿，呆若木鸡，回答问题时的愚昧无知真是荒谬绝伦，叫人看了十分痛心。我的怜悯心都被他激发起来了。我暗自思忖，复试时他肯定是要被刷掉的;既然如此，尽我所能来减轻他摔下来的痛苦，也就只不过是一种无害的慈悲举动而已。我把他叫到一旁，发现他还知道一点儿恺撒大帝的历史，既然他别的什么也不知道，于是我就辅导他，逼他像奴隶船上的奴隶一样拼命准备有关恺撒大帝的一些老生常谈的问题，而我知道这些问题是会考到的。信不信由你，考试那天他居然名列前茅!就凭这点儿纯释是表面功夫的“死记硬背”他过了关，而且还受到赞扬;而别人呢，虽然比他强一千倍，却被淘汰了。由于某种奇妙幸运的机遇一—这种机遇—百年也难碰到第二次，除了他准备的狭窄范围之外，没其妙。这么说吧，自始至终我都守护着他，我对他的感情就像一位母亲对待自己的瘸腿小孩一样;但他却总是能从困境中自己解脱出来——明摆着全是凭奇迹。
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