Bear with me, please, for one last story, one my grandfather told me many years ago: A group of eight out-of-town bricklayers took refuge from a storm in a rundown temple. Thunder rumbled outside, sending fireballs their way. They even heard what sounded like dragon shrieks. The men were terrified, their faces ashen. “Among the eight of us,” one of them said, “is someone who must have offended the heavens with a terrible deed. The guilty person ought to volunteer to step outside to accept his punishment and spare the innocent from suffering. Naturally, there were no volunteers. So one of the others came up with a proposal: Since no one is willing to go outside, let’s all fling our straw hats toward the door. Whoever’s hat flies out through the temple door is the guilty party, and we’ll ask him to go out and accept his punishment.” So they flung their hats toward the door. Seven hats were blown back inside; one went out the door. They pressured the eighth man to go out and accept his punishment, and when he balked, they picked him up and flung him out the door. I’ll bet you all know how the story ends: They had no sooner flung him out the door than the temple collapsed around them.

我是一個講故事的人。

I am a storyteller.

因為講故事我獲得了諾貝爾文學獎。

Telling stories earned me the Nobel Prize for Literature.

我獲獎后發生了很多精彩的故事，這些故事，讓我堅信真理和正義是存在的。

Many interesting things have happened to me in the wake of winning the prize, and they have convinced me that truth and justice are alive and well.

今后的歲月里，我將繼續講我的故事。

So I will continue telling my stories in the days to come.

謝謝大家！

Thank you all.

（Translated by Howard Goldblatt）

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