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The most beautiful heart
One day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. A large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. There was not a mark or a flaw in it. Yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. The young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.
Suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, “Your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine.” The crowd and the young man looked at the old man’s heart. It was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn’t fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. In fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.
The people stared — how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? The young man looked at the old man’s heart and saw its state and laughed. “You must be joking,” he said. “Compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears.”
“Yes,” said the old man, “Yours is perfect looking but I would never trade with you. You see, every scar represents a person to whom I have given my love — I tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren’t exact, I have some rough edges, which I cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. Sometimes I have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn’t returned a piece of his heart to me. These are the empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance. Although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love I have for these people too, and I hope someday they may return and fill the space in my heart. So now do you see what true beauty is?”
The young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. He walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. He offered it to the old man with trembling hands.
The old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man’s heart. It fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. The young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man’s heart flowed into his. They embraced and walked away side by side.
【日積月累】
◇proclaim vt. 宣布，聲明，顯示，顯露
◇jagged a.鋸齒狀的，不整齊的
◇gouge n.（物體表面的）洞，口子
◇cherish vt. 珍愛，懷抱(希望等)
【參考譯文】
最美的心
一天一個年輕人站在小鎮的中央，宣布他的心是整個山谷中最美麗的心。大批的人聚集過來并且都稱贊他的心的完美，上面沒有一點傷痕或者瑕疵。是的，他們一致認為這實在是他們見過的最美麗的心。這個年輕人非常驕傲，更加大聲地吹捧自己那顆美麗的心。
突然，一位老人出現在人群面前并且說道：“你的心遠不如我的美麗。”圍觀群眾和年輕人都朝老人的心看去，它有力地跳動著，卻布滿了傷疤，有些地方被挖走了，又被重新補上了，但卻補得并不恰當，留下了參差不齊的疤痕。事實上，因為某些地方的殘缺還露出很深的豁口。
人們注視著，心想：他怎能說自己的心更美麗呢？年輕人看了看老人的心，笑著說：“你一定是在開玩笑吧，”他說，“把你的心和我的比一下，我的心是那么完美，而你的心卻布滿了傷疤和裂痕。”
“是的，”老人說，“你的心從表面來看很完美，但我絕不會跟你交換。你看，每個傷疤都代表我為別人獻出的一份愛——我掏出心的一部分給他們，他們也常常會掏出自己的一部分回贈給我，來彌補我心的缺陷，但是因為殘缺并不完全一樣，傷口的邊緣就留下了疤痕，不過我十分珍惜這些疤痕，因為它們能使我想起我們共同擁有的愛心。有時我送出了心的一部分，而其他人并沒有回贈給我，因此就出現了這些深孔——付出愛需要冒風險的。盡管這些傷口很疼，并且整日敞開著，但它能使我想起我給予那些人的愛。我希望有一天，他們能夠回來填補上我心里的空白。所以你現在明白什么是真正的美麗了吧？”
年輕人沉默地站著，淚水順著臉頰流下。他走到這位老人身邊，把手伸進自己年輕美麗而完美的心里，撕下一塊來。他用顫抖的雙手把它獻給這位老人。
老人接過年輕人的饋贈，把它放進自己的心里。然后他從自己布滿傷痕的心里掏出一塊，放在年輕人心里的那個傷口上。它正好可以放進去，但卻不是特別吻合，因為有一些疤痕。年輕人看著自己的心，雖然看起來不再完美但比以前更美麗了，因為老人心中的愛也流淌到了他的心里。他們互相擁抱，然后肩并肩離開了。
【人生啟迪】
從小到大，家長、老師們都教育我們心靈美的重要性，但是真正的心靈美并不在乎你的心是否看起來美麗，而是在于你是否懂得為別人奉獻自己的一片愛心，如果你這樣做了，那么雖然你的心會有短暫的殘缺，但是總會有更好的來彌補它，這樣你的心靈才是最美麗的。
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