会读书的女孩

字幕原文

One afternoon, Frederick the Great was sitting in his palace garden, 有天下午，腓特烈大帝正坐在王宫的花园里，

his eyes too tired to read, 眼睛累得看不进字，

so he handed a petition to one of his young pages. 于是随手把一份请愿书递给了一个年轻的小侍童。

The boy rattled through it so fast that the words ran together into a blur. 那男孩读得飞快，所有字都含混成一团，根本听不清。

"Stop," said the King. “停，”国王说，

"Next." “换下一个。”

The second page, determined not to make the same mistake, 第二个侍童打定主意不犯同样的错，

read so slowly, stretching out every syllable, 于是念得极慢，每个字都拖长了音，

that the King nearly nodded off. 听得国王差点打起盹来。

"Enough! “够了！

Send me that girl by the fountain." 把喷泉边上的那个女孩叫过来。”

She was a gardener's daughter, there to help her father pull weeds. 她是个花匠的女儿，正帮着父亲在那儿拔草。

Nervously, she took the paper, glanced over the first lines, 她紧张地接过纸，看了看开头几行，

and her eyes filled with tears. 眼眶一下就湿润了。

Then she began to read. 接着，她开始读了起来。

It was a letter from a poor widow. 那是一位贫苦寡妇写来的信。

Her husband had been killed in battle, and now her only son, 她的丈夫战死沙场，如今她唯一的儿子——

a frail boy who dreamed of becoming a painter, 一个梦想成为画家的瘦弱孩子——

had been drafted into the army. 也被征召入伍了。

The girl read it simply, clearly, with real feeling, 女孩读得朴实、清晰，字里行间满是真情实感，

and by the time she finished, 等她念完时，

the King was blinking back tears himself. 国王自己也正拼命眨眼忍住泪水。

He signed the boy's release on the spot. 他当场签字免除了那个男孩的兵役。

The pages had read exactly the same words. 两个侍童读的明明是一模一样的字句，

Only she had made anyone feel them. 却唯独她把那份心痛传递到了人心底。

We tend to look down on the basics. 我们常常容易瞧不起基本功，

But a simple thing done really well can change a life. 但把一件简单的事真正做好，就能改变一个人的一生。