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看书有道 阅读美文
Reading makes a full man
Selfishness vs. Selflessness
是什么让“我”快乐？
是什么让“我”不快乐？
Me first Mary
自我的玛丽
Introduction
玛丽的世界里只有一个词：我。
她生活在一个Me-first world.
她愤怒交通事故让她迟到，
她抱怨别人扭伤脚踝毁了她的假期，
她会嗤之以鼻电视上的洪水灾害新闻
扫了她看喜欢节目的兴致…
她不是坏人，她只是笃信一个道理：
生活已经够艰难了，
你在帮助别人的时候就没法为自己着想。
玛丽这名字听上去是快乐的，
然而她不快乐，
总是沉着脸，撅着嘴。
In a world that becomes more and more competitive by the minute, it’s easy to forget that you’re not the only one around. Because when you spend time helping others, you are obviously not helping yourself, so helping others is a waste of time, right? Wrong! Selfishness never leads to happiness, as this story teaches us. It is a story about an unhappy girl called Mary, who lives in a world called the ‘me-first world’. This ‘me-first world’ is actually a metaphor of one of the greatest problems of our time; that we tend to forget the happiness that helping others can give us, and follow our own ego instead. As Mary, ironically, in this story finds out, placing your own needs and wants on top of your priority list, makes you actually unhappy, very unpleasant to be friends with, and only leads to having nothing left in the end.
Mary was an odd name for this particular Mary. For this particular Mary oftenpursed her unmerry lips in disgust at some other someone. Someone, anyone who got in her way during any particular day. Mary was as unmerry as any someone could be.
对于这位名叫玛丽的女孩，这个名字似乎起得不太恰当。这位玛丽经常撅起嘴，满脸不悦地给其他人一副厌恶的表情。如果有那么一天，有人妨碍了她，她就会表现得像其他人那样非常不开心。
Knowing that she lived in a me-first world, Mary often used her lips to speak aloud the two words that were mostly on her mind. “Me.” And “my.” (Sometimes Mary often spoke the words “I” and “mine” too.) These were the syllables that tumbled off her tongue from each day’s first sun flicker to every night’s finalmoon gleam.
玛丽知道自己生活在一个以自我为中心的世界里，于是她常常噘着嘴说出头脑里最常出现的那两个词——“我”和“我的”。从每天清晨第一缕阳光到夜间最后一丝月光，这两个词都会与玛丽随影而行。
Pursed her lips
(phrasal verb, from: to purse your lips)
抿紧嘴唇
Unmerry (adj.)
不高兴的，不愉快的
Syllables (noun) 英/
'sɪləb(ə)l/ 美/'sɪləbl/ 音节
Tumbled off her tongue
(expression) 脱口而出
Sun flicker (noun)
阳光闪烁
Moon gleam (noun)
月亮闪耀
Driving to work, shefumed that an accident ahead on the highway put “me” behind schedule.Vacationing in the mountains, she snorted that her boyfriend’ssprained ankle ruined“my” holiday. Watching television, she sniffed that the terrible news about terrible floods somewhere interrupted “my” favourite program.
开车上班时，她会愤怒地说，公路前方发生的交通事故会让“我”迟到。在山上度假时，她会不耐烦地抱怨说，是因为她男朋友扭伤了脚踝毁了“我的”假期。看电视时，她会嗤之以鼻地说，关于发生在某个地方的可怕的洪水的可怕的新闻打断了“我”最喜欢的节目。
The drivers in the accident and the boyfriend in the mountains and the people living near the terrible floods were not tickled by these events either of course, though this thought never meandered completely into Mary’s mind.
事故中的司机和山上的男朋友，以及生活在发生可怕洪水附近的人们，当然不愿意自己遇到这种事情，但玛丽从来没有从这个角度思考过问题。
Fumed
(verb, from: to fume) /'fju:md/
发怒的
Put “me” behind schedule
(expression, to be put behind schedule)
打乱我的计划，使延迟
Snorted
(verb, from: to snort) 英/snɔːt/ 美/snɔrt/ vi.
轻蔑或愤怒地发出哼声；
Sprained ankle (noun)
踝关节扭伤
Ruined (verb, from: to ruin)
英/'rʊɪnd/ 美/'ruɪnd 毁灭
Sniffed (verb, from: to sniff)
英/snɪf/ 美/snɪf/
鼻子发出不满声
Tickled (adj.)
英/'tɪk(ə)l/ 美/'tɪkl/
被逗乐的
Meandered (verb, often + into)
（指溪流、河流等）
蜿蜒而流( meandered是meander英/
mɪ'ændə/ 美/mɪ'ændɚ/的过去式)
Mary wasn’t mean,mind you. No, Mary didn’t want to hurt anyone, of course not. Mary had just learned the big lesson in life very, very well: If you’re helping someone else, you’re not helping yourself. It was a hard but simple truth, as every someone understood in this me-first world.
请注意，玛丽并不坏。当然，她也不想伤害任何人。玛丽只不过刚刚从生活中非常深刻地领悟到一件事：你在帮助别人的时候，就没法为自己着想。这是一个很难领悟但又很简单的事实，因为每个人都会在这个以自我为中心的世界中有所领悟。
The trouble with being just one me in a me-first world is all those other me-firsters living in your world. Yes, all those other me-first people just keep getting in your way. Which was why Mary so often pursed her unmerry lips in disgust at some other someone. Which was why Mary was as unmerry as any someone could be.
生活在一个以自我为中心的世界里的烦恼是，你的世界中并非你一个人，而是还同时生活着所有其他以自我为中心的人。是的，所有其他以自我为中心的人只会不断地妨碍你。这就是为什么玛丽常常会噘着嘴，满脸不悦地给其他人一副厌恶的表情。
Mind you
(expression)
注意，提醒你
A hard but simple truth (expression)
这是一个艰难但又简单的事实
And so it went for Me-First Mary, day after day after day becoming less merry by the moment. Until one day Mary had to wonder, just for one moment beneath her pursed unmerry lips: “Maybe me-first isn’t the best way to be in this world. Maybe, maybe helping only yourself isn’t really helping yourself at all.”
如此以来，对于以自我为中心的玛丽，生活中的每一天每一刻都会变得更加不愉快。直到有一天，玛丽不得不在撅起嘴的一刹那开始怀疑：“也许以自我为中心并不是这个世界上最好的处事方式。也许，也许仅仅为自己着想并不能真的帮到自己。”
Was it possible that doing something helpful for some other someone really might help Mary too somehow? Was it possible Mary might feel a little merrier if she thought a little less about herself alone? Was it really possible that any of this was really possible in this me-first world? Mary pursed her lips again, tighter than usual.
做一些对其他“大人物”有帮助的事情是否可以真的同时帮到玛丽自己？如果玛丽少想一点点自己，她是否会感到更加快乐？这样的做法是否真的可以在一个以自我为中心的世界里实现？玛丽再次撅起了嘴，而且噘得比平时更高。
“No, that’s really not possible,” Mary said tartly to herself aloud. “My life’s hard enough just worrying about ‘me’ all the time! ‘Me,’ ‘me,’ ‘me’ every minute and I still can’t get what I want. Imagine how bad my life would be if I started worrying about any of ‘them’ too!”
“不，这真的不可能，”玛丽以尖锐的口吻大声对自己说，“我只是无时无刻地为“我”自己担心，这已经让我的生活够艰难的了！我的每一分钟脑海里都是“我”、“我”、“我”，我尚且无法得到我想要的。想象一下，如果我开始为其他人担心，我的生活得有多糟糕啊！”
By the moment (expression)
到…时
Somehow (adv.)
英/'sʌmhaʊ/ 美/'sʌmhaʊ/
以某种方法；莫名其妙地
Tartly (adv.) /'tɑrtli/
辛辣地；锋利地
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