文◎賽珍珠 繪◎汀 嶼

I believe in human beings,but my faith is without sentimentality①sentimentality 英 [,sent?men't?l?t?]美 [,s?nt?m?n't?l?ti] n. 多愁善感. I know that in environments of uncertainty②uncertainty 英 [?n's??t(?)nt?; -t?nt?]美 [?n's?tnti] n. 不確定，不可靠,fear, and hunger,the human being is dwarfed③dwarf 英 [dw??f] 美 [dw?rf]vi. 變矮小n. 侏儒，矮子vt. 使矮小adj. 矮小的and shaped without his being aware of it, just as the plant struggling under a stone does not know its own condition. Only when the stone is removed can it spring up④spring up 出現(xiàn)；涌現(xiàn)；萌芽freely into the light. The power to spring up is inherent⑤inherent英 [?n'h??r(?)nt; -'her(?)nt] 美 [?n'h?r?nt]adj. 固有的；內(nèi)在的；與生俱來的，遺傳的, and only death puts an end to it.

我相信人類，但我的信念絕非是濫施情感。我知道，處于饑餓、恐懼、無法預(yù)測(cè)未來的環(huán)境中，人類沒有意識(shí)到他們的發(fā)展遇到了很大的阻力，正如石頭下的植物掙扎著生長(zhǎng)卻不知道自己被石頭壓住了一樣。只有推開了石頭，植物才能自由地、蓬勃地在陽光下生長(zhǎng)。蓬勃生長(zhǎng)的力量是植物固有的，只有死亡才能奪去它們的這種力量。

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