The smile

"I was sure that I was to be killed. I became terribly nervous. I fumbled

[1] in my pockets to see if there were any cigarettes, which had escaped[2]

their search. I found one and because of my shaking hands, I could barely get it to my lips. But I had no matches, they had taken those. "I looked through the bars at my jailer. He did not make eye contact with me. I called out to him ’Have you got a light?’ He looked at me, shrugged [3]and came over to light my cigarette. "As he came close and lit the match, his eyes inadvertently locked with mine. At that moment, I smiled. I don’t know why I did that. Perhaps it was nervousness, perhaps it was because, when you get very close, one to another, it is very hard not to smile. In any case, I smiled. In that instant, it was as though a spark jumped across the gap between our two hearts, our two human souls. I know he didn’t want to, but my smile leaped through the bars and generated a smile on his lips, too. He lit my cigarette but stayed near, looking at me directly in the eyes and continuing to smile.

"I kept smiling at him, now aware of him as a person and not just a jailer. And his looking at me seemed to have a new dimension[4] too. ’Do you have kids?’ he asked. " ’Yes, here, here.’ I took out my wallet and nervously fumbled for the pictures of my family. He, too, took out the pictures of his family and began to talk about his plans and hopes for them. My eyes filled with tears. I said that I feared that I’d never see my family again, never have the chance to see them grow up. Tears came to his eyes, too. "Suddenly, without another word, he unlocked my cell and silently led me out. Out of the jail, quietly and by back routes, out of the town. There, at the edge of town, he released me. And without another word, he turned back toward the town.

"My life was saved by a smile." Yes, the smile―the unaffected, unplanned, natural connection between people.. I really believe that if that part of you and that part of me could recognize each other, we wouldn’t be enemies. We couldn’t have hate or envy or fear.

微 笑

“一想到自己明天就沒命了，不禁陷入極端的惶恐。我翻遍了口袋，終于找到一支沒被他們搜走的香煙，但我的手緊張得不停發(fā)抖，連將煙送進(jìn)嘴里都成問題，而我的火柴也在搜身時(shí)被拿走了。 “我透過鐵欄望著外面的警衛(wèi)，他并沒有注意到我在看他，我叫了他一聲：‘能跟你借個(gè)火嗎?’他轉(zhuǎn)頭望著我，聳了聳肩，然后走了過來，點(diǎn)燃我的香煙。 “當(dāng)他幫我點(diǎn)火時(shí)，他的眼光無(wú)意中與我的相接觸，這時(shí)我突然沖著他微笑。我不知道自己為何有這般反應(yīng)，也許是過于緊張，或者是當(dāng)你如此靠近另一個(gè)人，你很難不對(duì)他微笑。不管是何理由，我對(duì)他笑了。就在這一剎那，這抹微笑如同火花般，打破了我們心靈間的隔閡。受到了我的感染，他的嘴角不自覺地也現(xiàn)出了笑容，雖然我知道他原無(wú)此意。他點(diǎn)完火后并沒立刻離開，兩眼盯著我瞧，臉上仍帶著微笑。

“我也以笑容回應(yīng)，仿佛他是個(gè)朋友，而不是個(gè)守著我的警衛(wèi)。他看著我的眼神也少了當(dāng)初的那股兇氣，‘你有小孩嗎?’他開口問道。 “‘有，你看?！夷贸隽似A，手忙腳亂地翻出了我的全家福照片。他也掏出了照片，并且開始講述他對(duì)家人的期望與計(jì)劃。這時(shí)我眼中充滿了淚水，我說我害怕再也見不到家人。我害怕沒機(jī)會(huì)看著孩子長(zhǎng)大。他聽了也流下兩行眼淚。 “突然間，他二話不說地打開了牢門，悄悄地帶我從后面的小路逃離了監(jiān)獄，出了小鎮(zhèn)，就在小鎮(zhèn)的邊上，他放了我，之后便轉(zhuǎn)身往回走，不曾留下一句話。

“一個(gè)微笑居然能救自己一條命?！薄笆堑?，微笑是人與人之間最自然真摯的溝通方式。如果我們能用心靈去認(rèn)識(shí)彼此，世間不會(huì)有結(jié)怨成仇的憾事;恨意、妒嫉、恐懼也會(huì)不復(fù)存在。

背景介紹：

《微笑》是法國(guó)作家安東尼·圣艾修伯里的作品，圣艾修伯里是名飛行員，二次大戰(zhàn)對(duì)抗納粹時(shí)被擊落身亡，之前他也曾參加西班牙內(nèi)戰(zhàn)打擊法西斯分子。他根據(jù)這次經(jīng)驗(yàn)寫了一篇精彩的故事――《微笑》。他的代表作《小王子》是美國(guó)人都很熟悉的童話故事。

注釋：

1. fumble：我們總是能看到愛抽煙的男人在自己的身上到處摸煙的鏡頭，用動(dòng)詞fumble(亂摸、摸索)來形容他們的動(dòng)作是再恰當(dāng)不過了;下文中提到的nervously fumbled for the pictures也是借用fumble來形容“主人公非常緊張地在錢包搜索照片”的情景;現(xiàn)在如果你看到某人在“嘩啦啦”地翻書尋找他想要的內(nèi)容，你就可以大膽地用fumle來描述他的動(dòng)作，可以說He fumbled the pages looking for the place.

2. escape是個(gè)很調(diào)皮的詞匯，總是“逃離這兒，逃離那兒”， 此處的escaped their search字面上就表示出“(煙)逃離了他們的搜查”，也就是“沒有被他們搜走(的煙)”; 再看看I’m afraid your name escapes me. 看起來是“你的名字逃離了我”，也就是“我恐怕想不起你的名字了”。如果你是位老師，在課堂可能就會(huì)很嚴(yán)肅地對(duì)那些搗蛋的學(xué)生說上一句：Nothing escaped my attention.(什么都逃不過我的注意)，這下，那些學(xué)生該乖乖地聽課了吧。

3. shrug表示的動(dòng)作是“聳聳肩”，比如你把一個(gè)消息告訴給自己的好友時(shí)，“她聽到消息后只是聳聳肩”，你就可以描繪成She shrugged her shoulders at the news. 因?yàn)槲覀円步?jīng)常用“聳肩”的動(dòng)作來表示“不感興趣“或“無(wú)所謂”等心態(tài)，所以shrug可以引申地表示“冷漠、無(wú)所謂、不屑一顧”等意思。比如說在法庭上，法官已經(jīng)對(duì)某個(gè)貪污犯進(jìn)行了判決，但是此人仍然暴跳如雷地表示抗議，那么People only shruggled at his protests.看來“人們對(duì)他的抗議只是輕蔑地聳聳肩而已了”。

4. dimension：如果你已經(jīng)知道dimension是用來表示“尺寸、面積、大小”的，那么你就會(huì)很疑惑此處的a new dimension是什么意思。不過你要是聯(lián)想一下，既然dimension表示事物的“長(zhǎng)、寬、高”等各因素，這也就相當(dāng)于事物的“各個(gè)方面”了，所以此處的a new dimension也就相當(dāng)于“一個(gè)新的方面”，聯(lián)系上下文，可推斷出這個(gè)“新的方面”就是jailer對(duì)“主人公”態(tài)度的轉(zhuǎn)變，從最初的“兇”到現(xiàn)在的“友好”;如果你發(fā)現(xiàn)了男朋友身上的一個(gè)新特點(diǎn)，就可以對(duì)他說到 I found a new dimension of your personality. 我保證他一定要求你把his new dimension說出來的。