ing
Ages ago there was a great king, and he was wise. And he desired to lay laws unto his subjects.
He called upon one thousand wise men of one thousand different tribes to his capitol and lay down the laws.
And all this came to pass.
But when the thousand laws written upon parchment were put before the king and he read them, he wept bitterly in his soul, for he had not known that there were one thousand forms of crime in his kingdom.
Then he called his scribe, and with a smile upon his mouth he himself dictated laws. And his laws were but seven.
And the one thousand wise men left him in anger and returned to their tribes with the laws they had laid down. And every tribe followed the laws of its wise men.
Therefore they have a thousand laws even to our own day.
It is a great country, but it has one thousand prisons, and the prisons are full of women and men, breakers of a thousand laws.
It is indeed a great country, but the people thereof are descendants of one thousand law-givers and of only one wise king.
哲学家和补鞋匠
一个哲学家穿着破旧的鞋进了修鞋店，哲学家对鞋匠说：“请帮我修修鞋。”
鞋匠说：“我正在给另一个人修鞋，还有很多别人的鞋要修呢，然后才能修你的。把你的鞋留在这儿，今天穿走这双别人的吧，明天来取你自己的。”
听了这话，哲学家愤愤地说：“我决不穿别人的鞋。”
鞋匠说道：“好吧，你真的是个哲学家吗，就不能用别人的鞋来包裹你的脚吗？这条街上还有一个鞋匠，他比我更了解哲学家们，你去找他修吧。”
The Philosopher and The Cobbler
There came to a cobbler’s shop a philosopher with worn shoes. And the philosopher said to the cobbler, “Please mend my shoes.”
And the cobbler said,“I am mending another man’s shoes now, and there are still other shoes to patch before I can come to yours. But leave your shoes here, and wear this other pair today, and come tomorrow for your own.”
Then the philosopher was indignant, and he said, “I wear no shoes that are not mine own.”
And the cobbler said,“Well then, are you in truth a philosopher, and cannot enfold your feet with the shoes of another man? Upon this very street there is another cobbler who understands philosophers better than I do. Go you to him for mending.”
流浪者 第四章（4）
造桥人
阿栖河穿过安东齐城奔流入海，河上建了一座桥，以使城的两边的交通便利一点。桥是用石头造的，石头是用安东齐城的骡子从山里运回来的。
桥建成了，其中一根柱子上用希腊语和阿拉姆语刻着：“国王安东裘斯二世修建了此桥。”所有老百姓都穿过漂亮的石桥，到可人的阿栖河对岸去。
一天晚上，一个被认为疯疯癫癫的青年，爬到刻字的柱子上，他用木炭把字涂掉，在上边写上：“建桥的石头可是用骡子从山里搬回来的，你来来回回地从这上边经过，就是骑在安东齐骡子的背上，它们才是这座桥的修建者。”
老百姓看了青年所写的，有些人哈哈大笑，有些人大为惊诧。
有些人说：“是啊，我们都知道桥是谁建的，他不是有点儿疯疯癫癫的吗？”
可有一头骡子笑着对另一头骡子说：“难道你忘了，我们确实搬运了那些石头？可直到现在人们还说那座桥是安东裘斯国王建的呢。”
Builders of Bridges
In Antioch where the river Assi goes to meet the sea, a bridge was built to bring one half of the city nearer to the other half. It was built of large stones carried down from among the hills, on the backs of the mules of Antioch.
When the bridge was finished, upon a pillar thereof was engraved in Greek and in Aramaic, “This bridge was built by King Antiochus II.”
And all the people walked across the good bridge over the goodly river Assi.││網│
And upon an evening, a youth, deemed by some a little mad, descended to the pillar where the words were engraved, and he covered over the graving with charcoal, and above it wrote,“The stones of this bridge were brought down from the hills by the mules. In passing to and fro over it you are riding upon the backs of the mules of Antioch, builders of this bridge.”
And when the people read what the youth had written, some of them laughed and some marvelled.
And some said, “Ah yes, we know who has done this. Is he not a little mad?”
But one mule said, laughing, to another mule,“Do you not remember that we did carry those stones? And yet until now it has been said that the bridge was built by King Antiochus.”
扎德原野
一个旅行者在扎德大道上碰见了一个人，这个人就住在附近的村庄里。旅行者用手指着这片广阔的田野，问这个人：“这可是阿拉姆国王打败敌军的古战场？”
这个人回答道：“这儿从来不曾做过战场。以前在这片原野上有一座扎德城，城早已被夷为平地了。现在这里是一片沃野，不是吗？”
然后旅行者就和这个人分开了。
走了不到半英里远，旅行者又碰见了一个人，他又用手指着田野问：“那儿以前耸立着扎德城？”
这个人回答道：“这片土地上从来不曾有过什么城市。但这儿曾有过一座修道院，早已被南国的人民毁掉了。”
不久，正是在这条扎德大道上，旅行者又碰到了第三个人，他再次指着广阔的原野问道 ：“这个地方以前真的有一座修道院吗？”
但是这个人回答道：“附近从未有过什么修道院，只不过父辈和祖先们告诉过我们，曾经有块儿很大的陨石落在这里。”
旅行者继续往前走，心里很是纳闷。然后他遇见了一个老人，打过招呼后，他问：“先生，我在这条路上遇见了三个人，他们都住在附近，我向他们打听这个地方，每个人都否定了前面一个人所说的，每个人都给