So The Elephants March    所以象群前进……

 
A curious fact about elephants is this: In order to survive, they mustn't fall down. Every other animal can stumble and get back up again. But an elephant always stands up, even to sleep. If one of the herd slips and falls, it is helpless. It lies on its side, a prisoner of its own weight. Although the other elephants will press close around it in distress and try to lift it up again, there isn't usually much they can do. With slow heaving breaths, the fallen elephant dies. The others stand vigil, then slowly move on.

关于大象有个令人疑惑的事实，为了生存，他们绝不能倒下。其他种类的动物都能跌倒而后爬起，但一头大象永远直立，即便睡觉的时候。如果象群中有一头滑跤而倒下，那它完了，它倒向一侧，被自己的重量给压扁。虽然其他象群会忧心地凑过来，尽力想帮它站起身，但其实没多大用处。一阵缓慢的鼻息后，倒下的那只死了。其他的象围立守夜，然后再次启程。

This is what I learned from nature books, but I wonder if they are right. Isn't there another reason why elephants can't fall down? Perhaps they have decided not to. Not to fall down is their mission.As the wisest and most patient of the animals, they made a pact -- I imagine it was eons ago, when the ice ages were ending. Moving in great herds across the face of the earth, the elephants first spied tiny men prowling the tall grasses with their flint spears.

这是我从自然类书籍上学到的，但是，我怀疑他们是不是说对了？有没有别种原因让象不能倒下？或许，是它们决定如此；永不倒下是它们的任务。成为某种最有智慧和耐心的动物，他们合立下这个盟誓——在世世代代以前，正当冰河时期结束，它们成群结队地横越地表，第一次瞥见了矮小的人类正手持硬矛在丛草间潜行。

"What fear and anger this creature has," the elephants thought. "But he is going to inherit the earth. We are wise enough to see that. Let us set an example for him." 

 “这生物有着何等的害怕与愤怒，”象们想着，“但他将继承着星球，我们足够聪明到看清这点。让我等为他立下一些榜样吧。”

Then the elephants put their grizzled heads together and pondered. What kind of example could they show to man? They could show him that their power was much greater that his, for that was certainly true. They could display their anger before him, which was terrible enough to uproot whole forests. Or they could lord it over man through fear, trampling his fields and crushing his huts.

所以象们把灰色的大脑袋凑在一起沉思着，什么样的榜样可以展示给人类呢？它们可以让人知道他们的力量，可比他大得多，这是无庸置疑的；它们也能在他面前愤怒，那足够惊天动地，拔起整座树林；或者它们能令人类完全慑服，藉着践踏他的田园来摧毁他的家。

In moments of great frustration, wild elephants will do all of these things, but as a group, putting their heads together, they decided that man would learn best from a kinder message. 
在极度沮丧中，狂野的大象会做出任何这些事；但大伙作为一个整体，把它们的脑子聚起来想了又想，它们决定了人类可以从一个比较温和的讯息中，学到最多。

"Let us show him our reverence for life," they said. And from that day on, elephants have been silent, patient, peaceful creatures. They let men ride them and harness them like slaves. They permit children to laugh at their tricks in the circus, exiled from the great African plains where they once lived as lords. 

“让我们教会他我们对生命的虔诚，”大象说。而从那天起，象们就变成了一种安静、耐心、和平的动物。它们让人骑上它，并且役使得像个奴隶；它们容许孩子们在马戏团里看它们耍把戏，看得哈哈大笑；甚至永远离开了它们曾经统御称王的非洲大草原。

But the elephants' most important message is in their movement. For they know that to live is to move. Dawn after dawn, age after age, the herds march on, one great mass of life that never falls down, an unstoppable force of peace.

但大象传递出的最深沉的讯息是：它们永不倒下。因它们深知，活着就是要移动着，一天过一天，一岁接一岁，族群要前进，一群有份量的生命永不停顿卧倒，一份不休止的和平力量。 

Innocent animals, they do not suspect that after all this time, they will fall from a bullet by the thousands. They will lie in the dust, mutilated by our shameless greed. The great males fall first, so that their tusks can be made into trinkets. Then the females fall, so that men may have trophies. The babies run screaming from the smell of their own mothers' blood, but it does them no good to run from the guns. Silently, with no one to nurse them, they will die, too, and all their bones bleach in the sun. 

可怜的老天真！它们从不知终究有天将遭无数人类以一颗子弹解决。它们将因我们无耻的贪婪而毁伤，倒在尘土上。最大的公象将先遭殃，因为它们的长牙可以做小饰物；接下来是母象，因为某些人因而可以有了战利品，而小象将嗅出母亲的血味而狂奔哭嚎。这些小象逃离了子弹也活不长，静静地，在没有父母照顾的情况下，它们一定也会死，化成太阳下闪闪发亮的白骨。

In the midst of so much death, the elephants could just give up. All they have to do is drop to the ground. That is enough. They don't need a bullet: Nature has given them the dignity to lie down and find their rest. But they remember their ancient pact and their pledge to us, which is sacred. 

置身于如许多的死亡中，象群也只得屈服。所有它们能做的就只是投身向地——这已足够了，无须任何子弹——大自然已经该给了它们躺下的尊严，并找到安歇。但它们仍记得远祖的那份盟誓和对我们的约定，那些神圣的约定。

So the elephants march on, and every tread beats out words in the dust: "Watch, learn, love. Watch, learn, love." Can you hear them? One day in shame, the ghosts of ten thousand lords of the plains will say, "We do not hate you. Don't you see at last? We were willing to fall, so that you,dear small ones, will never fall again." 

所以大象继续前进，每一步都在尘土上写着字：“观看、学习、爱”，“观看、学习、爱”——你能听到吗？有天当我们羞耻时，一万只曾是大草原之王的象魂会说：“我们并不恨你，你们究竟看出来没有？我们是自愿倒下，以便你们——这些可爱的人类——再也不会摔倒。”