境由心生THE POWER OF IMAGINATION 邓笛编译 布朗先生途经一个偏僻小镇，来到一家旅店打算投宿。这时，另一个人也正好来订房间。然而，不巧的是，这家旅店只剩下一个房间了。 “这是一间双人房，”服务员说，“如果你们不在意的话，就同住这间房？” 一开始，两人都不愿意，但由于此时已经是深更半夜，外面又开始下起了雨，他们就勉强同意了。他们稍事收拾之后，各自上床睡了。在睡梦中，布朗先生忽然听到有人喊叫，忙睁开眼，房间里漆黑一片。 “出了什么事？”他惊问。 同房间的那个人用虚弱的声音答道：“对不起，我不得不将你叫醒。我有哮喘病。我现在感觉很不好，头痛得十分厉害。如果你不想我死掉的话，麻烦你赶快帮我把窗户打开。” 布朗先生跳下床开灯，但是停电了，灯不亮。病人继续呻吟道：“空气、空气„„我需要新鲜空气。我快支撑不住了。” 布朗先生摸黑设法去找窗户。花了好长时间，他终于找到了，但是却怎么也打不开。同时，病人的声音越来越微弱。情急中，布朗先生操起身旁的一张椅子，猛地朝窗户砸去，玻璃哗啦一声破碎了。病人立刻停止了呻吟，紧接着说他感觉好多了，并向布朗先生表示感谢。 然后，两人平静入睡，直至天明。可是，他们醒来时，惊讶地发现，房间里唯一的一扇窗户关得紧紧的，完好无损，而室内的穿衣镜却成了碎片。 这就是境由心生。弥尔顿曾说：“心，乃是你活动的天地，你可以把地狱变成天国，亦可将天国变成地狱。”认识到这一点，在有着各种压力的现代生活中，我们可以通过营造心境，诗化生活，超越生活，实现一种思想、文化和精神的自我拯救，从而开垦出芳菲满地的精神桃花源来。 THE POWER OF IMAGINATION Mr. Brown got to a hotel late in the evening after a long journey. He asked the hall-porter whether there were any vacant rooms in the hotel. At the moment another traveller came to the hotel and asked the hall- porter for a room, too. The only vacant room was a double room, that is, a room with two beds in it. "Do you mind if you spend the night in that room together?" the hall-porter asked. "It'll be less expensive for you, you'll each pay half." At first the travellers didn't like the idea, but just then it began raining bard, and they were too tired to go to another hotel, so they changed their minds. They spoke to each other and then told the porter that they agreed to spend the night in die same room. Their things were carried in, and soon the two men went to sleep to the accompaniment of the rain. Suddenly Mr. Brown was woken up by a loud noise. It was quite dark. "What's the matter?" Mr. Brown asked in surprise. "Is anything the matter?" In a weak voice the second traveller answered, "I'm sorry, but I had to wake you up. I've got asthma. I feel very bad. In addition I've got a terrible headache. If you don't want me to die, open the window quickly." Mr. Brown jumped out of bed and began looking for his matches, but he couldn't find them in the dark, and the sick man went on moaning, "Air, air... I want fresh air. I'm dying." Mr. Brown still couldn't find the matches, so he tried to find the window. It took him some time, and at last he thought he had found it. But he was unable to open it. As the voice of the traveller grew weaker and weaker, Mr. Brown in horror took a chair and broke the window with it. The sick man immediately stopped moaning and said that he was very grateful and felt much better now. Then the two of them slept peacefully until morning. When they woke up next morning, they were surprised to see that the only window in the room was still closed, but the large looking-glass was broken to pieces. 本文来源：https://www.wddqw.com/doc/d7061e6952d380eb62946de2.html