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On Time
时间
Xi Murong
席慕蓉
A pot of cooked rice, if left out overnight, will become a bit dry because of loss of water. On the third day, it may not taste as good; and on the fourth day, as you'll discover, it becomes sour. If kept even longer, it will surely get mouldy.
一锅米饭，放到第二天，水气就会干了一些，放到第三天，味道恐怕就有问题了。第四天，我们几乎可以发现，它已经变坏了。再放下去，眼看就要发霉了。
Why? What has made this happen?
是什么原因，使那锅米饭变馊变坏？
It is time.
是时间。
However, there is another story about it. In Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, young parents brew a kind of wine with rice and store it underground in jars when they have a daughter. When the girl grows to the age of marriage, the wine is used to entertain guests at the wedding banquet. So it is given a fascinating name Nü Er Hong, literally “Daughter Red”.
可是，在浙江绍兴，年轻的父母生下女儿，他们就会在地窖里，埋下一坛坛米做的酒。十七八年后，女儿长大了，这些酒就成为了嫁女儿婚礼上的佳酿。它有一个美丽惹人遐思的名字，叫女儿红。
What turns the ordinary grains of rice into good wine?
是什么使那些平凡的米，变成芬芳甘醇的酒？
The answer is also time.
也是时间。
Is time a benevolent magician, or a wicked witch? It is neither. It only serves as a multiplier, which makes the original number increase by several times. When cooked rice begins to go bad, it will become worse with each passing day; however, when it begins to turn into wine, it will become mellower minute by minute.
到底，时间是善良，还是邪恶的魔术师呢？不是，时间只是一种简单的乘法，使原来的数值倍增而已。开始变坏的米 ，每一天都在不断的变得更腐臭。而开始变醇的美酒，每一分钟，都在继续增加它的芬芳。
Our society has witnessed how naive and innocent young men become detestable villains: once they begin to degenerate morally, they sink deeper and deeper into the mire of sin and cannot get out. Yet for those in constant pursuit of kindness, time is a factor that makes them wiser and more mature, ever more ready to extend warmth and understanding to the people around them.
在人世间，我们也曾看到过天真的少年一旦开始堕落，便不免越陷越深，终于变得满脸风尘，面目可憎。但是相反的，时间却把温和的笑痕，体谅的延伸，成熟的风采，智慧的神韵添加在那些追求善良的人身上。
Cooked rice may grow mouldy, yet it may also turn into good wine. What is it that makes the difference? It is the tiny bit of yeast mixed in.
同样是煮熟的米，坏饭与美酒的差别在哪里呢？就在那一点点酒曲。
We were all born to be human, yet some sink as low as beasts and some attain perfection of character. What again makes the difference? It is the desire for truth, kindness and beauty so dearly cherished in our hearts.
同样是父母所生的，谁堕落如禽兽，而谁又能提升成完美的人呢？是内心深处，紧紧环抱不放的，求真求善求美的渴望。
In which way do you want time to produce its effect on you? It all depends on what you expect of yourself.
时间怎样对待你我呢？这就要看我们自己是以什么样的态度来期许我们自己了。
