28 How unlucky I am!
28 我太不幸了!
One winter Eric had very little money. His crops had been very bad that year, and his living standard became very low. He thought it would get better after the winter filled with bitter hardships. He gave his donkey less grain, and when after two days the donkey looked just the same. He said to himself, “The donkey was used to eating a lot. Now he is quickly getting used to eating less. And soon, he will get used to living on almost nothing.”
一年冬天,埃里克没什么钱了,那年他的作物收成很差,因此生活水平也变得很低。但他想等这个充满艰辛的冬天过完就会好起来的。他给他的驴子喂的谷物少了些,可两天后,驴子看上去仍然和先前一样,埃里克心想:“驴子以前习惯吃很多东西,但现在它很快就习惯少吃点了,不久它就会习惯不吃东西的。”
Each day Eric gave the donkey a little less food until it hardly ate anything.
埃里克每天给驴子的东西都会少一点,直到最后它几乎什么也捞不着吃了。
Then one foggy morning, when the donkey went swinging to market with a load of branches on its back, it suddenly died. “How unlucky I am!” said Eric, “just when my donkey had got used to eating hardly anything, it came to the end of its days in this world.”
一个有雾的早晨,当驴子悲伤驮着树枝摇摇晃晃到市场去时,突然死了。“我太不幸了,”埃里克说,“就在驴子习惯几乎什么也不吃的时候,它却走到了生命的尽头。”