Me first Mary
自我的瑪麗

Mary was an odd name for this particular Mary. For this particular Mary often pursed her unmerry lips in disgust at some other someone. Someone, anyone who got in her way during any particular day. Mary was as unmerry as any someone could be.
對于這位名叫瑪麗的女孩，這個名字似乎起得不太恰當。這位瑪麗經常撅起嘴，滿臉不悅地給其他人一副厭惡的表情。如果有那么一天，有人妨礙了她，她就會表現得像其他人那樣非常不開心。
Knowing that she lived in a me-first world, Mary often used her lips to speak aloud the two words that were mostly on her mind. "Me." And "my." (Sometimes Mary often spoke the words "I" and "mine" too.) These were the syllables that tumbled off her tongue from each day's first sun flicker to every night's final moon gleam.
瑪麗知道自己生活在一個以自我為中心的世界里，于是她常常噘著嘴說出頭腦里最常出現的那兩個詞——“我”和“我的”。從每天清晨第一縷陽光到夜間最后一絲月光，這兩個詞都會與瑪麗隨影而行。
Driving to work, she fumed that an accident ahead on the highway put "me" behind schedule. Vacationing in the mountains, she snorted that her boyfriend's sprained ankle ruined "my" holiday. Watching television, she sniffed that the terrible news about terrible floods somewhere interrupted "my" favourite program.
開車上班時，她會憤怒地說，公路前方發生的交通事故會讓“我”遲到。在山上度假時，她會不耐煩地抱怨說，是因為她男朋友扭傷了腳踝毀了“我的”假期。看電視時，她會嗤之以鼻地說，關于發生在某個地方的可怕的洪水的可怕的新聞打斷了“我”最喜歡的節目。
The drivers in the accident and the boyfriend in the mountains and the people living near the terrible floods were not tickled by these events either of course, though this thought never meandered completely into Mary's mind.
事故中的司機和山上的男朋友，以及生活在發生可怕洪水附近的人們，當然不愿意自己遇到這種事情，但瑪麗從來沒有從這個角度思考過問題。
Mary wasn't mean, mind you. No, Mary didn't want to hurt anyone, of course not. Mary had just learned the big lesson in life very, very well: If you're helping someone else, you're not helping yourself. It was a hard but simple truth, as every someone understood in this me-first world.
請注意，瑪麗并不壞。當然，她也不想傷害任何人。瑪麗只不過剛剛從生活中非常深刻地領悟到一件事：你在幫助別人的時候，就沒法為自己著想。這是一個很難領悟但又很簡單的事實，因為每個人都會在這個以自我為中心的世界中有所領悟。
The trouble with being just one me in a me-first world is all those other me-firsters living in your world. Yes, all those other me-first people just keep getting in your way. Which was why Mary so often pursed her unmerry lips in disgust at some other someone. Which was why Mary was as unmerry as any someone could be.
生活在一個以自我為中心的世界里的煩惱是，你的世界中并非你一個人，而是還同時生活著所有其他以自我為中心的人。是的，所有其他以自我為中心的人只會不斷地妨礙你。這就是為什么瑪麗常常會噘著嘴，滿臉不悅地給其他人一副厭惡的表情。
And so it went for Me-First Mary, day after day after day becoming less merry by the moment. Until one day Mary had to wonder, just for one moment beneath her pursed unmerry lips: "Maybe me-first isn't the best way to be in this world. Maybe, maybe helping only yourself isn't really helping yourself at all."
如此以來，對于以自我為中心的瑪麗，生活中的每一天每一刻都會變得更加不愉快。直到有一天，瑪麗不得不在撅起嘴的一剎那開始懷疑：“也許以自我為中心并不是這個世界上最好的處事方式。也許，也許僅僅為自己著想并不能真的幫到自己。”
Was it possible that doing something helpful for some other someone really might help Mary too somehow? Was it possible Mary might feel a little merrier if she thought a little less about herself alone? Was it really possible that any of this was really possible in this me-first world? Mary pursed her lips again, tighter than usual.
做一些對其他“大人物”有幫助的事情是否可以真的同時幫到瑪麗自己？如果瑪麗少想一點點自己，她是否會感到更加快樂？這樣的做法是否真的可以在一個以自我為中心的世界里實現？瑪麗再次撅起了嘴，而且噘得比平時更高。
"No, that's really not possible," Mary said tartly to herself aloud. "My life's hard enough just worrying about 'me' all the time! 'Me,' 'me,' 'me' every minute and I still can't get what I want. Imagine how bad my life would be if I started worrying about any of 'them' too!"
“不，這真的不可能，”瑪麗以尖銳的口吻大聲對自己說，“我只是無時無刻地為“我”自己擔心，這已經讓我的生活夠艱難的了！我的每一分鐘腦海里都是“我”、“我”、“我”，我尚且無法得到我想要的。想象一下，如果我開始為其他人擔心，我的生活得有多糟糕啊！”

The parable of the marbles
玩彈珠的男孩

Once upon a time, there was a foolish boy who had a bag full of beautiful marbles. Now this boy was quite proud of his marbles. In fact, he thought so much of them that he would neither play with them himself nor would he let anyone else play with them.
從前，一個傻男孩有一整袋漂亮的彈珠。此時此刻，這個男孩為擁有這些彈珠而感到非常自豪。事實上，他滿腦子想得都是這些彈珠，以至于他從來沒有玩過它們，也從來沒有讓任何其他人玩過它們。
He only took them out of the bag in order to count and admire them; they were never used for their intended purpose. Yet that boy carried that coveted bag of marbles everywhere he went.
他只把它們從袋子里拿出來，為的是數一數并欣賞它們。這些彈珠從未發揮過它們的真正用途。然而，這個男孩到處隨身攜帶著這一包令人垂涎欲滴的彈珠，形影不離。
Well, there was also a wise boy who wished he could have such a fine bag of marbles. So this boy worked hard and earned money to purchase a nice bag to hold marbles. Even though he had not yet earned enough with which to purchase any marbles, he had faith and purchased the marble bag. He took special care of the bag and dreamed of the day it would contain marbles with which he could play and that he could share with his friends.
有一個聰明的男孩也希望自己能有這樣一袋漂亮的彈珠。于是，這個男孩努力工作，賺了錢，買了一個用來盛彈珠的漂亮袋子。盡管他還沒有賺到足夠買彈珠的錢，但他有信心，而且已經買到了彈珠袋。他將這個袋子照顧得特別好，夢想著有一天這個袋子里能盛著彈珠，并且自己可以玩這些彈珠，還可以與朋友們一起分享。
Alas, the foolish boy with all of the marbles didn't take care of the marble bag itself, and one day the bag developed a hole in the bottom seam. Still, he paid no attention and, one by one, the marbles fell out of the bag.
可嘆的是，那個隨身攜帶全部彈珠的傻男孩并沒有照顧好自己的彈珠袋，一天袋子的底縫處開了個洞。但是，他并沒有注意到這個洞，于是彈珠一個接一個地從袋子里掉了出來。
It didn't take long for the foolish boy's marble bag developed a hole and the wise boy began to find those beautiful marbles, one at a time, lying unnoticed on the ground. And, one by one, he added them to his marble bag. The wise boy thus gained a fine bag full of marbles in no time at all. This boy played with the marbles and shared them with all of his friends. And he always took special care of the bag so he wouldn't lose any.
沒過多久，這個傻男孩的彈珠袋上的小洞就變成了大洞，與此同時，那個聰明的男孩開始一個接一個地發現那些漂亮的彈珠。這些彈珠就那么無人察覺地散落在地上。然后，他一個接一個地把它們撿起來，放入自己的彈珠袋中。于是，這個聰明的男孩一下子就得到了滿滿一袋子漂亮的彈珠。之后，這個男孩開始玩這些彈珠，并與他的所有朋友一起分享。而且，他始終對自己的彈珠袋照顧得非常好，不讓任何一枚彈珠從自己的手中丟掉。