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When I was in the third grade, we had a scavenger hunt at school.
在我上三年級的時候，我們會在學校玩尋物游戲。
We gathered up chalk, pencils, stones, and poorly hidden tchotchkes, rapidly filling our checklists. It was a very close race.
我們收集粉筆、鉛筆、石頭和隱藏得很差的一些小玩意，迅速填滿了我們的清單。這是一場勢均力敵的比賽。
I was out of breath when I reached the clover patch in search of the last, most hard-to-find item: a four-leaf clover.
我上氣不接下氣地跑到三葉草地去尋找最后一片葉子，是最難發現的那種：四葉三葉草。
I was pretty sure that I was going to win. I had a trump card.
我很確定我將贏得這場勝利，我有一張王牌。
The thing is, I have always been able to find four-leaf clovers. I just see them.
最重要的是，我總是能發現四葉草。我就是能看到它們。
I spent my childhood collecting and pressing four-leaf clovers into books at my mother's house.
我的童年是在母親家里收集四葉草并把它們壓在書里面度過的。
I started with big cloth- and leather-bound books. Joyce's Ulysses, the complete works of the Shakespeare, my great-grandmother's copy of Les Misérables.
我從布面和皮面的書籍開始。喬伊斯的《尤利西斯》，莎士比亞全集，還有我曾祖母的《悲慘世界》的抄寫本。
When I ran out of romantically bound volumes, I be-gan to slip my treasures into anything I could find: well-thumbed fiction paperbacks, cookbooks.
當我在浪漫裝訂的書里都放了四葉草后，我開始把我的寶藏放在我能發現的任何書里：經常翻閱的小說平裝本，烹飪書籍。
The same is true in my house today. Shake a book, and a papery treasure just might fall into your hand.
現在在我家的情況也是如此。搖晃一本書，一個薄紙樣的寶貝可能就會落到你的手上。
I believe that there is casual magic in everyday acts.
我認為在我們日常的行徑中都存在著偶然的魔法。
A few years ago, in Nova Scotia, my husband and I pulled off the road for a picnic.
幾年前，在新斯科舍省，我和丈夫開車去野餐。
The ground was thick with clover. Some shoots had four, five, even six leaves.
地上長滿了三葉草。有一些嫩芽有4片、5片甚至6片葉子。
I lined them up on the picnic table to admire as my husband, never yet having found one four-leaf clover, looked on with awe.
我把這些三葉草放在野餐桌上排成一排，欣賞著它們，而我那從沒發現過一個四葉三葉草的丈夫則敬畏著看著它們。
To me, it was simple. The differences in their shapes popped out, breaking the pretty pattern of the conventional clovers with their three perfect leaves.
對我來說，這很簡單。它們形狀的差異突然顯現出來，打破了傳統三葉草的有三片完美的葉子的美麗模式。
Two summers back, while wait-ing for an airport shuttle in Munich, I found a tiny four-leaf clover in a traf-fic circle and tucked it into my pass-port.
兩個夏天以前，在慕尼黑等機場班車的時候，我在一個交叉路口里發現了一株小小的四葉三葉草，把它塞進了我的護照里。
On the way home, my husband and I were upgraded to business class. Friends attributed our good luck to the clover.
在回家的時候，我和丈夫升級到了商務艙。朋友們都把我們的好運氣歸功于三葉草。
I think it's more likely that we were upgraded because a flight can-cellation
我認為更可能的原因是，在那之后的幾個晚上，由于航班延誤，
left us stranded in two cities on as many continents on subsequent nights and a kind customer service rep took pity on us.
我們被困在了兩個大洲的兩個城市里，一位好心的客服代表對我們表示了同情。
People disagree about whether the luck lies in the finding or in the pos-session of a clover.
運氣在于尋找還是為三葉草所有，人們在這個問題上存在分歧。
Some believe that the luck is lost if the four-leaf clover is even shown to somebody else, while others think the luck doubles if it is given away.
有些人認為，如果展示四葉三葉草給他人看的話，運氣就會消失。而其他人認為如果把它贈送給別人的話，運氣會加倍。
I believe that positiv-ity is compounded by sharing. I feel lucky to find the clovers so often,
我認為分享的話，積極會增多。我感覺很幸運能經常發現四葉三葉草，
but I don't think they influence my life any more than it does to share anything a little special—that momentary close-ness
但是，我覺得它們不會影響我的生活，就像是當我和朋友或陌生人進行一次特別的分享時一樣，
between you and a friend or a stranger, as you all lean in to wonder at a rare find.
我們都靠近去看一個特別的發現，由此產生一種瞬時的親密，這也不會影響我的生活。
What is luck, anyway? Does it mean you can't take credit for the things that happen to you?
不過，運氣到底是什么？這是否意味著你不能把發生在你身上的事情歸功于自己？
Should I have kept all the clovers I found instead of giving them away? I believe that there is casual magic in everyday acts.
與其贈送給別人，我應該把我發現的所有的三葉草都保留起來嗎？我認為在我們日常的行徑中都存在著偶然的魔法。
It's lucky simply to know what it is to seek out and love a genetically deformed clover—to know how to treasure difference.
僅僅需要知道，尋找并且愛上一個基因轉變的三葉草的目的是要讓人珍視差異，這就是幸運。
Every time I see a patch of clover, I feel a compul-sion to search that cannot be satisfied until I hold a four-leaf clover in my hands. It's a sort of mania.
每當我看到一片生長有三葉草的土地時，我就有一種尋找四葉三葉草的沖動，在發現之前，我是不會滿足的。我對這件事有一種狂熱。
