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"This is the first phase of the job," he said.
“這是工作的第一階段。”英國人說，
"I have to separate out the sulfur. To do that successfully, I must have no fear of failure.
“我必須把硫磺中的雜質分離出去。我不能害怕失敗。
It was my fear of failure that first kept me from attempting the Master Work.
正是由于害怕失敗，我至今都沒嘗試獲取元精。
Now, I'm beginning what I could have started ten years ago.
現在，我已經開始做十年前就可以開始做的事情了。
But I'm happy at least that I didn't wait twenty years."
但是我很高興，因為畢竟沒等上二十年才做這件事。”
He continued to feed the fire, and the boy stayed on until the desert turned pink in the setting sun.
然后，他繼續往灶里加木柴，并觀望沙漠。
He felt the urge to go out into the desert, to see if its silence held the answers to his questions.
他產生了一種跑進沙漠的強烈沖動，他想看看寂靜能否回答他的問題。
He wandered for a while, keeping the date palms of the oasis within sight.
圣地亞哥漫無目的地走了一段時間，椰棗樹始終在視野之內。
He listened to the wind, and felt the stones beneath his feet.
耳朵聽著風聲，腳下踩著碎石，
Here and there, he found a shell, and realized that the desert, in remote times, had been a sea.
有時會碰上一片貝殼，于是他知道，在遙遠的過去，這沙漠曾是一片大海。
He sat on a stone, and allowed himself to become hypnotized by the horizon.
后來，他在一塊石頭上坐下，出神地望著遠方的地平線發呆。
He tried to deal with the concept of love as distinct from possession, and couldn't separate them.
他無法理解沒有占有欲的愛情，
But Fatima was a woman of the desert, and, if anything could help him to understand, it was the desert.
然而法蒂瑪是沙漠中的女人，如果是有誰教她這么做，那肯定是沙漠。
As he sat there thinking, he sensed movement above him.
他就這樣坐在那里，什么都不想，直到感覺頭頂有什么東西在移動。
Looking up, he saw a pair of hawks flying high in the sky.
他朝天上望去，只見兩只鷹正在高空翱翔。
He watched the hawks as they drifted on the wind.
男孩開始觀察那兩只鷹，以及它們在空中畫出的軌跡。
Although their flight appeared to have no pattern, it made a certain kind of sense to the boy. It was just that he couldn't grasp what it meant.
那些軌跡看上去雜亂無章，但是，對男孩卻有著某種意義，只是他還沒有弄懂其中的含義。
He followed the movement of the birds, trying to read something into it.
他決定一直觀察那兩只鷹，或許能看出什么名堂呢。
Maybe these desert birds could explain to him the meaning of love without ownership. He felt sleepy.
也許沙漠里的鳥類能向他解釋那種沒有占有欲的愛情。不久，男孩開始犯困，
In his heart, he wanted to remain awake, but he also wanted to sleep.
但他的內心要求他不得入睡：不但不能睡著，而且還要全神貫注。
"I am learning the Language of the World, and everything in the world is beginning to make sense to me ... even the flight of the hawks," he said to himself.
“我正在解讀宇宙的語言，地球上的萬物都有其意義，就連鷹的飛翔也如是。”他自言自語。
And, in that mood, he was grateful to be in love.
深深愛上一個女人實在是件值得慶幸的事。
When you are in love, things make even more sense, he thought.
當你戀愛的時候，萬物都變得更有意義，他想。
