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Higher rice-yields allowed farmers to turn more land to other uses—fruit, vegetables, fishponds—so that people not only ate more, but ate well. And this message was for the world, as well as China.
更高的水稻產量讓農民能夠把一部分土地用來種植水果蔬菜，或是建造魚塘等其他用途，這樣人們既能吃飽飯，飲食又豐富。這樣的經驗不僅讓中國人受益，甚至還惠及了全球。
Once his rice grew well, he sent seeds to the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. Then he travelled widely, all across Asia and to Africa and America, as well as inviting foreign students to the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Centre in Changsha to instruct them. A fifth of all rice grown globally now comes from hybrids that were his.
在發現雜交稻的優勢后，袁隆平立即將種子送到位于菲律賓的國際水稻研究所。之后，他游歷亞洲、非洲和美洲，還邀請外國學生到長沙的湖南雜交水稻研究中心來學習。現在，全球五分之一的水稻出自他的雜交品種。
For this he won the Medal of the Republic, China’s highest, and the World Food Prize. An asteroid was named after him. There was talk of the Nobel, too. All that seemed just smoke to him.
他因此獲得了中國的最高獎項“共和國勛章”，以及世界糧食獎。有一顆小行星也被命名為“袁隆平星”。坊間還有傳言說他將獲得諾貝爾獎。這些美譽于他而言不過是過眼云煙。
Though he was rich, from his shares in a seed company that used his name, he looked like a peasant, wiry as a twig, with his face leathered by sun and his big hands rough from “playing in the mud” all day.
雖然他經濟富裕（入股了一家以他的名字命名的種子公司），但他還是保持著質樸的農民形象，身材瘦削，皮膚黝黑，一雙大手因整天“與泥巴打交道”變得粗糙。
He was far happier in his short-sleeved work-shirts, out in his rice, or stripped off swimming in any wild river he could find, than in a tang suit in some conference hall. At social gatherings, he would offer round the first cigarettes and the nimblest jokes.
比起穿著唐裝端坐在會議廳里，他更喜歡套著短袖工作服在稻田里穿行，或者脫下衣服扎進河游泳。與人社交時，他會先給大伙遞煙意思一番，再講個笑話逗趣；
When he lost at mahjong, no one was more delighted to pay the penalty of creeping through under the table.
打麻將輸了，他也樂呵呵地接受鉆桌底的懲罰。
Why he had become an agronomist was tricky to explain. His mother, whom he adored, did not want him to do it.
他為什么成為農學家，這事兒說來話長。袁隆平很尊敬他的母親，而母親其實不希望他從事農業工作。
He was a city boy anyway, born in Beijing, though he enjoyed the countryside and the thought of growing luscious things, like the grapes Charlie Chaplin could pick at his kitchen door in “Modern Times”.
雖然在北京這座大城市出生，但是袁隆平很喜歡鄉村，喜歡種植甘美的作物，比如《摩登時代》中查理·卓別林在廚房門口就能摘到的葡萄。
As he made his way to the Anjiang agricultural school, in a charcoal-fuelled bus struggling through the mountains, he had doubts himself. What settled his vocation was famine.
在去往安江農校的路上，他乘坐一輛燒木炭的客車，在高山峻嶺中顛簸前行，他的內心也曾有疑慮。最終，饑荒讓他堅定了自己的從農之路。
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