鼓励

Encouragement

Some of the greatest success stories of history have followed a word of encouragement or an act of confidence by a loved one or a trusting friend. Had it not been for a confident wife, Sophia, we might not have listed among the great names of literature the name of Nathaniel Hawthorne. When Nathaniel, a heartbroken man, went home to tell his wife that he was a failure and had been fired from his job in a customhouse, she surprised him with an exclamation of joy.

“Now,” she said triumphantly, “you can write your book!”

“Yes,” replied the man, with sagging confidence, “and what shall we live on while I am writing it?”

To his amazement, she opened a drawer and pulled out a substantial amount of money.

“Where on earth did you get that?” he exclaimed.

“I have always known you are a man of genius,” she told him. “I knew that someday you would write a masterpiece. So every week, out of the money you gave me for housekeeping, I saved a little bit. So here is enough to last us for one whole year.”

From her trust and confidence came one of the greatest novels of American literature—The Scarlet Letter.

【助读词汇】

◇exclamation  n. 呼喊，惊叫

◇sag vi.下垂，下陷，下降

◇triumphantly adv. 胜利地，成功地

◇substantial adj. 坚固的，实质的

【参考译文】

鼓励

历史上一些最伟大的成功故事往往是因为一句话的鼓励，或是爱人或知己充分信任的结果，如果不是因为妻子苏菲亚的信任，那么也许我们就不会把纳撒尼尔·霍桑的名字列在著名的文学家中。当纳撒尼尔这个伤心的人回家告诉妻子说，他很失败，因为他在海关的工作已经被炒鱿鱼了，让他惊讶的是，妻子充满了兴奋的喜悦。

“现在，”她洋洋得意地说，“你可以写你的书了。”

“是的，”日渐失去信心的他回答道，“那么在我写作的时候我们靠什么生活呢？”

让他吃惊的是，她打开抽屉并且拿出一笔可观的金额。

“你从哪得来的？”他喊道。

“我一直知道你是一个天才，”她告诉他，“我知道有一天你可能会写出一部杰作。因此每周你给我的生活费，我存了一点点，所以现在有足够的钱够我们生活一整年。”

因为她的信任和信心，于是诞生出了对美国文学贡献最大的小说之一——《红字》。

【人生启迪】

处于失败之中的我们总是会抱怨很多，时机不对、资金不够……很多时候，我们失败并不是因为我们没有取得成功的实力，而是因为我们缺少了一份信心，不要妄自菲薄，你能做到的其实很多，充满自信，也许你离成功只是一步之遥！