one day a young man was standing in the middle of the town proclaiming that he had the most beautiful heart in the whole valley. a large crowd gathered and they all admired his heart for it was perfect. there was not a mark or a flaw in it. yes, they all agreed it truly was the most beautiful heart they had ever seen. the young man was very proud and boasted more loudly about his beautiful heart.

suddenly, an old man appeared at the front of the crowd and said, "why your heart is not nearly as beautiful as mine." the crowd and the young man looked at the old man's heart. it was beating strongly, but full of scars, it had places where pieces had been removed and other pieces put in, but they didn't fit quite right and there were several jagged edges. in fact, in some places there were deep gouges where whole pieces were missing.

the people stared — how can he say his heart is more beautiful, they thought? the young man looked at the old man's heart and saw its state and laughed. "you must be joking," he said. "compare your heart with mine, mine is perfect and yours is a mess of scars and tears."

"yes," said the old man, "yours is perfect looking but i would never trade with you. you see, every scar represents a person to whom i have given my love — i tear out a piece of my heart and give it to them, and often they give me a piece of their heart which fits into the empty place in my heart, but because the pieces aren't exact, i have some rough edges, which i cherish, because they remind me of the love we shared. sometimes i have given pieces of my heart away, and the other person hasn't returned a piece of his heart to me. these are the empty gouges — giving love is taking a chance. although these gouges are painful, they stay open, reminding me of the love i have for these people too, and i hope someday they may return and fill the space in my heart. so now do you see what true beauty is? "

the young man stood silently with tears running down his cheeks. he walked up to the old man, reached into his perfect young and beautiful heart, and ripped a piece out. he offered it to the old man with trembling hands.

the old man took his offering, placed it in his heart and then took a piece from his old scarred heart and placed it in the wound in the young man's heart. it fit, but not perfectly, as there were some jagged edges. the young man looked at his heart, not perfect anymore but more beautiful than ever, since love from the old man's heart flowed into his. they embraced and walked away side by side.

 

一個(gè)年輕人站在城鎮(zhèn)的中央，宣布他的心是整個(gè)山谷中最美麗的心。圍觀的群眾很多，他們都稱贊他的心的確是最完美的，沒有一點(diǎn)傷痕或者瑕疵。真的，他們一致認(rèn)為這實(shí)在是他們見過(guò)的最美麗的心。這個(gè)年輕人非常自豪，更加起勁地大聲吹捧自己那顆美麗的心。

突然，一位老人出現(xiàn)在人群面前，他說(shuō)：“你的心不如我的美麗。”圍觀群眾和年輕人都朝老人的心看去，它有力地跳動(dòng)著，卻布滿了傷疤，有的地方被挖走了，雖然重新補(bǔ)上了，但修補(bǔ)得不甚完整，留下參差不齊的疤痕。實(shí)際上，有的地方還露出很深的豁口。

人們睜大了眼睛——他們想：他怎能說(shuō)自己的心更美麗呢？年輕人看了看老人的心，見是這種情形，不禁笑了起來(lái)：“你不是在開玩笑吧？”他說(shuō)。“把你的心和我的比一下，我的心是那么完美，而你的心卻布滿了傷疤和裂痕。”

“是的，”老人說(shuō)，“你的心從表面來(lái)看很完美，但我絕不會(huì)跟你交換。你看，每個(gè)傷疤都代表我為別人獻(xiàn)出的一份愛——我掏出一塊心給他們，他們常常會(huì)掏出自己的一塊回贈(zèng)給我，但由于這兩塊不完全一樣，傷口的邊緣就留下了疤痕，不過(guò)我十分珍惜這些疤痕，因?yàn)樗鼈兡苁刮蚁肫鹞覀児餐瑩碛械膼坌摹Ｓ袝r(shí)我送出了心，其他人并沒有回贈(zèng)給我，因此就出現(xiàn)了這些深孔——獻(xiàn)出愛只是創(chuàng)造機(jī)會(huì)。盡管這些傷口疼痛，并且整日敞開著，卻能使我想起我給予他們的愛。我希望有一天，他們能夠回來(lái)填補(bǔ)上我心里的空間。你們現(xiàn)在明白什么是真正的美麗了吧？”