两个牧羊人/张进和(赵金基译）

程思良

两个牧羊人/张进和
　　
　　山东半岛走廊的昌乐县，有一座山叫方山，山脚下小山村里有两位牧羊人经常一起为生产队放羊。在雨后的山岭上，他们经常能看到一些闪闪发光的石子。王老汉闲来无事捡拾着把玩，觉得此石不凡。于是，他就时不时地带几块回家，放在烟荷包里。老伴常笑他：“真是吃饱了闲的，这些烂石头能变成宝贝不成？”对王老头的举动，张老汉更是嗤之以鼻，逢人便说，王老汉真是个“棒子”，多大年纪的人啦，还像个孩子，拣些破烂石头干啥，既不顶吃，也不顶喝，有那闲情，还不如薅几把草回家喂兔子呢！
　　时光荏苒。1986年秋，一帮地矿队员来此勘察，王老汉拿出了“丽石”向他们显摆。队员们看后不禁大吃一惊：这是中国至今发现的质量最好的蓝宝石啊！
　　地矿部门马上组织勘察，结果发现昌乐北部450多平方公里的新生代火山玄武岩中，蓝宝石蕴藏量达数亿克拉！
　　王老汉献宝有功，成了名人，经常有记者上门采访；张老汉直恨自己眼拙，只能靠养兔子度日。
　　
　　Two Shepherds
　　
　　By Zhang Jinhe
　　
　　In Changle County along Shandong Peninsula there stood a mountain named Mount Fang, at whose foot lay a small village, in which there were two shepherds looking after the sheep for the production team. After a rain, they would find some glittering stones on the mountain. Lao Wang, one of the shepherds, spared his time to pick the stones and enjoy stroking them. Regarding those stones as extraordinary, Lao Wang brought several stones back home every now and then and put them in his tobacco pouch. At this his wife would laugh, “How idle you are with your stomach full! Should these humble stones turn into treasures?” Lao Zhang, the other shepherd, rather sneered at this, so much so that he announced Lao Wang to be a Bangzi (a slang which locally meant a moron) whenever he met someone. “How old is he? Appearing like a kid! What’s the point of picking those humble stones which can be neither eaten nor drunk? With his idle hands, why not pull out some fresh grass to feed the rabbits!
　　Years passed. In the autumn of 1986, a mining team came exploring this mountain. Lao Wang showed off his “precious stones” to the explorers, who were stunned at the very first sight. They were best-quality sapphires ever found in China!
　　Then the Mining Department organized a survey, thus discovering a reserve of sapphires weighing billions of carats, just in the volcanogenic basalts of 450 km2 north of Changle.
　　Contributing much to the discovery, Lao Wang had established himself as a celebrity who was frequently hunted by reporters. Meanwhile, Lao Zhang was complaining of his poor eyesight as he had only to earn his living by raising rabbits.
　　

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