双语故事

Joyeux Noël retells the story of a well-documented event that occurred on a battlefield in France on Christmas Eve, 1914.

One engagement of the Great War (WWI) involved some 3,000 soldiers from the Scottish, French, and German armies. On Christmas Eve, the German side began to sing "Silent Night." The Scots answered with a bagpipe accompaniment, and soon all three sides were singing the same song in unison from their trenches 100 meters apart. Imagine them singing together, in three languages, from the same trenches where a few hours earlier they had been killing one another. What a contrast!

Coaxed into peace by the warmth of this universally loved song, the warring sides ventured out of their trenches and agreed on an unofficial truce. In some places along the line, the Christmas truce lasted for ten days. Enemies exchanged photos, addresses, chocolate, champagne, and other small gifts. They discovered that they had more in common than they realized, including a cat that wandered from side to side and made friends with everyone, which both sides claimed as their mascot.

The erstwhile enemies communicated as best they could in each other's language. The German commander, Horstmayer, said to French Lieutenant Audebert, "When we take Paris, it will all be over. Then you can invite me up for a drink at your house in Rue Vavin!" "Don't feel that you have to invade Paris to get a drink at my house," Audebert replied.

电影《圣诞快乐》（2005）（有译《近距作战》）重现了1914年平安夜在法国战场上所发生的一件事。这件事有史料为证。

这次交战发生在第一次世界大战期间，有来自苏格兰、法国和德国的3000名士兵卷入。平安夜到了，德军首先开始唱起《平安夜》。苏格兰士兵随之以风笛伴奏，很快，三方士兵开始从相距100米远的战壕里和谐地唱起同一首歌来。想象一下吧，他们在用三种不同的语言合唱，而在几个小时前，仍在这条战壕里，他们还在相互射击呢。多么大的反差！

这首普遍为人所爱的歌曲传达的温暖把交战各方带入了一种和平，他们大胆地走出战壕，同意非正式休战。某些地方，休战甚至达十天之久。双方士兵互换照片、地址、巧克力、香槟和其它一些小礼物。他们发现，他们竟有那么多共同之处，就连一只猫也在双方之间跑来跑去，跟大家交朋友，双方都称那是自己的吉祥物。

先前的敌人现在竭力用对方的语言来交流。德军司令官豪斯迈尔对法军中尉奥笛伯特说：“等我们占领巴黎时，一切就结束了。那时，你可以邀请我到你位于庐外林（Rue Vavin）的家里喝一杯！”“你不必觉得一定要侵占巴黎才能到我家里小酌，” 奥笛伯特回答说。

The friendship that was forged between the warring sides went beyond mere pleasantries. The morning after the Christmas truce ended, each side warned the other of artillery shelling that they knew was coming from their artillery units. Their newfound sense of camaraderie was so strong that each side even sheltered soldiers from the opposing side in their trenches to keep them from harm.

What brought about this incredible transformation? It all started with a shared love of Christmas music.

This incident reminds us that there is a cure to war, and that is to stop demonizing our enemies and learn to love them. Everyone needs to love and be loved. If we would each make an effort to get to know others with whom we seem to have little in common, we just might find, as the soldiers on that battlefield did, that we have quite a bit more in common than we realized.

交战双方建立的友谊超出了纯粹的轻松交谈。圣诞休战后的第二天上午，双方就警告对方，自己的炮兵要开火了。他们新建立的友情是那么深厚，甚至让对方士兵藏在自己的战壕里，以防被己方的炮弹伤到。

是什么造成了这种不可思议的改变？一切都从那首圣诞音乐所分享的爱开始。

这件事让我们想到，战争是可以终止的，那就是停止把我们的敌人描绘成魔鬼，学会爱他们。每个人都需要爱和被爱。如果我们每个人都努力去了解似乎和我们没有多少共同之处的人，可能会发现，就像战场上的那些士兵一样，我们和那些人之间的共同之处比我们认为的要多得多。

Images from the movie Joyeux Noel (《圣诞快乐》（2005）（有译《近距作战》)

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建造生命: 孩子的美德

9/5/2017

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孩童的第一本品格童书。配有大量鲜艳图片并简单的句子。

点击这里下载免费电子书。

建造生命_-_孩子的美德.pdf
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上帝和我: 宽容 - God and Me: Tolerance

1/17/2017

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一颗水蜜桃的力量

8/30/2016

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Click here to read this story for children in English.

在第二次世界大战，托马斯那一师军队被义大利军队掳获，结果他和他的同袍被带去义大利。那些掳获者将他们遊街示众，并想尽办法公开羞辱他们。路人也参与，尽情嘲笑他们，还吐口水在他们脸上，将愤怒和仇恨发洩在这些人身上。

突然之间，在这些嘲弄人群当中，“一个年轻女孩出来，将一颗水蜜桃塞到我手里，我还来不及开口感谢她，她就一溜烟的跑掉了。”这位老兵这么回述当时的情景。“那是我这辈子嚐过的最美味的水蜜桃。”

托马斯在他古稀之年了，可当他叙述那个年轻义大利女孩在两国交战、彼此充满仇恨与敌意，却对他表现善意的经历时，他的眼神散发出异彩。在他深感耻辱和绝望的时刻，这个不知名的女孩竟抵抗社会压力，出於怜悯心给他一个简单而真诚的礼物。她不把他视为敌国的一位士兵，而是一个受伤，需要仁慈对待的人。后来战事渐告结束，那颗水蜜桃的记忆帮助他度过了多年艰辛。之后，每当他需要力量去保守希望，把战争的伤痛及痛苦抛到脑后、开始一个新生命时，他都会想起那颗水蜜桃。

那位年轻的义大利女孩或许并没有把她的善行放在心上，对她来说毕竟那“只是”一颗水蜜桃而已。她大概从未想到这位士兵竟会在他下半辈子里，如此珍惜她的善行，更再没想到这故事会在纪录片里被特别讲述，进而鼓舞其他人也将这感人的故事传述下去。

愿我们透过分享爱与怜悯的“水蜜桃”来缔造和平，即便这么做会有风险或打破传统。因为这么一来，“果子”就会被栽种下来－－使疲累的灵魂得力，使悲伤的心喜悦，使寂寞的人感到被爱－－这是非常值得我们付出代价的。
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Photo credits:
Image 1: National Geographic; used under Fair Use guidelines.
Image 2: Patrick via Flickr; used under Creative Commons-Attribution-Non Commercial license.
Image 3: Microsoft Clipart

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