英文
The Shepherd Boy
There was once on a time a shepherd boy whose fame spread far and wide because of the wise answers which he gave to every question. The King of the country heard of it likewise, but did not believe it, and sent for the boy. Then he said to him,“If you can give me an answer to three questions which I will ask you, I will look on you as my own child, and you shall dwell with me in my royal palace.”The boy said,“What are the three questions?”The King said,“The first is, how many drops of water are there in the ocean?”The shepherd boy answered,“Lord King, if you will have all the rivers on earth dammed up so that not a single drop runs from them into the sea until I have counted it, I will tell you how many drops there are in the sea.”The King said,“The next question is, how many stars are there in the sky?”The shepherd boy said,“Give me a great sheet of white paper,”and then he made so many fine points on it with a pen that they could scarcely be seen, and it was all but impossible to count them; any one who looked at them would have lost his sight. Then he said,“There are as many stars in the sky as there are points on the paper; just count them.”But no one was able to do it. The King said,“The third question is, how many seconds of time are there in eternity.”Then said the shepherd boy,“In Lower Pomerania is the Diamond Mountain, which is two miles high, two miles wide, and two miles deep; every hundred years a little bird comes and sharpens its beak on it, and when the whole mountain is worn away by this, then the first second of eternity will be over.”
The King said,“You have answered the three questions like a wise man, and shall henceforth dwell with me in my royal palace, and I will regard you as my own child.”
中文
小牧童
从前有一个小牧童，无论问他什么问题，他都能聪明地回答，因而远近闻名。国王对此亦有所耳闻，但他不信，就派人把小牧童叫来。国王对他说：“我向你提三个问题，如果你能回答，我就把你看成自己的亲生儿子，叫你和我一起住在我的王宫里。”小牧童问：“是哪三个问题？”国王说：“第一个问题是：海洋里有多少滴水？”小牧童回答说：“国王陛下，请您把大地上所有江河统统堵塞起来，在我数完之前，不让一滴水流入海洋，那样，我就能告诉您大洋里有多少滴水。”国王说：“另一个问题是：天上有多少星星？”小牧童说：“请您给我一大张白纸。”然后他在纸上用笔点了好多极细小的小点儿，密密麻麻，看都看不清楚，更没法去数，谁要是往纸上看一会儿，眼睛都会昏花。牧童接着说：“这张纸上有多少个点儿，天上就有多少颗星星，你们数一数好了。”可是，有谁能数得清楚呢？国王说：“第三个问题是：永恒有多少秒？”小牧童回答说：“后波美拉尼亚有一座金刚石山，到山顶要一小时路程，往里也要走一小时。每隔一百年有一只小鸟飞去那儿，在金刚石上磨鸟嘴，到了整座山被鸟嘴磨平的时候，永恒的第一秒钟才算过去。”
国王说：“你像一个智者那样回答了这三个问题，从今以后，你就和我一起住在我的王宫里，我要像对待亲生儿子那样待你。”
