一个点有多么了不起

向红

In the middle of his dream， an artist woke up. He took his pencil and started to draw. He started with a dot. It took the artist hours to finish his picture， and then he went back into bed. Soon he went to sleep again， still smiling from thoughts of what he had drawn.

一位艺术家做梦做到一半的时候，醒了。他拿出铅笔，开始画画，从一个点开始画起。艺术家花了几个小时才完成他的画，然后他回到床上，很快他又睡着了，一想到自己画的东西仍旧微笑起来。

The dot， on the other hand， was not as happy. It looked around the page and saw lines all around. They were long and colorful， and the dot was not. “I dont belong3 here，” it thought. “I am just a small， meaningless4 dot and this picture does not need me.” So the dot jumped off of the page.

另一方面，這个圆点并不那么开心。它环顾四周，看到了周围的线条，长长的五颜六色的，而自己却不是这样的。它想：“我不属于这里，我只是一个小小的、毫无意义的点，这幅画不需要我。”于是，这个圆点跳出了画面。

It jumped at a newspaper that was lying5 nearby. There were dots all over the newspaper. “Surely this is where I am meant to be，” it said aloud. As soon as the dot jumped onto the front page of the newspaper， all the other dots started to shout. “You cannot stay here！” they said. “Why not？” asked the dot.

它跳到了放在附近的一张报纸上，报纸上到处都是点。“我肯定是属于这里的。”它大声说。这个点一跳到报纸的头版，其他所有点都开始大叫。“你不能留在这里！”它们说。 “为什么不行？”圆点问。

“We are not dots，” they said. “We are periods6， and we belong in books， and stories， and newspapers. You are just a dot.” The dot felt silly7， so it left the newspaper.

它们说：“我们不是点，我们是句号。我们可以出现在书籍、故事和报纸里，而你只是一个点而已。”圆点觉得自己很傻，于是离开了报纸。

Then the dot saw a white cube8 with dots on every side. “This is where I belong，” it thought to itself. “Excuse me，” it said to four dots sitting on a side of the cube， “I am a dot and you are dots， so may I join you？”

接着，圆点看到了一个白色的立方体，每边都有点。“这就是我的归属。”它暗自想着。 “打扰一下。”它对坐在立方体一侧的四个点说道，“我是一个点，你们也是点，那我可以加入你们吗？”

“No， you may not，” said the four dots. “We are dots on a pair of dice9. One more dot would ruin a pair of dice.” The dot felt silly again and jumped over to the artist who was sleeping.

“不，你不能。”四个点说，“我们是一对骰子上的点。多一个点就会毁掉一对骰子。”圆点再次觉得自己很愚蠢，然后跳到睡着了的艺术家身上。

“I wonder why he drew me...” thought the dot. And thats when it saw dots on the artists hand and arm. “Perhaps this is where I was meant to be，” said the dot as it crawled10 onto the artists hand and stopped.

“我想知道他为什么要画我……”圆点想。就在那时，它看到艺术家的手和胳膊上有好多点。“也许这就是我原本应该去的地方。”圆点说，然后它爬到艺术家的手上停了下来。

“Ahem，” said one of the dots on his arm. “Ahem！” said the arm dot even louder. “You are not a freckle11. You are a dot， and only freckles belong here.” “Arent freckles a type of dot？” asked the dot， who was not feeling welcome anymore.