江消失了， 尽管乔纳森往日的生活十分孤苦，他却是天生的导师，而他表示爱的唯一方式，就是把他所了解到的真理、去告诉一只希望有机会亲自了解真理的海鸥。
Day 12
· ①“Iwonder about that, Jon,” said Sullivan standing near. “You have less fear oflearning than any gull I’ve seen in ten thousand years. “The Flock fell silent,and Jonathan fidgeted /'fɪdʒɪt/ inembarrassment.
“乔，不见得吧，”站在近旁的苏利万说，“一万年里，我都没见过你这样不怕学习的海鸥。”鸥群安静下来，乔纳森感到很窘，不知所措。
②“We can start working with time if youwish,” Chiang said, “till you can fly the past and the future. And then youwill be ready to begin the most difficult, the most powerful, the most fun ofall. You will be ready to begin to fly up and know the meaning of kindness andof love.”
“你要是愿意，我们可以先在时间上下功夫。”江说，“先学飞向过去和未来。然后你可以开始最困难、最有威力、也是最有趣的一课。你就可以开始往上飞，理解仁慈和爱的意义。”
③ A month went by, or something thatfelt about like a month, and Jonathan learned at a tremendous rate. He alwayshad learned quickly from ordinary experience, and now, the special student ofthe Elder Himself, he took in new ideas like a streamlined feathered computer.
一个月过去了，或者说好像觉得一个月过去了，乔纳森进步神速。过去从一般经验学，他的进步一向很快，现在作为长者的得意学生，他接受新思想的能力，就像一架羽毛做的流线型计算机。
· ④ Butthen the day came that Chiang vanished. He had been talking quietly with themall, exhorting /ɪɡ'zɔrt/them never to stoptheir learning and their practicing and their striving to understand more ofthe perfect invisible principle of all life. Then, as he spoke, his featherswent brighter and brighter and at last turned so brilliant that no gull couldlook upon him.
终于有一天，江一去不返。他先是安安静静地和大家说着话，谆谆嘱咐大家要不断学习，不断实践，对于一切生活中尽善尽美的看不见的原则，要不断努力理解，理解得越深越好。他说着说着，浑身羽毛变得越来越亮，最后变得光辉夺目，谁也无法对他仰视。
⑤“Jonathan,” he said, and these were thelast words that he spoke, “keep working on love.”
“乔纳森，要继续在爱上面下功夫。”他说，这是他的最后一句话。
⑥ When they could see again, Chiangwas gone.
大家再睁眼看时，江已经不知去向了。
⑦ As the days went past, Jonathanfound himself thinking time and again of the Earth from which he had come. Ifhe had known there just a tenth, just a hundredth, of what he knew here, howmuch more life would have meant! He stood on the sand and fell to wondering ifthere was a gull back there who might be struggling to break out of his limits,to see the meaning of flight beyond a way of travel to get a breadcrumb from arowboat. Perhaps there might even have been one made Outcast for speaking histruth in the face of the Flock. And the more Jonathan practiced his kindnesslessons, and the more he worked to know the nature of love, the more he wantedto go back to Earth. For in spite of his lonely past, Jonathan Seagull was bornto be an instructor, and his own way of demonstrating love was to givesomething of the truth that he had seen to a gull who asked only a chance tosee truth for himself.
光阴荏苒，乔纳森发现自己不时思念他所离开的尘世。如果他过去能懂得现在所懂得的哪怕十分之一、百分之一，那么生活的意义该丰富多少倍啊！他站在沙滩上，沉入了遐想：在那里会不会也有那么一只海鸥，正在奋力冲破自身的局限，正在努力探索飞行的意义，看出飞行不光是为了从小船上弄点面包屑吃。“说不定，也会有那么一只海鸥因为对鸥群讲出了真理，结果成了弃儿。乔纳森越是进修他的仁慈学课程，越是努力去理解爱的本质，他就越想返回尘世。
⑧Sullivan, adept now at thought-speedflight and helping the others to learn, was doubtful.
现在已增长以思想的速度飞行、也乐于帮助其他海学习的苏利万。对乔纳森的想法表示怀疑。
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