The meaning of life
“Dr.Papaderos, what is the meaning of life?”
The usual laughter followed, and people stirred to go.
Papaderos held up his hand and stilled the room and looked at me for a long time, asking with his eyes if I was serious and seeing from my eyes that I was.
“I will answer your question.”
Taking his wallet out of his hip pocket, he fished into a leather billfold and brought out a very small round mirror, about the size of a quarter.
And what he said went like this:
“When I was a small child, during the war, we were very poor and we lived in a remote village. One day, on the road, I found the broken pieces of a mirror. A German motorcycle had been wrecked in that place.
“I tried to find all the pieces and put them together, but it was not possible, so I kept only the largest piece. This one, and, by scratching it on a stone, I made it round. I began to play with it as a toy and became fascinated by the fact that I could reflect light into dark places where the sun would never shine—in deep holes and crevices and dark closets. It became a game for me to get light into the most inaccessible places I could find.
“I kept the little mirror, and, as I went about my growing up, I would take it out in idle moments and continue the challenge of the game. As I became a man, I grew to understand that this was not just a child‘s game but a metaphor for what I might do with my life. I came to understand that I am not the light or the source of light. But light—truth, understanding, knowledge—is there, and it will shine in many dark places only if I reflect it.
“I am a fragment of a mirror whose whole design and shape I do not know. Nevertheless, with what I have I can reflect light into the dark places of this world—into the black places in the hearts of men—and change some things in some people. Perhaps others may see and do likewise. This is what I am about. This is the meaning of my life.”
翻译：
人生的意义
“帕帕德罗斯博士，人生的意义是什么呢？”
问题照例引来了人们的笑声，人们骚动着要离开了。
帕帕德罗斯举手示意，让教室里的人安静下来。接着，他久久地注视着我，用眼神询问我是不是认真的，并从我的眼神中得到了肯定。
“我来回答你的问题。”
他从裤子后袋里掏出钱包，在这个皮夹子里摸索着，然后拿出一片二角五分硬币大小的小圆镜。
接着，他说了下面一段话：
我小时候，家里很穷，住在一个偏僻的小村庄。那时正是战争时期。一天，我在公路上发现了一些镜子碎片。一辆德国摩托车在那里失事了。”
“我试图找到所有的碎片，把它们拼起来，但这是不可能的，所以我只把最大的一块留了下来。就是这块，我把它在石头上磨圆了。我开始把它当成玩具，十分着迷，因为我能把光线反射到太阳永远照不到的漆黑之处，深洞啊、裂缝或者漆黑的壁橱。对我来说，把光线反射到我所能找到的最隐秘的地方，成了一种游戏。”
”我一直保存着这块小镜子，随着年龄的增长，我周游四方，还会在闲暇时分把它拿出来，继续着这带有挑战性的游戏。等我长大成人后，我渐渐懂得了这不仅仅是一个小孩的游戏，而且象征着一种人生观。我意识到我既不是光也不是光源，可光（真理、理解和知识）就在那儿，只要我反射它，它就会照亮许多漆黑的地方。“
“我是一面镜子的一块碎片，我不知道整面镜子的样式和形状。不过，我倾尽所有，能够把光线反射进这个世界漆黑的地方，反射进人们心灵的阴暗处，给他们带来某些改变。也许其他人看到后，也会仿效着做。这就是我之为我，这就是我人生的意义。”
