這是一座很大很茂密的森林，長滿生有各種葉子的樹。通常，每年的這個時候天氣已經(jīng)很冷了，可是今年的這個時候還比較暖和，如果不是滿林子的落葉--桔黃的，酒紅的，金黃的，還有雜色的--還以為這里還是夏天呢。
在一棵光禿禿的樹上，有兩片樹葉掛在一根細枝上：它們的名字叫奧立和特魯法。奧立和特魯法也不知道為什么他們在雨、寒夜和風中幸存了下來。也沒有人知道為什么有的樹葉會飄落下來，而有的樹葉依舊長在樹上。而奧立和特魯法認為答案在于：他們深深地愛著對方……
The forest was large and thickly overgrown with all kinds of leaf-bearing
trees. Usually, it is cold this time of year and it even happens that it snow,
but this November was relatively warm. You might have thought it was summer
except that the whole forest was strewn with fallen leaves－some yellow as
saffron, some red as wine, some the color of gold and some of mixed color. The
leaves had been torn down by the rain, by the wind, some by day, some at night,
and they now formed a deep carpet over the forest floor. Although their juices
had run dry, the leaves still exuded a pleasant aroma. The sun shone down on
them through the living branches, and worms and flies which had somehow survived
the autumn storms crawled over them. The space beneath the leaves provided
hiding places for crickets, field mice and many other creatures who sought
protection in the earth.
On the tip of a tree which had lost all its other leaves, two still remained
hanging from one twig: Ole and Trufa. For some reason unknown to them, Ole and
Trufa had survived all the rains, all the cold nights and winds. Who knows the
reason one leaf falls and another remains? But Ole and Trufa believed the answer
lay in the great love they bore one another. Ole was slightly bigger than Turfa
and a few days older, but Trufa was prettier and more delicate. One leaf can do
little for another when the wind blows, the rain pours, or the hail begins to
fall. Still, Ole encouraged Trufa at every opportunity. During the worst storms,
when the thunder clapped, the lightning flashed and the wind tore off not only
leaves but even whole branches, Ole pleaded with Trufa: "Hang on, Trufa! Hand on
with all your might!"
At times during cold and stormy nights, Trufa would complain: "My time had
come, Ole, but you hand on!"
"What for?" Ole asked. "Without you, my life is senseless. If you fall, I'll
fall with you."
"NO, Ole, don't do it! So long as a leaf can stay up it mustn't let go."
"It all depends if you stay with me," Ole replied. "By day I look at you and
admire your beauty. At night I sense your fragrance. Be the only leaf on a tree?
No never!"
"Ole, your words are so sweet but they're not true," Trufa said. "You know
very well that I'm no longer pretty. Look how wrinkled I am, how shriveled I've
become! Only one thing is still left me－my love for you."
"Isn't that enough? Of all our powers love the highest, the finest," Ole
said. "So long as we love each other we remain here, and no wind, rain or storm
can destroy us. I'll tell you something, Trufa－I never loved you as much as I
love you now."
"Why, Ole? Why? I'm all yellow."
"Who says green is pretty and yellow is not? All colors are equally
handsome."
And just as Ole spoke these words, that which Trufa had feared all these
months happened－a wind came up and tore Ole loose from the twig. Trufa began to
tremble and flutter until it seemed that she, too, would soon be torn away, but
she held fast. She saw Ole fall and sway in the air, and she called to him in
leafy language: "Ole! Come back! Ole! Ole!"
But before she could even finish, Ole vanished from sight. He blended in with
the other leaves on the ground, and Trufa was left all alone on the tree.
So long as it was still day, Trufa managed somehow to endure her grief. But
when it grew dark and cold and a piercing rain began to fall, she sank into
despair. Somehow she felt that the blame for all the leafy misfortunes lay with
the tree, the trunk with all its mighty limbs. Leaves fell, but the trunk stood
tall, thick and firmly rooted in the ground. No wind, rain or hail could upset
it. What did it matter to a tree, which probably lived forever, what become of a
leaf? To Trufa, the trunk was a kind of god. It covered itself with leaves for a
few months, then it shook them off. It nourished them with its sap for as long
as it pleased, then it let them die of thirst. Trufa pleaded with the tree to
give her back her Ole, to make it summer again, but the tree didn't heed her
prayers.
Trufa didn't think a night could be so long as this one-so dark, so frosty.
She spoke to Ole and hoped for an answer, but Ole was silent and gave no sign of
his presence.
Trufa said to the tree: "Since you've taken Ole from me, take me too."
But even this prayer the tree didn't acknowledge.
After a while, Trufa dozed off. This wasn't sleep but a strange languor.
Trufa awoke and to her amazement found that she was no longer handing on the
tree. The wind had blown her down while she was asleep. This was different from
the way she used to feel when she awoke on the tree with the sunrise. All her
fears and anxieties had now vanished. The awakening also brought with it an
awareness she had never felt before. She knew now that she wasn't just a leaf
that depended on every whim of the wind, but that she was part of the universe.
Through some mysterious force, Trufa understood the miracle of her molecules,
atoms, protons and electrons－the enormous energy she represented and the divine
plan of which she was a part.
Next to her lay Ole, and they greeted each other with a love they hadn't been
aware of before. This wasn't a love that depended on chance or caprice, but a
love as mighty and eternal as the universe itself. That which they had feared
all the days and nights between April and November turned out to be not death
but redemption. A breeze came and lifted Ole and Trufa in the air and they
soared with the bliss known only by those who have freed themselves and have
joined with eternity.
（英語點津姍姍編輯）
