人生之求02-一双短袜

[00:00.00]A Pair of Socks 一双短袜
[00:04.33]I turned into a sock shop that caught my eye,
[00:09.24]and a boy clerk who could not have been
[00:11.55]more than seventeen years old came forward.
[00:13.94]“What can I do for you, sir?”
[00:15.92]“I want to buy a pair of socks.”
[00:18.78]His eyes glowed.
[00:20.40]There was a note of passion in his voice.
[00:23.14]“Did you know that you had come into the finest place
[00:26.64]in the world to buy socks?”
[00:28.62]said the boy, ecstatically.
[00:30.57]I had not been aware of that,
[00:32.44]as my entrance had been accidental.
[00:34.39]“Come with me,”
[00:36.04]I followed him to the rear of the shop,
[00:38.90]and he began to haul down from the shelves box after box,
[00:42.39]displaying their contents for my delectation.
[00:45.44]“Hold on, lad,
[00:47.31]I am going to buy only one pair!”
[00:49.40]“I know that,”
[00:50.80]said he,
[00:51.79]“but I want you to see how marvelously beautiful these are.
[00:55.61]Aren’t they wonderful!”
[00:57.26]There was on his face an expression of solemn and holy rapture,
[01:01.86]as if he were revealing to me the mysteries of his religion.
[01:05.34]I became far more interested in him than in the socks.
[01:09.41]I looked at him in amazement 1.
[01:11.80]“My friend,” said I,
[01:14.22]“If you can keep this up,
[01:16.39]if this is not merely the enthusiasm that comes from novelty,
[01:20.13]from having a new job,
[01:21.65]if you can keep up this zeal 2 and excitement day after day,
[01:25.80]in ten years you will own every sock in the United Sates.”
[01:30.30]In many shops the customers have to wait for some one to wait upon him.
[01:36.08]And when finally some clerk does deign 3 to notice you,
[01:40.26]you are made to feel as if you were interrupting him.
[01:42.97]He displays no interest either in you or in the goods he is paid to sell.
[01:47.79]The daily grind was too much for him;
[01:50.54]the novelty wore off;
[01:51.83]his only pleasures were found outside of working hours.
[01:55.45]He became a mechanical,
[01:57.41]not inspired, salesman.
[01:59.06]After being mechanical,
[02:00.60]he became incompetent;
[02:02.33]then he saw younger clerks who had more zest 4 in their work,
[02:05.96]promoted over him.
[02:07.04]He became sour.
[02:08.36]That was the last stage.
[02:11.00]His usefulness was over.
[02:12.72]I have observed this melancholy 5 decline
[02:15.91]in the lives of so many men in so many occupations
[02:19.30]and I have come to the conclusion that the surest road to failure
[02:23.45]is to do things mechanically.