吳銓高 英譯中[散文]雞蛋與汔油

二觉陀

吳銓高 英譯中 [散文]

Eggs And Gas
雞蛋與汔油
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A man eats two eggs each morning for breakfast.
When he goes to the grocery store he pays 60 cents a dozen.
Since a dozen eggs won't last a week he normally buys two dozens at a time.
某人每天早餐吃兩只雞蛋。
在雜貨店, 每12只雞蛋, 賣六角。
因為12只雞蛋, 不足一星期用, 所以, 他每次都買24只雞蛋。

One day while buying eggs he notices that the price has risen to 72 cents.
The next time he buys groceries, eggs are 76 cents a dozen.
有一天, 當他在買蛋時, 他注意到價格已經上漲了. 每12只雞蛋, 賣七角二分。
下次他來購物, 每12只雞蛋, 更漲價至七角六分。

When asked to explain the price of eggs the store owner says,
"the price has gone up and I have to raise my price accordingly".
他要求商店老闆解釋, 老闆說 :
“蛋的來價上升了，我也必須照著提升我的賣價"。

This store buys 100 dozen eggs a day.
I checked around for a better price
and all the distributors have raised their prices.
這家商店每天購入100 打雞蛋。
我到其他商店, 看看有沒有較便宜的價格,
我發覺, 全部分銷商已經提升了雞蛋的價格。

The distributors have begun to buy from the huge egg farms.
The small egg farms have been driven out of business.
那些分銷商, 已經開始從規模龐大的蛋場入貨。
規模較小的蛋場, 已經沒有生意可做。

The huge egg farms sells 100,000 dozen eggs a day to distributors.
With no competition, they can set the price as they see fit.
The distributors then have to raise their prices to the grocery stores.
And on and on and on.
規模龐大的蛋場, 每天出售100，000 打雞蛋給分銷商。
在沒有競爭的情況下，他們可以提高價格, 至心目中認可的水平。
之後, 那些分銷商跟著向雜貨店提高價格。
如此將價格不斷提高。

As the man kept buying eggs the price kept going up.
He saw the big egg trucks delivering 100 dozen eggs each day.
Nothing changed there.
某君一直買雞蛋，而雞蛋的價格一直上升。
他看見大的蛋卡車每天遞送100打蛋。
情況沒有什麼改變。

He checked out the huge egg farms and found they were selling
100,000 dozen eggs to the distributors daily.
Nothing had changed but the price of eggs.
他檢查龐大的蛋場, 並且發現他們每天正出售
100，000 打蛋給那些分銷商。
除了蛋的價格，沒有什麼改變。

Then week before Thanksgiving, the price of eggs shot up to $1.00 a dozen.
Again he asked the grocery owner why and was told,
"cakes and baking for the holiday".
在感恩節前一星期, 雞蛋的價格突然漲至每打壹美元.
他再次問雜貨店老闆. 雜貨店老闆說 :
"假期之前, 要大量雞蛋做蛋糕"。

The huge egg farmers know there will be a lot of baking going on
and more eggs will be used.
Hence, the price of eggs goes up.
Expect the same thing at Christmas and other times
when family cooking and baking happen.
This pattern continues until the price of eggs is 2.00 a dozen.
The man says,
"there must be something we can do about the price of eggs".
龐大蛋場的場主知道將來有更多蛋榚要烘,
也要用更多的雞蛋。
因此，雞蛋的價格會一直上漲。
隨著而來的聖誕節, 新年等等,
家家都要做更多蛋榚,
加價的模式繼續，直到雞蛋的價格上漲至兩美元一打。
那個人說，
"一定要想點辦法, 遏止雞蛋價格再上漲"。

He starts talking to all the people in his town
and they decide to stop buying eggs.
This didn't work because everyone needed eggs.
Finally, the man suggested only buying what you need.
He ate 2 eggs a day.
On the way home from work he would stop at the grocery
and buy two eggs.
Everyone in town started buying 2 or 3 eggs a day.
他開始和鎮內的居民商議，
他們決定停止買蛋。
但這樣是辦不到的，因為每人需要吃蛋。
最後，那個人建議只買你需要的數量。
他每天吃兩只雞蛋。
在下班回家的路上, 他將在雜貨店停下
並且買兩只雞蛋。
在鎮裡的居民, 每人每日也祗開始買兩只或三只雞蛋。

The grocery store owner began complaining that he had too many eggs in his cooler.
He told the distributor that he didn't need any eggs.
Maybe wouldn't need any all week.
雜貨店老闆開始抱怨, 他的冰櫃內有太多雞蛋。
他告訴分銷商他不需要任何雞蛋了。
也許, 整個星期將不需要入貨。

The distributor had eggs piling up at his warehouse.
He told the huge egg farms that he didn't have any room for eggs
and would not need any for at least two weeks.
At the egg farm, the chickens just kept on laying eggs.
分銷商的雞蛋存貨, 在他的倉庫堆積如山。
他告訴龐大蛋場的場主, 他沒有任何空間存放雞蛋了,
而且至少在兩星期內,不需要入貨。
可是, 在蛋農場，母雞繼續生蛋。

To relieve the pressure, the huge egg farm told the distributor
that they could buy the eggs at a lower price.
The distributor said,
" don't have the room for the eggs even if they were free".
The distributor told the grocery store owner that he would lower
the price of the eggs if the store would start buying again.
為了減少壓力，龐大蛋場的場主告訴分銷商
他們可以用更低的價格買蛋。
分銷商說，
"即使免費,他也沒有任何空間存放雞蛋"。
分銷商告訴雜貨店老闆, 如果雜貨店開始再次入貨,
他將降低蛋的價格。

The grocery store owner said, "I don't have room for more eggs.
The customers are only buy 2 or 3 eggs at a time".
"Now if you were to drop the price of eggs back down to theoriginal price,
the customers would start buying by the dozen again".
雜貨店老闆說，"我沒有空間存放更多雞蛋了。
顧客每次只買2或者3只雞蛋"。
"如果由現在起, 你將雞蛋價格, 回復到原先的價格，
那些顧客將開始再次按打購買"。

The distributors sent that proposal to the huge egg farmers.
They liked the price they were getting for their eggs
but, then chickens just kept on laying.
Finally, the egg farmers lowered the price of their eggs.
But only a few cents.
那些分銷商把那個提議告訴龐大蛋場的場主。
他們縱使喜歡他們的蛋能賣得好的價錢，
可是，他們的母雞卻不斷生蛋。
最後，蛋場的場主降低蛋的價格。
但是只願意降低幾分錢。

The customers still bought 2 or 3 eggs at a time. They said,
"when the price of eggs gets down to where it was before we will
start buying by the dozen.”
那些顧客仍然每次買2或者3隻蛋。
他們說 :
"如果蛋的價格, 跌至未加價以前的水平, 我們才開始按打買。”

Slowly the price of eggs started dropping.
The distributors had to slash their prices
to make room for the eggs coming from the egg farmers.
蛋的價格開始緩慢地下降。
那些分銷商大量削減他們的價格,
蛋賣出後, 才有地方放置來自農場的雞蛋。

The egg farmers cut their prices because the distributors wouldn't
buy at a higher price than they were selling eggs for.
Anyway, they had full warehouses and wouldn't need eggs for quite a while.
And the chickens kept on laying.
蛋場的場主被逼割價出售，因為那些分銷商將不願意
出過高價錢, 向蛋場入貨。
無論如何，分銷商的倉庫爆滿了，暫時不需要雞蛋。
而蛋場的母雞, 還是繼續生蛋。

Eventually, the egg farmers cut their prices
because they were throwing away eggs they couldn't sell.
終於，蛋場主願意割價出售雞蛋，
因為廉價賣出, 總比將雞蛋拋棄，較為化算。

The distributors started buying again because the eggs were priced to
where the stores could afford to sell them at the lower price.
And the customers starting buying by the dozen again.
那些分銷商開始再次入貨，因為蛋的價格
可以定價至, 雜貨店能出售的水平。
而且, 顧客開始再次按打買蛋。

Now, transpose this analogy to the gasoline industry.
現在，假使將這種理論, 應用於石油工業上。

What if everyone only bought $10.00 worth of gas each time
they pulled to the pump.
如果，每人每次在加油站只買價值10美元的汔油, 就產生以下情況。

The dealers tanks would stay semi full all the time.  
分銷商的汔油庫, 將一直保持半滿。

The dealers wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the huge tank farms.
分銷商將沒有空間, 存放來自汔油公司的汔油。

The tank farms wouldn't have room for the gas coming from the refining plants.
汔油公司將沒有空間, 存放來自鍊油公司的汔油。

And the refining plants wouldn't have room for the oil
being off loaded from the huge tankers coming from the Middle East.
跟著, 鍊油公司將沒有空間, 存放來自中東油船卸下的原油。

Just $10.00 each time you buy gas. Don't fill it up.
每次祗買價值10美元的汔油. 不要將汔車的油箱加滿。

You may have to stop for gas twice a week but, the price should come down.
你可能要每周兩次, 將汔車停下來加汔油。但是，油價就會下跌。

Think about it.
大家考慮一下這個辦法。

As an added note...
補充說明一下…..

When I buy $10.00 worth of gas,
that leaves my tank a little under half full.
當我祗買10美元的汔油，
我汔車的油箱可能只得半滿。

The way prices are jumping around,
you can buy gas for $2.65 a gallon
and then the next morning it can be $2.15.
在油價暴漲的今日, 你要付出每加侖2.65 美元,
明天早晨, 油價可能因此而下跌至加侖2.15 美元。

If you have your tank full of $2.65 gas you don't have room for the $2.15 gas.
如果你將汔車的油箱, 加滿了2.65美元的汔油。你就無法買到每加侖2.15 美元的汔油了。

You might not understand the economics of only buying two eggs at a time
but, you can't buy cheaper gas if your tank is full of the high priced stuff.
你可能不理解, 每次祗買兩隻雞蛋的經濟學。
但是，如果你將汔車的油箱, 加滿了貴價汔油。你就無法買到廉價汔油了。

Everyone should read this and send it on!
各位看完此篇文章後, 請傳開去 !

Eggs And Gas 雞蛋與汔油 [完] [中譯 : 二覺陀]
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