Boons of Life by Mark Twain

Chapter I

In the morning of life came a good fairy peri with her basket, and said:Here are gifts. Take one, leave the others. And be wary uyanık, chose wisely; oh, choose wisely! for only one of them is valuable.

The gifts were five: Fame, Love, Riches, Pleasure, Death. The youth said, eagerly:There is no need to consider; and he chose Pleasure.

He went out into the world and sought out the pleasures that youth delights in. But each in its turn was short-lived and disappointing,vain beyhude and empty; and each, departing,mocked alay etmek him. In the end he said:These years I have wasted. If I could but choose again, I would choose wisely.

Chapter II

The fairy appeared, and said:

Four of the gifts remain. Choose once more; and oh, remember-- time is flying, and only one of them is precious.

The man considered long, then chose Love; and did not mark the tears that rose yükseltmek in the fairy's eyes.

After many, many years the man sat by a coffin tabut, in an empty home. And he communed söyleşmek with himself, saying:One by one they have gone away and left me; and now she lies here, the dearest and the last.Desolation yalnızlık; keder after desolation has swept over me; for each hour of happiness the treacherous hain trader tüccar, Love, as sold me I have paid a thousand hours of grief. Out of my heart of hearts I curse him.

Chapter III

Choose again. It was the fairy speaking.

The years have taught you wisdom--surely it must be so. Three gifts remain. Only one of them has any worth--remember it, and choose warily.

The man reflected long, then chose Fame; and the fairy,sighing iç çekiş, went her way.

Years went by and she came again, and stood behind the man where he sat solitary kimsesiz in the fading day, thinking. And she knew his thought:

My name filled the world, and its praises were on every tongue, and it seemed well with me for a little while. How little a while it was! Then came envy kıskançlık; then detraction kötüleme; then calumny iftira; then hate; then persecution zulüm. Then derision alay etme, which is the beginning of the end. And last of all came pity acımak, which is the funeral cenaze of fame. Oh, the bitterness and misery of renown şan! target for mud in its prime, for contempt nefret and compassion sevecenlik in its decay.

Chapter IV

Chose yet again. It was the fairy's voice.

Two gifts remain. And do not despair umudunu kesmek. In the beginning there was but one that was precious, and it is still here.

Wealth bolluk--which is power! How blind I was! said the man.Now, at last, life will be worth the living. I will spend,squander çarçur etmek,dazzle göz kamaştırmak. These mockers and despisers küçümsemek will crawl in the dirt before me, and I will feed my hungry heart with their envy. I will have all luxuries, all joys, all enchantment büyü of the spirit, all contentments of the body that man holds dear. I will buy, buy, buy!deference hürmet, respect,esteem itibar, worship--every pinchbeck sahte grace of life the market of a trivial world can furnish forth. I have lost much time, and chosen badly heretofore şimdiye dek, but let that pass; I was ignorant cahil then, and could but take for best what seemed so.

Three short years went by, and a day came when the man sat shivering ürpermek in a mean garret çatı katı; and he was gaunt sıska and wan solgun and hollow delik-eyed, and clothed in rags mendil; and he was gnawing kemirmek a dry crust and mumbling gevelemek:

Curse all the world's gifts, for mockeries and gilded lies! And miscalled, every one. They are not gifts, but merely lendings ödünç verme. Pleasure, Love, Fame, Riches: they are but temporary disguises for lasting realities--Pain, Grief, Shame, Poverty. The fairy said true; in all her store there was but one gift which was precious, only one that was not valueless. How poor and cheap and mean I know those others now to be, compared with that inestimable hesaplanamaz one, that dear and sweet and kindly one, that steeps uçurum in dreamless and enduring dayanmak sleep the pains that persecute acı çektirmek the body, and the shames and griefs that eat the mind and heart. Bring it! I am weary yorgun, I would rest.

Chapter V

The fairy came, bringing again four of the gifts, but Death was wanting. She said:

I gave it to a mother's pet, a little child. It was ignorant, but trusted me, asking me to choose for it. You did not ask me to choose.Oh, miserable me! What is left for me?What not even you have deserved: the wanton oyunbaz insult of Old Age.