塞翁失马
The old man who lost his horse
Name: ________________ Date: ________
Key words
| Word | Pinyin | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| 准 | zhǔn | accurate; exact |
| 可惜 | kěxī | it's a pity; unfortunately; to feel sorry about; to regret |
| 互相 | hùxiāng | each other; mutually |
| 亮 | liàng | bright; shiny; to shine; to light up |
| 从此 | cóngcǐ | from now on; from then on; henceforth |
| 好好 | háohǎo | perfectly good; in good condition |
| 死 | sǐ | to die; dead |
| 父子 | fùzǐ | father and son |
| 活 | huó | work; job |
| 赶上 | gǎnshàng | to happen to run into (an event) |
| 安慰 | ānwèi | to comfort; to console; comfort; consolation |
| 匹 | pǐ | classifier for horses, mules and bolts of cloth |
English (for the teacher)
The old man’s horse ran away. Nobody stole it and nobody let it go; it simply took off by itself and ran all the way over to the land of the Hu.
He lived out on the frontier. People said his fortunes always came true, so whenever anything came up, everyone came to ask him. But this time, everyone came to comfort him.
“What a shame!” The neighbours said, “Such a fine horse, and just like that it’s gone.”
The old man wasn’t worried in the least: “Why couldn’t this be a good thing?”
The neighbours glanced at each other. His horse is gone, and he still calls it a good thing?
A few months later, one evening, they heard a horse whinnying outside the gate. The old man’s horse had come back, and not on its own: behind it came a fine Hu horse, tall and strong, its coat black and shining.
“Congratulations!” The neighbours were back: “You lose one horse and two come home. What luck!”
The old man looked at the fine horse and wasn’t pleased at all: “Why couldn’t this be a bad thing?”
The neighbours glanced at each other again. What is it with this old man, always saying the opposite?
The old man’s son loved riding more than anything. With such a fine horse in the family, he was overjoyed and rode it all over the place every day. But that fine horse had a temper, and one day it suddenly reared up and threw him off its back. His leg was broken, and from then on he walked with a limp.
“What a shame!” The neighbours were back again: “Such a fine young man…”
The old man said the same thing again: “Why couldn’t this be a good thing?”
This time the neighbours didn’t even bother to glance at each other; they just shook their heads and left.
A year later, a vast Hu army attacked. Every able-bodied man took up his bow and arrows and went off to war. When the fighting was over, nine out of ten young men from the villages nearby were dead.
Only the old man’s son, because of his bad leg, had not gone to war. Father and son both lived.
This time, no neighbour came back to say “what a shame,” and no neighbour came back to say “congratulations.”
More than two thousand years have passed. Today, if you lose your wallet, fail to get into university or miss your train, a Chinese friend will still pat you on the shoulder and say: “When the old man on the frontier lost his horse, who could say it wasn’t a blessing?”