9月21日

謝天
陳之藩 ( 1925~2012 )

小時候吃飯時，祖母總是說：「老天爺
賞我們家飽飯吃，記住，飯碗裡一粒米都不
許剩，要是蹧蹋糧食，老天爺就不給咱們飯
了。」

祖父每年在「風裡雨裡的咬牙」，祖母每
年在「茶裡飯裡的自苦」，他們明明知道要
滴下眉毛上的汗珠，才能撿起田中的麥穗，
而為什麼要謝天？

一直到前年，我在愛因斯坦的《我所看見
的世界》得到了新的領悟。那篇亙古以來嶄
新獨創的狹義相對論，並無參考可引，卻在
最後天外飛來一筆，「感謝同事朋友貝索的
時相討論。」我就想，如此大功而竟不居，
為什麼？

幾年來自己真正有了新的覺悟：即是無論
什麼事，得之於人者太多，出之於己者太少。
因為需要感謝的人太多了，就感謝因緣罷。
無論什麼事，不是需要先人的遺愛與遺產，
即是需要眾人的支持與合作，還要等候機會
的到來。越是真正做過一點事，越是感覺到
自己貢獻的渺小。

於是，創業的人，都會自然而然的想到大眾，
而敗家的人卻無時不想到自己。

──選自《在春風裡》

September 21

Thank Heaven
Chen Zhifan (1925 - 2012)
English translation: Zhi Yue

During meals when I was a child, my grandmother would
always say, "God bestowed this meal for our family to eat.
Remember, we are not allowed to have a single grain of rice
left in our bowls. If we waste food, Heaven will not give us meals."

Every year, my grandfather toiled, clenching his teeth in
the rain, while my grandmother painstakingly cooked and
made tea. They understood they had to work until sweat
dripped from their brows to collect wheat from the field, but
why thank Heaven?

It was until two years ago when I read Einstein's The World
as I See It did I begin to have some new understanding. While
his theory of relativity is original and groundbreaking history,
with no references cited, but in the end, he remarked out of
the blue, “Thank you to my colleague and friend, Besso,
for our discussions.” And I asked myself why he didn’t take
credit for such a great accomplishment.

In recent years, I've had a new realization that no matter
what the situation is, we receive too much from others and
contribute too little. Because there are so many people we
are indebted to, we should thank causes and conditions.
No matter what the situation is, what we need is not the
inheritance and the contributions of our ancestors, but the
support and cooperation of everyone, as well as the arrival of
opportunities. The more we have done, the more insignificant
we begin to feel our contributions are.

As a result, those who begin undertakings naturally think of
the public, and those who fail are the ones who spend all their
time thinking of themselves.

── from Zai Chunfeng Li (In the Spring Wind)