笼里养着两只母鸡,一只爱唱,另一只喜静。主人根据母鸡下蛋之后报唱的现象,以为所有的蛋都是那只唱鸡产的,因此很偏爱它,捉得蟑螂也专喂给它吃,但日子一久,秘密揭穿了:原来那只唱鸡下蛋很少,而不叫的那只却一天一个,且蛋刚落地就一声不响地离开鸡窝,由那只唱鸡站在蛋边大喊大叫。
闲聊时和朋友谈及此事,他以为我是言外之意不在鸡,而是论人。其实,古人早就以鸡喻人了……
There were two hens raised in a coop: One liked to cackle, and the other preferred to keep quiet. According to the phenomenon that a hen would cackle after laying an egg. the raiser assumed that all the eggs had been laid by the cackler. Hence, he became so partial to it that all the cockroaches caught were only fed to it. However, with time passing by. the secret came to light that it turned out that the cackler laid very few eggs while the non-cackler kept laying one egg a day. Moreover, the moment the latter laid an egg. it left the coop silently, leaving the former standing next to the egg cackling loudly.
When I chatted with a friend about it. he thought what I was really talking about was not the hens, but humans.