下载后可任意编辑Elias: A ParableAt one time the elderly couple had been the wealthiest in the region, now they were merely servants who had nothing but each other.1 In the Province of Oufa there lived a man named Elias. His father died a year after he married, and left him a poor man. At that time Elias's property consisted only of seven mares, two cows, and twenty sheep, but now that he had become master he began to better himself. He and his wife worked hard from morning till night for thirty years, growing richer each year.2 Elias had two sons and a daughter, all of whom he duly married off. In the days of his poverty his sons had worked with him; but when they became rich, they began to indulge in foolish pleasures. One of them, in particular, began to drink to excess. Eventually the elder of the two was killed in a fight, and the other one, because he disobeyed his father, was turned out.下载后可任意编辑3 Elias turned him out, but at the same time he gave him a house and cattle. His own wealth was thus diminished in proportion.4 Soon afterwards his sheep became infected with disease, and many of them died. Next, there was a year of drought, when no hay grew, so that many cattle starved to death during the following winter. Then the Khirgizes came and stole the best of his horses, and his property was diminished even more. By the time he had reached his seventieth year, all the property left to him consisted of the clothes on his body and his wife, Sham Shemagi, who was as old as himself. The son whom he had turned out had gone to a distant land, and his daughter was dead; so that there was no one left to help the old people.5 However a former neighbor of...
