黄金腰带

从前，有一天，有两个在大路上遇见的人，结伴向科伦斯的萨拉密斯城走去。中午时分，他们来到一条宽阔的大河边，可没有渡河的桥。他们非游泳不可；不然就是另找一条路径，可他们又不认识路。

他们互相商量："让我们游过去吧。说到底，这河面也不算太宽。"于是他们便投身水中，游起来了。

两人中有一个生平熟悉江湖，也识得水性，他到了那大河中流倒迷糊了，被汹涌的流水卷走了；另一个从来没有游过泳的人竟笔直地渡过了河，站在那一边的岸上了。他看到自己的同伴还在河里挣扎，就重新跳到水里，把那人也安全地带到了岸上。

于是那曾被激流卷走的人问道："可你告诉过我，你不会游泳。那末，你又怎么这样大胆地游过河的呢？"第二个人答道："我的朋友，你可曾看见我围在身上的这条腰带？腰带里装满了金币，那是我足足干了一年的活儿，为我的妻子和儿女挣来的。推动我渡过河、到我的妻子和儿女身边去的，就是那腰带里的金币的份量。我游泳的时候，我的妻子和儿女都在我的肩膀上。"

于是那两个人继续结伴同行，向萨拉密斯走去。

The Golden Belt

Once upon a day two men who met on the road were walking together toward Salamis, the City of Columns. In the mid-afternoon they came to a wide river and there was no bridge to cross it. They must needs swim, or seek another road unknown to them.

And they said to one another, "Let us swim. After all, the river is not so wide." And they threw themselves into the water and swam.

And one of the men who had always known rivers and the ways of rivers, in mid-stream suddenly began to lose himself; and to be carried away by the rushing waters; while the other who had never swum before crossed the river straight-way and stood upon the farther bank. Then seeing his companion still wrestling with the stream, he threw himself again into the waters and brought him also safely to the shore.

And the man who had been swept away by the current said, "But you told me you could not swim. How then did you cross that river with such assurance?"

And the second man answered, "My friend, do you see this belt which girdles me? It is full of golden coins that I have earned for my wife and my children, a full years work. It is the weight of this belt of gold that carried me across the river, to my wife and my children. And my wife and my children were upon my shoulders as I swam."

And the two men walked on together toward Salamis.