又中又英 | Limitations | 褚簡寧

　　Those who most understand their own limitations have the fewest. Do you know what this means? It was advice a wise centaur named Chiron gave Jason of the Argonauts. I saw it in the book about Greek mythology that I read recently. A centaur is a Greek mythology creature with the head, arms, and upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse. Jason was a hero in Greek mythology. He was the head of a ship called Argo. Other heroes of the Argo were called Argonauts.

　　Their dangerous mission was to find the mythical Golden Fleece. A fleece is the thick wool covering of a sheep. The wise centaur gave Jason crucial advice before he began his dangerous journey with the Argonauts. One piece of advice was that those who most understand their own limitations have the fewest. Your limitations used this way are your weaknesses or your lack of skills in certain things. Your limitations are trying to climb Mount Everest or competing with Olympic athletes if you are not a mountaineer or skilled athlete. A mountaineer is a person who climbs mountains as a hobby or profession.

　　The centaur’s advice meant that people must understand what they can or cannot do. That’s the best way to achieve their tasks, especially difficult or dangerous tasks. Once people understand and accept their limitations, they will have the fewest limitations because they won’t try to do the things they cannot achieve. People who don’t understand their own limitations will have the most because they will only know their limitations when they fail to do the things they are not skilled to do.

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　　那些最了解自己短處（limitations）的人，有着最少的短處（limitations）。你可知道這是甚麼意思？那是名為喀戎的睿智半人馬（centaur）給予阿爾戈英雄（Argonauts）伊阿宋（Jason）的勸告。我在最近閱讀關於希臘神話的書中見到這則勸告。A centaur 是希臘神話中有着人頭、手臂和上身，而下身和腳則是馬的生物。Jason 伊阿宋是希臘神話中的英雄，他是阿爾戈號這艘船上的首領。阿爾戈號的其他英雄則被稱為Argonauts。

　　他們的危險任務，是去尋找神話中的金羊毛（Golden Fleece）。A Fleece 是羊身上的厚羊毛。睿智的半人馬（centaur）在伊阿宋跟其他阿爾戈英雄（Argonauts）開展其危險旅程之前，給了他重要的勸告，其中一個就是，那些最知道自己短處（limitations）的人，有着最少的短處（limitations）。Your limitations 在這裏是指你的弱點，或在某方面缺乏技能的短處。你若非攀山好手（mountaineer）或有技術的運動員，卻嘗試去爬珠穆朗瑪峰，或去跟奧林匹克的健兒比併，那就是你的limitations。A mountaineer 就是將攀山當作興趣或專業的登山運動員。

　　人頭馬的（centaur’s）勸告是，人們必須明白自己有甚麼能夠做或不能夠做的事，那是達成任務最佳法門，尤其是困難或危險的任務。人們一旦明白和接受自己的局限（limitations），他們便有最少的局限（limitations），因為他們不會嘗試去做自己做不到的事。那些不了解自己局限（limitations）的人，會有最多的局限（limitations），因為他們只有在做一些自己不擅長的事又以失敗告終之時，才終於知道自己的局限（limitations）所在。

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Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻