真相與謊言

世界名畫 [真理從井裡出來]The truth coming out of the well.
創作者: 法國畫家 Jean-Léon Gérôme, 年代: 1896年

今天早上在 Insight timer 這個 App 聽到這則名為 The Naked Truth 的十九世紀寓言, 覺得有意思, 

(原文很簡單, 應該不需要看翻譯.)

The Truth and the Lie meet on the road one day. The Lie says to the Truth: “It’s a marvelous day today”!

有天真相與謊言在路上遇到, 謊言跟真相說: "今天真是美好的一天"!

The Truth looks up to the skies and sighs, for the day was truly beautiful. They walk together for a while, until they reach a beautiful well. The Lie tells the Truth: “The water in the well is very nice, let’s take a swim together!” The Truth, once again suspicious, tests the water and discovers that it indeed, is very nice.

真相看了天空一眼嘆了口氣心想, 的確是很美好. 兩人走著走著走到了井邊, 謊言說:"這井裡的水很好, 我們一起來游泳吧!" 真相遲疑了一下, 試了一下水, 水 果真舒服.

They undress and start the bathe. Suddenly, the Lie jumps out of the well, puts on the clothes of the Truth and runs off towards a nearby village. The furious Truth leaps out of the well and runs to find the Lie and get her clothes back. The Villagers, seeing the Naked Truth, are horrified and look away with contempt and rage.

於是兩人脫了衣服跳進水中洗澡. 突然, 謊言從井裡跳出, 穿上真相的衣服迅速跑到臨近的村莊. 氣急敗壞的真相爬出了井, 追著謊言跑, 想把衣服要回來. 村民看到赤裸的真相嚇壞了, 紛紛表達出生氣並帶著不屑的神情別開目光.

The poor Truth returned to the well and disappeared, forever hiding her shame.

可憐的真相, 赤裸著身體, 滿是恥辱, 回到井中, 永遠消失.

And since that day, the lie travels the world, clothed as the Truth.

自此之後, 謊言就穿著真理的外衣周遊列國.

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這是十九世紀的寓言,  現在已經二十一世紀了, 後人也衍生了不少後續.  這裡有幾個, 其中第三個很跟得上潮流.

後續一:

Truth realizes that the Lie has left its garments behind next to the well. The truth knows that in order not to be hated, the only way she can be accepted by the village and the world is to be covered in the garb of the Lie. And to this day, the Truth and the Lie have been indistinguishable to all except those who have seen them unclothed.

謊言偷走了真相的衣服而留下自己的. 為了不被討厭, 真相只好穿上謊言的衣服以博取村民的接納. 直到今天, 除了親眼見過赤裸的真相與謊言的人外, 沒人能分辨他們兩人.

後續二:

The Truth stays in the well. Sometimes people come to sit by the well knowing that the Truth is in there. If they’re really sincere, the truth will out and talk with them. They’re OK with seeing her naked and she’s OK since they don’t hate her. Many seekers come looking for The Truth but she only sees them one at a time because The Truth is a very personal experience.

真相躲在井裡不出來. 有時人們會過來坐在井邊, 如果他們夠真誠的話, 真相會走出來跟他們講話. 他們不在意看到赤裸的真相, 真相不介意這種情況, 只要他們不討厭她就好了. 有時來看真相的人很多, 真相一次卻只跟一個人見面聊天, 因為真相是很隱私的.

後續三:

Truth searches and finds the web pages, twitter and instagram accounts that plainly showed the lie had infected most everyone. There are literally hundreds of billions and billions of lies. Lies everywhere. But from time to time, truth finds allies – they Love the Truth and have created so many stories about her but none of these are trending and, in fact, many of them are being deleted and downvoted and ignored. The truth suddenly, with a great sigh realized that there is a war being conducted on her by the one who took her garments; the Lie himself.

真相從網路, 推持, 與 IG 上發現謊言已經感染了幾乎所有人. 到處都充斥著謊言. 不過真相時不時還是會有盟友, 這些盟友真心愛真相, 並寫了很多有關真相的故事, 可惜沒有一個能創造趨勢. 甚至大部份的故事都被忽略, 被按倒讚, 或被刪掉. 真相突然領悟到這世界正在進行一場對抗真相的戰爭, 而用來對抗真相的, 就是那個偷走真相外衣的謊言.