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[编辑导读] 这不只是一棵橡树的故事。当我们沉醉于西方引领的现代文明，并欣羡不已时，我们是否能翻开历史，重温一下所谓的西方现代文明是如何“发迹”的。这棵橡树告诉我们，侵略、屠杀、占领、污染是现代文明光环下所无法掩盖的。他们在指摘别国人权问题的同时，身体里还是流着种族歧视的血液，对其曾经的恶行是否曾有一丝的忏悔？
THE GREAT OAK TREE
Long ago, an acorn fell. Round, brown, and hard, it fell to the ground in a forest. There it stayed until a squirrel picked it up in his paws. He made a little hole to put the acorn in. He patted the earth down over it.
The squirrel ran away and never came back. Snow came. The air grew cold. Deep snow lay on the ground, and it was pitted with the paw prints of hungry forest animals.
The snow melted, and the acorn’s softened sides opened and a green shoot reached out into the spring air.
Starting with three leaves, the baby tree rose, now it had ten leaves, now twenty.
Many summers went by. The villages grew, and the oak tree grew too, taller and wider.
Strangers came from far away. They met the inhabitants under the tall oak tree. They smoked a pipe of peace and they were friends-but not for long. Armed with guns brought from overseas, the newcomers claimed to be masters of the land. Their axes rang in the deep woods. They cut down trees and opened fields. But the great oak tree stood as if undisturbed.
The old tribes left-they had to. They went off into the deep woods. The bear, the wolf and the wildcat, too, went deeper into the woods and became scarcer.
Children still played under the great oak. They were the newcomers’ children not those of the land’s original owners.
More people came and built more houses in the fields where corn and pumpkins had been. Now there was a town around the big oak tree. Cars began to hurry down the roads, and there were fearful lights at night with huge iron works belching flames sky-high. Still the oak tree stood undaunted, holding its branches over many homes.
More years went by. The town became a city dominated by clusters of tall buildings. Some stood even taller than the old oak tree. The clean air was gone, and the clean lake water was gone. Smoke, fumes, and wastes of all kinds, invaded the city itself, then its outskirts.
Now the oak tree is very, very old –and sick. He has a long story to tell –long years of peaceful living with a good people, then years of invaders and polluters and their evil doings. Our great tree never speaks a word, keeping, some say, a secret record in his heart.
大橡树
很久以前，从一棵树掉下一粒像树果，褐色的，圆圆的，有些坚硬，落在了一片森林的土地上。直到后来一只松鼠拾到，于是它挖了个小坑，将它埋了起来。
之后松鼠走了，再也没有回来。下雪了，天气渐渐凉了起来。地上堆满了厚厚的积雪，积雪上布满了森林饿兽的脚印。
雪融化了，橡树果变柔的一面开始发出绿芽来，盟发在春的气息里。
刚开始三片叶子……然后幼苗，到现在十片，二十片……
又经过了许多个夏天，森林周围出现了村庄，小栎树也慢慢成长，变得越来越高大了。
又经过了一段岁月，村里渐渐多了些从远方来的朋友，他们与本地的居民在栎树下相会，一起抽着烟，他们成了朋友，可是不久之后……那些新来的人手持枪支要占有这片土地。于是他们开始砍伐森林，开拓土地。而那只栎树却依然耸立着。
那些旧的部落被驱逐出了村庄，走进了树林深处。熊、野狼、野猫也渐渐消失了。
栎树下开始充满孩童的欢声笑语，而他们不是那群旧居民的后裔而是新来的子弟。
之后越来越多的人来到这片村庄，那些原本种农作物的田野被用来兴建房屋，渐渐地从村变成了镇。路上行驶着汽车，晚上刺眼的光芒，还有那钢铁厂里面射出来的火焰。然而栎树依然耸立着，为千万家人民遮风挡雨。
许多年过去了，镇上遍地都是高楼大厦，它们甚至高过了那棵古老的栎树。曾经那清新的空气消失了，清澈的湖水也走了，留下的是烟雾和垃圾侵占了城市，又蔓延到郊区。
现在栎树越来越苍老了，病了，它想讲述一个好长的故事。那群可爱的人民，那片和谐的生活以及后来的侵略者，他们破坏了环境，做了好多好多坏事。可是栎树始终没能作声，只能将这一切埋藏在心底。
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