English Original
An olive tree and a fig tree were talking one winter day.
"I feel sorry for you," said the olive tree. "Every year you lose all your leaves and have to shiver through the winter with bare branches. But I stay green and beautiful all the year round. Still, I suppose we can't all be good-looking."
The fig tree was silent.
Later that day, the weather turned very cold. Great grey clouds filled the sky, and it was very still. It began to snow heavily.
All that night it snowed, and all the next day. Fields and hedges were thickly covered, and people had to dig paths from their houses to the roadside. The snow settled on the olive tree, drifting in little piles on the leaves, weighing down the branches so that they snapped and fell to the white ground below. The fig tree was more fortunate. She had no leaves to trap the snow, and it drifted harmlessly through the bare twigs.
When the thaw came, she was still standing, ready to put out her new spring leaves; but the olive tree lay broken, a twisted jumble of sticks and brown leaves.
中文翻译
一个冬日，一棵橄榄树和一棵无花果树正在交谈。
"我真为你感到难过，"橄榄树说。"每年你都会掉光所有的叶子，不得不光秃秃地打着寒颤度过冬天。而我却一年四季都保持翠绿和美丽。不过，我想我们不可能都长得好看。"
无花果树沉默不语。
那天晚些时候，天气变得非常寒冷。大片灰色的云层布满了天空，四周一片寂静。开始下起了大雪。
雪下了整整一夜，又下了整整一天。田野和树篱被厚厚的积雪覆盖，人们不得不从家门口挖出通往路边的小径。雪堆积在橄榄树上，在叶子上形成小堆，压弯了树枝，直到它们咔嚓一声折断，掉落到下面的白色地面上。无花果树则幸运得多。她没有叶子来困住雪，雪花无害地从光秃秃的细枝间飘过。
当冰雪消融时，她依然屹立着，准备抽出新春的嫩叶；而橄榄树却断裂倒地，成了一堆扭曲杂乱的枯枝和褐叶。