雙語美文賞析：愛讓天敵變成朋友

An Atmosphere of Love Turns Nature’s Foes into Friends

愛讓天敵變成朋友

What happens when you put five cute, little innocent piglets into a tiger’s den? Most would guess that the tiger would be looking at its next meal.

把五隻天真可愛的小豬放入老虎窩裏會發生什麼事呢？多數人可能會猜測：老虎會把小豬當作美味的大餐。

At a zoo in California, a tiger gave birth to three cubs. As this was a very rare event, everyone at the zoo was very excited. Unfortunately the excitement didn’t last long; the cubs were premature and died shortly after birth.

在美國加州的一個動物園裏，有一隻老虎生下了三隻幼虎，由於這種情況十分罕見，所以動物園裏的每個人都很興奮。不幸的是，大家才高興沒多久，三隻幼虎都因為早產，出生後不久就死了。

Even though the zoo staff took very good care of the mother tiger, her health started deteriorating very quickly. At first, no one understood why she could not regain her vigor. But when they came to the realization that the mother was yearning for her lost babies, it occurred to them that they could simply replace her cubs! However, even after searching frantically, they were unable to find suitable replacements.

動物園的工作人員非常用心照護老虎媽媽，但她的健康狀況卻迅速惡化。一開始沒有人瞭解為什麼老虎媽媽無法恢復活力，後來當工作人員明白這是因為虎媽媽懷念她逝去的寶寶時，他們想到可以用其它的幼虎來取代她的寶寶。然而工作人員四處拼命尋找，卻找不到合適的替身。

Then they thought of another idea, which was to replace the cubs with babies from an entirely different species. So they found a litter of five orphaned piglets. It seemed like it could be a perfect match, but no one knew what the tiger’s reaction would be. Would she see them as prey, or accept them as her own? Then they were enlightened with the creative idea of wrapping the piglets in tiger skins before placing them in the den.

接着他們想到另一個點子：用其它不同種的動物寶寶來替代幼虎，因此他們找來了一窩五隻失恃的小豬。喪子的母老虎和失恃的小豬似乎是完美的'組合，但是沒有人知道虎媽媽會有什麼反應。虎媽媽會把小豬當成獵物呢，還是視如己出？於是工作人員突發奇想，先幫小豬穿上老虎皮，然後才把它們放進老虎的柵欄裏。

Everyone held their breath as they placed the unsuspecting piglets in with the mother tiger. But imagine the delight when instead of seeing them as dinner the tiger accepted them as her new baby cubs! These little pigs now have a caring tiger mommy to look after them, and the mother tiger has a way to share her love.

當工作人員把這些毫無戒心的變裝小豬與虎媽媽放在一起時，大家都屏息以待。結果虎媽媽並沒有把小豬視為晚餐，反而把它們當作她的新生小寶寶，虎媽媽的喜悦令人料想不到！現在這些小豬有一個充滿愛心的老虎媽媽照顧顧它們，而虎媽媽也有了抒發母愛的對象了。