This story made a profound impression on me as a boy. 我小时候，这个故事给我留下了深刻的印象。

　　I heard it first from my mother, and it soon became the tale I requested more often than any other at bedtime. 第一次我是听我母亲讲的，很快，它就成为我睡觉前央求她讲得最多的一个故事。

　　This frequently led to arguments with my younger brother, Aberforth, whose favourite story was “Grumble the Grubby Goat”. 弟弟阿不福思经常为此跟我发生争吵，他最喜欢的故事是《脏山羊克朗布》。

　　The moral of “The Tale of the Three Brothers” could not be any clearer: human efforts to evade or overcome death are always doomed to disappointment. 《三兄弟的传说》的寓意再明显不过：人类想要躲避或征服死神的努力注定不会成功。

　　The third brother in the story ( “the humblest and also the wisest” ) is the only one who understands that, having narrowly escaped Death once, the best he can hope for is to postpone their next meeting for as long as possible. 故事里的老三（“最谦虚也是最聪明的”）是唯一懂得的人，侥幸逃脱死神一次之后，他最多只能希望尽量延迟与死神的下一次见面。

　　This youngest brother knows that taunting Death – by engaging in violence, like the first brother, or by meddling in the shadowy art of necromancy, (Note1: Necromancy is the Dark Art of raising the dead. It is a branch of magic that has never worked, as this story makes clear. JKR) like the second brother - means pitting oneself against a wily enemy who cannot lose. 这位最小的弟弟明白，嘲弄死神——像老大那样动武，或像老二那样玩弄神秘莫测的招魂术（注释一：招魂术是指唤醒死者的黑魔法。这门魔法根本不灵，故事里对此讲得很清楚。——J.K。罗琳注）——意味着跟一位诡计多端、只赢不输的劲敌较量。

　　The irony is that a curious legend has grown up around this story, which precisely contradicts the message of the original. 具有讽刺意味的是，围绕这个故事生出了一个奇怪的传言，跟故事原来的寓意正好相反。

　　This legend holds that the gifts Death gives the brothers – an unbeatable wand, a stone that can bring back the dead, and an Invisibility Cloak that endures for ever – are genuine objects that exist in the real world. 传言认为，死神送给三兄弟的礼物——一根不可战胜的魔杖，一块能够起死回生的石头，还有一件永不磨损的隐形衣——都是确确实实存在于世界上的东西。

　　The legend goes further: if any person becomes the rightful owner of all three, then he or she will become “master of Death”, which has usually been understood to mean that they will be invulnerable, even immortal. 传言还说：如果一个人合法拥有了这三样东西，他（或她）就会成为“死神的主人”，这句话通常被认为是指他（或她）是无懈可击的，甚至是长生不老的。

　　We may smile, a little sadly, at what this tells us about human nature. 看到故事里向我们揭示的人性，我们或许会露出略含忧伤的微笑。

　　The kindest interpretation would be: “Hope springs eternal”. (note2: This quotation demonstrates that Albus Dumbledore was not only exceptionally well read in wizarding terms, but also that he was familiar with the writings of Muggle poet Alexander Pope. JKR) 最仁慈的解释是：“希望是永恒的”。（注释二：这句引言显示阿不思·邓布利多不仅对巫师文献涉猎甚广，而且对麻瓜诗人亚历山大·蒲柏的作品也很熟悉。——J.K。罗琳注）