帮我应门的年轻人说是个女人，说留言是她放的。

When I saw her I was shocked, since I immediately recognized her from church but hadno idea that it was she who wrote the notes.

看见她的时候我大吃一惊，因为我马上就认出她是我的教区信徒，只是我一直不知道那些短文是她写的。

She was sitting in a chair in the office with herhands folded in her lap.

她坐在办公室的一张椅子上，两手相扣搁在大腿上，低垂着头。

Her head was bowed and when she raised it to look at me, she couldbarely smile without pain.

在抬头看我的时候，她微笑起来却十分费劲。

Her face was disfigured, and the skin so tight from surgicalprocedures that smiling or laughing was very difficult for her.

那是一张破了相的脸，外科手术使她的脸皮绷得紧紧的，笑对她来说也是很困难的。

She had suffered terribly fromtreatment to remove the growths that had so marred her face.

为了去除脸上碍眼的肉瘤她接受了手术治疗，这令她吃尽苦头。

We chatted for a while that Sunday morning and a GREed to meet for lunch later that week.

那个星期天早上我们聊了一会儿，并决定那个星期再找个时间一起吃顿午饭。

As it turned out we went to lunch several times, and she always wore a hat during the meal.

后来我们不止吃了一顿午饭，而是好几顿。每次一起吃饭的时候她都戴着帽子。

I think that treatments of some sort had caused a lot of her hair to fall out.

我想可能是她接受的某种治疗使她掉了不少头发。

We shared things about our lives.

我们分享了各自生活中的点点滴滴。

I told her about my schooling and growing up.

我跟她讲我读书和成长的故事。

She told me that she hadworked for years for an insurance company.

她告诉我她在一家保险公司里已经工作多年了。

She never mentioned family, and I did not ask.

她从来没有提过自己的家庭，我也没有问。

We spoke of authors we both had read, and it was easy to tell that books are a GREat love ofhers.

我们还谈到大家都读过的作家作品，不难发现她非常喜欢看书。

I have thought about her often over the years and how she struggled in a society that placesan incredible premium on looks, class, wealth and all the other fineries of life.

这些年我经常想起她，在这个以外表、地位和财富等虚名浮利挂帅的社会中她是怎样一路挺过来的呢？

She suffered from a disfigurement that cannot be made to look attractive.

毁掉的容颜使她怎么也无法变得耀眼迷人。

I know that her condition hurther deeply.

我知道这深深地刺痛着她。

Would her life have been different had she been pretty?

如果她长得漂亮，她的生命轨迹会不会有所不同呢？

Chances are it would have.

有可能。

And yetthere were a sensitivity and a beauty to her that had nothing to do with looks.

不过她有种独特的灵气和美，与外表完全无关。

She was one tobe listened to, whose words were so easy to take to heart.

她的话轻而易举地征服了人心，她正是我们要聆听的声音。

Her words came from a woundedbut loving heart, very much like all hearts, but she had more of a need to be aware of it, to livewith it and learn from it.

她的隽语出于一颗受过伤却充满爱的心，就像所有人的心一样，只不过她比别人更注重对自己心灵的关注、用心去体会生活并从中学习。

She possessed a fine-tuned sense of beauty.

她拥有一种细腻的美感。

Her only fear in life wasthe loss of a friend.

她生命里唯一的恐惧就是失去朋友。

How long does it take most of us to reach that level of human growth, if we ever get there?

我们究竟要花多长时间才能达到如此高度的成熟？能否最终达到还是个未知数呢。

We get so consumed and diminished, worrying about all the things that need improving, we caneasily forget to cherish those things that last.

我们老觉得身心疲惫，怀才不遇，只顾为眼前的不足忧心忡忡，却忘了珍视一些历久常新的东西。

Friendship, so rare and so good, just needs ourcare--maybe even the simple gesture of writing a little note now and then, or the dropping ofsome beautiful words in a basket, in the hope that such beauty will be shared and taken to heart.

友谊珍贵而美好，只需我们用心呵护，有时候简简单单的表示就已经足够了，譬如偶尔写几句话给朋友，或者在篮子里投入一些优美动人的字条，以期大家都能分享，记住美妙的时刻、美好的感觉。

the truth of her life was a desire to see beyond the surface for a glimpse of what it is thatmatters. She found beauty and grace and they befriended her, and showed her is real.

她生命的真谛就是要透过事物的表面一睹其真正的本质。她发现了美和上帝的慈爱，而美和慈爱也待她如友，把生命的真谛呈现给她。