学文网One day, overnight, the world turned violet. Just about everything turned violet from the sky and ocean and mountains to the trees and animals and people and from the tallest skyscrapers to the tiniest ant. People sat around1 looking at one another wondering if they were dreaming. But nobody woke up and things stayed violet, all except for a single Blue Jay who hadn’t changed color and stayed the brightest blue.
Being the only thing in the world that wasn’t violet, he was caught and put in a cage. People were shocked. Some were afraid and some were amazed and a few thought it funny, because along with everyone else, the President was very violet. Whole families were violet as were teachers, movie stars, doctors, nurses, gas station attendants2, the Queen of England, the President of Mozambique3, taxi-drivers, everybody. They went from place to place in their violet cars and buses and rode violet bikes and sat on violet furniture and ate violet food. Even candy bars had turned all violet as had Skittles. Girls generally thought this yucky4, but some boys thought it was pretty neat5.
The smartest scientists in the world gathered to figure it out. Was something wrong with people’s eyes or was it a trick of nature? They did studies and tests and analyzed and evaluated and debated and wrote article after article, but couldn’t explain it.
And no longer could people say they felt “blue” or were “green” with envy or had a “green” thumb6. So what they said and how they said it began to change. Some people said violet was now the most important color in the world because it was everywhere. Others said that violet had no importance at all because there was too much of it. They discussed and argued, joined clubs, held debates, wrote books, and produced movies all about the issue of the importance or unimportance of the color violet.
The color of the Blue Jay became a big issue because he had such a little bit of blue and the world had such a whole lot of violet. People argued about the importance of that. Some said the Blue Jay must be a very special bird or maybe not a bird at all because he alone had kept his true color. Others said this was silly, that the Blue Jay ate bird seed and drank water and fluffed7 his feathers and that other than his special color he was still just a bird.
It was exactly one year to the day after the world had turned violet that people awoke to find the world had turned yellow. All except the Blue Jay.
In some ways a yellow world isn’t any different than a violet world. People simply said yellow instead of violet when they talked about things. Only now the Blue Jay was more important than ever because he alone had stayed the color blue and people argued about what that meant. They lined up for miles just to take a look at him.
For the next two years, exactly on the day the world had turned violet and then yellow, it turned new colors: first orange and then pink. Still the Blue Jay stayed blue, causing ever greater disagreement――until in the fifth year the whole world turned blue.
The first thing people asked was what about the Blue Jay. Had he stayed blue? Yes, he was still the same color. No longer were there two colors in the world, but just one――the color blue. And because the Blue Jay was a color like everybody and everything else people began to lose interest. Now that he was neither more nor less important crowds stopped coming and one day, six months into the year that the world had turned blue, somebody let him out of his cage and he flew off looking happy to be free.
The very next morning the world regained its rainbow of colors as if nothing had ever happened. At first this was a novelty8 but soon people forgot the world had once been all violet. They forgot the world had once turned yellow, then orange, then pink, and then blue. They returned to saying they felt“blue” or were“green” with envy or had a “green” thumb.
But on occasion9 they wondered where the Blue Jay had gone and how he was doing and, most of all, if he was still the color blue and what it had all meant.
某一天,一夜之间,世界变成了紫色。从天空、海洋、高山到树木、动物、人类,从最高的摩天大楼到最小的蚂蚁,所有的一切都变成了紫色。人们无所事事,面面相觑,心想这是不是在做梦。但是没有人从梦中醒来,万物依然是紫色。只有一只冠蓝鸦没有变色,仍旧是最鲜艳的蓝色。
全世界都是紫色,它是唯一的例外,于是人们把它抓起来关进了笼子。所有人都大为震惊。有些人感到害怕,有些人惊叹不已,少数人则觉得很有趣,因为就连总统也同大家一起变成了紫色的。家家户户,莫不如此:老师、电影明星、医生、护士、加油站服务员、英格兰女王、莫桑比克总统、出租车司机,无人例外。他们开着紫色的轿车,乘着紫色的公交车,在各地间穿梭;他们骑着紫色的自行车,回家后坐在紫色的家具上吃着紫色的食物。连巧克力棒、彩虹糖也全都变成了紫色。女孩们普遍认为什么东西都变成紫色很令人讨厌,但一些男孩却认为这样非常整齐划一。
全世界最聪明的科学家们齐聚一堂,探讨原因。是不是人们的眼睛出了问题?还是大自然的一个玩笑?他们进行研究、测试、分析、评估、争辩,撰写一篇又一篇论文,但是依然无法给出合理的解释。
人们再也不能说他们感觉心情如“蓝色”般忧郁,妒忌得两眼发“绿”,或者具有“绿”化园林的技能。所以他们说话的内容和方式都发生了改变。有些人认为目前紫色是全世界最重要的颜色,因为它无处不在。其他人却觉得紫色无关紧要,因为人们对它已经习以为常、视而不见了。他们讨论、争辩,参加俱乐部,举行辩论会,撰写书籍,拍摄影片,都拿紫色重不重要做文章。
冠蓝鸦的颜色成了争论的焦点,因为整个世界一片紫色,它那一星半点的蓝色显得尤为醒目。人们争论着这一点的重要性。一些人说这只冠蓝鸦肯定是一只非同寻常的鸟,或者可能根本就不是鸟类,因为只有它保持了原来的颜色。其他人觉得这种说法很荒唐,这只冠蓝鸦吃鸟食,喝水,抖羽毛,除了颜色特别,其他一切都与正常鸟类无异。
在世界变成紫色刚好一年后,人们一觉醒来发现世界又变成了黄色,除了那只冠蓝鸦。
在某种程度上,黄色的世界和紫色的世界并没有差别。人们只要在讲话时把紫色说成黄色就行了。只不过现在那只冠蓝鸦愈发重要了,因为还是只有它保持着原来的蓝色。人们又一次为其意义争论不休。他们排着数英里的长队,只为一睹它的风采。
在之后的两年里,世界又“准时”换上了新的颜色:之前是紫色和黄色,这次先是橘色,然后是粉色。冠蓝鸦依然坚守蓝色,引起了声势更为浩大的争论――直到第五年,全世界都变成了蓝色。
人们想到的第一件事就是冠蓝鸦怎么样了。它还是蓝色的吗?是的,它依然没有变色。世界上终于不再有两种颜色了,只有一种――蓝色。由于冠蓝鸦的颜色与周围的一切人和物一致,人们对它的兴趣开始减退。既然它已经谈不上重不重要,人们也就不再前来。世界变蓝六个月后的一天,有人把它从笼子里放了出来。它展翅高飞,因重获自由而欢欣不已。就在冠蓝鸦飞走的第二天早晨,世界恢复了原本的五颜六色,就像什么事都没有发生过一样。一开始人们还觉得很新奇,但很快大家就淡忘了世界曾变成紫色这个事实。他们也忘记了世界后来又变成黄色、橘色、粉色和蓝色。他们又开始说感觉心情如“蓝色”般忧郁,妒忌得两眼发“绿”,或者具有“绿”化园林的技能。
但是,偶尔他们会想冠蓝鸦飞去了哪里,现在过得怎样,最重要的是,它是否依然是那鲜艳的蓝色,以及曾经发生的一切究竟意味着什么。
注释：
1. sit around: 无所事事,闲坐着
2. attendant n. 服务员
3. Mozambique n. 莫桑比克[非洲东 南部国家]
4. yucky adj. 令人反感的,令人厌恶的 5. neat adj. 简单划一的
6. green thumb: 指很会种花养草或种 菜的人
7. fluff vt. 抖松(头发、羽毛等)
8. novelty n. 新奇事物;新奇经验
9. on occasion: 有时