افسانه فائتون (Phaeton)‌فرزند خدای آفتاب (Apollo Helios)

The Story of Phaeton
Part I
In the sunny plains of Greece there once dwelt Clymene, a fair nymph. She was not alone; however, for her golden-haired little son phaeton was there to gladden her heart with all his childish graces. Early in the morning, when the sun's bright orb first appeared above the horizon, Clymene would point it out to her boy, and tell him that his father, Apollo, was setting out for his daily drive. Clymene so often entertained her child with stories of his father's beauty and power, that at last Phaeton became conceited, and acquired a habit of boasting rather loudly of his divine parentage. His playmates, after a time, became tired of his arrogance and wanted him to show them some proof of his divine origin. Phaeton hastened to his mother, and begged her to direct him to his father so that he could obtain the desired proof. Clymene immediately gave him all necessary information, and bade him make haste if he would reach his father's palace in the Far East before the sun chariot passed out of its portals to accomplish his daily round. Directly eastward Phaeton journeyed, nor paused to rest until he came in view of the golden pinnacles of his father's palace. It was a radiant place. It shone with gold and gleamed with ivory and sparkled with jewels. Everything without and within flashed, glowed and glittered. Darkness and night were unknown.

  

Apollo, from his golden throne, had watched the boy's approach and, as he drew nearer, recognized him as his own child. Apollo addressed him graciously, called him his son and asked him? "What brought you here?" He answered: "I have come to find out if you are my father or not. My mother said you were, but the boys at school laugh when I tell them I am your son. They will not believe me. "Smiling Apollo said: "Come here, Phaeton, you are my son. I expect you will not doubt my word too? But I will give you a proof. Ask anything you want of me and you shall have it. I call the Styx, the river of the oath of the gods, to be witness to my promise.

With a flash of triumph in his dark eyes, Phaeton, hearing this oath, begged permission to drive the sun chariot that very day, stating that all the world be sure to notice his exalted position. When the god heard his request, he startled back in dismay and said: "You are Clymene's son as well as mine .You are mortal. You couldn’t drive my chariot. In deed, no god except me can do that. The ruler of gods cannot. Consider the road. It rises up from the sea so deeply that the horses can hardly climb it, fresh though they are in the morning. To guide the horses is a perpetual struggle. You will have to pass beasts, fierce beasts of prey and they are all that you will see.

 

to be continued...

داستانی پند آموز

Study this small story; it will hopefully make a big change in you.

Professor began his class by holding up a glass with some water in it.

He held it for all to see and asked the students, “How much does this glass weigh?”

50g! …. 100g! …. 125 g! the students answered.

I really don’t know unless I weigh it, said the professor, but my question is: “What would happen if I held it up like this for a few minutes?”

Nothing, said the students.

“Ok what would happen if I held it up like this for an hour?”  the professor asked.

“Your arm would begin to ache” said the students.

You are right, now what would happen if I held it up for a day?

“Your arm could go numb, you might have severe muscle stress and paralysis and have to go to hospital for sure!”, Ventured another student and all the students laughed.

 

Very good. But the all this, has the weight of the glass changed? Asked the professor.

NO!!!

“Then what caused the arm ache and the muscle stress? “ The students were puzzled.

 

Put the glass down! Said one of the students.

 

“Exactly”, said the professor. Life’s problems are something like this.

Hold it for a few minutes in your head and they seem OK. Think of them for a long time and they begin to ache. Hold it even longer and they begin to paralyze you. You will not be able to do anything.

 

It’s important to think of the challenges (problems) in your life, but EVEN more important is to put them down at the end of every day before you go to sleep. That way, you are not stressed, you wake up every day fresh and strong and can handle any issue, any challenge that come your way.

 

So when you leave the office today, remember to

Put the glass down TODAY!

 

Time and Love - Story

Time and Love

Once upon a time there was an island where all the feelings lived:

Happiness, Sadness, Knowledge, and all the others, including Love.

One day it was announced to all of the feelings that the island was going to sink to the bottom of the ocean. All the feelings prepared their boats to leave. Love was the only one that stayed.

 She wanted to preserve the island paradise until the last possible moment.

When the island was almost totally under, Love decided it was time to leave. She began looking for someone to ask for help.

Just then Richness was passing by in a grand boat. Love asked Richness, "Can I come with you on your boat?" Richness answered, "I'm sorry, but there is a lot of silver and gold on my boat and there would be no room for you anywhere."

Love then decided to ask Vanity, who was passing in a beautiful vessel, for help. Love cried out, "Vanity, help me please." "I can't help you," Vanity said, "You are all wet and will damage my beautiful boat."

Next Love saw Sadness passing by. Love said, "Sadness, please let me go with you." Sadness answered, "Love, I'm sorry, but I just need to be alone now."

Then Love saw Happiness. Love cried out, "Happiness, please take me with you." But Happiness was so overjoyed that he didn't hear Love calling to him.

Love began to cry. Then she heard a voice say, "Come Love, I will take you with me." It was an elder. Love felt so blessed and overjoyed that she forgot to ask the elder his name. When they arrived on land the elder went on his way. Love realized how much she owed the elder.

Love then found Knowledge and asked, "Who was it that helped me?" "It was Time," Knowledge answered. "But why did Time help me when no one else would?" Love asked. Knowledge smiled and with deep wisdom and sincerity answered, "Because only Time is capable of understanding how great Love is."

The mercy of Allah

The mercy of Allah

 

A man woke up early in order to pray the morning prayer in the mosque. He got dressed, made his ablution and was on his way to the mosque.

 

On his way to the mosque, the man fell and his clothes got dirty. He got up, brushed himself off, and headed home. At home, he changed his clothes, made his ablution, and was, again, on his way to the mosque.

 

2nd time, on his way to the mosque, he fell again and at the same spot! He, again, got up, brushed himself off and headed home. At home he, once again, changed his clothes, made his ablution and was on his way to the mosque.

 

On his way 3rd time to the mosque, he met a man holding a lamp. He asked the man of his identity and the man replied "I saw you fall twice on your way to the mosque, so I brought a lamp so I can light your way." The first man thanked him profusely and the two where on their way to the mosque.

 

Once at the mosque, the first man asked the man with the lamp to come in and pray morning with him. The second man refused. The first man asked him a couple more times and, again, the answer was the same. The first man asked him why he did not wish to come in and pray.

 

The man replied "I am Satan."

 

The man was shocked at this reply. Satan went on to explain, "I saw you on your way to the mosque and it was I who made you fall. When you went home, cleaned yourself and went back on your way to the mosque, Allah forgave all of your sins. I made you fall a second time, and even that did not encourage you to stay home, but rather, you went back on your way to the mosque. Because of that, Allah forgave all the sins of the people of your household. I was afraid if I made you fall one more time, then Allah will forgive the sins of the people of your village, so I made sure that you reached the mosque safely."

 

Think yourself about it's purpose

 

ترجمه

رحمت خداوند

مردي از  بندگان خدا  صبح زود بيدار شد تا نماز صبح را در مسجد بجاي آورد. او لباس پوشيد ، وضو ساخت و راهي مسجد شد. در راه مسجد به يكباره زمين خورد و لباس هايش كثيف شد. برخاست خود را تميز كرد و به خانه باز گشت. در خانه، لباس هايش را تميز كرد خود را پاك كرد و راهي مسجد شد. در راه مسجد براي بار دوم در هما ن مكان قبلي  زمين خورد و دومرتبه به خانه برگشته خود را تميز كرد و لباس هايش را عوض كرد.

بار سومي كه راهي مسجد شد مردي را چراغ به دست مشاهده نمود. مرد از او خواست كه خودش را معرفي كند و او در جواب گفت كه من تو را ديدم كه دو بار در راه مسجد به زمين افتادي بنابراين من چراغي آوردم تا مسير تو را روشن كنم. مرد اول از او تشكر بسيار نمود و هر دو راهي مسجد شدند.

در مسجد مرد اول از مرد چراغ بدست خواست كه بيايد و با او نماز گزارد ولي مرد امتناع كرد. مرد اول چند بار ديگر از او خواهش كرد و همچنان مرد دوم امتناع مي كرد. در اين حال مرد اول از او پرسيد كه چرا او حاضر نيست كه نماز بخواند.

مرد پاسخ داد كه من شيطان هستم.

مرد اول  بخاطر جواب او شوكه شد. شيطان چنين ادامه داد كه : من تو را ديدم كه براي نماز راهي مسجد بودي و من باعث شدم كه به زمين بيفتي . وقتي تو به خانه برگشتي خودت را تميز كردي  و دوباره در راه مسجد شدي خداوند همه گناهان تو را بخشيد. من براي بار دوم تو را به زمين انداختم و اين بار نيز حتي باعث نشد كه تو در خانه بماني  و بلكه ترجيح دادي كه به راهت بسوي مسجد باز گردي.

 

بخاطر آن خداوند تمام گناهان اهل تو را بخشيد. من ترسيده بودم كه اگر بار ديگر تو را به زمين بزنم خداوند تمام گناهان مردم روستايت را ببخشد از اين جهت خواستم مطمئن شوم كه به سلامت به مسجد مي رسي

 

Introduction to Poetry

Billy Collins I ask them to take a poem and hold it up to the light like a color slide or press an ear against its hive. I say drop a mouse into a poem and watch him probe his way out, or walk inside the poem's room and feel the walls for a light switch. I want them to waterski across the surface of a poem waving at the author's name on the shore. But all they want to do is tie the poem to a chair with rope and torture a confession out of it. They begin beating it with a hose to find out what it really means.

Too hot to handle

Too hot to handle

 

Too hot to handle

Definition:	Difficult; hard to deal with; controversial
Example:	1) The editor thought the story about the president's girlfriend was too hot to handle, so he refused to print it. 2) The line drive was too hot to handle, and the Phillies scored on the play.
Etymology:	'Too hot to handle' comes from baseball, referring to a ball hit so hard that it can't be caught. In this phrase, 'hot' means 'lively' or 'powerful', and 'handle' means 'take care of' or 'pick up'. The phrase is now used to describe any situation that is hard to deal with or problematic.

Misery

 Misery

by Anton Chekhov

THE twilight of evening. Big flakes of wet snow are whirling lazily about the street lamps, which have just been lighted, and lying in a thin soft layer on roofs, horses' backs, shoulders, caps. Iona Potapov, the sledge-driver, is all white like a ghost. He sits on the box without stirring, bent as double as the living body can be bent. If a regular snowdrift fell on him it seems as though even then he would not think it necessary to shake it off. . . . His little mare is white and motionless too. Her stillness, the angularity of her lines, and the stick-like straightness of her legs make her look like a halfpenny gingerbread horse. She is probably lost in thought. Anyone who has been torn away from the plough, from the familiar gray landscapes, and cast into this slough, full of monstrous lights, of unceasing uproar and hurrying people, is bound to think.

A Haunted House

A Haunted House

by

Virginia Woolf

Whatever hour you woke there was a door shutting. From room to room they went, hand in hand, lifting here, opening there, making sure--a ghostly couple.

"Here we left it," she said. And he added, "Oh, but here tool" "It's upstairs," she murmured. "And in the garden," he whispered. "Quietly," they said, "or we shall wake them."

But it wasn't that you woke us. Oh, no. "They're looking for it; they're drawing the curtain," one might say, and so read on a page or two. "Now they've found it,' one would be certain, stopping the pencil on the margin. And then, tired of reading, one might rise and see for oneself, the house all empty, the doors standing open, only the wood pigeons bubbling with content and the hum of the threshing machine sounding from the farm. "What did I come in here for? What did I want to find?" My hands were empty. "Perhaps its upstairs then?" The apples were in the loft. And so down again, the garden still as ever, only the book had slipped into the grass.

پیشگیری شرط عقل

پیشگیری شرط عقل

An ounce of discretion is worth a pound of wit

Or

An ounce of prevention (is worth a pound of cure)

(یک ذره پیشگیری بهتر از یک عالمه درمان است)

Or

Prevention is better than cure

 

 

used to say that it is better to prevent a problem before it happens than to try to solve it after it has happened.

 

حور دریایی زنور (قسمت 6)

A tear, larger than an ocean pearl, fell from Morveren's eye. "Then surely I may die from the wanting down here."

Llyr sighed, and his sigh was like the rumbling of giant waves upon the rocks; for a mermaid to cry was a thing unheard of and it troubled the old sea king greatly.

"Go, then," he said at last, "but go with care. Cover your tail with a dress, such as their women wear. Go quietly, and make sure that none shall see you. And return by high tide, or you may not return at all."

"I shall take care, Father!" cried Morveren, excited. "No one shall snare me like a herring!"

Llyr gave her a beautiful dress crusted with pearls and sea jade and coral and other ocean jewels. It covered her tail, and she covered her shining hair with a net, and so disguised she set out for the church and the land of men.

Slippery scales and fish's tail are not made for walking, and it was difficult for Morveren to get up the path to the church. Nor was she used to the dress of an earth woman dragging behind. But get there she did, pulling herself forward by grasping on the trees, until she was at the very door of the church. She was just in time for the closing hymn. Some folks were looking down at their hymnbooks and some up at the choir, so, since none had eyes in the backs of their heads, they did not see Morveren. But she saw them, and Mathew as well. He was as handsome as an angel, and when he sang it was like a harp from heaven -- although Morveren, of course, being a mermaid, knew nothing of either.

اشكي بزرگتر از مرواريد اقيانوس از چشم مورورن سرازير شد:«پس من مطمئنآ بدون آن در اينجا خواهم مرد.» لير آهي همچون غرش يك موج بزرگ كه بر صخره برخورد مي كند كشيد.

براي يك حوري دريايي گريستن كاري بسيار عجيب بود لذا اين گريه پادشاه پير دريا را به سختي آزرد. بالاخره او گفت:برو اما احتياط كن . دمت را با يك لباس بپوش همانطوركه زنان انسانها مي پوشند.با سكوت كامل برو و مطمئن شو كه كسي تو را نخواهد ديد و در زمانيكه آب دريا در مد هست برگردد والا ممكن است اصلآ نتواني بر گردي .

مورورن در حاليكه هيجان زده بودگفت: «من مراقبم پدر ، هيچكس نخواهد توانست مرا همچون شاه ماهي در دام اندازد».

لير به او يك پيراهن زيبا كه مرصع به مرواريد والب دريايي و مرجان و ديگر جواهرات ديگر بود به او داد . اين لباس دم اورا پوشاند وموهايش را با يك تور پنهان كردوبا اين تغيير قيافه او براي رفتن به كليسا و خشكي انسانها آماده شد.

لغزندگي بدن او و دم ماهي او براي پياده روي مناسب نبود و پيمودن مسير تا كليسا را براي او مشكل مي كرد.و ديگر اينكه لباسي را كه او مثل زنان زميني پوشيده بود روي زمين كشيده مي شد.اوبه طرز ماهرانه اي خود رابه پشت درختها مي رساند تا جايي كه نزديك در كليسا رسيد. او بايد در پايان سرود روحاني آنجا مي بود .بعضي از مردم به كتاب هاي سرود خود نگاه مي كردند و برخي نيز به گروه كر مي نگريستند بنابراين هيچ كدام او را نديدند چون از پشت سر خود چشم نداشتند ،امااو آنها وماتيو را مي ديد . او بسيار خوشگل و زيبا همانند فرشته بود و هنگاميكه  مي خواند همانند صداي چنگ در بهشت بود . اگر چه مورورن يك حوريه دريايي بود و چيزي در مورد او نمي دانست.

 

The Birthdayداستان روز تولد

The Birthday

By Maureen McDonald, age 14

Sarah's birthday was one month away, and it was a big birthday; she was turning eight. To Sarah's family, turning eight meant your tail was full-grown. Sarah and her family were squirrels. And to squirrels, having a full-grown tail is a big thing.

Sarah wanted to celebrate her birthday with a party, just as her six older siblings had. She jealously watched and attended those parties, secretly planning her own birthday. The only thing Sarah could think about was her party: who was going to be there, what presents she would get, and what games they would play. Sarah decided to get a head start on planning her party, so she asked her Mom.

"Hey mom, when can I have my birthday party?"

"Sarah, Sarah, Sarah, your birthday isn't for another month! Be patient-good things come when you are patient. Go clean your room," her mom grouchily replied. Sadly, Sarah did as she was told.

The next week, Sarah decided to ask her mother about the party.

"Hey mom, when can I have my birthday party?"

"Well, we are too busy. I don't think we will have time to have a party. Maybe next year. Sorry hun," her Mom replied.

"Wha_wha_what are you talking about? What do you mean we won't have time? All of the others- Sam, Scott, Sadie, Sally, Susie and Steve- all had parties. Why can't I have one? I'm sure you could find some time for me."

"I'm sorry, Sarah. We just can't do it right now," her mom answered, apologetically.

"Fine," Sarah said. She went and moped around, wanting to scream at her mom, but just figured she shouldn't.

The days went by slowly and Sarah grew eager for the presents she would get. She dreamt of that beautiful Tiffmunk's tail bracelet that she wanted so badly. That beautiful, jeweled bracelet, coming only in "Autumn Orange," "Swamp Green," "Ice Lake Crystal" and "Plum Weed Purple." Sarah had always
wanted a "Plum Weed Purple" one to match the purple earrings she got when she was younger. She would be the talk of the forest if she had it.

When the big day was less than a week away, Sarah's mom asked her what she wanted to do on her birthday.

"I guess I'll just go shopping," Sarah replied, gloomily.

"Okay, I'll have Sadie take you shopping. You two come home around 3:00 okay?" her mom directed.

"Okay - I'll go find some acorns in case I see something that I want to buy."

Finally, the day was here. Sarah and Sadie had gone shopping and purchased some cool clothes. For some reason, Sadie steered her out of getting a tail bracelet. When they got to their tree, Sarah opened the knothole and.."SURPRISE!" Her mother had thrown her a surprise party and everyone was
there! Best of all, she received the prettiest Tiffmunk's tail bracelet ever, in "Plum Weed Purple," of course!

And the moral of the fable is: always be patient and good things will come your way.

داستان کوتاه انگلیسی

Cameras in Police Cars  

The Rockford police chief and some city officials want to install video cameras in all 100 police cars. They think this will reduce the number of lawsuits filed against the city. In the last five years, Rockford has paid out more than five million dollars to settle about 40 lawsuits.

The chief said, “If cameras had been in those cars, we wouldn’t have had to pay one dime. We’re always pulling over drunks or drug users who try to fight the cops or shoot them. Then they always claim that the police started beating them first or started shooting at them first. What hogwash!”

The cost of installing cameras will be about $500 per vehicle. The city council will vote on the proposal next Monday. Ten of the 13 council members, when asked about the proposal, said that they liked the idea. One member said that it makes good fiscal sense and common sense. If the cameras are approved, they can be installed in all the cars within six weeks.

The police officers enthusiastically support camera use. One officer said that too many people think the police are liars; cameras would show citizens that police tell the truth. “The money that we’ve been spending on lawsuits will be better spent on more cameras,” said one officer.

Citizen reaction to the idea of police car cameras is mixed. One person said that the police should have started doing this years ago when video cameras were invented. But an elderly man said that cameras were an invasion of privacy. “These police are trying to stick their nose into everything,” he said. He was going to attend the council meeting to condemn the proposal. He hoped that other citizens would join him.