在一个偏僻遥远的山谷里，有一个高达数千尺的断崖。不知道什么时候，断崖边上长出了一株小小的百合。百合刚刚诞生的时候，长得和杂草一模一样。但是，它心里知道自己并不是一株野草。它的内心深处，有一个内在的纯洁的念头：“我是一株百合，不是一株野草。惟一能证明我是百合的办法，就是开出美丽的花朵。”有了这个念头，百合努力地吸收水分和阳光，深深地扎根，直直地挺着胸膛。终于在一个春天的清晨，百合的顶部结出了第一个花苞。

　　In a remote valley, there was a cliff a few thousand feet high. Since nobody-knows-when, on the edge of the cliff there grew a tiny lily. From the time it appeared, it hardly looked different from a weed, but the lily itself knew that it was not a weed by nature. In the innermost recesses of its heart, it had a singular belief: “I am a lily, not a weed, and the only way I can prove this is to produce beautiful flowers.” With this belief at heart, the lily made a great effort to absorb moisture and sunlight, to root itself into the earth deeply as it grew upright, and finally, on an early spring morning, it produced its first bud at the top of its stem. 

　　百合心里很高兴，附近的杂草却很不屑，它们在私底下嘲笑着百合：“这家伙明明是一株草，偏偏说自己是一株花，还真以为自己是一株花，我看它顶上结的不是花苞，而是头脑长瘤了。”公开场合，它们讥讽百合：“你不要做梦了，即使你真的会开花，在这荒郊野外，你的价值还不是跟我们一样？”　

　　The lily was happy, but the nearby weeds were scornful. They laughed at the lily behind its back. “It is a weed, and there is no doubt about that, but it insists it is a lily and is so deluded that it actually believes as much! I don’t think that thing on its head is a bud. It must be a tumor growing out of its brain.” They scoffed openly at the lily as well. “Stop dreaming. Even if you are able to bloom in this wild and desolate area, you aren’t any more worthy than we are.”

　　百合说：“我要开花，是因为我知道自己有美丽的花；我要开花，是为了完成作为一株花的庄严使命；我要开花，是由于自己喜欢以花来证明自己的存在。不管有没有人欣赏，不管你们怎么看我，我都要开花！”

　　The lily responded, “I want to bloom because I know I can produce beautiful flowers; I want to bloom because I wish to fulfil my solemn life as a flowering plant; I want to bloom because I prefer to validate my existence with flowers. Whether or not there is anyone to appreciate me, and no matter how you look at me, I will bloom all the same!”

　　在野草的鄙夷下，野百合努力地释放着内心的能量。有一天，它终于开花了，它那灵性的洁白和秀挺的风姿，成为断崖上最美丽的颜色。这时候，野草再也不敢嘲笑它了。

　　Therefore, under the scornful looks of the weeds, the wild lily strove to exert its inner will. One day, it finally began to produce flowers. Its dainty and erect stance in an inspiring pure white made it the most striking beauty on the cliff. At this point, no weed dared to laugh at it anymore.

　　百合花一朵朵地盛开着，它花上每天都有晶莹的水珠，野草们以为那是昨夜的露水，只有百合自己知道，那是极深沉的欢喜所结的泪滴。年年春天，野百合努力地开花、结籽。它的种子随着风，落在山谷、草原和悬崖边上，到处都开满洁白的野百合。

　　So flowers began to burst from the lily one after another, and crystal-clear drops of liquid appeared on the flowers every day. The weeds thought the drops were just dewdrops from the night before, but the lily itself knew that they were the tears it had shed because of the utmost happiness it felt. So ever spring, the wild lily worked hard to bloom and seed. And with the help of the winds, its seeds spread to the valley, to the grasslands, and to places near the cliff. Thus, pure-white wild lilies began to grow and bloom everywhere.

　　几十年后，远在千百里外的人，从城市、从乡村，千里迢迢赶来欣赏百合花。许多孩童跪下来，闻嗅百合花的芬芳；许多情侣互相拥抱，许下了“百年好合”的誓言；无数的人看到这从未有过的美，感动得落泪，触动内心那纯洁温柔的一角。

　　A few decades later, people came from towns and villages as far as several hundreds of miles away, to watch the lilies bloom. Children knelt by the lilies to enjoy their fragrance; lovers shared hugs before the lilies and made lifelong vows of love; and numerous people, witnessing a scene more beautiful than any they had ever witnessed, were moved to tears, for the lilies had tapped into their untainted sense of tender affection. 

　　不管别人怎么欣赏，满山的百合都谨记着第一株百合的教导：“我们要全心全意默默地开花，以花来证明自己的存在。”

　　No matter how others admired them, the lilies all over the mountain remembered the aphorism that the first lily had passed down to them: “We shall not boast but will bloom wholeheartedly, because blooming is how we prove our existence.”