网帖翻译

Richard Ranch
This happened to me just six weeks ago. I have a casual Facebook friend, a fellow from Germany named Hans (I live in the USA). We were in the same car group. He had a couple wonderful, perfect Goggomobils that I always made a point to comment on.

我是住在美国的人，我也遇到过善举，就在六周前，一个叫汉斯的德国人，他是我脸书的朋友，我们在同一个脸书的汽车群组。他有几辆精彩绝伦的格哥摩（Goggomobil），我对此赞不绝口。

Hans in one of his Goggomobils.

汉斯在他其中一辆格哥摩汽车中。
（译注：格哥摩（Goggomobil），德国汽车品牌。Goggomobil是一系列的汽车，二战后由GLAS在德国巴伐利亚州生产的。中文中的宝马汽车，愿意为巴伐利亚发动机制造厂股份有限公司。取名宝马主要是根据中文的汗血宝马来的，实际上愿意并无此意，只是一个带有当地名称的公司。）

From those encounters we became friends and I admired some steam engines he posted. It turns out there’s a huge community of steam engine collectors on Facebook and Hans had the nicest, most unique ones of any I had seen.

在那些相识的日子里，我们成了朋友，他发布的蒸汽机内容，让我感到钦佩。事实上，在脸书上有着一个巨大的蒸汽机收藏群体。汉斯的蒸汽机是我见过的所有之中最好的，最独特的。
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I wanted to get my own steam engine and since they are not a cheap investment, I asked Hans for advice. He was very generous with his opinions and helped me settle on one for sale on eBay.

我想买一部蒸汽机，但这需要不菲的花费，于是我向汉斯征求意见，他也很欣然的向我传授他的经验，并帮我在易贝(eBay)上买了一个。

When it arrived, I fired it up and made a little video of it running for Facebook. Of course I gave my friend full credit for mentoring me on the hobby.

收到之后，我启动了它，并制作了一个运行的小视频放在脸书上，当然，这个爱好得归功于我这朋友对我的指导。

About two months later this beautiful piece of functional art arrived in the mail from Germany.
This was a motor I had seen and admired on Facebook. It’s handmade in South Africa and very expensive. I was near tears when I opened the package. Then I saw the beautiful, touching letter that was enclosed with it.

大约两个月后，我又收到从德国寄来的这件漂亮的可以运作的艺术品。
这是一辆我在脸书上看到并欣赏过的机器。这是南非手工制作的，非常昂贵。当我打开包裹时，我几乎要哭了。然后我看到了随信附上的那美丽动人的信。

It reads;
Dear Richard,
Surely you wonder why I just give you something like that. There are two reasons for this. First, I got to know you a little bit on Facebook and you are a very personable person to me. We share our hobbies. You have two lovely, beautiful daughters and a great woman. You are a great family. I like you all very much!

他是这样写的：
亲爱的理查德：，
你肯定想知道我为什么给你这样的东西。这有两个原因：首先，我在脸书上认识了你，你对我来说是个很有风度的人。我们有共同的爱好，你有两个可爱漂亮的女儿和一个很棒的妻子。你拥有一个幸福美满的家庭，我非常欣赏你们一家。

The second reason, I would like to represent all Americans who liberated Germany in World War II. You have done so much for Germany like nobody else. And that despite the suffering that we Germans have brought on the world.

第二个原因，我想以此为代表感谢所有在二战中解放了德国的美国人。你们为德国做的太多，无人能及，尽管我们德国人给世界带来了苦难。

My father was 18 when he had to go to war. He was shot in the pelvis, he was shot in the kidney and he had a graze on the forehead. He had survived everything and had to go to war again and again after healing. In the last year of the war, he was in a house fight in France. He once said that he crept to a corner of the house, full of fear. Suddenly an American soldier came around the corner and both men were terrified. Both of them had their rifles pointed at each other. Neither shot, both just looked at each other. Then the American said: I don’t want to kill you. Neither did my father. The two men exchanged addresses and became friends after the war. If the American had shot, I wouldn’t exist.

我父亲18岁时不得不参战。他骨盆中枪，肾脏中枪，前额擦伤。他经历了一切，康复后不得不一次又一次地参加战争。战争的最后一年，他在法国参加一次巷战，他曾经说过，他躲到了屋子里的一个角落，当时他充满了恐惧。突然，一名美国士兵从拐角处走过，两人都吓坏了，他们俩的步枪都指向了对方。但两人都没有开枪，只是看着对方。然后美国人说：“我不想杀你，我也没了父亲。”战后，这两个人交换了地址，成了朋友。如果那个美国人开枪了，我就不存在了。

Dear Richard, thank America!
I hope you enjoy the little machine, it is new. I only ran it once for a test
Best regards,
Hans from Germany
PS: I’m sorry for my bad language.

亲爱的理查德，谢谢美国人。
希望你会喜欢这台小机器，他是新的，我只做过一次测试。
致以崇高的敬意————来自德国的汉斯。
另外：抱歉，我的英语有点烂哈。

I tried to read the letter to my wife but I got emotional and was unable to speak. I handed it to her.

我想将信的内容读给我的妻子听，但是我情绪太过激动，以至于哽咽说不出话，只好将信交给了她。

With all the problems and hatred we’re subjected to every day, we can forget some of the good and heroic things that happen along the way. My friend Hans provides a good reminder. Just excellent. Thank you a million times Hans!

我们每天都要面对各种问题和仇恨，却忽略了身边那些美好和英勇的事迹。因为这件事，汉斯算是很好的提醒了我。太棒了，万分感谢汉斯！

I asked Hans’ permission to post the letter. It is on my Facebook page from July 6. You are welcome to read my account there and look at all the comments. It’s very heartwarming, at least to me it is.

我经过汉斯的允许发布了这封信的内容，它与七月六日在我的脸书页面上发布。欢迎大家去观看我的脸书页面以及观看所有的评论，这是非常温暖人心的，至少对我来说是这样。

Edit, October 15, 2020. I got a note via Facebook Messenger from Hans’ wife. Hans had a stroke last week. He’s come home from the hospital and all his parts work (no paralysis) but his brain is scrambled. He cannot read or write and his concentration skills are very limited. He will be going to rehab in a few days and they hope for a full recovery. I have prayers today for my friend Hans.

2020年10月15日，再次更新：我的脸书飞信（Facebook Messenger ）受到了来自汉斯妻子的一条留言，汉斯上周中风了，但是现在已经回家了，目前身体一切正常（没有瘫痪，），但是他的大脑混乱不堪，失去了读写的能力，注意力很难集中，他将在几天后康复，他们希望他能完全康复，今天，我要为我的朋友汉斯祈祷。

————————————
Kathleen Giordano
My sister committed suicide in 2000. She was 35. The second of five daughters. My family was devastated. My parents really had no money to pay for this funeral. So we are sitting in the funeral home with the director going over the details. It was my parents, me and one of my other sisters. At the end of the meeting, the director closed his folder and looked at all of us. He said life has been good to him and there would no charge. Can you believe that!! Right after the funeral in the church ended and people were gathering outside, I saw the director. He was crying and I hugged him and thanked him for everything. I never have experienced the funeral director crying at a funeral so I wonder if his family was touched by suicide too. I don’t know…. He is someone I will never forget and will never forget how kind and generous he was.

我的姐妹在2000年的时候自杀了，当时她只有35岁，她是五个女儿中的老二。
我的家人悲痛欲绝，但是父母真的没啥钱支付这个葬礼费用。因此我们给殡仪馆的主事讲了一些具体情况，当时我的父母，我和我的另一个姐妹都在场，讨论结束时，主事合上文件夹，看着我们大家，他说，他的生活已经不错了，所以不收费了。
你们能相信吗？教堂的葬礼结束的时候，大家开始往教堂外聚集，我看到了主事，他哭了，我拥抱了他，感谢他所做的一切。
我从来没有见过殡仪馆主事在葬礼上哭泣，我很想知道他的家人是否也被姐妹的自杀所动容。但我确实无法知其原因……。
但我永远不会忘记他，也永远不会忘记他是多么慷慨和善良。

————————————
Di Cudby
I was riding my 50cc scooter through Wellington, as I crossed an intersection I saw something fall onto the road from a childs clothing. It was safe for me to u-turn immediately, I swooped a small money wallet off the street and looked for the people I'd just seen crossing the road.

我骑着50毫升的脚踏车穿过惠灵顿。当我穿过十字路口时，我看到一件东西，从一个儿童的衣服中掉落到了地上，我立即以安全的方式调头，迅速捡起小钱包，并寻找刚刚看到的过马路的失主。（译注： 50cc 指气缸的排气量是50毫升,通常动力越大,排气量越大。）

It's funny how people can disappear. The only thing in the wallet to identify the owner was a library card. I visited the library but the address they had wasn't current, mail had been returned. This was in the very early days of internet when few people owned computers. My next step was to take it home and phone everyone with their surname in the phone book and ask for the name on the card. Fortunately after a dozen calls I got a yes asking for the girl’s name and could ask my second question: did they lose their wallet yesterday? The reaction was electric. The boy who answered the phone shouted to his parents and an adult came to the phone. I explained how I saw the wallet fall onto the road and what I'd done to find the owner. The whole family drove to see me the following afternoon with a hand written thank you card and a box of Roses chocolates. I couldn't have been happier to reunite someone with their property

有趣的是，人很快就找不到了。钱包里唯一能识别失主身份的东西是一张借书卡。我去了图书馆，但他们的地址不是最新的，所以寄出的邮件也被退了回来。
这是在互联网的雏形时代，当时几乎没啥人有计算机，我的下一步是把东西带回家，根据里面的电话簿上的姓氏，给他们打电话，并向对方确认卡片上的名字。终于再打了十几个电话之后，我说出了一个女孩的名字得到了肯定的回答。于是我问出了我的第二个问题：问他们昨天是否丢了钱包？
对方的反应很激动，接电话的男孩喊了他的父母，一个成年人来到了其身边。我解释了我是如何看到钱包掉在路上的，以及我做了什么才找到了失主。第二天下午，全家人开车来看我，带着一张手写的感谢卡和一盒玫瑰巧克力。
我很高兴能让他们能获得丢失的财产。