Once there was a fish who lived in the great ocean, and because the water was transparent¹ and always conveniently got out of the way of his nose when he moved along, he didn’t know he was in the ocean. Well, one day the fish did a very dangerous thing, he began to think: “Surely I am a most remarkable² being, since I can move around like this in the middle of empty space.” Then the fish became confused because of thinking about moving and swimming, and he suddenly had an anxiety convulsion and thought he had forgotten how.

从前大海里有一条鱼。由于海水是透明的，而且他总能方便地游来游去，所以他不知道自己在海洋里。有一天，他萌生了一个非常危险的想法：“我一定是最了不起的生物了，因为我可以在这样空旷的地方随意移动。”接着小鱼就一直思考着游泳的事儿，越想越困惑。突然，他由于焦虑发生了痉挛，以为自己忘记了怎么游泳。

At that moment he looked down and saw the yawning chasm³ of the ocean depths, and he was terrified that he would drop. Then he thought: “If I could catch hold of my tail in my mouth, I could hold myself up.” And so he curled himself up and snapped at his tail. Unfortunately, his spine⁴ wasn’t quite supple⁵ enough, so he missed. As he went on trying to catch hold of his tail, the yawning black abyss below became ever more terrible, and he was brought to the edge of total nervous breakdown⁶.

那时，他看着自己下方那深不可测的大峡谷，如同张着血盆大口一般，他好害怕自己会掉下去。他想：“如果我可以用我的嘴巴接住尾巴，那我就可以抓住自己，不会往下掉啦！”于是，他把身子蜷成一团，去咬他的尾巴。不幸的是，他的脊椎不够灵活，并没有咬住。他继续尝试着，下方黑色的深渊显得更可怕了，小鱼觉得自己快要崩溃了。

The fish was about to give up, when the ocean, who had been watching with mixed feelings of pity and amusement, said, “What are you doing?” “Oh,” said the fish, “I’m terrified of falling into the deep dark abyss, and I’m trying to catch hold of my tail in my mouth to hold myself up.” So the ocean said, “Well, you’ve been trying that for a long time now, and still you haven’t fallen down. How come?” “Oh, of course, I haven’t fallen down yet,” said the fish, “because, because--I’m swimming!”

在小鱼快要放弃的时候，大海发话了，他一直观察的小鱼的一举一动，感到同情又好笑。大海说：“你在干什么？”“噢,"小鱼回答，"我怕自己会掉进下面那个大峡谷里，所以我试着用嘴巴接住尾巴，这样就不会掉下去。”然后大海说：“那么，你已经试了这么久了，却还没有掉下去，这又是为什么呢？”“噢，我当然还没有掉下去，”小鱼说，“那是因为，因为我在游泳呀！”

“Well,” came the reply, “I am the Great Ocean, in which you live and move and are able to be a fish, and I have given all of myself to you in which to swim, and I support you all the time you swim. Instead of exploring the length, breadth, depth, and height of my expanse, you are wasting your time pursuing your own end.” From then on, the fish put his own end behind him (where it belonged) and set out to explore the ocean.

“是啊。”大海回答，“我是伟大的海洋，你在我里面生活，在我里面游动，因为我你才能身为一条鱼而存在。我已经把我的全部都给了你，供你自由自在地游动、在你游泳的时候时刻支持着你。你不尽情地去探索我的深邃、浩瀚、宽广，却在这里庸人自扰地追自己的尾巴！”从那一刻起，小鱼把他的尾巴放到它应放的位置——身后，然后启程去探索整个海洋。