An African farmer had heard tales about other farmers who had made millions of dollars by discovering diamond mines. These tales so excited the farmer that he could hardly wait to sell his farm and go prospecting for diamonds himself.

　　一個非洲農民聽說過很多關于其他農民們因為發現鉆礦而一夜暴富的故事。這些故事讓這位農民如此心潮澎湃，他等不及要賣掉農場，踏上探礦之路。

　　So he sold the farm and spent the rest of his life wandering the African continent, searching unsuccessfully for the gleaming gems that brought such high prices on the markets of the world.

　　于是他賣掉了農場，余生游蕩在非洲大陸，尋找著那在世界市場上價格始終高居不下的發光的寶石。

　　Finally, broke, worn out, and in a fit of despondency, he threw himself into a river and drowned.

　　最后，他破產了、筋疲力盡了，一時的絕望之下，他投河自盡。

　　Meanwhile, back at the farm, the man who had bought his farm happened to be crossing a small stream on the property one day when he saw something gleaming at the bottom of the stream. He picked it up. It was a sparkling stone - a good size stone - and, admiring it, he later put it on his fireplace mantel as an interesting curiosity.

　　與此同時，在原來那個農場，那個買下農場的人一天碰巧跨過農場里的一條小溪，他看見溪底有什么東西在閃閃發光。他把它撿了起來，是一塊發光的石頭——很大一塊——他欣賞著它，并把它當作一個有趣的珍藏放在壁爐架上。

　　Several weeks later, a visitor admired the stone, looked closely at it, hefted it in his hand and nearly fainted. He asked the farmer if he knew what he'd found. When the farmer said no, that he thought it was just a piece of crystal, the visitor told him he had found one of the largest diamonds ever discovered.

　　幾個星期后，一位客人來欣賞那塊石頭，他仔細觀摩著，放在手上掂量著，然后幾乎暉厥過去。他問那個農民是否知道自己撿到的是什么。農民說不知道，他以為只是一塊水晶。那位客人告訴他，他撿到的是迄今為止人類發現的最大鉆石之一。

　　The farmer was astonished. He told the man that his creek was full of these brilliant stone

　　and his farmland was covered with them. Not all were as large, perhap

　　as the one on his mantel, but they were sprinkled generously throughout his property.

　　那個農民震驚極了。他告訴那位客人他的小溪里到處都是這種發光的石頭，他的農田也被這種石頭覆蓋著。也許不是所有都象壁爐架上的那塊一樣大，但是它們遍布農場的每一個角落。

　　Needless to say, the farm the first farmer had sold, so that he could search for a diamond mine, turned out to be the most productive diamond mine on the entire African continent.

　　不必說，第一個農民為了搜尋鉆礦而賣掉的農場結果卻是整個非洲大陸上最多產的鉆礦。

　　The first farmer had owned, free and clear, acres of diamond

　　but had sold them for practically nothing in order to look for them elsewhere.

　　第一個農民本來名正言順地擁有幾畝的鉆石，但他卻為了去其他地方找鉆石而把它們賣了，賣得一文不值。

　　The moral is clear: If the first farmer hadonly taken the time to study and prepare himself - to learn what diamonds looked like in their rough state - and, since he had already owned a piece of land, to thoroughly explore the property he had before looking elsewhere, his wildest dreams would have come true.

　　寓意很明白，如果第一個農民花一點時間去學習和準備——弄清楚未經打磨的鉆石長什么樣——并在探索其他地方之前先徹底地發掘一下自己已經擁有的那塊地，他的美夢就可以成真。

　　EACH OF US IS, AT THIS MOMENT, STANDING IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS OR HER OWN ACRE OF DIAMONDS.

　　我們每一個人，在此刻，都站在他/她自己的鉆石田上。

　　If each of us will only have the wisdom and patience to begin by exploring ourselve

　　we will find that we contain all the riches necessary to be able to succeed in whatever endeavors to which we may set our minds and hearts.

　　如果我們每個人都有智慧和耐心去首先探索自己，我們就會發現，我們擁有所有讓我們能在任何我們決心從事的事業中成功的必備財富。