John, a famous musician, took his priceless antique zither and played it in the crowded subway station. The music emanating from the zither was delicately streaming throughout the whole station. However, during the one-hour play, only six or seven people were truly appreciating the charming music. A three-year-old kid was so fascinated by the music that he forgot everything around. John only got 52 U.S. dollar for his work that day.

音樂家約翰帶著一把價值不菲的古董名琴，悄悄來到人潮不斷的地鐵站演奏。弦音曼妙，在空曠處流淌。將近一小時的演奏中，真正駐足聆聽者只有六七人。最捧場的是一位三歲小童，聽得入神。約翰當天得到52美元賞金。

However, in normal days, when John is about to hold a concert, one ticket can be sold at more than 100 dollars and it is extremely hard to buy a ticket even at such a high price. Therefore, later, many passers-by in the station that day felt deeply regretful for not recognizing the famous musician and missing such a valuable but cheap music feast.

平日，約翰的演奏會舉行時，一張票超過100美元，且一票難求。 后來，不少當時就在地鐵站的觀眾扼腕自己眼拙，錯過了一場免費或者廉價的音樂盛宴。

I have a very busy friend who had totally changed after knowing that hiswife came down with acute illness. He cooked by himself for the family and took a walk with his wife every day. Nonetheless, his wife still did not manage to conquer the illness and passed away after three months. After that, he often sighed miserably that due to his past busy life, he had missed a lot of beautiful time with his wife. But now, it is impossible to make up for it.

有位忙碌的朋友得知老婆罹患重癥，徹頭徹尾變了一個人：親自下廚，陪太太散步……可是妻子敵不過病魔摧殘，三個月后就撒手人寰。他很傷感地說，太忙了，錯過與妻子營造最美好的人生時光，想彌補卻彌補不回來。

A doctor’s son jumped from the 19th floor of a building and left a posthumous letter which expressed his strong desire for staying more with his father, going to see a movie with his father, etc. Not until his son committed suicide had the doctor realized that the most precious thing is not career achievement, but the tight and intact family bonds.

醫生的兒子從19樓一躍而下，留下一封遺書，信中留言：最想爸爸陪他，最想看電影，最希望快快樂樂……兒子自殺之后，爸爸才明白，人生中最珍貴的不是成就，而是親情。

It is no use crying over spilt milk. We have missed a lot of precious things in our life without knowing to cherish them.

可惜千金難買早知道，很多美好的事，往往簡簡單單就被輕易錯過了。

Actually, I also missed something precious before. The reason why we would have missed those precious things is less than simple: we had thought that we could still own them tomorrow.

事實上，我也錯過一些事。錯過的理由很簡單：以為還有明天。

Nevertheless, tomorrow is actually by no means reliable. There was a famous Buddhist monk saying that in many people’s lives, they have only done two things: waiting and regretting. The result is that they were always too late to cherish what they had before they lost it. We would often claim to do something when we grow up, or when we have money or when we become old, etc.

However, when we reach the condition we have expected, we could no longer do realize our wish any more, because we have lost it by then.

事實上，明天是不可靠的。要不，日休禪師怎么會說，很多人的一生中，只做了“等待”與“后悔”兩件事，合起來就叫“來不及”。我們老愛說：長大再說，有錢再說，老了再說……可是到了那時候，卻什么都不必說了。