有时候阻碍我们前行的不是恐惧本身，而是我们对恐惧的恐惧。如果能克服内心的障碍，勇敢前行，我相信每个人的潜力都是很大的。相信自己，勇者无惧。

It must have been eight or nine when I read this story. I never forgot its horror.

我看到这个故事时只有八九岁。打那以后，我一想起这个故事就毛骨悚然。

Ivan was a timid little man---so timid that the villages called him “Pigeon” or mocked him with the title “Ivan the Terrible.”

伊万是一个胆小如鼠的小个子男人,他的胆子太小了，所以村子里人都叫他“胆小鬼”，或者嘲讽的成他为“怕死鬼伊万”。

Every night Ivan stopped in at the tavern which was one the edge of the village graveyard. Ivan never crossed the graveyard to get to his lonely shack on the other side. That path would save many minutes, but he had never taken it---not even in the full light of noon.

每天晚上，伊万都要到村字墓地边上的那个小酒店去，但每次从酒店回到他在墓地另一边那做孤伶伶的小木屋时，他都不会从墓地当中穿过来。虽然走那条路可以节省好多时间，他却从来没走过。即使在阳光最明亮的大白天，他也没有走过。

Late one winter’s night, when bitter wind and snow beat against the tavern, customers took up the familiar mockery. Ivan’s mother was scared by a canary when she carried him in her womb. “Ivan the Terrible---Ivan the Timid One.”

一个冬天的深夜，寒风呼啸，风夹着雪花不停的拍打着小酒馆。酒馆里的客人们又聊起了那个老话题，对伊万进行嘲弄：伊万他妈妈在怀它的时候给一只金丝雀给吓着了，“怕死鬼伊万;胆小鬼伊万。”

Ivan’s weak protest only encouraged them, and they jeered cruelly when the Cossack captain flung his horrid challenge at their victim.

伊万软弱无力的抗议只能是他们更来劲儿，更加肆无忌惮的嘲弄他。这时，酒馆的那个哥萨克老板又极不友好的向伊万，这个他们捉弄的对象，发出了挑衅。

“You are a pigeon, Ivan. You’ll walk around the graveyard in this cold---but you dare not cross it.” Ivan murmured, “The graveyard is nothing to cross, Captain. It is nothing but earth, like all the other earth.”

“你是一个胆小鬼，伊万。在这样一个大冷天，你也只敢绕远路，绕着墓地走回家;就是不敢穿过去。”伊万喃喃的说：“穿过墓地也没什么意思，老板。那里只有泥土，和其他地方的泥土没什么两样。”

The captain cried, “A challenge, then! Cross the graveyard tonight, Ivan, and I’ll give you five rubles---five gold rubles!”

老板大声吼道：“好吧!来一次挑战怎么样?伊万，今天晚上你穿过墓地走回去，我就给你5个金卢布; 5个金卢布!”