or

An Ant

A Fable

Or

Maybe Not…

蚂蚁 - 不是神话的神话

Every day, a small ant arrives at work very early and starts work immediately.

有只小蚂蚁每天一大早就去

上班，到岗后立刻干活。

She produces a lot and she was happy.她总是高高兴兴干不少活。

The Chief, a lion, was surprised to see

that the ant was working without

supervision.首领狮王见到这只蚂蚁在无人监督的情况下干活，觉得很惊奇。

He thought if the ant can produce so much without supervision, wouldn’t she produce even more if she had a

supervisor!他心想那只蚂蚁在无人监督下就干这么多活，如果有人监督指导可能会干得更多。

So he recruited a cockroach

who had extensive experience as

supervisor and who was famous for

writing excellent reports.于是狮王招募一只有丰富监督经验的蟑螂当督察。那只蟑螂以善于编写出色的总结报告而闻名。

The cockroach’s first decision was to set up

a clocking in attendance system.

蟑螂首先决定考勤系统采用计时制。

He also needed a secretary to help him

write and type his reports and …蟑螂还需要一名秘书帮他书写报告、打字

及…

... he recruited a spider, who managed the

archives and monitored all phone calls.…蟑螂招募了一只蜘蛛管理档案监视电话呼叫。

The lion was delighted with the cockroach's reports

and asked him to produce graphs to describe

production rates and to analyse trends, so that he

could use them for presentations at Board‘s meetings.狮王见了蟑螂的报告很高兴，要求蟑螂绘制图表描述产率分析趋势，他可带这些演示文件出席董事会。

So the cockroach had to buy a new computer and a laser printer and ...

为此蟑螂还得买台新计算机和激光打印机，还得…

... recruited a fly to manage the IT department.

…招募一只苍蝇管理 IT

部门。

The ant, who had once been so productive and relaxed, hated this new plethora of paperwork and meetings which used up most of her time…!

原来无拘无束活干不少的蚂蚁对过多的纸上谈兵事务和会议很不满，这些事消耗了她大部分时间！

The lion came to the conclusion that it was

high time to nominate a person in charge of the department where the

ant worked.

狮王作出结论，当前需要指派一名人员主管蚂蚁工作的

部门。

The position was given to the cicada, whose first decision was to buy a carpet and an

ergonomic chair for his office.

这个差使给了一只知了，上任伊始就决定是为自己办公室买条地毯和

一张人机友好型椅子。

The new person in charge, the cicada, also needed a computer and a personal assistant ,who he brought from his previous

department, to help him prepare a Work and Budget

Control Strategic Optimisation Plan …

新上任的主管知了也需要一台计算机和一位自任助理，他从原部门带来了他的助理，帮助他编写工作及预算控制战略性优化计

划…

The Department where the ant works is now a sad place,

where nobody laughs anymore and everybody has become

upset...

蚂蚁工作的部门现今成了悲哀之地，没有人再笑，人人都无精打采…

It was at that time that the cicada convinced the boss , the lion, of the absolute necessity to start a climatic study of the environment .

那时，知了劝说他的老板、狮王，绝对有必要进行一次环境灾难性调研。

Having reviewed the charges for running the ant’s department , the

lion found out that the production was much

less than before.

审查了对蚂蚁工作部门运行情况的指责，狮王发现产量

已大不如前。

So he recruited the owl , a prestigious

and renowned consultant to carry out an audit and suggest solutions.

于是狮王招募了猫头鹰，一位有威信和声望的咨询师开展审计并提出解

决方案。

The owl spent three months in the department and came up with an enormous report , in several volumes,that concluded : “ “ The department is The department is overstaffed ...”overstaffed ...”

猫头鹰在蚂蚁工作部门蹲了三个月，提出了多达数卷的长篇大幅报告，结论说：“那部门人员冗余…”

Guess who the lion fires first?

猜猜，狮王先开除谁？

The ant , of course, because she “showed lack of motivation and had a negative

attitude".

当然是蚂蚁，因为她“缺少动力并持反感态度”。

Os personagens desta fábula são fictícios; qualquer semelhança com pessoas ou factos reais é pura coincidência.

NBNB 注意注意 ::

The characters in this fable are The characters in this fable are fictitious; any resemblance tofictitious; any resemblance to real people or facts within the real people or facts within the

CorporationCorporation is pure is pure coincidencecoincidence……本神话内角色是虚构的，如同单位内人员本神话内角色是虚构的，如同单位内人员或情况雷同则纯属巧合或情况雷同则纯属巧合……

Adapted from Portuguese by PR. Obrigado Mário.Chinese transcript: translated and edited byPei Zhenquan