Lately a pathway of desire has led our horses across what are supposed to be impassable barriers, the cattle guards3. They want to come into our yard to eat green grass and apples off the trees before the family can.I understand this desire, even though I feed them bales of hay every day, and it ought to be enough. Well, Saturday night, our oldest horse fell while leaping the cattle guard and broke his hip. We had to put him down4 and have his carcass5 hauled away. The other horses watched the drama unfold. Did they learn anything? No. Today, they’re back in the yard.

　　不久前，一条愿望小径将农场的马引到了沟栅的外面——它们本该无法跨过这道屏障的。它们想溜到我们的院子里吃青草，并抢在我们之前把苹果从树上弄下来吃掉。尽管我每天都喂它们一捆捆的干草——它们吃这东西应该是足够了——我还是很理解它们这种愿望。唉，周六夜里，我们最老的一匹马在跃过沟栅时跌了一跤摔断了骨盆。我们只能帮它结束生命，然后将尸体拖走。其他的马目睹了这一悲剧的发生。它们学到了什么吗？没有——今天它们又到院子里来了。

　　Thwarting pathways of desire is a constant concern of planners and architects and farmers, too.I’m going to have to pull out and enlarge our cattle guards, excavate deeply under them, paint them bright yellow, and pull a strand of electric fence across them until the horses understand that their pathway of desire isn’t available to them anymore. This is hard for me. It goes against my nature, but sometimes I need to modify my belief based on what I’ve learned.

　　遏制愿望小径的产生不光是设计师和建筑师长久以来心头的困扰，对农夫们也是如此。我只能打算着将沟栅拔出来加大间隙，将沟栅下面的沟接着深挖，把沟栅涂成明黄色（黄色是警告色），在上面再拉上一张电网，直到那些马明白，它们的愿望小径再也走不通为止。对我来说这样做很难，因为这与我的天性相悖。但有时候，我需要根据教训修改自己的信念。