V. M. 希利尔（仲秋　译）

This story begins with a competition. Not a competition to see who could run fastest， not a competition to see who could whistle loudest， but a much harder one. It was such a hard competition that each man in it was given a year in which to try to win.

It was a competition in sculpture. It began this way： In Florence， Italy， there is a little eight-sided building called the Baptistery. A baptistery is a place where babies， or even grown-ups， are baptized. This building has four doorways in it and one of these doorways at the time of the competition had a very beautiful pair of bronze doors with reliefs on them made by the sculptor Andrea Pisano. Long after Andrea Pisanos death the men of Florence decided there should be another pair of bronze doors for one of the other doorways.

There were several good sculptors living then and the men of Florence could not decide who was the best one to make the new doors， and so they had the competition. These were the rules：

這个故事开始于一场比赛。这场比赛不是比谁跑得最快，也不是比谁口哨吹得最响，它要比这些都难得多。这场比赛非常难，每个参赛者都被给予一年的时间参加这场比赛并赢得比赛。

这是一场雕刻比赛。这场比赛的起因是这样的：在意大利的佛罗伦萨有一座不是很大的八边形建筑，叫作“洗礼堂”——也就是婴儿或者成人接受洗礼的地方。这座洗礼堂有四道门，其中一道门在比赛前就已经有两扇十分漂亮的铜门安放好了，铜门上是安德里亚·皮萨诺雕刻的浮雕。安德里亚·皮萨诺去世很久之后，佛罗伦萨人决定在与那道铜门相对的另外一道门上，也安装这样的两扇铜门。

那个时候的佛罗伦萨已经出现了很多杰出的雕塑家，人们不知道到底让谁来做这道新的铜门更好，于是他们决定进行一场比赛，比赛规则如下：

Each sculptor had to make a relief in bronze to go on a door.

The relief had to be about Abraham and Isaac.

Each sculptor could have a year for the work and then a group of thirty-four judges would decide the winner and the winner would make the doors.

All the sculptors set to work. All， except one， very carefully kept every one else from seeing their work until the year was up. This one was named Lorenzo Ghiberti （Geebeartee）， and he worked and worked and then he asked his friends to come in and tell him how he could make his relief better. Then he worked some more until he had a very beautiful relief indeed.

When the year was up， each sculptor brought his relief to the judges. And what do you think？ The judges couldnt decide which was the very best！ There was a tie for first place. One of the winners was Ghibertis relief. The other was cast by the famous architect Brunelleschi （Brew-nel-lesskee）. But Brunelleschi himself thought Ghibertis relief was better than his own and so he very generously said he would withdraw and let Ghiberti be the winner. Then the judges said Ghiberti could make the doors.

Ghiberti set to work. He worked and worked. One year， two years， five years， ten years， and still he worked on the doors. Youll hardly believe how long it took to make them. Ill tell you the date when he began and when he finished. He started to work on the reliefs in 1403. He finished the doors in 1424.

每个参赛的雕塑家必须用青铜雕刻一幅与铜门搭配的浮雕。

浮雕的主题和内容必须与亚伯拉罕、以撒（他们都是《圣经·旧约》之《圣经创世记》中的人物，以撒是亚伯拉罕和妻子撒拉所生的唯一儿子）有关。

每位雕塑家都有一年时间来雕刻，最后由34名裁判共同裁决谁才是最后的胜出者，并由胜出者来雕刻这两扇门。

比赛开始后，所有参加比赛的雕塑家都开始了雕刻，而且他们都小心地隐藏着自己创作的作品，在比赛结束日之前不想让任何人看到。不过，有一个人却特立独行，这个人叫洛伦佐·吉贝尔蒂。……