兰州居民开办免费图书馆

As part of an effort to close the gap between the wealthy and the underprivileged, China has started to experiment with making some public services free for average folks. So it’s certainly no surprise to hear a public library offering free access to readers. But how about a free library set up single-handedly by one man?
作为缩小贫富差距的一部分，中国开始试验，为普通百姓免费提供一些公共服务。所以，当你听到公共图书馆为读者免费开放时，并没有什么好惊讶的。但是，如果是一个人单手建起一个免费图书馆呢？

It’s a courtyard house in the capital of northwestern Gansu province in an inconspicuous setting. And every day, it sees an unusual number of visitors - pupils among them.
这是西北部甘肃省省会一座不引人注目的四合院。每天，来这里的访客众多，其中也有学生。

But don’t mistake what you see for a private tutoring session.
但是不要将你看到的误以为是私人辅导课。

Luo Shurong, a local student, said, "Grandpa Liu is so kind. He’s created for us a very nice place to study. He has spent so much on such a great number of interesting books that have enriched us with all sorts of knowledge."
当地学生Luo Shurong表示：“刘爷爷非常亲切。他为我们创造了一个非常好的学习场地。他在许多有趣的书籍上面花费了这么多时间，这些书籍充实了我们，为我们提供了各种知识，。”

Grandpa Liu, or Liu Yi, is a retired university teacher and the founder of this place -- the region’s first private library.
刘易，刘爷爷是一位退休的大学老师，也是这个地方——该地区首个私人图书馆的创办人。

And the motivation for his good deed, he says, comes from his father.
他表示，他做好事的动力来自于他的父亲。

Liu Yi said, "My dad came up with the idea and had been planning to set it up before his death. He gave the name ’Green Cloud’ to the idea, and I’ve named the library after it."
刘易称：“我爸爸想出一个主意，他在去世之前就打算建个图书馆。他给这个想法取名‘绿云’，我就以这个名字为图书馆命名。”

"Green Cloud" sounds like a rather poetic and proper name for a library. But just like many other, public, projects, it had problems with funding.
“绿云”对一个图书馆来说是一个相当有诗意、相当合适的名字。但是和其它公共项目一样，它也出现资金问题。

Liu Yi said, "I had to sell my father’s house to the government, and received a compensation package of 400,000 yuan. The money was used for building the library, and in 2008, it finally opened after three years of preparation."
刘易表示：“我不得不将我父亲的房子卖给政府，获得一笔40万元的补偿金。这笔钱用来建图书馆，2008年，在三年的准备之后，它终于开始运营了。”

"Green Cloud" opened with Liu’s father’s collection of books, newspapers and periodicals. Not exactly a library in the conventional sense.
“绿云”是以刘易父亲收藏的书籍、报纸和期刊开始的。不完全是传统意义上的图书馆。

But after people started to take notice, many offered their own donations. 3 years later, Liu’s library now holds more than 30,000 volumes and an ever growing staff.
但是当人们开始注意到它之后，许多人都来捐赠。三年之后，刘易的图书馆现在可以容纳3万多人，工作人员不断增加。

Zhang Hongyu, a volunteer staff member, said, "I thought I could help in some way when I first came, but decided to stay and contribute more when I got to know Mr. Liu better over the course of past three years. What he’s done is really impressive."
自愿工作者Zhang Hongyu称：“我第一次来的时候，我觉得我可以帮上点忙，但是，过去三年里，在我更加了解刘先生之后，我决定留在这里奉献更多。他所做的真的很感人。”

Liu says it was his father who first came up with the dream of setting up a free library for the public. But he deserves full credit for making it come true.
刘易表示，他的父亲是第一个梦想为公众建立一个免费图书馆的人。但是他值得全部的赞扬，因为他让这个梦想成真。