一只燕子在和一只夜莺聊天，燕子劝她不要在茂密的树丛上做窝了，像自己一样与人住在一起。可是，夜莺却回答说：“我过去也曾像你一样相人住在一起，但是我所遭受的那份痛苦回忆让他们都不喜欢我，我永远都不想再接近他们的住所。”
夜莺和燕子的寓言故事告诉了我们：痛苦的回忆使得过去的痛苦体验历历在目。
【夜莺和燕子的英文版】
THE NIGHTINGAIE AND THE SWALlow
A Swallow,conversing with a Nightingale，advised her to quit the leafy covens where she made her home，and to come and live with men，like herself,and nest under the shelter of their the Nightingale replied，“Time was when I too，like yourself,lived among men：but the memory of the cruel wrongs I then suffered makes them hateful to me，and never again will I approach their dwellings.”
The scene of past sufferings revives painful memories.