He was a famous story-teller; after I had acquired language he used to spell clumsily into my hand his cleverest anecdotes, and nothing pleased him more than to have me repeat them at an opportune moment.
父亲是一个很会讲故事的人，在我掌握了语言以后，他常常会笨拙地在我手上拼写字词，并以此来讲述他的那些奇闻逸事。在“讲完”故事后，他会让我马上“复述”出来，再也没有什么比重复故事更令他高兴的事了。
I
was
in
the
North,
enjoying
the
last
beautiful
days
of
the
summer
of
1896,
when
I
heard
the
news
of
my
father's
death.
He
had
had
a
short
illness,
there
had
been
a
brief
time
of
acute
suffering,
then
all
was
over.
This
was
my
first
great
sorrow—
my
first
personal
experience
with
death.
1896年，当时我住在北方，正惬意地享受着夏日最后的时光，就是在那个时候，我听到了父亲的死讯。他死于一次突发疾病，经历了短暂的痛苦后，人就这么离去了。父亲的死亡是我人生中第一次感受到的巨大悲恸——也使我第一次对死亡有了自己的认识。
How
shall
I
write
of
my
mother?
She
is
so
near
to
me
that
it
almost
seems
indelicate
to
speak
of
her.
我又如何描述我的母亲呢？她离我是那么近，对我而言，用语言来描述她是近乎失礼的举动。
For
a
long
time
I
regarded
my
little
sister
as
an
intruder.
I
knew
that
I
had
ceased
to
be
my
mother's
only
darling,
and
the
thought
filled
me
with
jealousy.
She
sat
in
my
mother's
lap
constantly,
where
I
used
to
sit,
and
seemed
to
take
up
all
her
care
and
time.
One
day
something
happened
which
seemed
to
me
to
be
adding
insult
to
injury.
有很长一段时间，我都把我的小妹妹视做一个入侵者。当时，我知道我已经不再是母亲唯一的宝贝，我的心里充满了嫉妒。妹妹总是坐在母亲的膝盖上，那里本是我坐的位置，而现在却被她完全占领了，她受到了所有的呵护与关爱。有一天，发生了一件不愉快的事情，那件事使我觉得受到了莫大的侮辱。
At
that
time
I
had
a
much-
petted,
much-
abused
doll,
which
I
afterward
named
Nancy.
那时我有一个成天抱在手里，既宠又恨的洋娃娃，后来我给她起名叫南希。
|