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笔记人生 Putting a Life into Words(2)

于照片并不会自己讲述故事,所以我决定再进一步,收集整理口述家族史,从祖母的故事以及她讲述的故事开始。这样,为她庆生的这一天的记忆就能保存下来。我们还能把祖母和她家人的这段庆祝片断留传给尚未出世的后代。

  At my grandmother’s party, I learned things about her that I never knew—like, for example, that she had driven her three young boys across the country by herself when my grandfather was across the ocean flying on missions for the Air Force. Around the time of my grandfather’s memorial service, I had learned a lot of interesting things about him, too. For instance, I knew before that he had flown in three wars, but I didn’t know any of the specifics. After he died, I found out that he had received many medals and had rescued a great number of people. I still don’t know, though, what my grandfather felt about his experiences: he must have been scared during wartime. How did he deal with that? How did serving in each of these wars change him as a person? He never offered this information, and I never asked.
  在我祖母的生日会上,我了解到一些之前从不知道的事情,比如,当年我祖父飞越大洋执行空军任务时,她曾自己开车载着三个小儿子穿越美国。在我祖父的追思会期间,我也听说了很多关于他的有趣的事。比如,我之前只知道他生前曾在三场战役中执行空军任务,但不清楚任何细节。他去世后,我发现他曾获得很多勋章,拯救了不少人。但我仍不了解祖父对自己这些经历的感受。他在战场上肯定也害怕过。他怎么调整那种情绪?参与这三次战役,每一次的经历使他发生了什么改变?他从未提过这些,我也从未问起。

  But I still have the chance to ask my grandmother about her life, her feelings, her fears and her dreams. There are so many things to learn from her: How did she handle questions from her children about their father during wartime? How did she handle her own fears about whether or not her husband would return each time he had to leave? What were her dreams when she was younger? What are they now?
  但我仍有机会追问祖母有关她的人生,她的感受,她的恐惧和她的梦想。从她身上有那么多东西可以问:战争期间,孩子问起他们的父亲时,她如何回答那些问题?每次当丈夫得离开,她如何应对自己对丈夫是否能归来的恐惧?她年轻时有过什么梦想?现在都已实现了吗?

  Often we see the people we love 9)on a regular basis and take them for granted because they’re always there. We get into a routine of talking about the weather, what we did yesterday, or who won the baseball game. But do we really know each other? You can always make the first move to find out. Unconditional love is a wonderful thing, but taking a step further by truly getting to know someone you love is a way to honor both that person and the relationship you have with them. I’m excited to begin my project of interviewing and tape-recording everyone in my family—it will help me get to know them all better. After I’ve attained a substantial collection of stories from and about our family, I’ll have the tape made into a CD and will give a copy to each member of our family to keep.
  我们经常见到所爱的人,不把他们当一回事,因为他们总在身边。我们例行公事般地谈论起天气,谈论昨天做了什么,或者谁赢了篮球赛。但我们真的互相了解吗?你总可以迈出第一步去寻找这其中的答案。无条件的爱是很美妙的东西,但迈出更大的一步去真心了解你爱的那个人是尊重他,也是尊重你们之间关系的一种方式。开始这样一项对家里每一个人进行采访和录音的计划让我很兴奋——这能帮助我更好地了解他们。等我从家人和外人那儿了解到翔实的家族故事之后,我会把录下来的内容刻进一张CD,分发给家族每一位成员保存。

  I’m starting with my grandmother.
  我将先从我祖母着手!

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