雙語勵志美文：你纔是我的幸福

摘錄：你纔是我的幸福。愛你一生

She was dancing. My crippled grandmother was dancing. I stood in the living room doorway absolutely stunned. I glanced at the kitchen table and sure enough-right under a small, framed drawing on the wall-was a freshly baked peach pie.

她在跳舞。我那身有殘疾的祖母居然在跳舞。我站在客廳的門口，被徹底驚呆了。我掃了一眼廚房的餐桌，果不其然，在餐桌上——牆上那幅小小的鑲框畫像的正下方——有一塊新鮮出爐的烤蜜桃派。

I heard her sing when I opened the door but did not want to interrupt the beautiful song by yelling I had arrived, so I just tiptoed to the living room. I looked at how her still-lean body bent beautifully, her arms greeting the sunlight that was pouring through the window. And her legs… Those legs that had stiffly walked, aided with a cane, insensible shoes as long as I could remember. Now she was wearing beautiful dancing shoes and her legs obeyed her perfectly. No limping. No stiffness. Just beautiful, fluid motion. She was the pet of the dancing world. And then she’d had her accident and it was all over. I had read that in an old newspaper clipping.

當我推門進屋的時候，我聽到了她在唱歌，但我不想大喊自己回來了，不想打斷那美妙的歌聲，於是我踮着腳尖走到客廳。我看着她那依然消瘦的身體優雅地彎下，她的手臂迎向從窗口傾瀉而入的陽光。而她的腿……自我能記事以來，她總是拄着柺杖，穿着便鞋，走起路來腿腳僵硬。可現在，她正穿着美麗的舞鞋，而她的雙腿完全聽從着她的支配。不再蹣跚，不再僵硬。只有優美、流暢的動作。她曾是舞蹈界的寵兒。可是後來她遭遇了一場意外，舞蹈生涯因此而結束。我是從一張老舊的剪報中讀到這個的。

She turned around in a slow pirouette and saw me standing in the doorway. Her song ended, and her beautiful movements with it, so abruptly that it felt like being shaken awake from a beautiful dream. The sudden silence rang in my ears. Grandma looked so much like a kid caught with her hand in a cookie jar that I couldn’t help myself, and a slightly nervous laughter escaped. Grandma sighed and turned towards the kitchen. I followed her, not believing my eyes. She was walking with no difficulties in her beautiful shoes. We sat down by the table and cut ourselves big pieces of her delicious peach pie.

她緩緩地轉身做了一個足尖旋轉，見到我站在門口。她的歌聲嘎然而止，還有她那優美的動作，一切停止得如此突然，感覺像是從一場美夢中被人搖醒了。突如其來的寂靜衝擊着我的耳朵。祖母看起來很像是一個伸手從餅乾罐裏偷吃卻被抓了個正着的小孩，我不禁發出了一陣略帶一絲緊張的大笑。祖母嘆了口氣，轉身走向廚房。我跟在她身後，還是不敢相信自己的眼睛。她穿着那雙美麗的舞鞋，行走自如。我們坐在了桌邊，從她那美味的蜜桃派中切出了大大的幾塊，倆人一起吃。

“So…” I blurted, “How did your leg heal?”

“那麼……”我脫口而出道，“你的腿是怎麼好了的?”

“To tell you the truth—my legs have been well all my life,” she said.

“跟你說實話吧——我的腿一直都挺好的，”她說。

“But I don’t understand!” I said, “Your dancing career… I mean… You pretended all these years?

“可是我不明白!”我說，“你的舞蹈事業……我是說……難道這些年來你一直在假裝?”

“Very much so,” Grandmother closed her eyes and savored the peach pie, “And for a very good reason.”

“的確如此，”祖母閉上眼睛，品嚐着蜜桃派，“而且是因爲一個非常好的理由。”

“What reason?”

“什麼理由?”

“Your grandfather.”

“你的祖父。”

“You mean he told you not to dance?”

“你是說，他讓你不要再跳舞了?”

“No, this was my choice. I am sure I would have lost him if I had continued dancing. I weighed fame and love against each other and love won.”

“不，這是我自己的選擇。我確信如果我再繼續跳舞的話，我就會失去他了。我權衡名利和愛情孰輕孰重之後，選擇了愛情。”

She thought for a while and then continued. “We were talking about engagement when your grandfather had to go to war. It was the most horrible day of my life when he left. I was so afraid of losing him, the only way I could stay sane was to dance. I put all my energy and time into practicing—and I became very good. Critics praised me, the public loved me, but all I could feel was the ache in my heart, not knowing whether the love of my life would ever return. Then I went home and read and re-read his letters until I fell asleep. He always ended his letters with ‘You are my Joy. I love you with my life’ and after that he wrote his name. And then one day a letter came. There were only three sentences: ‘I have lost my leg. I am no longer a whole man and now give you back your freedom. It is best you forget about me.’”

她想了一下，然後接着說道：“當你祖父不得不去從軍參戰的時候，我們已經到了談婚論嫁的階段了。他離開的那段日子是我一生中度過的最可怕的時期。我很害怕會失去他，能讓我不至於瘋掉的唯一方法就是跳舞。我把我所有的精力和時間都投入到了練習之中，於是我成爲了很棒的舞者。評論家對我好評連連，公衆對我鍾情有嘉，可我唯一能感覺到的卻是我心中的痛，因爲不知道我一生的摯愛是否能平安歸來。然後我回到家裏，一遍又一遍地讀着他的來信，直到睡去。他總是在信的結尾寫着：‘你纔是我的幸福。愛你一生。’然後纔是他的簽名。但有一天我又收到了他的來信。信中只有三句話：‘我失去了一條腿。我不再是一個完整的人了，所以現在我將自由歸還給你。你最好還是把我忘掉吧。’”想學習更多英語知識，請關注口袋英語aikoudaiyy

“I made my decision there and then. I took my leave, and traveled away from the city. When I returned I had bought myself a cane and wrapped my leg tightly with bandages. I told everyone I had been in a car crash and that my leg would never completely heal again. My dancing days were over. No one suspected the story—I had learned to limp convincingly before I returned home. And I made sure the first person to hear of my accident was a reporter I knew well. Then I traveled to the hospital. They had pushed your grandfather outside in his wheelchair. There was a cane on the ground by his wheelchair. I took a deep breath, leaned on my cane and limped to him. ”

“於是我立刻做出了決定。我向衆人告別，離開了這個城市。當我再度歸來的時候，我爲自己買了一副柺杖，並用繃帶把我的腿包得緊緊的。我告訴每一個人，說我遭遇了一場車禍，我的腿再也不可能完全復原了。我的舞蹈生涯就此結束了。沒有人懷疑這個故事——我在回家之前已經學會如何惟妙惟肖地跛行。我確保第一個聽說我出車禍的是一位我熟知的記者。接着我來到了你祖父所在的醫院。他們用輪椅把他推了出來。在他輪椅旁邊的地上有一副柺杖。我深深吸了一口氣，靠在我的柺杖上，一瘸一拐地向他走去。”

By now I had forgotten about the pie and listened to grandma, mesmerized. “What happened then?” I hurried her when she took her time eating some pie.

此刻，我已經忘記了那塊蜜桃派，入迷地聽着祖母說話。“然後發生了什麼事情呢?”當她停下來吃了幾口派時，我追問道。

“I told him he was not the only one who had lost a leg, even if mine was still attached to me. I showed him newspaper clippings of my accident. ‘So if you think I’m going to let you feel sorry for yourself for the rest of your life, think again. There is a whole life waiting for us out there! I don’t intend to be sorry for myself. But I have enough on my plate as it is, so you’d better snap out of it too. And I am not going to carry you-you are going to walk yourself.’” Grandma giggled, a surprisingly girlish sound coming from an old lady with white hair.

“我告訴他，他並不是唯一失去了一條腿的人，儘管我的腿沒給截掉。我給他看了關於我發生車禍的剪報。‘所以，如果你覺得我會讓你在餘生自怨自艾，想都別想。在外面還有全新的生活在等待着我們!我不打算爲此而顧影自憐。而眼下我要做的事情已經夠多的了，所以你最好也趕緊給我振作起來。而且你可別想我會揹你——你要自己向前走。’”祖母咯咯地笑着，這位滿頭銀髮的老婦人令人吃驚地發出了少女般的笑聲。

“I limped a few steps toward him and showed him what I’d taken out of my pocket. ‘Now show me you are still a man,’ I said, ‘I won’t ask again.’ He bent to take his cane from the ground and struggled out of that wheelchair. I could see he had not done it before,because he almost fell on his face, having only one leg. But I was not going to help. And so he managed it on his own and walked to me and never sat in a wheelchair again in his life.”

“我一瘸一拐地走開了幾步，然後讓他看我從口袋裏掏出的一樣東西。‘現在讓我看看，你還是個男子漢。我可不會說第二次。’他彎下腰從地上拿起他的柺杖，掙扎着從那副輪椅中站出來。可以看得出他之前從未這樣做過，現在只有一條腿的他差點撲倒在地。但我沒打算幫他。接着他設法自己站穩了，向我走來，而且在他的後半生裏再也沒有坐回到輪椅上。”

“What did you show him?” I had to know. Grandma looked at me and grinned. “Two engagement rings, of course. I had bought them the day after he left for the war and I was not going to waste them on any other man.”

“你給他看了什麼東西呢?”我一定要知道。祖母看着我咧嘴而笑，說道：“當然是一對訂婚戒指了。在他從軍參戰的第二天我就買了這對戒指，我可不想把戒指浪費在任何其他男人身上。”

I looked at the drawing on the kitchen wall, sketched by my grandfather’s hand so many years before. The picture became distorted as tears filled my eyes. “You are my Joy. I love you with my life.” I murmured quietly. The young woman in the drawing sat on her park bench and with twinkling eyes smiled broadly at me, an engagement ring carefully drawn on her finger.

我看着廚房牆壁上的那幅畫像,那是多年前我祖父親手繪就的。我眼中滿含淚水,眼前的畫像變得模糊起來。“你纔是我的幸福。愛你一生。”我輕聲低語道。畫像中的年輕女人坐在公園長椅上,眼神清亮,笑容可掬地看着我,她的手指上被精心地畫有一枚訂婚戒指。