1、高中课外阅读英语美文欣赏37中英双语英语美文欣赏37尽在不言中When I read a book from my mothers shelves, its not unusual to come across a gap in the text. A paragraph, or maybe just a sentence, has been sliced out, leaving a window in its place, with words from the next page peeping through. The chopped up page looks like a near
2、ly complete jigsaw puzzle waiting for its missing piece. But the piece isnt lost, and I always know where to find it. Dozens of quotations, clipped from newspapers, magazinesand booksplaster one wall of my mothers kitchen. What means the most to my mother in her books she excises and displays.当我翻看妈妈
3、书架上的书时，常常会发现其中的文字缺了一部分。其中的一个段落，或可能只是一个句子，被剪了下来，在原来的位置上留下了一扇窗户，让后一页上的文字探头探脑地露了出来。被挖掉一块的那一页看上去就像是一幅几乎就要完成的拼图作品，等待着缺失的那一块拼图。但那一块拼图并没有丢，而且我总是知道在哪儿能找到它。在我妈妈的厨房里，从报纸上、杂志上还有书上剪下的纸片贴满了一面墙。在她的书里，那些她最喜欢的句子和段落都被她剪了下来，贴在墙上。Ive never told her, but those literary amputations appall me. I know Ann Patchett and Dor
4、othy Sayers, and Somerset Maugham would fume alongside me, their careful prose severed from its rightful place. She picks extracts that startle me, too: “Put your worst foot forward, because then if people can still stand you, you can be yourself.” Sometimes I stand reading the wall of quotations, h
5、olding a scissors-victim novel in my hand, puzzling over what draws my mother to these particular words.我从未当面和她说过，但她对文学作品的这种“截肢手术”的确让我感到震惊。我知道，安帕契特、多萝西塞耶斯和萨默塞特毛姆也在我身旁气得冒烟呢，怎么能把这些他们呕心沥血写出来的文字就这样从它们原来的位置上“截肢”了呢！她挑出来的那些段落也着实吓了我一跳，比如：“以你最糟糕的一面示人，因为如果那样人们也能容忍你的话，你就能做真正的自己了。”有时候，我会站在那儿读墙上那些书摘，手里拿着一本备受剪刀“迫
6、害”的小说，心里充满困惑，不知道到底是什么驱使妈妈剪下了这样一些稀奇古怪的句子。My own quotation collection is more hidden and delicate. I copy favorite lines into a spiral-bound journal-a Christmas present from my mother, actuallyin soft, gray No. 2 pencil. This means my books remain whole. The labor required makes selection a cutthroat
7、process: Do I really love these two pages of On Chesil Beach enough to transcribe them, word by finger-cramping word? (The answer was yes, the pages were that exquisite.)我也摘录和收藏文字，不过我的收藏更为隐秘和精致。我会用灰色的二号软芯铅笔把我最喜欢的句子摘抄到一个活页日记本里事实上，这还是我妈妈送我的一份圣诞礼物呢。也就是说，我的书都是完整的。但因为摘抄需要工夫，因此选择哪些文字摘抄就成了一个痛苦的过程：我是不是真的喜欢在
8、切瑟尔海滩上里的这两页文字？喜欢到我愿意一个字一个字地把它们抄下来，直抄到手指头都抽筋？（答案为“是”，因为这两页文字写得实在太美了。）My mother doesnt know any of this. She doesnt know I prefer copying out to cutting out. Ive never told her that I compile quotations at all.我妈妈一点也不知道这件事。她不知道与剪贴相比，我更喜欢抄录。我压根就没告诉过她我也收集自己喜欢的文字。Theres nothing very shocking about that;
9、for all our chatting, we dont have the words to begin certain conversations. My mother and I talk on the phone at least once a week, and in some ways, we are each others most dedicated listener. She tells me about teaching English to the leathery Russian ladies at the library where she volunteers; I
10、 tell her about job applications, cover letters, and a grant Id like to win. We talk about my siblings, her siblings, the president, and Philip Seymour Hoffman movies. We make each other laugh so hard that I choke and she cries. But what we dont say could fill up rooms. Fights with my father. Small
11、failures in school. Anything, really, that pierces us.其实这一点没什么值得大惊小怪的；尽管我们总是聊天，但对于某些特定的话题，我们总是不知道该怎么开口。妈妈和我一个星期至少会通一次电话，从某些方面来说,我们是对方最专心的听众。她会告诉我她在图书馆做志愿者教那些强悍的俄罗斯妇女英语时发生的事；而我会和她谈谈我找工作的事、我的求职信，还有我想要争取的补助什么的。我们会聊我的兄弟姐妹、她的兄弟姐妹、总统，还有菲利普塞默霍夫曼的电影。我们常常逗得对方大笑，笑得我喘不过气来，笑得她眼泪都流出来了。但我们不聊的东西也很多，多得几个房间都装不下。譬如她和
12、我爸吵架了，又譬如我在学校遇到一些小挫折了。事实上，所有让我们伤心的事，我们都避而不谈。I like to say that my mother has never told me “I love you.” Theres something reassuring in its self-pitying simplicityas if the three-word absence explains who I am and wins me sympathy-so I carry it with me, like a label on my back. I synthesize our cumb
13、ersome relationship with an easy shorthand: my mother never said “I love you”. The last time my mother almost spoke the words was two years ago, when she called to tell me that a friend had been hospitalized.我常常说，妈妈从来没和我说过“我爱你”。这句有点自怜的简单话语听起来颇有些自我安慰的味道仿佛这三个字的缺失就为我为什么成为现在的我提供了借口，还为我赢得了同情于是，我总是把这句话挂在嘴
14、边，就像把它贴在背上当标签一样。对于我和妈妈之间的这种微妙关系，我总是简单地用一句“谁让她从来不说我爱你”来总结。上一次妈妈差点说出这几个字是在两年前，当时她给我打电话，告诉我她有个朋友住院了。I said, “I love you, Mom.” She said, “Thank you.” I havent said it since, but Ive thought about it, and Ive wondered why my mother doesnt. A couple of years ago, I found a poem by Robert Hershon called “
15、Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road?” that supplied words for the blank spaces I try to understand in our conversations: 我对她说：“我爱你，妈妈。” 而她说:“谢谢。” 这件事后来我再没提过，但却始终在我的脑海里盘旋不去，我一直想知道为什么我妈妈从来不说这几个字。几年前，我读到罗伯特赫尔希写的一首诗，诗名叫感伤的时刻或面包为什么要过马路？，这首诗填补了我和妈妈的对话中许多我不能理解的空白：Dont fill up on bread
16、. I say absent-mindedly. The servings here are huge. My son, whose hair may be receding a bit, says: Did you really just say that to me? What he doesnt know is that when were walking together, when we get to the curb. I sometimes start to reach for his hand.别用面包把肚子塞满了。我心不在焉地说。这儿的菜量大得很，我的儿子，我那发线已开始后退
17、少许的儿子，对我说：你怎么会跟我说这样的话？ 他不知道的是当我们一起散步时，当我们走到马路边时，我有时会不自觉地伸出手想要去牵他的手。Its a humble poem, small in scope, not the stuff of epic heartbreak, yet poignant. After copying it down in my quotation journal, my wrist smudging the pencil into a gray haze as I wrote, I opened an e-mail I had begun to my mother,
18、and added a postscript: “This poem made me think of you,” with the 13 lines cut and pasted below. My mother doesnt read poetryor at least, she doesnt tell me that she reads poetry-and I felt nervous clicking, “Send” .这是一首朴实无华的小诗，篇幅不长，不是动人心魄的宏伟诗篇，但读了却让人感到有点心酸。我把它抄在了我的书摘日记本里，写的时候，手腕把灰色的铅笔字迹都蹭模糊了。然后，我打
19、开一封写给妈妈的电子邮件，信已经开了头，我在后面加上了附言：“这首诗让我想起了你。”然后，我在电脑上把这首13行诗剪切下来，粘贴在了邮件下面。我妈妈从来不读诗或至少她从没告诉过我她读诗所以，点下“发送”键时，我感到心中隐隐的紧张和不安。She never mentioned the poem. But the next time I went home for vacation, I noticed something new in the kitchen. Not on her quotation wall, but across the room, fixed to an antique
20、magnetic board: Robert Hershons poem, printed on a scrap of white paper in the old-fashioned font of a typewriter. The board hung above the radiator, where we drape wet rags and mittens dripping with snow, in the warmest spot in the kitchen. The poem still hangs there. Neither my mother nor I have e
21、ver spoken about it.她从未和我提起过这首诗，但后来放假回家时，我注意到厨房里有了样新东西。这次不是在她常常粘纸片的墙上，而是在厨房的另一头，粘在一块老旧的磁力板上：罗伯特赫尔希的诗。诗打印在一小片白纸上，字体有点过时，像是打字机打出来的字体。这块板子高高挂在暖气片的上方，那儿可是厨房里最温暖的地方，我们常在那儿挂湿抹布和粘着雪的手套。那首诗现在还挂在那儿，但无论妈妈还是我，都从未开口谈论过它。拿起笔还是放下To write or not to write拿起笔还是放下Writing is not easy. I do it everyday. 写作非常不容易。我每天都在写作
22、。And I can tell you, its quite a challenge. 我可以告诉你，这是一个相当大的挑战。But, the more I do it, the easier I get to just write. 但是，我写作的越多，我就越会容易的感觉下笔如有神。Sometimes, thats the most difficult part starting. 有时候，最困难的部分是开始。When people ask me about writing-how they can write-I often suggest they brainstorm first. 当人
23、们问我关于写作他们如何写作我通常建议他们先作头脑风暴。Writing the main ideas collected to a topic, usually produces some great things. 写出收集到一个话题的主要思想，这个话题通常会产生一些伟大的东西。If the things get organized, perhaps through an outline, 如果条理化，也许会产生一份提纲，then you can write something really great. 你就可以写出一些非常棒的东西。Most of the writings I do wit
24、h spontaneous, I just start writing. 大部分的作品我都是自然而然写出，我才刚开始写作。I just stopped and done. 我只是停下来做而已。But I always go over what I wrote at least two times. 但我总是至少两次重温自己所写的。The first time I go over my writing is spell-check the word, 第一次我检查写作中的词语拼写，Its unacceptable to deliver a piece of writing with misspe
25、lling in it. 我不能接受一篇文章里有拼写差错的问题出现。The second time, I actually read what I wrote aloud, 第二次，我大声读出我所写的，and add things that may I missed, 并添加可能我错过的东西，it could be a idea that seems incomplete or something else. 它可能是一个似乎不完整或别的什么东西。If you have the time, its good to put your writing down for a little while
26、, 如果你有时间，最好让你的写作停下来一会儿，and read it again later, and to see how you like it. 再读一遍，看看你有多喜欢它。You may have something you wish to add or subtract. 你可能有一些想增加或者删减的东西。If you have a serious paper to write, 如果你想写些非常严肃的东西，and you have completed all of the things I talked about, 那你一定要按照我刚才谈到的所有的东西去做，the best th
27、ing to do-before you return your paper-is to have someone to read what you wrote and make comments on it. 在你回到这篇文章前最好的事情就是有人读你写的东西并发表看法。There is no doubt that practice makes perfect. 毫无疑问，熟能生巧。or at least better, so, if you want to be a better writer in Korean or English, 至少会更好，所以，如果你想成为一位更好的韩语或英语作家
28、，I recommend that you write as much as you can. 我建议你写的越多越好。幸福是个过程 不是终点Happiness is a journey幸福是个过程We always convince ourselves that life will be better after we get married, have a baby, than another. Then we are frustrated that the kids arent old enough and well be more content when they are. After
29、 that were frustrated that we have teenagers to deal with. We will certainly be happy when they are out of that stage.我们总是说服自己，认为当我们结婚、生子后日子会过的更加舒心些。然后我们又被那些小鬼的不懂事搞得不顺心，当他们大了些后，情况会好些吧。当孩子到了青春期的时候，（有时）对于如何跟他们好好交流又会使我们很无措。我们都深信当他们过了那个年龄段后，事情就会有些转机。We always tell ourselves that our life will be complet
30、e when our spouse gets his or her act together. When we get a nice car, and are able to go on a nice vocation when we retire. The truth is, theres no better time than right now. If not now, when? Our life will always be filled with challenges. Its best to admit this to ourselves and decide to be hap
31、py anyway.我们总是对自己说，当另一半有条理的过活时，（我们的）人生就会很圆满。当我们买了一台漂亮的车子后，我们认为可以在年老退休后开去度假。可事实上，再也没有比当下更好的时间段了，要不是现在这时，那么还能是什么时候呢？我们的人生满是各种神奇的未知数。不管怎么说，对你我而言，最好是承认活在当下里的意义然后及时“自己给自己找乐”。One of my favorite quotes comes from Alfred Souza. He said, for a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin - real
32、 life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, someting to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.我最看中一段尔弗雷德苏泽说过的话。他说“一直以来，我感觉的是真正的生活就要来了。但是在前面总有些东西拦在那里，一些问题必须先被搞定后才能进行下一项，比如未完成的工作，（做事时）等着轮到自己的那段时间、等待着交钱的帐单。当这些事解决后你才能开始自己的一天。后来我才觉悟到解决这些生活琐事的时候就是我的人生。”This perspective has helped me to see that there is no
