評論
打印
I wondered how I would ever fit in with my teenage friends. I hated being followed by my father's good name. And so when strangers asked me if I was Doctor Eppley's son, I replied emphatically, "My name is Harold. And I can manage quite well on my own." As an act of rebellion, I began to call my father by his first name, Sam.
我不知道自己怎樣才能融入我那些少年朋友的圈子。我討厭父親的好名聲像影子一樣跟著我。所以當陌生人問起我是不是埃普利醫生的兒子時，我會斷然答道：“我叫哈羅德。我自己能管好自己的事。”出于反叛，我開始對父親直呼其名，不叫他“爸爸”，而叫他“薩姆”。
Why are you acting so stubborn lately? my father asked me one day in the midst of an argument.
“你最近為什么這么犟？”有次爭吵時，我父親這樣問我。
Well, Sam, I replied, "I suppose that bothers you."
“哼，薩姆。我想你生氣了吧！”
You know it hurts me when you call me Sam, my father shouted.
“你知道的，你叫我薩姆讓我很傷心。”我父親大聲地說。
Well, it hurts me when everybody expects me to be just like you. I don't want to be perfect. I want to be myself.
“哦，那人人都指望我像你一樣，也很讓我傷心呢。我不要完美，我只想做我自己。”
I survived my last years of high school until finally I turned eighteen. The next fall I enrolled in college. I chose to attend a school far from Enosburg, a place where nobody called me "Doctor Eppley's son."
我好不容易挨過高中，總算滿了十八歲。第二年秋天我上了大學。我選中了一所遠離伊諾斯堡的學校，這個地方再沒人管我叫“埃普利醫生的兒子”。
One night at college I sat with a group of students in the dormitory as we shared stories about our lives. We began to talk about the things we hated most about our childhoods. "That's easy," I said. "I couldn't stand growing up in a town where everybody always compared me with my father."
在大學里，有天晚上我和一幫學生在宿舍聊起我們的生活經歷。我們開始談起我們童年時期最討厭的事情。“想都不用想，”我說，“我受不了生活的小鎮上每個人總是拿我和我的父親比。”
The girl sitting next to me frowned. "I don't understand," she said. "I'd be proud to have a father who's so well respected." Her eyes filled with tears as she continued, "I'd give anything to be called my father's child. But I don't know where he is. He left my mother when I was only four."
坐在我身邊的女孩皺起眉頭說：“這我就不理解了。要是有這么個令人尊敬的父親我一定會很驕傲的。”她的眼里噙著淚繼續說，“要是有人把我叫做我父親的孩子，我愿為此付出一切！但我不知道他在哪里。我才四歲，他就離開了我的母親。”
