I came to college with few resources, but one of them was an understanding, however crude, of how I might use my opportunities there. This I began to develop because of my father, who had never been to college, in fact, he'd barely gotten out of high school. One night after dinner, he and I were sitting in our kitchen at 58 Clewley Road in Medford, Massachusetts, hatching plans about the rest of my life. I was about to go off to college, a feat no one in my family had accomplished in living memory. "I think I might want to be prelaw," I told my father. I had no idea what being prelaw was. My father compressed his brow and blew twin streams of smoke, dragonlike, from his magnificent nose. "Do you want to be a lawyer?" he asked. My father had some experience with lawyers, and with policemen, too; he was not well-disposed toward either. "I'm not really sure,"I told him, "but lawyers make pretty good money, right?"
我讀大學的時候也很懵懂，但是我大概知道自己應該如何用好讀大學的機會。我的這個想法源于我的父親，他從來沒有讀過大學, 事實上，他差一點高中都沒畢業。有一天，吃過晚飯后，我和他在我們坐落在馬薩諸塞州梅德福市的考利路58號的家里，坐在廚房里，我將來的生活炮制計劃。當時的我就要離家去讀大學，這是記憶中我的家族里從來沒有人能夠完成的偉業。我告訴父親：“我可能想讀法學預科。”我并不知道法學預科是什么。父親皺了皺眉，像龍一樣，大大的鼻孔里冒著煙。他問我：“你想成為律師?”父親和一些律師打過交道，當然，還有警察。他對這兩類人都沒什么好感。“我也不確定，”我告訴他，“但是律師很掙錢，對吧？”
My father detonated. (That was not uncommon. My father detonated a lot.) He told me that I was going to go to college only once, and that while I was there I had better study what I wanted. He said that when rich kids went to school, they majored in the subjects that interested them, and that my younger brother Philip and I were as good as any rich kids. (We were rich kids minus the money.) Wasn't I interested in literature? I confessed that I was. Then I had better study literature, unless I had inside information to the effect that reincarnation wasn't just hype, and I'd be able to attend college thirty or forty times. If I had such info, prelaw would be fine. Otherwise I better get to work and pick out some English classes from the course catalogue.
父親勃然大怒。（這并不是什么稀奇事，他經常這樣。)他告訴我讀大學的機會只有一次，到了那兒， 想學什么就學什么。他說富裕人家的孩子讀大學，都會選一些自己感興趣的專業，而我還有我弟弟菲利普和那些富裕的孩子一樣優秀。（我們是沒有錢的富裕孩子)。他問我不是對文學感興趣嗎？我承認了。他說那么我最好還是學文學，除非我有內部消息知道輪回這檔子事不是炒作，我可以有三四十次機會讀大學。如果我有這樣的消息，法學預科也可以。否則，我最好還是從課程表中選一些英語課程學學。
評論
打印
