評(píng)論
打印
Two Kinds
兩類人
Amy Tan
譚恩美
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
母親相信，在美國，任何夢(mèng)想都能成為現(xiàn)實(shí)：你可以開餐館；可以為政府工作以領(lǐng)取豐厚的退休金；可以幾乎不用首付現(xiàn)款就買棟房子；可以變成富翁；可以一夜成名。
"Of course you can be a prodigy, too," my mother told me when I was nine. "You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky."
“你當(dāng)然也可以成為天才。”我9歲時(shí)，母親對(duì)我說。“你樣樣事都會(huì)做得最好。琳朵阿姨知道什么？她那女兒，只不過心眼多一點(diǎn)而已。”
America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
母親將一切未遂的希望都寄托在美國。她1949年來到這里。在中國，她失去了一切：雙親、家園、前夫以及一對(duì)孿生女嬰。可她不用悔怨的目光回顧過去。很多途徑都可以改善現(xiàn)狀。
We didn't immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. We'd watch Shirley's old movies on TV as though they were training films. My mother would poke my arm and say, "Ni kan."—You watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying "Oh, my goodness."
至于我將成為哪方面的天才，我們并沒有即時(shí)決定。起初，母親以為我可以成為華裔秀蘭·鄧波兒。我們常常看電視上秀蘭的老電影，好像可以用來培訓(xùn)。母親常碰碰我的胳膊，“Nikan”(你看）。秀蘭不是在跳踢踏舞，就是唱一首水手歌曲，或者把嘴撮成O形說，“噢，我的上帝。”
"Ni kan," said my mother as Shirley's eyes flooded with tears. "You already know how. Don't need talent for crying!"
“你看，”在秀蘭眼淚汪汪時(shí)，母親說，“你早就會(huì)哭了。會(huì)哭不算天才！”
Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school in the Mission District and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking. Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz. My mother dragged me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair.
了解秀蘭·鄧波兒后，她很快帶我去米什地區(qū)一家美容培訓(xùn)班的實(shí)習(xí)理發(fā)店，把我交到一個(gè)學(xué)員手里。這個(gè)學(xué)員甚至連剪刀都拿不穩(wěn)。我的頭發(fā)沒有做出我要的大卷花，而是給我弄成一頭亂蓬蓬的黑色小卷毛。母親把我拽進(jìn)衛(wèi)生間，想把我的頭發(fā)蘸水歸攏整齊。
