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However, my parents, both of whom came from impoverished backgrounds and neither of whom had been to college, took the view that my overactive imagination was an amusing personal quirk that would never pay a mortgage, or secure a pension.
然而， 我的父母家境都很貧困，兩個人都沒上過大學，他們認為我過于豐富的想象力是令人驚訝的個人怪癖，根本不足以讓我支付按揭，或者獲得足夠的養老金。
I know that the irony strikes with the force of a cartoon anvil, now.
我現在明白了反諷就像用卡通鐵砧去打擊你，但......
So they hoped that I would take a vocational degree; I wanted to study English Literature. A compromise was reached that in retrospect satisfied nobody, and I went up to study Modern Languages. Hardly had my parents' car rounded the corner at the end of the road than I ditched German and scuttled off down the Classics corridor.
他們希望我取得高職學位，而我卻想攻讀英國文學。最后，我和父母達成了妥協，我改學現代語言。現在回想起來，當時雙方都不怎么滿意。于是，父母的車剛一開遠，我就丟下德語，去學習古典文學。
I cannot remember telling my parents that I was studying Classics; they might well have found out for the first time on graduation day. Of all the subjects on this planet, I think they would have been hard put to name one less useful than Greek mythology when it came to securing the keys to an executive bathroom.
我不記得告訴過父母自己在學習古典文學，他們可能是在我畢業典禮那天才知道的。我想，他們也許認為，在全世界所有專業中，不會有比研究希臘神話更沒用的專業了，那甚至無法換來一間獨立寬敞的衛生間。
I would like to make it clear, in parenthesis, that I do not blame my parents for their point of view. There is an expiry date on blaming your parents for steering you in the wrong direction; the moment you are old enough to take the wheel, responsibility lies with you.
在這里我想說明一點：我不會因為父母的觀點而責怪他們。不要因為父母給你的人生路指錯了方向就無休止地埋怨他們。當你到了一定年齡，可以自己把握人生時，就應該自己承擔責任。
