The first memory I have of him — of anything, really — is his strength. It was in the late afternoon in a house under construction near ours. The unfinished wood floor had large, terrifying holes whose yawning[張大嘴] darkness I knew led to nowhere good. His powerful hands, then age 33, wrapped all the way around my tiny arms, then age 4, and easily swung[搖擺] me up to his shoulders to command all I surveyed.
我對(duì)他——實(shí)際上是對(duì)所有事的最初記憶,就是他的力量。那是一個(gè)下午的晚些時(shí)候,在一所靠近我家的正在修建的房子里,尚未完工的木地板上有一個(gè)個(gè)巨大可怕的洞,那些張著大口的黑洞在我看來是通向不祥之處的。時(shí)年33歲的爸爸用那強(qiáng)壯有力的雙手一把握住我的小胳膊,當(dāng)時(shí)我才4歲,然后輕而易舉地把我甩上他的肩頭,讓我把一切都盡收眼底。
The relationship between a son and his father changes over time. It may grow and flourish[繁茂] in mutual maturity[成熟]. It may sour in resented dependence or independence. With many children living in single-parent homes today, it may not even exist.
父子間的關(guān)系是隨著歲月的流逝而變化的,它會(huì)在彼此成熟的過程中成長(zhǎng)興盛,也會(huì)在令人不快的依賴或獨(dú)立的關(guān)系中產(chǎn)生不和。而今許多孩子生活在單親家庭中,這種關(guān)系可能根本不存在。
But to a little boy right after World War II ,a father seemed a god with strange strengths and uncanny[離奇的] powers enabling him to do and know things that no mortal could do or know. Amazing things, like putting a bicycle chain back on, just like that. Or building a hamster[倉(cāng)鼠] cage.Or guiding a jigsaw[拼板玩具] so it forms the letter F;I learned the alphabet[字母表] that way in those pre-television days.
然而,對(duì)于一個(gè)生活在二戰(zhàn)剛剛結(jié)束時(shí)期的小男孩來說,父親就像神,他擁有神奇的力量和神秘的能力,他無(wú)所不能,無(wú)所不知。那些奇妙的事兒有上自行車鏈條,或是建一個(gè)倉(cāng)鼠籠子,或是教我玩拼圖玩具,拼出個(gè)字母“F”來。在那個(gè)電視機(jī)還未誕生的年代,我便是通過這種方法學(xué)會(huì)了字母表的。