Question

马克吐温的this was my mother多长篇幅

Answer 1

This Was My Mother Mark Twain
这就是我的母亲 马克·吐温

My mother, Jane Lampton Clemens, died in her 88th year, a mighty age for one who at 40 was so delicate of body as to be accounted a confirmed invalid destined to pass soon away. But the invalid who, forgetful of self, takes a strenuous and indestructible interest in everything and everybody, as she did, and to whom a dull moment is an unknown thing, is a formidable adversary for disease.
我的母亲，珍妮·兰普顿·克莱门斯，88岁时去世，能活到这个年龄，对于一个40岁时身体虚弱，被断定将不久于人世的病人来说，无疑是一个奇迹。但这个病人，正如她表现的那样，总是浑然不觉，却对其他任何人和任何事都抱有强烈的、无法阻挡的兴趣。对她而言，无聊的时刻是闻所未闻的事情，而这是对抗疾病的可怕对手。
She had a heart so large that everybody’s griefs and joys found welcome in it. One of her neighbors never got over the way she received the news of a local accident. When he had told how a man had been thrown from his horse and killed because a calf had run in his way, my mother asked with genuine interest, “What became of the calf?” She was not indifferent to the man’s death, she was interested in the calf, too.
她的心胸开阔，无论谁的悲苦与欢乐都能包容。她的一个邻居一辈子都忘不了，当她听说了当地一起交通事故后的反应。这位邻居告诉她，有一个男人骑着马与一头小牛迎面相撞，然后坠马身亡了。我母亲真切而又饶有兴趣地问道，“那小牛怎么样了？”她不是不关心那男人的死，只是她对小牛也同样在乎。
She could find something to excuse and as a rule to love in the toughest of human beings or animals－even if she had to invent it. Once we beguiled her into saying a soft word for the devil himself. We started abusing him, one conspirator after another adding his bitter word, until she walked right into the trap. She admitted that the indictment was sound, but had he been treated fairly?
对于最粗暴的人或动物，她都能找到一点借口予以原谅，而且照例维护他们，即使她不得已要编造一些东西。有一次我们骗她替魔鬼说好话。几个预谋者一个接一个咒骂魔鬼，越骂越激烈，直到她生生地进了我们的圈套。她承认这些对魔鬼的控诉是有理的，但是它受到公平对待了吗？
She never used large words, yet when her pity or indignation was stirred she was the most eloquent person I have ever heard. We had a little slave boy whom we had hired from someone there in Hannibal. He had been taken from his family in Maryland, brought halfway across the continent, and sold. All day long he was singing, whistling, yelling, laughing. The noise was maddening, and one day I lost my temper, went raging to my mother and said Sandy had been singing for an hour straight, and I couldn’t stand it. Wouldn’t she please shut him up? The tears came into her eyes and she said:
“Poor thing, when he sings it shows me that he is not remembering, and that comforts me; but when he is still I am afraid he is thinking. He will never see his mother again; if he can sing, I must be thankful for it. If you were older you would understand, and that friendless child’s noise would make you glad.”
她从不夸夸其谈，但是一旦被激起悲悯之心或者愤恨之情，她就会变成我见过的最能言善辩的人。我们有一个小童奴，是在汉尼拔时从当地人那里雇来的。他的家在马里兰州，被带着穿越美国时，半道上给卖了。他整天唱歌，吹口哨，大喊大笑。这些声音真令我抓狂。直到有一天，我火了，愤怒地跑向母亲，抱怨说桑迪已经整整唱了一个小时了，我简直忍无可忍，他能不能闭上他的嘴？此时，她的泪水夺眶而出，说道，
“可怜的小家伙，他唱歌说明他正在遗忘，这多么令我欣慰啊。但是如果他一直得唱啊唱[雨林木风4] ，那他可能是在思考了。他是再也见不到他的母亲了。如果他还能唱歌，我觉得那是万幸的事情。你老了就会明白，那孤苦伶仃的孩子的喧闹声会令你高兴起来。”
All dumb animals had a friend in her. Hunted and disreputable cats recoginized her at a glance as their refuge and champion. We once had 19 cats at one time. They were a vast burden, but they were out of luck, and that was enough. She generally had a cat in her lap when she sat down, but she denied indignantly that she liked cats better than children though there was one advantage to a cat, she’d say. You could always put it down when you were tired of holding it.
所有不会说话的动物都能成为她的朋友。那些被人追赶的和狼狈不堪的野猫一眼就能认出她是它们的庇护人和守卫者。我们家曾经有一度同时认养了19只猫咪，这可是个沉重的负担。但是只要想到猫咪们的不幸，就够了。她坐着的时候总把只猫放在膝盖上，尽管她强烈地否认自己爱猫胜过爱孩子，但她不得不承认，猫有一个好处，当你抱它们抱累的时候，可以随时把它们放下来。
I was as much of a nuisance as any small boy and a neighbor asked her once, “Do you ever believe anything that boy says?”
我小的时候像其他小男孩一样讨人嫌。一个邻居问过我母亲，“你有没有信过那兔崽子说的话？”
“He is the wellspring of truth,” my mother replied, “but you can’t bring up the whole well with only one bucket. I know his average, so he never deceives me. I discount him 90 percent for embroidery and what is left is perfect and priceless truth, without a flaw.”
“他可是真理的源泉，”我母亲回答道，“但是你不能照单全收。我知道他那点底子，所以他从来都欺骗不了我。扣除他话里添枝加叶的那百分之九十的话，剩下来的就是实打实的宝贵真话。”
She had a horror of snakes and bats, which I hid in pockets and sewing baskets; otherwise she was entirely fearless. One day I saw a vicious devil of a Corsican, a common terror in the town, chasing his grown daughter with a heavy rope in his hand, threatening to wear it out on her. Cautious male citizens let him pass but my mother spread her door wide to the refugee, and then, instead of closing and locking it after her, stood in it, barring the way. The man swore, cursed, threatened her with his rope; but she only stood, straight and fine, and lashed him, shamed him, derided and defied him until he asked her pardon, gave her his rope and said with a blasphemous oath that she was the bravest woman he ever saw. He and she were always good friends after that. He found in her a long-felt want－somebody who was not afraid of him.
她害怕那些我藏在口袋和针线筐里的蛇和蝙蝠。除此之外，她什么都不怕。有一天，她看到一个恶魔般的科西嘉人手握一根粗绳子，在追着她已成年的女儿跑，说是要打她直到打断绳子。这人可是城中一霸。所有谨慎胆小的男人们都放任其所为，只有我的母亲敞开着大门，让那姑娘避难。接着，她并没有锁上门，而是站在门口挡着。那个男人咒骂着，用手里的绳子威胁她。她只是站着，一动不动，满不在乎，痛斥他，羞辱他，挖苦他，嘲弄他，直到他求饶，递上绳子，然后发毒誓说她是他见过的最勇敢的女人。从那以后，他俩成了好朋友，因为他在她身上发现了一个他盼望已久的愿望---有人害怕他。
One day in St. Louis she walked out into the street and surprised a burly cartman who was beating his horse over the head with the butt of a heavy whip. She took the whip away from him and made such a persuasive appeal that he was tripped into saying he was to blame, and into volunteering a promise that he would never abuse a horse again.
有一天，在圣路易斯，她出家门走到街上，突然遇到一个魁梧的马夫正用鞭子把狠命地打马的头部。她冲了过去，一把夺过鞭子，然后循循善诱般的劝导车夫，把他说得自惭形秽，并主动承诺再也不会虐待马匹。
She was never too old to get up early to see the circus procession enter town. She adored parades, lectures, conventions, camp meetings, church revivals－in fact every kind of dissipation that could not be proved to have anything irreligious about it, and she never missed a funeral. She excused this preference by saying that, if she did not go to other people’s funerals, they would not come to hers.
无论多大年纪了，每到马戏团巡演进城，她都会起个大早。她喜欢看游行啦、听讲座啦、参加集会、野营集会，福音布道会等等，总之，是各种各样的、不违反宗教信条的娱乐活动。她不会错过任何一个葬礼，并且给自己的偏好找了一个借口——如果不去参加别人的葬礼，别人也不会来参加她的。
She was 82 and living in Keokuk when, unaccountably, she insisted upon attending a convention of old settlers of the Mississippi Valley. All the way there, and it was some distance, she was young again with excitement and eagerness. At the hotel she asked immediately for Dr. Barrett, of St. Louis. He had left for home that morning and would not be back, she was told. She turned away, the fire all gone from her, and asked to go home. Once there she sat silent and thinking for many days, then told us that when she was 18 she had loved a young medical student with all her heart. There was a misunderstanding and he left the country, she had immediately married, to show him that she did not care. She had never seen him since and then she had read in a newspaper that he was going to attend the old settlers’ convention. “Only three hours before we reached that hotel he had been there,” she mourned.
82岁时，她居住在克库克镇（爱荷华州）, 但令人难以琢磨地是，她坚持要参加密西西比河谷的老乡会。路途有些遥远，但一路上，她重新焕发出兴致盎然、热情洋溢的青春活力。到了酒店，她立即要求见圣·路易的巴雷特医生。但被告知，巴雷特医生已经于当天早上动身回家了，将不会再回来了，她转过脸去，热情尽褪，接着要求回家。回到家中，她一度沉默地安坐一旁，很多天里似乎在思考什么，后来她还是告诉我们了原委。18岁时，她曾全身心地爱着一个年轻的医科学生。他们之间存在一些误会，那个医科学生离开了，为了表现出无所谓，她随即出嫁了。自此，她再也没有见过那个医科学生，但随后从报纸得知他要去参加老乡会的消息。她哀怨地说道：“仅在我们到宾馆的3个小时前，他还在这里呢。”
She had kept that pathetic burden in her heart 64 years without any of us suspecting it. Before the year was out, her memory began to fail. She would write letters to school-mates who had been dead 40 years, and wonder why they never answered. Four years later she died.
她把这段伤心往事在心里藏了64年，没有人发现一点蛛丝马迹。直到那年年末，她的记忆开始减退。她开始经常给已经去世了40年的同学写信，然后一直困惑为什么从没收到回信。四年之后，她也去世了。
But to the last she was capable with her tongue. I had always been told that I was a sickly child who lived mainly on medicines during the first seven years of my life. The year she died I asked her about this and said:
但直到最后的日子，她还能够说话。她总是说我是一个病秧子，在我生命的头七个年头里靠药罐子活着。她去世的那年，我问及这件事情：
“I suppose that during all that time you were uneasy about me?”
“我觉得，我那段时间一直是您的心病？”
“Yes, the whole time.”
“是的，无时不刻”
“Afraid I wouldn’t live?”
“怕我活不下去了？”
After a recollective pause－ostensibly to think out the facts－
经过短暂的思考——很明显在揣摩着些情况
“No－afraid you would.”
“不，担心你会活下来”
Jane Lampton Clemens’ character, striking and lovable, appears in my books as Tom Sawyer’s Aunt Polly. I fitted her out with a dialect and tried to think up other improvements for her, but did not find any.
珍妮·兰普顿·克莱门斯个性突出且受人爱戴，人物特点在我的书《汤姆·索亚历险记》中以波莉姨妈的形象出现。我曾为这个角色设计了方言，并且尽力设计出更多的亮点，但最后仅此而已。