英語散文

　　父愛無邊

　　My father was a self-taught mandolin player. He was one of the best string instrument players in our town. He could not read music, but if he heard a tune a few times, he could play it. When he was younger, he was a member of a small country music band. They would play at local dances and on a few occasions would play for the local radio station. He often told us how he had auditioned and earned a position in a band that featured Patsy Cline as their lead singer. He told the family that after he was hired he never went back. Dad was a very religious man. He stated that there was a lot of drinking and cursing the day of his audition and he did not want to be around that type of environment.

　　Occasionally, Dad would get out his mandolin and play for the family. We three children: Trisha, Monte and I, George Jr., would often sing along. Songs such as the Tennessee Waltz, Harbor Lights and around Christmas time, the well-known rendition of Silver Bells. "Silver Bells, Silver Bells, its Christmas time in the city" would ring throughout the house. One of Dad's favorite hymns was "The Old Rugged Cross". We learned the words to the hymn when we were very young, and would sing it with Dad when he would play and sing. Another song that was often shared in our house was a song that accompanied the Walt Disney series: Davey Crockett. Dad only had to hear the song twice before he learned it well enough to play it. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier" was a favorite song for the family. He knew we enjoyed the song and the program and would often get out the mandolin after the program was over. I could never get over how he could play the songs so well after only hearing them a few times. I loved to sing, but I never learned how to play the mandolin. This is something I regret to this day.

　　Dad loved to play the mandolin for his family he knew we enjoyed singing, and hearing him play. He was like that. If he could give pleasure to others, he would, especially his family. He was always there, sacrificing his time and efforts to see that his family had enough in their life. I had to mature into a man and have children of my own before I realized how much he had sacrificed.

　　I joined the United States Air Force in January of 1962. Whenever I would come home on leave, I would ask Dad to play the mandolin. Nobody played the mandolin like my father. He could touch your soul with the tones that came out of that old mandolin. He seemed to shine when he was playing. You could see his pride in his ability to play so well for his family.

　　When Dad was younger, he worked for his father on the farm. His father was a farmer and sharecropped a farm for the man who owned the property. In 1950, our family moved from the farm. Dad had gained employment at the local limestone quarry. When the quarry closed in August of 1957, he had to seek other employment. He worked for Owens Yacht Company in Dundalk, Maryland and for Todd Steel in Point of Rocks, Maryland. While working at Todd Steel, he was involved in an accident. His job was to roll angle iron onto a conveyor so that the welders farther up the production line would have it to complete their job. On this particular day Dad got the third index finger of his left hand mashed between two pieces of steel. The doctor who operated on the finger could not save it, and Dad ended up having the tip of the finger amputated. He didn't lose enough of the finger where it would stop him picking up anything, but it did impact his ability to play the mandolin.

　　After the accident, Dad was reluctant to play the mandolin. He felt that he could not play as well as he had before the accident. When I came home on leave and asked him to play he would make excuses for why he couldn't play. Eventually, we would wear him down and he would say "Okay, but remember, I can't hold down on the strings the way I used to" or "Since the accident to this finger I can't play as good". For the family it didn't make any difference that Dad couldn't play as well. We were just glad that he would play. When he played the old mandolin it would carry us back to a cheerful, happier time in our lives. "Davey, Davey Crockett, King of the Wild Frontier", would again be heard in the little town of Bakerton, West Virginia.

　　In August of 1993 my father was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. He chose not to receive chemotherapy treatments so that he could live out the rest of his life in dignity. About a week before his death, we asked Dad if he would play the mandolin for us. He made excuses but said "okay". He knew it would probably be the last time he would play for us. He tuned up the old mandolin and played a few notes. When I looked around, there was not a dry eye in the family. We saw before us a quiet humble man with an inner strength that comes from knowing God, and living with him in one's life. Dad would never play the mandolin for us again. We felt at the time that he wouldn't have enough strength to play, and that makes the memory of that day even stronger. Dad was doing something he had done all his life, giving. As sick as he was, he was still pleasing others. Dad sure could play that Mandolin!

　　我父親是個自學(xué)成才的曼陀林琴手，他是我們鎮(zhèn)最優(yōu)秀的弦樂演奏者之一。他看不懂樂譜，但是如果聽幾次曲子，他就能演奏出來。當(dāng)他年輕一點(diǎn)的時候，他是一個小鄉(xiāng)村樂隊(duì)的成員。他們在當(dāng)?shù)匚鑿d演奏，有幾次還為當(dāng)?shù)貜V播電臺演奏。他經(jīng)常告訴我們，自己如何試演，如何在佩茜?克萊恩作為主唱的樂隊(duì)里占一席之位。他告訴家人，一旦被聘用就永不回頭。父親是一個很嚴(yán)謹(jǐn)?shù)娜?，他講述了他試演的那天，很多人在喝酒，咒罵，他不想呆在那種環(huán)境里。

　　有時候，父親會拿出曼陀林，為家人彈奏。我們?nèi)齻€小孩：翠莎、蒙蒂和我，還有喬治通常會伴唱。唱的有：《田納西華爾茲》和《海港之光》，到了圣誕節(jié)，就唱膾炙人口的《銀鈴》："銀鈴，銀鈴，城里來了圣誕節(jié)。"歌聲充滿了整個房子。父親最愛的其中一首贊歌是《古老的十字架》。我們很小的時候就學(xué)會歌詞了，而且在父親彈唱的時候，我們也跟著唱。我們經(jīng)常一起唱的另外一首歌來自沃特?迪斯尼的系列片：《戴維?克羅克特》。父親只要聽了兩遍就彈起來了，"戴維，戴維?克羅克特，荒野邊疆的國王。"那是我們家最喜歡的歌曲。他知道我們喜歡那首歌和那個節(jié)目，所以每次節(jié)目結(jié)束后，他就拿出曼陀林彈奏。我永遠(yuǎn)不能明白他如何能聽完幾遍后就能把一首曲子彈得那么好。我熱愛唱歌，但我沒有學(xué)會如何彈奏曼陀林，這是我遺憾至今的事情。

　　父親喜歡為家人彈奏曼陀林，他知道我們喜歡唱歌，喜歡聽他彈奏。他就是那樣，如果他能把快樂奉獻(xiàn)給別人，他從不吝嗇，尤其是對他的家人。他總是那樣，犧牲自己的時間和精力讓家人生活得滿足。父親的這種付出是只有當(dāng)我長大成人，而且是有了自己的孩子后才能體會到的。

　　我在1962年1月加入了美國空軍基地。每當(dāng)我休假回家，我都請求父親彈奏曼陀林。沒有人彈奏曼陀林能達(dá)到像我父親那樣的境界，他在那古老的曼陀林上撫出的旋律能夠觸及你的靈魂。他彈奏的時候，身上似乎能發(fā)出四射的光芒。你可以看出，父親為能給家人彈奏出如此美妙的旋律，他是多么的自豪。

　　父親年輕的時候，曾在農(nóng)場為爺爺工作。爺爺是農(nóng)場使用者，要向農(nóng)場所有人交納谷物抵租。1950年，我們?nèi)野犭x農(nóng)場，父親在當(dāng)?shù)厥沂墒瘓鲋\得職位。采石場在1957年倒閉，他只好另覓工作。他曾在馬里蘭州登多克的歐文斯游艇公司上班，還在馬里蘭州的洛斯的托德鋼鐵公司上過班。在托德鋼鐵公司上班期間，他遇到了意外。他的工作是把有棱角的鐵滾到搬運(yùn)臺上，這樣焊接工才能作進(jìn)一步加工來完成整個工序。在那個特殊的日子里，父親的

　　左手第三個手指被纏在兩片鋼鐵中。醫(yī)生對手指施手術(shù)，但未能保住那只手指，最后父親只好讓醫(yī)生把那手指的指尖給切除了。那個手指并沒有完全喪失拿東西的能力，但是卻影響了他彈奏曼陀林的能力。

　　事故后，父親不太愿意彈奏曼陀林了，他覺得再也不能像以前彈得那么好了。我休假回家請求他彈奏曼陀林，他以種種借口解釋不能彈奏的原因。最后，我們軟硬兼施逼他就范，他終于說："好吧，但是記住，我撥弦再也不能像過去一樣了。"或者會說："這個手指出意外后，我再也不能彈得像過去那樣好了。"對于家人來說，父親彈得好不好并沒有分別，我們很高興他終于彈奏了。當(dāng)他彈起那把陳舊的曼陀林，就會把我們帶回昔日那些無憂無慮的幸福時光。"戴維，戴維?克羅克特，荒野邊疆的國王"就會再次響徹西弗吉尼亞州的貝克頓小鎮(zhèn)。

　　1993年8月，父親診斷得了不宜動手術(shù)的肺癌。他不想接受化療，因?yàn)樗塍w面地過完他生命最后的時光。大約在父親去世的一周前，我們請求他能否為我們彈奏曼陀林，他說了很多借口，最后還是答應(yīng)了。他知道這可能是他最后一次為我們彈奏了，他為老曼陀林調(diào)弦，彈了幾個音。我環(huán)顧四周，家人個個都淚水滿眶。我們看見在我們面前是一個安靜的、謙虛的人，以生命最后的力量，用愛的力量支撐著。父親再也沒有足夠的力量彈奏，這使我們對那天的記憶更加強(qiáng)烈。父親做著他一生都在做的事情：奉獻(xiàn)。即使生命已走到了盡頭，他卻仍盡力為他人創(chuàng)造歡樂。沒錯，父親一定還能彈奏曼陀林的。

　　那些年那些天非做不可的事

　　Age has reached the end of the beginning of a word. May be guilty in his seems to passing a lot of different life became the appearance of the same day; May be back in the past, to oneself the paranoid weird belief disillusionment, these days, my mind has been very messy, in my mind constantly. Always feel oneself should go to do something, or write something. Twenty years of life trajectory deeply shallow, suddenly feel something, do it.

　　一字開頭的年齡已經(jīng)到了尾聲。或許是愧疚于自己似乎把轉(zhuǎn)瞬即逝的很多個不同的日子過成了同一天的樣子;或許是追溯過去，對自己那些近乎偏執(zhí)的怪異信念的醒悟，這些天以來，思緒一直很凌亂，在腦海中不斷糾纏?？傆X得自己自己似乎應(yīng)該去做點(diǎn)什么，或者寫點(diǎn)什么。二十年的人生軌跡深深淺淺，突然就感覺到有些事情，非做不可了。

　　The end of our life, and can meet many things really do?

　　而窮盡我們的一生，又能遇到多少事情是真正地非做不可?

　　During my childhood, think lucky money and new clothes are necessary for New Year, but as the advance of the age, will be more and more found that those things are optional; Junior high school, thought to have a crush on just means that the real growth, but over the past three years later, his writing of alumni in peace, suddenly found that isn't really grow up, it seems is not so important; Then in high school, think don't want to give vent to out your inner voice can be in the high school children of the feelings in a period, but was eventually infarction when graduation party in the throat, later again stood on the pitch he has sweat profusely, looked at his thrown a basketball hoops, suddenly found himself has already can't remember his appearance.

　　童年時，覺得壓歲錢和新衣服是過年必備，但是隨著年齡的推進(jìn)，會越來越發(fā)現(xiàn)，那些東西根本就可有可無;初中時，以為要有一場暗戀才意味著真正的成長，但三年過去后，自己心平氣和的寫同學(xué)錄的時候，突然就發(fā)現(xiàn)是不是真正的成長了，好像并沒有那么重要了;然后到了高中，覺得非要吐露出自己的心聲才能為高中生涯里的懵懂情愫劃上一個句點(diǎn)，但畢業(yè)晚會的時候最終還是被梗塞在了咽喉，后來再次站在他曾經(jīng)揮汗如雨的球場，看著他投過籃球的球框時，突然間發(fā)現(xiàn)自己已經(jīng)想不起他的容顏。

　　Originally, this world, can produce a chemical reaction to an event, in addition to resolutely, have to do, and time.

　　原來，這個世界上，對某個事件能產(chǎn)生化學(xué)反應(yīng)的，除了非做不可的堅(jiān)決，還有，時間。

　　A person's time, your ideas are always special to clear. Want, want, line is clear, as if nothing could shake his. Also once seemed to be determined to do something, but more often is he backed out at last. Dislike his cowardice, finally found that there are a lot of love, there are a lot of miss, like shadow really have been doomed. Those who do, just green years oneself give oneself an arm injection, or is a self-righteous spiritual.

　　一個人的時候，自己的想法總是特別地清晰。想要的，不想要的，界限明確，好像沒有什么可以撼動自己。也曾經(jīng)好像已經(jīng)下定了決心去做某件事，但更多的時候是最后又打起了退堂鼓。嫌惡過自己的怯懦，最終卻發(fā)現(xiàn)有很多緣分，有很多錯過，好像冥冥之中真的已經(jīng)注定。那些曾經(jīng)所謂的非做不可，只是青蔥年華里自己給自己注射的一支強(qiáng)心劑，或者說，是自以為是的精神寄托罷了。

　　At the moment, the sky is dark, the air is fresh factor after just rained. Suddenly thought of blue plaid shirt; Those were broken into various shapes of stationery; From the corner at the beginning of deep friendship; Have declared the end of the encounter that haven't start planning... Those years, those days of do, finally, like youth, will end in our life.

　　此刻，天空是陰暗的，空氣里有著剛下過雨之后的清新因子。突然想到那件藍(lán)格子襯衫;那些被折成各種各樣形狀的信紙;那段從街角深巷伊始的友誼;還有那場還沒有開始就宣告了終結(jié)的邂逅計劃……那些年那些天的非做不可，終于和青春一樣，都將在我們的人生中謝幕。