2018年翻譯資格考試初級筆譯試題：郵票與母親

　　漢譯英

　　1968 年我從北京來到陜西，惟一掛念的是在故鄉(xiāng)身患絕癥的老母親。母親的時日已經(jīng)不多，身邊再無親人，離別成為我心中最沉重的痛。惟一能傳遞母親信息的就是那枚小小的郵票。 母親當(dāng)時已經(jīng)雙目失明，信是讓別人代寫的，內(nèi)容千篇一律的干枯，郵票卻是母親自己摸索著貼上去的，她貼了一疊信封，隨用隨取，為的是不給別人添麻煩。每回接到母親來信，我都要撫摸貼在信封右上角的郵票，那是母親親手貼上去的，它貼得規(guī)正卻無畫面感，很多時候是頭朝下的，因為母親根本看不見，她是憑感覺在貼。郵票殘留著母親的手印，承載著母親的掛念，那上面有母親的氣息。凝視中，我常常淚眼模糊……

　　郵票是母親的替代。我對郵票的認(rèn)識源自于此。

　　參考譯文：

　　When I moved from Beijing to Shaanxi in northwestern China in 1968, the only person I was concerned about was my mother, left in the hometown alone and terminally ill. Parting with her weighed overwhelmingly heavy on my mind, as her days were literally numbered but there was no family around her. The only vehicle of communication between mother and me was a tiny stamp.Back then mother lost all her sight and had to turn to ghostwriters. As such, letters from her were invariably cut and dried, but were stamped by mother herself. Blind as she was, she groped for the right corner to put a stamp on. She typically got a pile of envelopes stamped all at once simply to save trouble for her helpers.

　　Each time her letter arrived, I would routinely make a point of feeling the stamp pasted on the upper right corner of the envelope. The stamping was her job, done nice and well, but never evoked a picture, as in many cases stamps were put upside down due to her loss of sight. After all, being blind, she did all this based totally on rule of thumb. Stamps carried her fingerprints communicating motherly love and care. On that note, my eyes were often blurred with tears whenever I gazed at the stamp of each letter from her.

　　Stamps in this sense stand for mother, and that is how I started to understand the meaning of stamps.