2019年翻譯資格考試三級口譯練習(xí)題：父親

　　My husband, Gary, and I were flying to Hawaii from New York to show our five-month old son, Timmy, to my parents for the first time. But what should have been a mission of joy filled me with apprehension. For five years I'd hardly spoken to my father. Loving but stern in the manner typical of Chinese fathers, he had made particular demands on me, and though we were very much alike, we'd also grown very far apart.

　　丈夫加里和我第一次帶著我們五個月大的兒子提米乘飛機從紐約前往夏威夷去看望我的父母。 這本來應(yīng)該是一件快樂的差事，而我卻為此憂心忡忡; 因為我?guī)缀跷迥隂]有和父親講話了。 父親是一位有愛心但又嚴(yán)厲的典型的中國父親，平時對我的要求很苛刻，雖然我們有很多相似之處，但我們的經(jīng)歷卻大相徑庭。

　　When I became a teenager, my father held up my mother as a model of feminine behavior. But she was gregarious and social, while I preferred books to parties. He pressed me to mingle with his friends' children. I insisted on choosing my own companions. He assumed I'd follow in my mother's footsteps and enroll in the local university to study teaching, and that I'd marry into one of the other long-established Chinese clans on the Hawaiian islands and settle down, as he and my mother had.

　　等我長到十幾歲時，父親便把母親視為女性的典范。 可是她那么喜歡熱鬧，喜歡交往，而我喜歡讀書勝過聚會。 他強迫我和他的朋友的孩子交往， 而我則堅持自己選擇朋友。 他想當(dāng)然地認(rèn)為我會步我母親的后塵，報考當(dāng)?shù)氐膸煼洞髮W(xué)，然后嫁到夏威夷島上另外一個有名望的家族之中，再像他和我母親那樣定居下來。

　　But I didn't settle. As bullheaded as my father, I escaped to the University of California, where I fell in love with a haole, as we called Caucasians from the mainland. Gary had blue haole eyes and sandy haole hair. I announced that we were getting married — in Berkeley, California, not Hawaii. No huge, clamorous clan wedding for me. My parents came and met Gary just two days before our small, simple wedding. Afterwards we moved to New York, as far from the islands as we could get without leaving American soil.

　　但是我沒有安頓下來。 和父親一樣執(zhí)拗的我逃到加利福尼亞大學(xué)。在那兒，我愛上了一位“外族人”，那時我們對大陸來的白種人都這樣稱呼。 加里長有“外族人”的藍眼睛和“外族人”的棕色頭發(fā)。 我宣布我們就要結(jié)婚了———在加利福尼亞的伯克利而不是在夏威夷， 沒有人為我操辦聲勢浩大的、熱鬧的家族婚禮。 就在我們簡短的婚禮舉辦的前兩天，我父母才趕來見加里。 婚后我們搬到紐約，在不離開美國領(lǐng)土的前提下盡可能地遠(yuǎn)離群島。

　　My father's subsequent silence resonated with disapproval. He didn't visit; neither did I. When my mother telephoned, he never asked to speak to me, and I never asked for him. We might have gone on like that, the habit of separation hardening into a permanent estrangement. Then Timmy was born, and I felt an unexpected tidal pull back to the island.

　　父親隨后的沉默意味著他對我的婚事的反對。 他沒來看我們，我也沒去看他。 當(dāng)母親打來電話時，他從來不要求和我說話，我也從來不要求和他講話。 我們本可能會這樣持續(xù)下去的，因為習(xí)慣性的分離會導(dǎo)致永久性的疏遠(yuǎn)。 后來，提米出生了，我感到仿佛有一股突如其來的潮水在將我推向島鄉(xiāng)。

　　On the long flight to Hawaii, memories of my childhood, when I was my father's small shadow, came flooding back. I was three years old, running behind him as he walked between the banana trees in the plantation town where he taught secondary school. When I grew tired, he carried me on his shoulders. From there, I could see forever. "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine," he would sing. "You make me happy when skies are grey." I laughed, taking his devotion as my due.

　　在飛往夏威夷的漫長的旅途中，兒時的記憶潮水般向我涌來。 那時，父親在一個移民鎮(zhèn)上教中學(xué)，我是父親的小影子，跟隨父親在香蕉樹林里穿行。 我累了，他就把我扛在肩上， 從他的肩上，我可以看到永恒的父愛。 “你是我的陽光，我惟一的陽光，”他常常這樣唱著， “天空烏云密布時你會使我快樂�！� 我笑著，把他的愛視為當(dāng)然。

　　Now the prodigal daughter was returning with the firstborn of the next generation—a hazel-eyed, golden-skinned hapa haole (half-white) child who looked little like his Chinese ancestors. How would my father react? If he disapproved of Timmy, as he had of me, the breach between us would be complete. I would never return.

　　現(xiàn)在女兒浪子回頭，帶著下一代的長子———一個長著淡褐色眼睛、金色皮膚、有部分白人血統(tǒng)、很少像他的中國祖先的孩子回家了。 我父親會有什么反應(yīng)呢? 如果他拒絕了提米，就像他當(dāng)年拒絕我一樣，那我們之間的裂痕就會達到頂點， 我就再也不回來了。

　　The plane landed, and I gratefully placed a crying, hungry Timmy into my mother's eager arms. Here was instant and unconditional acceptance of a child by his grandmother.

　　飛機著陸了，我把餓得直哭的提米感激地放進母親張開的雙臂中。 此時，孩子立刻被外祖母無條件地接受了。

　　My father's expression was passive and hard to read. He greeted us politely: "Good trip?" Then he peered cautiously at Timmy, who promptly began to shriek. My father stepped back in alarm. Did he find it unsettling that this squalling stranger might be his own flesh and blood?

　　父親的表情是被動的，而且讓人難以理解。 他客氣地和我們打招呼：“一路還好吧?”接著謹(jǐn)慎地凝視著提米，這時提米突然尖聲哭起來， 父親嚇得后退一步。 他是不是因為看到這位尖叫的陌生人可能是他的血肉而深感不安?

　　After dinner at my parents' house, Gary and I retired to my old bedroom. My mother tucked Timmy into a burrowed crib in a room down the hall.

　　在我父母的房間里吃完晚飯后，加里和我回到我原來住過的房間。 母親將提米安放在大廳一間房間里一個有圍欄的童床里。

　　Four hours later mother instinct pulled me from sleep. This was the time Timmy usually woke for a bottle, but there were no cries of hunger, no fretful wails. Instead, I heard only the sweet, soft gurgle of baby laughter. I tiptoed down the hall.

　　四個小時后，做母親的直覺催我醒來。 這個時間往往是提米醒來喝奶的時間，但我卻聽不見饑餓或煩躁不安的哭鬧聲， 相反，聽到的只是嬰兒甜甜的、柔和的咯咯聲。 我踮著腳尖走進大廳。

　　In the living room, Timmy lay on a pillow on the floor in a circle of light, his plump, tiny fists and feet churning gleefully. He studied the face bent over him, an Asian face burned dark by the Hawaiian sun, with laugh wrinkles at the corners of the eyes. My father was giving Timmy a bottle, tickling his tummy and crooning softly, "You are my sunshine..."

　　在客廳里的一個光圈里，提米躺在地板上的一個枕頭上，他胖乎乎的小拳頭和小腳丫歡快地?fù)]動著。 他端詳著那張俯視他的臉，一張眼角長有笑紋、被夏威夷的陽光曬得黝黑的臉。 父親正在給提米喂奶瓶，一邊撓著他的肚皮一邊輕聲唱著：“你是我的陽光……”

　　I watched from the darkness, not wanting to break the spell then crept back to my room. It was then that I began to suspect that my father had wanted to mend the breach as much as I had. Awkward and proud, he hadn't known how, and neither had I. Timmy became the bridge over which we could reach for each other.

　　我在暗處觀望著，不想打破這動人的場面，然后悄悄溜回房間。 就在那時，我開始猜測父親和我一樣一直想言歸于好， 但出于面子和難為情不知如何是好，而我也不知該怎么辦， 提米成為我們走近對方的橋梁。

　　For the rest of our stay, the tension slowly melted. My father and I didn't discuss our rift directly. Thanks to Timmy, we didn't need to. Having claimed his hapa haole grandson, my father no longer defined our family by a uniform set of features. Curly haired, hazel-eyed Timmy was loved for himself.

　　在那兒余下的日子里，緊張的空氣漸漸緩和下來。 父親和我沒有直接談及我們的分歧，我們也認(rèn)為沒這個必要，而這些多虧了提米。 既然已經(jīng)接納了這個具有半個白人血統(tǒng)的外孫，父親不再將我們的家庭定位于一套統(tǒng)一的特征。 長有卷曲頭發(fā)和褐色眼睛的提米因為他自身的可愛而為外祖父所愛。

　　We returned to the islands the following summer. Timmy, now a toddler, splashed in the surf with his grandfather. The summer after that they built a tree-house out of scrap lumber and painted it blue.

　　第二年的夏天，我們又回到了島上。 提米已經(jīng)一歲多了，和外公一起在激浪中嬉水。 第三年的夏天，他們用廢舊的材料建成了一座樹形房子并把它刷成藍色。

　　So pleased was my father with his new grandfather status that he took early retirement when Timmy was four, to spend more time visiting his "New York family." My son and my father made a handsome pair as they walked together — the Chinese grandfather happily trailed by a different, bouncing shadow.

　　父親對自己做了外公十分滿意，以至于在提米四歲時就提前退休了，以便有更多的時間看望他的“紐約家人”。 我兒子和我父親一起走道的情景形成一道美麗的風(fēng)景———一位中國外公步態(tài)輕盈，后面跟著一個長相不同的、活蹦亂跳的影子。