A-Doll-for-Great-Grandmother原文加翻译教学内容.doc

A-Doll-for-Great-Grandmother原文加翻译

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A Doll for Great-Grandmother
送给曾祖母的洋娃娃
When my grandfather died, my 83-year-old grandmother, once so full of life, slowly began to fade. No longer able to manage a home of her own, she moved in with my mother, where she was visited often by other members of her large, loving family (two children, eight grandchildren, 22 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren). Although she still had her good days, it was often hard to arouse her interest.
我爷爷去世后，我83岁的奶奶渐渐失去了原有的活力。由于奶奶无法再照顾自己，所以她搬去和我妈妈一起住。我们一家是个充满爱的大家庭（奶奶有两个孩子，8个孙辈，22个曾孙辈，还有两个玄孙辈），大家经常去看望她。尽管奶奶的日子过得挺舒适，她却对什么事都提不起兴趣。
But one chilly December afternoon three years ago, my daughter Meagan, then eight, and I were settling in for a long visit with “GG”, as the family calls her, when she noticed that Meagan was carrying her favorite doll.
三年前十二月里的一天下午，天气阴冷，我和当时才8岁的女儿米根去看望GG（家里人都这么称呼她），并在那儿住了一段时间。奶奶看见米根抱着她心爱的洋娃娃。
“I, too, had a special doll when I was a little girl,” she told Meagan. “I got it one Christmas when I was about your age. I lived in an old farmhouse in Maine, with Mom, Dad and my four sisters, and the very first gift I opened that Christmas was the most beautiful doll you’d ever want to see.”
“小时候我也有一个很特别的洋娃娃，”奶奶告诉米根，“那是我的圣诞礼物，那时我和你现在差不多大。我和父母、四个姐妹住在缅因州的一个老农场里。那年圣诞我打开的第一份礼物是一个非常漂亮的娃娃，那么漂亮，见过之后你也许不会再想看别的洋娃娃了。”
“She had an exquisite, hand-painted porcelain face, and her long brown hair was pulled back with a big pink bow. Her eyes were blue as blue could be, and they opened and closed. I remember she had a body of kidskin, and her arms and legs bent at the joints.”
“洋娃娃有一张精致的、手绘的瓷脸，长长的棕色头发用一个粉红色蝴蝶结束在脑后，眼睛是标准的蓝色，还眨巴眨巴的。我还记得她的身体是用小山羊皮做的，手脚关节还可以动呢。”
GG’s voice dropped low, taking on an almost reverent tone. “My doll was dressed in a pretty pink gown, trimmed with fine lace. But what I especially remember was her petticoat. It was fine linen, trimmed with rows and rows of delicate lace. And the tiny buttons on her boots were real. … Getting such a fine doll was like a miracle for a little farm girl like me — my parents must have had to sacrifice so much to afford it. But how happy I was that morning!”
GG的声音忽然沉了下去，她用一种几乎是虔诚的语调在叙说。“我的洋娃娃穿着一件漂亮的粉红礼服，边上绣着精致的蕾丝。我印象最深刻的是她穿的亚麻布料的衬裙，上边绣着一排排精致的蕾丝。她靴子上的小钮扣还是真的……对于我这个农家女儿来说，得到这样一个可爱的洋娃娃简直就是一个奇迹，为了买她，我的父母一定牺牲了很多。那天早上我太高兴了。”
GG’s eyes filled and her voice shook with emotion as she recalled that Christmas of long ago. “I played with my doll all morning long. She was such a beautiful doll. … And then it happened. My mother called us to the dining room for Christmas dinner and I laid my new doll down, ever so gently, on the hall table. But as I went to join the family at the table, I heard a loud crash.”
GG的眼眶湿润了，她用颤抖的声音叙说着很久以前的那个圣诞节。“整个上午我都在玩这个洋娃娃，她太漂亮了……然而悲剧发生了。妈妈叫我们去饭厅吃圣诞晚餐，我轻轻地把洋娃娃放在厅里的桌子上。我走过去和家人一起吃饭，猛然听见一声巨响。”
“I hardly had to turn around — I knew it was my precious doll. I just knew it. And it was. Her lace petticoat had hung down from the table just enough for my baby sister to reach up and pull on it. When I ran in from the dining room, there lay my beautiful doll on the floor, her face smashed into a dozen pieces. I can still see my mother trying to put my poor doll together again. But it couldn’t be done. She was gone forever.”
“我不用回头看就知道那是我的宝贝洋娃娃。我能感觉到。果然没错。洋娃娃的蕾丝衬裙垂到桌子旁，刚好我的小妹妹够得着，把她拉了下来。我从饭厅冲过去，只见我的洋娃娃躺在地上，脸摔成了十几块。我还记得妈妈正试着帮我把那可怜的洋娃娃重新拼起来。但是怎么弄都不行。我的洋娃娃就这样没了。”
A few years later, GG’s baby sister was also gone, she told Meagan, a victim of pneumonia. Now the tears in her eyes spilled over — tears, I knew, not only for a lost doll and a lost sister, but for a lost time.
GG告诉米根，几年后小妹妹因为肺炎也永远离开了。 GG这时满脸泪水，我知道她流泪不止是因为失去了洋娃娃和小妹妹，更因为那逝去的年华。
Subdued for the rest of the visit, Meagan was no sooner in the car going home than she exclaimed, “Mom, I have a great idea! Let’s get GG a new doll for Christmas, one exactly like the doll that got broken. Then she won’t cry when she thinks about it.”
米根郁郁寡欢地度过了剩下的几天，我们该回家了。一上车她就叫道：“妈妈，我有一个好主意。我们送给GG一个新洋娃娃作圣诞礼物吧，跟那个摔破的洋娃娃一模一样的。那她再也不用想到它就哭了。”
My heart filled with pride as I listened to my compassionate little daughter. But where would we find a doll to match GG’s fond memories?
看到我的女儿这么富有同情心，我觉得很骄傲。可是我们上哪儿去找一个与GG的美好记忆中一模一样的洋娃娃呢？
Where there’s a will, as they say, there’s a way. When I told my best friends, Liz and Chris, about my problem, Liz put me in touch with a local dollmaker who made doll heads, hands and feet of a ceramic that closely resembled the old porcelain ones. From her I commissioned a doll head in the style of three-quarters of a century ago — making sure to specify “big blue eyes that opened and closed,” and hands and feet. From a doll supply house I ordered a long brown wig and a kidskin body, and Meagan and I shopped for fabric, lace and ribbon to duplicate the outfit GG had so lovingly described. Liz volunteered to put the doll together, and as the last days before Christmas raced by, Chris helped me make the doll’s outfit, complete with lacy petticoat. And while Liz, Chris and I searched for doll “boots with real buttons,” Meagan wrote and illustrated the story of the lost doll.
“有志者事竟成。”当我把我的难处告诉好朋友莉兹和克丽丝后，莉兹帮我联系到一个当地的玩具生产商，他们专门制作陶瓷娃娃的头和四肢，与老式的瓷洋娃娃很像。我委托她定做了洋娃娃的头部，按照七十五年前的式样，还特别强调要“蓝色的大眼睛能眨巴眨巴”，也定做了手和脚。在另外一个玩具供应商那里，我订做了长长的棕色假发和小山羊皮做的身体模型。我和米根买了织布、蕾丝以及丝带，准备做 GG深情描述过的洋娃娃服装。莉兹自告奋勇组装洋娃娃，随着圣诞节日益临近，克丽丝用我们买来的物品做成了一件有蕾丝的那种裙子。在莉兹、克丽丝和我三个人到处寻找“有真扣子的靴子”的时候，米根写好了失去的洋娃娃的故事，还配上了图画。
Finally, our creation was finished. To our eyes it was perfect. But, of course, there was no way it could be exactly like the doll GG had loved so much and lost. Would she think it looked anything like it?
终于大功告成了。在我们看来，这个洋洋娃娃是完美的。当然了，她跟GG所钟爱的那个丢失多年的洋娃娃不可能一模一样。但她会不会觉得有点像呢？
On Christmas Eve, Meagan and I carried our gaily wrapped gift to GG. “It’s for you,” Meagan said, “but first you have to read the story that goes with it.”
圣诞前夜，我和米根把我们包装鲜艳的礼物拿给GG。 “送给您的。不过您得先读一读配的故事。”米根说。
“Read it out loud,” we demanded. GG no sooner got through the first page than her voice cracked and she was unable to go on, but Meagan took over where she left off. Then it was time to open her present.
“大声读出来，”我们对GG说。还没读完第一页，GG的声音就开始颤抖了，她没法继续读下去。米根接下去把故事读完，随后该拆开礼物了。
I’ll never forget the look on GG’s face as she lifted the doll and held it to her chest. Once again her tears fell, but this time they were tears of joy. Cradling the doll in her frail arms, she repeated over and over again, “She’s exactly like my old doll, exactly like her.”
我永远也不会忘记GG拿起洋娃娃抱在胸前的表情，泪水又滑落了下来，不过这次是开心的泪水。她用虚弱的双臂抱着洋娃娃不停地摇着，嘴里反反复复地念着：“跟我以前的那个洋娃娃一模一样，简直一模一样。”
And perhaps she wasn’t saying that just to be kind. Perhaps however impossible it seemed, we had managed to produce a close copy of the doll she remembered. But as I watched my eight-year-old daughter and her great-grandmother examining the doll together, I thought of a likelier explanation. What GG really recognized, perhaps, was the love that inspired the gift. And love, wherever it comes from, always looks the same.
也许她并不是为了安慰我们才这样说的，虽然看起来不可能完全一样，但我们毕竟做了一个她记忆中近似的复制品。但是当我看着八岁的女儿和她曾祖母一起端详着洋娃娃时，我想到了一个更为合理的解释：或许GG看到的是那种激励我们制作洋洋娃娃的那份爱。爱，不管来自何方，给人的感受都是一样的。
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