英语专业晨读美文-人物篇 13 Hepburn Forever

[00:01.98]Hepburn Forever
[00:04.92]Hepburn, the Daughter
[00:08.91]She told us how she felt pangs¹ of emptiness
[00:11.48]at the sight of other children in their fathers' arms,
[00:14.38]how she wished he were there so she could be like the others.
[00:18.02]As a child, she couldn't let go of that profound
[00:21.27]and natural desire. This is also why,
[00:24.36]after her divorces to both my father
[00:27.11]and my brother Luca's father,
[00:29.01]she did all she could to ensure
[00:30.81]that we continued to enjoy a complete relationship with both.
[00:34.16]That was my mother's world: feelings and emotions.
[00:38.37]Yet her feelings and emotions were never quite peaceful.
[00:41.52]Someone once wrote that feelings cause us to act,
[00:45.69]whereas emotions cause us to react.
[00:48.63]Well, she has feelings for all of us,
[00:51.76]yet she was never able to let go her emotions or
[00:54.81]find peace with herself. She was truly scared on some level.
[00:59.30]The abandonment of her father was a wound
[01:02.67]that never truly healed. She never really trusted
[01:05.81]that love would stay.
[01:07.50]Hepburn, the Wife
[01:09.55]Although too young to remember my parents together,
[01:12.11]I was told of romantic evenings,
[01:14.62]of candle light and soft music.
[01:16.87]Anyway, no one is to blame. There is only sadness
[01:21.30]when two souls cannot merge³. The snarling⁴ void
[01:24.42]left by her father's absence bore an equal share
[01:27.78]of the responsibility in the failure of both her marriages.
[01:31.27]My mother loved her husbands completely,
[01:33.96]and she hung on to the marriage for as long as she could.
[01:37.51]What she didn't do was to speak up and be heard
[01:40.78]when she needed to, and she didn't put up healthy boundaries.
[01:44.56]Exhausted by an authoritarian⁵ mother,
[01:47.17]she wished for a world where caring and love came freely,
[01:50.58]but she had chosen two men who had to learn to cope with
[01:54.19]their feelings on their own.
[01:55.95]Hepburn, the Mother
[01:57.88]I remember school days, cramming⁶ for exams for
[02:00.52]which she probably fretted⁷ more than I did.
[02:03.06]She would test me before bed and again in the morning,
[02:06.47]waking up with the sort of sleepy head only adults enjoy.
[02:10.37]I remember her elation² at good grades,
[02:13.18]her support and positiveness for the “not so good ones.”
[02:16.72]I remember sleepovers on weekends,
[02:19.24]when we would chat with the lights out.
[02:21.46]We would talk about feelings and plans
[02:23.96]and people and things, but in that way
[02:26.53]that is specific to that darkness,
[02:28.51]like two souls suspended.
[02:30.34]I close my eyes and remember, through the nose,
[02:33.90]her scent⁸: powdery, elegant, safe, strong,
[02:38.27]the scent of unconditional⁹ love.
[02:40.72]I look down and see her delicate hands,
[02:43.78]their skin so thin I can faintly see their veins¹⁰,
[02:47.06]her nails round, soft, and clear.
[02:50.15]They caressed¹¹ me, they walked me to school,
[02:53.36]and I held on to them when I was scared.
[02:56.26]Oh, how I miss them!
[02:57.76]Hepburn's Dream
[02:59.39]My mother's dream was always to be a prima ballerina.
[03:02.70]No matter how hard she had trained her most important
[03:07.06]and formative years had passed
[03:08.70]and could not be recaptured.
[03:10.50]The war had been tough on her,
[03:12.41]and poor nutrition had impaired¹²
[03:14.92]some of her muscular growth and development.
[03:17.18]Besides, she was too tall for any male dancer of the era.
[03:21.60]My mother simply couldn't compete with the other dancers
[03:24.62]who had received proper training as well as
[03:27.60]proper sustenance¹³ during the war years.
[03:30.02] The war had stolen her dream.
[03:32.04]She remembered going back to her room that day
[03:35.07]and “just wanting to die.”
[03:37.25]The dream that had kept her hope alive
[03:39.78]all those years had just vanished.
[03:42.14]Hepburn, the Actress
[03:43.96]My mother's acting¹⁴ career was a second choice,
[03:46.67]a default choice. But the rules were the same as in ballet:
[03:50.99]hard work, discipline and professionalism.
[03:54.50]“Less is more” was at the core
[03:56.58]of my mother's basic “look” philosophy.
[03:59.18]Style is a word we often use,
[04:01.80]for a multitude of purposes.
[04:03.91]In the case of my mother it was the extension
[04:07.44]of an inner beauty reinforced by a life of discipline,
[04:11.10]respect for the other, and hope in humanity.
[04:14.14]She didn't go with the trends,
[04:16.37]didn't reinvent herself every season.
[04:18.57]She loved fashion but kept it as a tool
[04:21.89] to compliment her look.
[04:23.34]When she appeared, her clothes didn't scream out,
[04:26.64]“Look at me!” but, “This is me...no better than you.”
[04:30.56]And she truly believed in that.
[04:32.98]She didn't see herself as anything special or unusual,
[04:36.66]which is why she worked so hard
[04:38.53]and was always pleasant and professional.
[04:41.27]Her style was only an extension of who she was,
[04:44.47]the person we all admired, because down deep we knew
[04:48.28]that what we saw was not just clever packaging
[04:50.74]but an honest and 100 percent genuine human being.

1 pangs   

突然的剧痛( pang的名词复数 )； 悲痛

参考例句：

• She felt sudden pangs of regret. 她突然感到痛悔不已。
• With touching pathos he described the pangs of hunger. 他以极具感伤力的笔触描述了饥饿的痛苦。

2 elation   

n.兴高采烈，洋洋得意

参考例句：

• She showed her elation at having finally achieved her ambition.最终实现了抱负，她显得十分高兴。
• His supporters have reacted to the news with elation.他的支持者听到那条消息后兴高采烈。

3 merge   

v.(使)结合，(使)合并，(使)合为一体

参考例句：

• I can merge my two small businesses into a large one.我可以将我的两家小商店合并为一家大商行。
• The directors have decided to merge the two small firms together.董事们已决定把这两家小商号归并起来。

4 snarling   

v.（指狗）吠，嗥叫， （人）咆哮( snarl的现在分词 )；咆哮着说，厉声地说

参考例句：

• "I didn't marry you," he said, in a snarling tone. “我没有娶你，"他咆哮着说。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹
• So he got into the shoes snarling. 于是，汤姆一边大喊大叫，一边穿上了那双鞋。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险

5 authoritarian   

n./adj.专制(的)，专制主义者，独裁主义者

参考例句：

• Foreign diplomats suspect him of authoritarian tendencies.各国外交官怀疑他有着独裁主义倾向。
• The authoritarian policy wasn't proved to be a success.独裁主义的政策证明并不成功。

6 cramming   

n.塞满，填鸭式的用功v.塞入( cram的现在分词 )；填塞；塞满；（为考试而）死记硬背功课

参考例句：

• Being hungry for the whole morning, I couldn't help cramming myself. 我饿了一上午，禁不住狼吞虎咽了起来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She's cramming for her history exam. 她考历史之前临时抱佛脚。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 fretted   

焦躁的，附有弦马的，腐蚀的

参考例句：

• The wind whistled through the twigs and fretted the occasional, dirty-looking crocuses. 寒风穿过枯枝，有时把发脏的藏红花吹刮跑了。 来自英汉文学
• The lady's fame for hitting the mark fretted him. 这位太太看问题深刻的名声在折磨着他。

8 scent   

n.气味，香味，香水，线索，嗅觉；v.嗅，发觉

参考例句：

• The air was filled with the scent of lilac.空气中弥漫着丁香花的芬芳。
• The flowers give off a heady scent at night.这些花晚上散发出醉人的芳香。

9 unconditional   

adj.无条件的，无限制的，绝对的

参考例句：

• The victorious army demanded unconditional surrender.胜方要求敌人无条件投降。
• My love for all my children is unconditional.我对自己所有孩子的爱都是无条件的。

10 veins   

n.纹理；矿脉( vein的名词复数 )；静脉；叶脉；纹理

参考例句：

• The blood flows from the capillaries back into the veins. 血从毛细血管流回静脉。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• I felt a pleasant glow in all my veins from the wine. 喝过酒后我浑身的血都热烘烘的，感到很舒服。 来自《简明英汉词典》

11 caressed   

爱抚或抚摸…( caress的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His fingers caressed the back of her neck. 他的手指抚摩着她的后颈。
• He caressed his wife lovingly. 他怜爱万分地抚摸着妻子。

12 impaired   

adj.受损的；出毛病的；有（身体或智力）缺陷的v.损害，削弱( impair的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• Much reading has impaired his vision. 大量读书损害了他的视力。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• His hearing is somewhat impaired. 他的听觉已受到一定程度的损害。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

13 sustenance   

n.食物，粮食；生活资料；生计

参考例句：

• We derive our sustenance from the land.我们从土地获取食物。
• The urban homeless are often in desperate need of sustenance.城市里无家可归的人极其需要食物来维持生命。

14 acting   

n.演戏，行为，假装；adj.代理的，临时的，演出用的

参考例句：

• Ignore her,she's just acting.别理她，她只是假装的。
• During the seventies,her acting career was in eclipse.在七十年代，她的表演生涯黯然失色。