毛毛虫怎样才能到达大海另一头

 　　“Will a caterpillar¹ ever be able to reach the other side of the sea?”

　　“毛毛虫怎样才能到达大海另一头？”

　　“Yes, if metamorphosis turns it into a butterfly.”

　　“变成蝴蝶飞过去。”

　　But from the moment the iron bird landed in the roaring noise of Logan Airport with its wings proudly spread, my wings withered² quietly in this unfamiliar³ country.

　　然而，当我乘坐的那只铁鸟骄傲地展着双翼，在轰鸣声中降落在洛根机场时，我的翅膀却在这陌生的国家悄然萎缩了。

　　“I think...I don’t know...I just want to say...” My voice trailed off into the clamor of the grand dining hall of Deerfield Academy, my face paralyzed from smiling, nobody listening.

　　“我觉得......我不知道......我只想说......”在Deerfield Academy华丽的食堂的喧嚣声中，我的声音被淹没了；我的脸因强笑而僵硬。没人在听。

　　“Time is up!” Soft as it was, the firm voice of my English teacher exploded in my head. My hands trembling, sweaty and cold fingers could hardly hold the pen in position, under which lay an unfinished in essay about the significance of a passage from James Joyce’s Ulysses.

　　“时间到了！”英语老师轻声却不容置疑地说道。我的脑子嗡地一响，湿冷的手指险些握不住笔。笔下是一篇尚未完成的作文，题目是《尤利西斯》的段落分析。

　　Bewildered and frustrated⁴, I found myself able to raise my head, like most of the Asian students, only in math class.

　　在迷惑与沮丧之中，我如同许多亚裔学生一样，只能在数学课时寻找安慰。

　　“Helen, what is your name in Chinese?” Rosie, a girl with pink cheeks, asked me one morning as I dropped my back pack onto the seat next to her.

　　“Helen，你的中文名字是什么？”坐在我旁边有着粉色脸颊的Rosie在我放下书包时问道。

　　“Gao Yuxin”, I pronounced clearly in standard Chinese, slightly startled by the spontaneity of the question. “Why?”

　　"Gao Yuxin."我用清晰的中文回答，对问题感到有些意外。“怎么了?”

　　“Just interested. Can you write it there?” She pointed⁵ at the board.

　　“好奇而已。你能写在这里吗？”她指了指白板。

　　I printed my name in Chinese characters “高雨莘” in the center of the board.

　　我在白板中央一笔一画地用汉字写下“高雨莘”。

　　The class fell into silence. I turned and faced the questioning eyes, which reminded me of an American idiom I had learned in English class in China: “It’s all Dutch to me.”

　　课堂陷入安静。我转过身，面对着询问的眼神，想起了一个我在中国时学过的英文习语:"It’s all Dutch to me."

　　“Yuxin (雨莘) is my first name. Yu (雨) means ‘to rain’ or ‘to give rain’ and ‘xin’ means ‘many’. ‘To give rain to the many’ stands for my parents’ hope that I can nourish and...and bring joy to the many people around me.”

　　“‘雨莘’是我的名字，‘雨’的意思是‘下雨’或‘使下雨’，‘莘’的意思是‘许多’，我父母希望我能‘为许多人带来雨’——为我周围的人带来快乐和帮助。”

　　Mild laughter, even one or two whistles rose from the silence. “Wow.” “Cool!”

　　安静中响起几声轻笑和口哨声。“Wow!”“Cool!”

　　“But I am new.” I murmured, “I think I need your help more than you need mine...” intimidated⁶ by the stillness in the air and the amusement in my classmates’ eyes.

　　“不过我是新来的，”我小声说，在教室的一片寂静中和同学饶有兴趣的眼神下感到有些紧张。“比起你们，我可能更需要帮助......”

　　“So, what are the four little dots in the character ‘rain’?” Rosie asked.

　　“那么，雨字中间的四个点是什么意思？”Rosie问道。

　　“They are rain drops.”

　　“是雨点。”

　　“What if I put eight dots in it?”

　　“如果我点八个点呢？”

　　“Hmm...Big rain, then.” I answered, suppressing the laugh jumping into my throat.

　　“那就是大雨的意思，”我回答道，抑制住喉咙中想笑的冲动。

　　“Really! That’s funny!”

　　“真的？太逗了。”

　　“Just kidding!” escaped my lips.

　　“开玩笑的，”脱口而出。

　　A slight trace of puzzlement clouded Rosie’s face.

　　一丝困惑划过Rosie的脸庞。

　　“Hahahaha!” No longer could I restrain the laughter. Three seconds later the whole class joined in.

　　“哈哈哈！”我忍不住大笑起来。几秒钟后整个课堂跟着笑起来。

　　Now, Rosie, reddened with embarrassment⁷, indeed resembled a peony in full bloom.

　　Rosie的脸因尴尬而变得通红，如同一朵盛开的牡丹。

　　For the first time since my arrival to the school, I laughed with such abandon, and my old ease, as Grandma said, with which fish swims in water. The Deerfield river, not the Yangtze River, but the same fish.

　　那是我来到这所学校后第一次笑得如此自在。如同我奶奶说的：如鱼得水。由长江来到Deerfield河，还是同一条鱼。

　　Helen Keller, after whom I named myself in English—a privilege reserved for most Asian students coming West—miraculously managed to communicate with the world and “nourished the many” despite her loss of vision and hearing. From the moment she learned her first word—“water”— by feeling the flow of the cold stream running from a tap across her fingers, she had taken her first step into the human river.

　　我和其他来西方留学的亚洲学生一样，有幸能够为自己选择英文名。我的英文名来自于海伦·凯勒(Helen Keller)。尽管她又聋又瞎，却仍能与世界交流，奇迹般地为他人带来帮助。她用手指去感觉自来水管中流出的冷水，学会了她的第一个单词——“水”。从那一刻起，她踏进了人类的长河。

　　More than a century later, a little golden fish, who used to imagine herself as a butterfly that had flown across the ocean, is just starting her journey across the real Pacific Ocean.

　　一个多世纪后，一条小金鱼明白了自己不是一夜之间能够化茧成蝶飞过海洋的毛毛虫。它游过太平洋的漫漫旅程才刚刚开始。

1 caterpillar   

n.毛虫，蝴蝶的幼虫

参考例句：

• A butterfly is produced by metamorphosis from a caterpillar.蝴蝶是由毛虫脱胎变成的。
• A caterpillar must pass through the cocoon stage to become a butterfly.毛毛虫必须经过茧的阶段才能变成蝴蝶。

2 withered   

adj. 枯萎的，干瘪的，（人身体的部分器官）因病萎缩的或未发育良好的 动词wither的过去式和过去分词形式

参考例句：

• The grass had withered in the warm sun. 这些草在温暖的阳光下枯死了。
• The leaves of this tree have become dry and withered. 这棵树下的叶子干枯了。

3 unfamiliar   

adj.陌生的，不熟悉的

参考例句：

• I am unfamiliar with the place and the people here.我在这儿人地生疏。
• The man seemed unfamiliar to me.这人很面生。

4 frustrated   

adj.挫败的，失意的，泄气的v.使不成功( frustrate的过去式和过去分词 )；挫败；使受挫折；令人沮丧

参考例句：

• It's very easy to get frustrated in this job. 这个工作很容易令人懊恼。
• The bad weather frustrated all our hopes of going out. 恶劣的天气破坏了我们出行的愿望。 来自《简明英汉词典》

5 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

6 intimidated   

v.恐吓；威胁adj.害怕的；受到威胁的

参考例句：

• We try to make sure children don't feel intimidated on their first day at school. 我们努力确保孩子们在上学的第一天不胆怯。
• The thief intimidated the boy into not telling the police. 这个贼恫吓那男孩使他不敢向警察报告。 来自《简明英汉词典》

7 embarrassment   

n.尴尬；使人为难的人(事物)；障碍；窘迫

参考例句：

• She could have died away with embarrassment.她窘迫得要死。
• Coughing at a concert can be a real embarrassment.在音乐会上咳嗽真会使人难堪。