It was a lovely spring day and the rose vine on the trellis was turning green.

 

那真是一个可爱的春日，棚架上蔷薇的藤蔓正在转青。

Under the huge elm trees, we could see yellow dandelions popping through the grass in bunches, as if a painter had touched our landscape with dabs of gold.

在一些高大的榆树下面，我们可以看到，一丛丛黄色的蒲公英冒出草坪，仿佛是一位画家为了给眼前的美景增色而着意加上的点点金色。

I watched my mother casually bend down by one of the clumps.

我看到母亲在一簇花丛旁漫不经心地弯下身来。

I think I'm going to dig up all these weeds, she said, yanking a blossom up by its roots.

我看得把这些野草都拨了，她说着，一边使劲把一丛蒲公英连根拨出。

From now on, we'll have only roses in this garden.

往后咱这园子里只让长蔷薇花。

But I like dandelions, I protested.

可是我喜欢蒲公英，我不满地说，

All flowers are beautiful-even dandelions.

凡是花都好看--蒲公英也不例外。

My mother looked at me seriously.

母亲严肃地看着我。

Yes, every flower gives pleasure in its own way, doesn't it?

噢，这么说，每朵花都自有它令人赏心悦目的地方喽？

She asked thoughtfully. I nodded, pleased that I had won her over.

她若有所思地问道。我点了点头，总算说服了母亲，这使我很得意。

And that is true of people too, she added.

可是人也一样呀，母亲接着又发话，

Not everyone can be a princess, but there is no shame in that.

不见得人人都能当公主，但当不了公主并不丢脸。

Relieved that she had guessed my pain, I started to cry as I told her what had happened.

我哭了起来，把事情的经过讲给母亲听。

She listened and smiled reassuringly.

母亲专注地听着，脸上带着安详的微笑。

But you will be a beautiful narrator, she said,reminding me of how much I loved to read stories aloud to her .

但你会成为一名顶呱呱的解说员，母亲又说。她说平常我是多么喜欢朗诵故事给她听，还说

The narrator's part is every bit as important as the part of a princess.

从哪方面看，旁白这个角色都和公主那个角色一样重要。

Over the next few weeks, with her constant encouragement, I learned to take pride in the role.

往后的几个星期，在母亲的一再鼓励下，我渐渐地以担任旁白的角色感到骄傲。

Lunchtimes were spent reading over my lines and talking abut what I would wear.

利用午饭时间，我们又一起念台词，议论到时候我该穿什么样的演出服装。

Backstage the night of the performance, I felt nervous.

到了演出那个晚上，当我登上后台，心里还感到紧张。

A few minutes before the play, my teacher came over to me.

离演出还有几分钟的时候，老师朝我走了过来。

Your mother asked me to give this to you, she said, handing me a dandelion.

你母亲让我把这个交给你，说着她递过来了一朵蒲公英。

Its edges were already beginning to curl and it flopped lazily from its stem.

那花儿四周已开始打蔫，花瓣儿从梗上向下有气无力地耷拉着。

But just looking at it, knowing my mother was out there and thinking of our lunchtime talk, made me proud .

可是，只要看一眼，知道母亲就在外面呆着，回想起和母亲用午饭时说的那些话，我就感到胸有成竹。

After the play,I took home the flower I had stuffed in the apron of my costume.

演出结束后，我把塞在演出服围裙里的那朵蒲公英拿回了家。

My mother pressed it between two sheets of paper toweling in a dictionary, laughing as she did it that we were perhaps the only people who would press such a sorry-looking weed .

母亲将花接了过去，用两张纸巾将它压平，夹在了一本字典里。她一边忙碌着，一边笑，想到也许只有我们俩会珍藏这么一朵打了蔫的野草花。

I often look back on our lunchtimes together,bathed in the soft midday light.

我常常回想起和母亲在一起度过的那些沐浴在和煦阳光之中的午餐时光。

They were the commas in my childhood,the pauses that told me life is not savored in premeasured increment,but in the sum of daily rituals and small pleasures we casually share with loved ones.

它们是我孩提时代的一个个小插曲，告诉我一个道理：人生的滋味，就在于和我们所爱的人在一起不经意地共度的日常生活、分享的点点滴滴的欢乐，而不在于某种事先测量好的添加剂。

Over peanut-butter sandwiches and chocolate-chip cookies,I learned that love,first and foremost,means being there for the little things .

在享用母亲做的花生酱、三明治和巧克力碎末小甜饼的时候，我懂得了，爱就体现在这些细微这处。

A few months ago,my mother came to visit,I took off a day from work and treated her to lunch.

几个月前，母亲又来看我。我特意请了天假，陪母亲吃午饭。

The restaurant bustled with noontime activity as businesspeople made deals and glanced at their watches.

中午，饭馆里熙熙壤攘，做生意的人忙不迭地从事交易活动，他们不时地看看手表。

In the middle of all this sat my mother,now retired,and I.

如今已经退休的母亲和我就坐在这群人中间。

From her face I could see that she relished the pace of the work world.

从母亲的表情中，我看得出，母亲打心眼里喜欢上班族这种生活的节奏。

Mom,you must have been terribly bored staying at home when I was a child,I said .

妈，我小的时候，您老呆在家里一定觉得很烦吧？我说。

Bored? Housework is boring.

烦？做家务是令人心烦，

But you were never boring .

不过，你从来没使我感到心烦过。

I didn't believe her,so I pressed.

我不相信这是实话，于是我又想法子套她的话。

Surely children are not as stimulating as a career.

看孩子哪会像工作那样富有刺激性呢？

A career is stimulating, she said.

工作很有刺激性，母亲答道，

I'm glad I had one.But a career is like an open balloon.

很高兴我也有过工作。可是工作好比开了口的气球，

It remains inflated only as long as you keep pumping.

你只有不停地充气，它才能鼓着劲。

A child is a seed .

可是一个孩子就是一粒种子，

You water it.

你浇灌了它，

You care for it the best you can.

全心全意地爱护它，

And then it grows all by itself into a beautiful flower.

然后，它就会独立自主地开出美丽的花朵来。

Just then,looking at her,I could picture us sitting at her kitchen table once again,

此时此刻，我凝望着我的母亲，脑海里又浮现出儿时的我和母亲一起坐在饭桌旁的情景，

and I understood why I kept that flaky brown dandelion in our old family dictionary pressed between two crumpled bits of paper towel.

也明白了为什么我还珍藏着夹在我们家里那本旧字典中的那朵用两小块皱皱巴巴的纸巾压平的蒲公英。