我的爷爷 | 生活是一种福分 · 雲昊

为你读英语美文 · 第469期 主播：雲昊 每年美国大学申请季结束之后，哈佛大学的校报The Crimson都会选择公布被哈佛大学录取的10名学生的文书，其中，一位署名为Yueming的华裔学生写了爷爷的故事，平静隐忍的生活才是常态，也最感动人心。 My Ye-Ye always wears a red baseball cap. I think he likes the vivid color—bright and sanguine, like himself. When Ye-Ye came from China to visit us seven years ago, he brought his red cap with him and every night for six months, it sat on the stairway railing post of my house, waiting to be loyally placed back on Ye-Ye’s head the next morning. 我的爷爷总是戴着一顶红色棒球帽。我想他喜欢鲜艳的颜色，就像他自己一样。七年前，爷爷从中国来看望我们时，他带着他的红帽子，在那六个月来每天晚上，它都挂在我家楼梯栏杆上，等待第二天早上忠实地戴在爷爷的头上。 He wore the cap everywhere: around the house, where he performed magic tricks with it to make my little brother laugh; to the corner store, where he bought me popsicles before using his hat to wipe the beads of summer sweat off my neck. Today whenever I see a red hat, I think of my Ye-Ye and his baseball cap, and I smile. 他到处戴着帽子：在房子周围，他用帽子表演魔术，逗我弟弟笑；去街角的商店，他给我买了冰棒，然后用帽子擦去我脖子上的夏日汗珠。今天，每当我看到一顶红帽子，我就会想起我的爷爷和他的棒球帽，我笑了。 Ye-Ye is the Mandarin word for “grandfather.” My Ye-Ye is a simple, ordinary person—not rich, not “successful”—but he is my greatest source of inspiration and I idolize him. Of all the people I know, Ye-Ye has encountered the most hardship and of all the people I know, Ye-Ye is the most joyful. That these two aspects can coexist in one individual is, in my mind, truly remarkable. Ye Ye在中文里是“祖父”的意思。我的爷爷是一个简单、普通的人，不富有，也不“成功”——但他是我最大的灵感来源，我崇拜他。在我认识的所有人中，爷爷经历苦难最多的人；而在我认识的所有人中，爷爷也是最快乐的。在我看来，这两个方面可以在一个人身上共存真是了不起。 Ye-Ye was an orphan. Both his parents died before he was six years old, leaving him and his older brother with no home and no family. When other children gathered to read around stoves at school, Ye-Ye and his brother walked in the bitter cold along railroad tracks, looking for used coal to sell. When other children ran home to loving parents, Ye-Ye and his brother walked along the streets looking for somewhere to sleep. Eight years later, Ye-Ye walked alone—his brother was dead. 爷爷是个孤儿。他的父母在他六岁之前就去世了，这使他和他的弟弟无家可归。当其他孩子聚集在学校的炉灶旁看书时，爷爷和他的兄弟冒着严寒沿着铁轨行走，捡拾煤渣出售。当其他孩子跑回家找慈爱的父母时，爷爷和他的兄弟在街上寻找睡觉的地方。八年后，爷爷开始独自行动，因为他的弟弟死了。 Ye-Ye managed to survive, and in the meanwhile taught himself to read, write, and do arithmetic. Life was a blessing, he told those around him with a smile. 爷爷设法活了下来，同时自学了读、写和算术。“生活是一种福分” ，他微笑着告诉身边的人。 Years later, Ye-Ye’s job sent him to the Gobi Desert, where he and his fellow workers labored for twelve hours a day. The desert wind was merciless; it would snatch their tent in the middle of the night and leave them without supply the next morning. Every year, harsh weather took the lives of some fellow workers. 几年后，爷爷去戈壁沙漠工作，他和他的同事们在那里每天工作12小时。沙漠大风无情；它会在半夜吹走走他们的帐篷，让他们第二天早上一无所有。每年，恶劣的天气都夺去了一些同事的生命。 After eight years, Ye-Ye was transferred back to the city where his wife lay sick in bed. At the end of a twelve-hour workday, Ye-Ye took care of his sick wife and three young children. He sat with the children and told them about the wide, starry desert sky and mysterious desert lives. Life was a blessing, he told them with a smile. 八年后，爷爷被调回他的妻子卧病在床的城市。在每天12小时的工作日结束时，爷爷回家照顾了生病的妻子和三个年幼的孩子。他和孩子们坐在一起，告诉他们广阔的、星光灿烂的沙漠天空和神秘的沙漠生活。“生活是一种福分，”他微笑着告诉他们。 But life was not easy; there was barely enough money to keep the family from starving. Yet, my dad and his sisters loved going with Ye-Ye to the market. He would buy them little luxuries that their mother would never indulge them in: a small bag of sunflower seeds for two cents, a candy each for three cents. Luxuries as they were, Ye-Ye bought them without hesitation. Anything that could put a smile on the children’s faces and a skip in their steps was priceless. 但生活并不容易；当时家里几乎没有足够的钱让这个家庭免于挨饿。然而，我父亲和他的姐妹们喜欢和爷爷一起去市场。他会给他们买一些他们母亲永远不会让他们沉迷其中的小奢侈品：两分钱一小袋的瓜子，三分钱一块的糖。尽管是奢侈品，爷爷还是毫不犹豫地买下了。任何能让孩子们脸上带着微笑、脚步轻快的东西都是无价的。