介绍:
I’ve been feeling guilty for weeks. While we were visiting my hometown in the US for Christmas, I drove past a young man who was standing by the road in the cold holding a sign that said “Need Work.” His clothes did not look warm enough for the minus 5 Celsius temperature.
几周以来，我一直很内疚。起因是我回美国过圣诞节的时候，开车途中偶遇一个年轻人，他站在寒冬凛冽的街头手中，举着一块牌子，上边写着：“我需要一份工作”，他衣着单薄，看似在瑟瑟发抖。
Over the years, I’ve accumulated more warm jackets than I can possibly use, so while driving by I thought that I should come back and bring him one. But, I never did it. I certainly did not honor the spirit of Christmas, which is supposed to be focused on showing love for one’s fellow men and women, especially the more unfortunate among us.
多年来，我也买了不少保暖外套，尽管也没怎么穿过，所以当我开过去的时候，我就在想也许我可以给他拿一件御寒的衣服，可实际上我并没有这样做。我的做法在圣诞节的氛围下显得尤为格格不入，圣诞节意味着我们要关怀朋友同事家人，尤其是给予我们身边遭遇不幸的人温暖。
Coincidentally, at the same time, I have been reading, mostly re-reading, the “First Ladies’ Detective Agency” novels of Alexander McCall Smith. The sequential novels tell the story of Precious Ramotswe, a woman in the southern African country of Botswana who opens a detective agency in the capital city of Gaborone.
巧的是，我当时正在读，或者说是重读亚历山大·麦考尔·史密斯写的《第一女子侦探社》系列小说。故事发生在非洲南部的博茨瓦纳，讲述了女主人公兰马翠（Precious Ramotswe）被丈夫抛弃后在哈博罗内开设了第一个女子侦探事务所。
Ramotswe is not like the heroes of other detective series. She’s not a fighter. She’s not a femme fatale—she is of “traditional African build” and happy about it. She doesn’t help the police solve crimes that have baffled them. Her cases are not about great evils, but about the common weaknesses and foibles that touch everyone. She’s obviously very smart, but she never graduated from any school.
兰马翠有别于传统侦探小说里的主人公，她既不是一个斗士也没有绰约风姿，她只是一个有着平凡外貌的非洲人，并为此感到心满意足。她不帮警察侦破案件，处理的也不是罪恶滔天的大案，她所解决的是所有人都会遇到的弱点，能够真正触动人心。她没有接受过什么教育，但这并不能掩盖她的聪慧。
Much more importantly she is wise. Instead of helping her clients seek revenge, she finds ways to use kindness to put the problem right.
更重要的是她充满睿智，她利用人性的善良去解决争端而不是替人们复仇。
McCall Smith, a distinguished Scottish professor of medical ethics, taught at the University of Botswana, and fell in love with the country and its people. He portrays the life there so vividly that I feel I also know the country—he makes me really want to go there.
麦考尔·史密斯是苏格兰一名杰出的医学伦理学教授，执教于博茨瓦纳大学，他在任教期间深深爱上了这个国家和人民，他生动描绘了当地生活，让我产生了身临其境之感，而我真的迫不及待地想要一睹博茨瓦纳的风采。
His writing is simple and deep, insightful and beautiful. In each chapter, really on each page, there is writing that makes me think, “I wish I could write like that.” I’m studying his style to try to figure out how he does it….Well, it’s okay to dream.
麦考尔·史密斯的语言通俗易懂，笔触细腻优美，但却又洞察人心，引人深思。翻阅每个章节，几乎每读一页，我都不禁想象，要是我也能写出这样的文章该有多好啊。我现在正在努力研究他的写作风格试图找到写作的诀窍，好吧，这看上去是有点像天方夜谭。
So far, there are 18 novels in the series. I do have to warn you that if you read the first novel, you will end up buying and reading the whole series. Then, you’ll hope McCall Smith hurries to finish the next one.
该系列共出版了18部小说，读完第一本我敢保证你肯定会把剩下的买来一口气读完，然后你就会迫不及待他赶快写完下一部。
In the latest volume, titled “The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine,” a ten year old boy asks Ramotswe to pay him money to watch her decrepit van while it is parked. She refuses, so, of course, there is a big scratch on the side of the van when she returns. She’s angry and hides behind a tree until she can catch him.
在新近出版的《阳光下漫步的女人》（The Woman Who Walked in Sunshine）中，讲述了兰马翠和一个十岁小男孩的故事。兰马翠停车的时候，蹿出来一个男孩要帮她看那辆破旧的货车，前提是要给一些报酬，就在兰马翠拒绝了小男孩，再次回来取车的时候惊讶地发现车上出现了一道刮痕，她很生气就偷偷地躲在了树丛后最终抓住了这个肇事的小男孩。
But, when she does catch him. He says he is a “rubbish boy” who deserves to be hit. She finds that his mother is a prostitute in a border city who left him with a woman who treats him as a slave. Ramotswe finds a good and loving home for the boy.
小男孩承认自己是个“坏孩子”，被打也是情理之中，但是兰马翠并没有这样做，后来她了解到男孩的母亲是一个妓女，独自生活在边陲城市，孩子的母亲无情地将孩子遗弃给另一个女人，他过着着奴隶般的生活。故事结局是兰马翠为小男孩找到一家善良并充满爱心的家庭来收养他。
Ramotswe abhors violence, but she has to sit on the woman to make her leave the boy alone.
兰马翠痛恨暴力，她必须要过问此事，让小男孩远离暴力，享受快乐的人生。
“If people come at you and start to scratch you, then of course you have the right to sit on them. Even Nelson Mandela, who was a good and gentleman, would have agreed with that,” she thought.
兰马翠认为：“如果有人朝你走去并开始攻击你，那么你当然有权利责备他们，即使像纳尔逊·曼德拉这样善良温和的人也会认同。”
McCall Smith’s stories of traditional African values make me even more ashamed of my failure to be a good Samaritan.
没能成为一个乐善好施的人已经给我留下了遗憾，而麦考尔·史密斯所传递的非洲传统的价值观再次让我感到羞愧。
大家还在听
