Unit 8 My Forever Valentine 課文翻譯 綜合教程一

1、Unit 8 My Forever ValentineThe traditional holidays in our house when I was a child were spent timing elaborate meals around football games. My father tried to make pleasant chitchat and eat as much as he could during half time. At Christmas he found time to have a cup or two of holiday beer and do

2、his holly shaped bow tie. But he didnt truly shine until Valentines Day. I dont know whether it was because work at the office slowed during February or because the football season was over. But Valentines Day was the time my father chose to show his love for the special people in his life. Over the

3、 years I fondly thought of him as my Valentine Man. My first recollection of the magic he could bring to Valentines Day came when I was six. For several days I had been cutting out valentines for my classmates. Each of us was to decorate a mailbox and put it on our desk for others to give us cards.

4、That box and its contents ushered in a succession of bittersweet memories of my entrance into a world of popularity contests marked by the number of cards received, the teasing about boyfriends/girlfriends and the tender care I gave to the card from the cutest boy in class. That morning at the break

5、fast table I found a card and a gift-wrapped package at my chair. The card was signed Love, Dad, and the gift was a ring with a small piece of red glass to represent my birthstone, a ruby. There is little difference between red glass and rubies to a child of six, and I remember wearing that ring wit

6、h a pride that all the cards in the world could not surpass. As I grew older, the gifts gave way to heart shaped boxes filled with my favorite chocolates and always included a special card signed Love, Dad. In those years my thank-yous became more of a perfunctory response. The cards seemed less imp

7、ortant, and I took for granted the valentine that would always be there. Long past the days of having a mailbox on my desk, I had placed my hopes and dreams in receiving cards and gifts from significant others, and Love, Dad just didnt seem quite enough. If my father knew then that he had been repla

8、ced, he never let it show. If he sensed any disappointment over valentines that didnt arrive for me, he just tried that much harder to create a positive atmosphere, giving me an extra hug and doing what he could to make my day a little brighter. My mailbox eventually had a rural address, and the job

9、 of hand delivering candy and cards was relegated to the U.S. Postal Service. Never in ten years was my fathers package late nor was it on the Valentines Day eight years ago when I reached into the mailbox to find a card addressed to me in my mothers handwriting. It was the kind of card that comes i

10、n an inexpensive assortment box sold by a child going door to door to try to earn money for a school project. It was the kind of card you used to get from a grandmother or an aging aunt or, in this case, a dying father. It was the kind of card that put a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes be

11、cause you knew the person no longer was able to go out and buy a real valentine. It was a card that signaled this would be the last you would receive from him. The card had a photograph of tulips on the outside, and on the inside my mother had printed Happy Valentines Day. Beneath it, scrawled in ba

12、rely legible handwriting was Love, Dad. His final card remains on my bulletin board today. Its a reminder of how special fathers can be and how important it has been to me over the years to know that I had a father who continued a tradition of love with a generosity of spirit, simple acts of underst

13、anding and an ability to express happiness over the people in his life. Those things never die, nor does the memory of a man who never stopped being my valentine.永遠(yuǎn)的情人 在我的童年記憶中，每逢節(jié)假日我們家總會(huì)一起踢足球，然后享用精心準(zhǔn)備的晚餐。足球的中場(chǎng)休息時(shí)間父親總是盡可能多地和我們談一些開心的事，還吃好多東西。圣誕節(jié)時(shí)父親會(huì)喝上一兩杯啤酒，將他的領(lǐng)結(jié)整理成冬青樹葉的樣子，但只有到情人節(jié)的時(shí)候父親才會(huì)真正地興奮起來(lái)。 我不知道是

14、否因?yàn)榈搅硕赂赣H辦公室的工作會(huì)少些，還是因?yàn)樽闱蛸惣镜慕Y(jié)束，反正情人節(jié)是父親向他生命中特別的人表達(dá)愛意的特殊日子。許多年來(lái)我很喜歡把父親當(dāng)成我的“情人節(jié)情人”。 我記得第一次父親給我制造情人節(jié)驚喜是在我6歲時(shí)。那時(shí)，我在忙著幫班上的同學(xué)做情人節(jié)卡片。我們每個(gè)人桌上都有一個(gè)精心裝飾的“郵箱”，等著別人給我的卡片。這個(gè)盒子以及里面的內(nèi)容使我的記憶里開始有了快樂，也有了悲傷，同學(xué)們會(huì)以收到多少卡片來(lái)衡量一個(gè)人的受歡迎程度，同學(xué)之間會(huì)有關(guān)于男朋友、女朋友的取笑，而我也倍加珍惜班上最可愛的男孩送給我的卡片。 那天早上我在早餐桌上發(fā)現(xiàn)了一張卡片和椅子上的一件精心包裝的禮物，卡片上寫著“愛你的，父親。”禮

15、物是一個(gè)戒指，戒指上鑲著一顆小小的紅色玻璃，代表我的生日石，紅寶石。對(duì)一個(gè)六歲的孩子來(lái)說，寶石和玻璃幾乎沒什么分別，我記得自己自豪地戴上這枚戒指，覺得世界上所有的卡片都沒這戒指好。 我長(zhǎng)大一些后，情人節(jié)的禮物發(fā)展成了一個(gè)心形的盒子，里面裝滿了我喜歡的巧克力，并且總是有一張署名“愛你的，父親”的卡片。但是那些年我對(duì)父親的答謝卻變得敷衍起來(lái)。父親的情人卡對(duì)我似乎已不那么重要，我理所當(dāng)然地認(rèn)為所有這些都會(huì)永遠(yuǎn)存在。而很長(zhǎng)一段時(shí)間過去了，我所有的希望和夢(mèng)想都在于收到“其他特別的人”的禮物和卡片，光有“愛你的，父親”似乎不夠。 父親即使感覺到了這些他也會(huì)裝作什么都不知道。如果他感覺到我在情人節(jié)沒有收到禮物時(shí)的失落，就會(huì)盡量營(yíng)造一種輕松氛圍，多給我一個(gè)擁抱，或者盡量做一些能讓我開心的事。 我終于有了一個(gè)自己在郊外的郵箱地址，于是給我郵遞糖果或卡片的工作就交給了美國(guó)郵遞系統(tǒng)。十年間父親給我的郵包從來(lái)沒有遲到過，八年前的那個(gè)也是，那次我在郵箱中看到了一張寄給我的卡片，卡上是母親的筆跡。 這是一種曾和各種各樣的東西一起被裝在廉價(jià)盒子里的卡片，這種卡常常是一個(gè)孩子挨家挨戶地去賣，以籌得一些學(xué)校某計(jì)劃的費(fèi)用。這是一種你曾從祖母或者年老的嬸嬸那里拿到過的卡片，或者，現(xiàn)在，這張卡來(lái)自一位臨終的父親。 這是一種讓你感覺非常傷感并讓你熱淚盈眶