給父母的一封信

Author Unknown

Arony 譯

給父母的一封信

A Letter to My Parents, Who Wouldn’t Come to My Wedding

Author Unknown

Arony 譯

I t’s been fve years since the wedding you wouldn’t attend. I can’t say I didn’t see it coming, but you can’t say you didn’t see it coming either. You made it clear, with the strict Jewish upbringing and rules about marrying in the faith. I made it clear, with the1)ditching of services and my2)burgeoning interest in India—its books, music and people. I realised that I needed to spend my life with someone who would appreciate, even encourage, my love of South Asian language, history and culture.

五年前，你們不愿參加我的婚禮。我不能說對(duì)此完全沒有預(yù)料到，你們也不能說感到意外。你們讓我清楚知道，根據(jù)猶太教嚴(yán)格的教條和規(guī)定，猶太教信徒是不允許跨信仰聯(lián)姻的。而我也清楚表明，我已不再信奉猶太教，而且對(duì)印度書籍、音樂和人民的興趣與日俱增。我意識(shí)到那個(gè)與我共度余生的人要會(huì)欣賞甚至支持我對(duì)南亞語言、歷史和文化的熱愛。

I guess there’s no point trying to decide if it was truly inevitable because it happened, and that’s that. I married a Sikh man and you cut me off for ever.

這是否不可挽回？也沒必要去追究了。反正事實(shí)已然如此。我和一個(gè)錫克教徒結(jié)婚后，你們便從此與我斷絕來往。

Mom, I remember you saying, back when I was at high school and this conversation was3)hypothetical, that I had to marry a Jew because you wanted to be able to connect to your grandkids. But you connected with me, didn’t you?And I stopped being Jewish so early that I had to fake my4)bat mitzvah.

媽媽，我記得在我讀高中時(shí)你對(duì)我說過，我一定要和猶太人結(jié)婚，因?yàn)槟阆Ｍ梢院妥约旱耐鈱O關(guān)系親密。那次對(duì)話只是假設(shè)性的。但我們關(guān)系很好，不是嗎？我很早就放棄了猶太教信仰，辦猶太成人禮的時(shí)候，我已經(jīng)是偽信徒了。

If you think a Sikh upbringing is going to make your grandson out of reach to you, you have too little faith in humanity. You have more in common than you’d think: he’s a shy, bookish type—like me and you and your mom; he likes to race the other boys at break, an activity you told me you’d done yourself, the year I started running. He’s even taken to the same football team you taught me to cheer for, despite his father’s best efforts.

如果你認(rèn)為錫克教的成長(zhǎng)氛圍會(huì)令你的外孫無法與你溝通，那你對(duì)人性的信心實(shí)在是太少了。你不知道你們有多少相似之處：他比較害羞，好讀書——就像我、你和外婆；他喜歡在課間追逐其他小孩。我開始跑步那年，你跟我說過你也是這樣的。盡管他爸爸極力反對(duì)，他還是喜歡上了你教我為之歡呼的那支足球隊(duì)。

It was hard going through my frst pregnancy without you or my aunt or my sister. In a way, it helped me to become close to my mother-in-law, who has been so much more gracious and accepting of this pale, new addition to her family than I ever could have hoped. She can’t tell me what the secret ingredient was in grandma’s pumpkin pie, but she taught me how to prepare baby milk and medicate a cough, and lull my fevered son to sleep. The incredible love I feel for my son brought me closer to my husband and family with every little act they performed to make my life easier or his life better.

我懷第一胎時(shí)，沒得到你、阿姨、姐姐的幫助讓我十分艱難。然而，這在某種程度上讓我和婆婆的關(guān)系更緊密了，她如此仁慈寬厚地接受了這個(gè)皮膚蒼白的新家庭成員，這是我不曾意料到的。她不知道外婆的南瓜餅的秘密材料，但她教會(huì)我怎樣準(zhǔn)備嬰兒牛奶，兒子咳嗽時(shí)該吃什么藥，發(fā)燒時(shí)如何讓他安然入睡。……