Part 2? The Letters of Miss Jerusha Abbott to Mr. Daddy-Long-Legs Smith
第二章 喬若莎?艾伯特小姐給長腿史密斯先生的信

Dear Kind-Trustee-Who-Sends-Orphans-to-College,
親愛的送孤兒上大學的好心理事：

Here I am! I travelled yesterday for four hours in a train. It's a funny sensation, isn't it? I never rode in one before.
我終于到了！昨天搭了4個鐘頭的火車。心中充滿了新奇感，不是嗎？我還從來沒有坐過火車呢。

College is the biggest, most bewildering place--I get lost whenever I leave my room. I will write you a description later when I'm feeling less muddled; also I will tell you about my lessons. Classes don't begin until Monday morning, and this is Saturday night. But I wanted to write a letter first just to get acquainted.
校園真是好大，是很容易把人搞糊涂的地方——我只要一離開房間就會迷路。等我對周圍環境熟悉了一些再對您描繪我的校園，并匯報我的功課。現在是星期六晚上，要到下星期一早上才開課。不過我還是想先寫封信讓我們彼此認識一下。

It seems queer to be writing letters to somebody you don't know. It seems queer for me to be writing letters at all--I've never written more than three or four in my life, so please overlook it if these are not a model kind.
寫信給陌生人是件挺奇怪的事。對我來說，寫信本來就夠奇怪的……我這輩子到現在就寫過3封信，要是寫得不規范，請您多多原諒。

Before leaving yesterday morning, Mrs. Lippett and I had a very serious talk. She told me how to behave all the rest of my life, and especially how to behave towards the kind gentleman who is doing so much for me. I must take care to be Very Respectful.
不過昨天早上出發前，李皮太太和我作了一次嚴肅的談話。她告誡我今后一輩子如何為人處世，尤其對有恩于我的好心先生更要注意自己的言行。我一定記得對您要非常的“尊敬”。

But how can one be very respectful to a person who wishes to be called John Smith? Why couldn't you have picked out a name with a little personality? I might as well write letters to Dear Hitching-Post or Dear Clothes-Prop.
不過，對一個叫約翰?史密斯的人，怎么尊敬得起來呢？您為什么不挑個有點個性的名字呢？我好比在給親愛的拴馬樁或衣服架寫信。

I have been thinking about you a great deal this summer; having somebody take an interest in me after all these years makes me feel as though I had found a sort of family. It seems as though I belonged to somebody now, and it's a very comfortable sensation. I must say, however, that when I think about you, my imagination has very little to work upon. There are just three things that I know:
整個夏天我想了很多關于您的事。這么多年來突然有人關心我，讓我覺得好像找到家一樣，覺得有了歸屬感，這是一種令人陶醉的感覺。但不論如何，我必須承認，當我想到您的時候，我的腦子總是空蕩蕩的。我只知道三件事：

I. You are tall.
一、您長得很高。

II. You are rich.
二、您很有錢。

III. You hate girls.
三、您討厭女孩子。

I suppose I might call you Dear Mr. Girl-Hater. Only that's rather insulting to me. Or Dear Mr. Rich-Man, but that's insulting to you, as though money were the only important thing about you. Besides, being rich is such a very external quality. Maybe you won't stay rich all your life; lots of very clever men get smashed up in Wall Street. But at least you will stay tall all your life! So I've decided to call you Dear Daddy-Long-Legs. I hope you won't mind. It's just a private pet name we won't tell Mrs. Lippett.
我想我可以稱您為“親愛的恨女人先生”，不過這有傷我的自尊。或許我可以稱您為“親愛的有錢人”，不過這樣又侮辱您的人格，好像您惟一值得提的就是錢。此外，“富有”是一種很膚淺的特征。您也許不會一輩子都有錢，有很多聰明人也都在華爾街慘遭滑鐵盧。不過您的身高是改變不了的，所以我決定稱您為親愛的長腿叔叔。希望您別介意。這只是個私底下的稱呼，不必要告訴李皮太太。

The ten o'clock bell is going to ring in two minutes. Our day is divided into sections by bells. We eat and sleep and study by bells. It's very enlivening; I feel like a fire horse all of the time. There it goes！Lights out. Good night.
再有兩分鐘，10點的鐘聲就要響了。我們的一天被鐘聲分成好幾段。我們吃飯、睡覺和上課都照著鐘聲來。這讓我生氣十足，我隨時都像匹野馬。該熄燈了。晚安。

Observe with what precision I obey rules--due to my training in the John Grier Home.
瞧！我多守規矩——全虧約翰?格利爾孤兒院的訓練。

Yours most respectfully, Jerusha Abbott
尊敬您的喬若莎?艾伯特

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Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

I love college and I love you for sending me--I'm very, very happy, and so excited every moment of the time that I can scarcely sleep. You can't imagine how different it is from the John Grier Home. I never dreamed there was such a place in the world. I'm feeling sorry for everybody who isn't a girl and who can't come here; I am sure the college you attended when you were a boy couldn't have been so nice.
我喜歡大學，也喜歡送我來這的您——我真的非常非常快樂，時時刻刻都興奮得快睡不著了。您無法想像這里跟約翰?格利爾孤兒院是多么得不同。我從不知道世上還有這樣的好地方。我深深地為那些不是女孩，不能來上大學的人感到難過。我相信您以前讀的大學一定沒有這么好。

My room is up in a tower that used to be the contagious ward before they built the new infirmary. There are three other girls on the same floor of the tower--a Senior who wears spectacles and is always asking us please to be a little more quiet, and two Freshmen named Sallie McBride and Julia Rutledge Pendleton. Sallie has red hair and a turn-up nose and is quite friendly; Julia comes from one of the first families in New York and hasn't noticed me yet. They room together and the Senior and I have singles. Usually Freshmen can't get singles; they are very scarce, but I got one without even asking. I suppose the registrar didn't think it would be right to ask a properly brought-up girl to room with a foundling. You see there are advantages!
我的房間在新醫務室蓋好前，被用來當做傳染病房的大樓里。這層樓還有另外3個女孩子——一個戴眼鏡的高年級女生，老是要人家安靜一點，還有兩個新生，莎莉?麥克白與茱莉亞?平萊頓。莎莉有一頭紅發和一個翹鼻子，人很和氣。茱莉亞出身紐約名門，還沒注意到我。她們倆同屋，那高年級女生跟我住單人房。單間很少，新生一般不能住，我甚至沒提要求就得到了一間。我猜是注冊處的人覺得讓有教養的女孩跟孤兒住在一起不太妥當。您瞧，還有優越性呢!

My room is on the north-west corner with two windows and a view. After you've lived in a ward for eighteen years with twenty room-mates, it is restful to be alone. This is the first chance I've ever had to get acquainted with Jerusha Abbott. I think I'm going to like her.
我的房間在西北角，有兩扇窗，窗外景色宜人。在跟20個人在一個宿舍住了18年，如今獨處一室，感到很輕松。我想這是讓我認識喬若莎?艾伯特的良機。我想我會喜歡她的。

Do you think you are?
您呢?

They are organizing the Freshman basket-ball team and there's just a chance that I shall get in it. I'm little of course, but terribly quick and wiry and tough. While the others are hopping about in the air, I can dodge under their feet and grab the ball. It's loads of fun practising--out in the athletic field in the afternoon with the trees all red and yellow and the air full of the smell of burning leaves, and everybody laughing and shouting. These are the happiest girls I ever saw--and I am the happiest of all!
她們正在招募新生籃球隊，我要去爭取這個機會。沒錯，我是長得很瘦小，不過我反應很敏捷，身體強壯，當其他人跳到半空中時，我可以從她們的腳底下搶到球。練球很有意思。下午，操場前滿樹紅葉、黃葉，空氣中充滿了燃燒落葉的氣味，大家又叫又笑的。這是我所見到的最快樂的女孩們了，而我是其中最快樂的一個。

I meant to write a long letter and tell you all the things I'm learning (Mrs. Lippett said you wanted to know), but 7th hour has just rung, and in ten minutes I'm due at the athletic field in gymnasium clothes. Don't you hope I'll get in the team?
本來打算寫封長信跟您談談我的功課(李皮太太說過您想知道的)。不過第7堂課剛結束，再過10分種我就要換好運動服在空地上集合了。您希望我會入選吧？

Yours always, Jerusha Abbott
您永遠的喬若莎?艾伯特

PS.
又及：

Sallie McBride just poked her head in at my door. This is what she said: 'I'm so homesick that I simply can't stand it. Do you feel that way?'
莎莉?麥克白剛才探頭進來說：“我想家想得快受不了了，你呢？”

I smiled a little and said no; I thought I could pull through. At least homesickness is one disease that I've escaped! I never heard of anybody being asylum-sick, did you?
我笑了笑說：“才不呢。”我想我能挺得過去。至少思鄉病是我絕不會染上的疾病，沒聽說過有人想孤兒院的，是嗎？

*********************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

Did you ever hear of Michael Angelo?
您聽說過米開朗琪羅嗎?

He was a famous artist who lived in Italy in the Middle Ages. Everybody in English Literature seemed to know about him, and the whole class laughed because I thought he was an archangel. He sounds like an archangel, doesn't he? The trouble with college is that you are expected to know such a lot of things you've never learned. It's very embarrassing at times. But now, when the girls talk about things that I never heard of, I just keep still and look them up in the encyclopedia.
他是中世紀意大利著名畫家，上英國文學課的人好像都知道他。我說他是個天使，惹得全班哄堂大笑。可那名字聽上去很像天使，您說是嗎？糟糕的是在大學里，大家都認為你應該懂得一些你根本沒學過的東西。有時真的讓人很尷尬，不過現在只要女孩們提到我不懂的事，我就閉口不言，而是回去查查字典。

I made an awful mistake the first day. Somebody mentioned Maurice Maeterlinck, and I asked if she was a Freshman. That joke has gone all over college. But anyway, I'm just as bright in class as any of the others--and brighter than some of them!
上學第一天我鬧了一個大笑話，有人提到麥特林克，而我就問她是不是個大一新生。這個笑話傳遍了整所大學。還好，我在課堂上表現得比誰都不笨，甚至比一些人還要好。

Do you care to know how I've furnished my room? It's a symphony in brown and yellow. The wall was tinted buff, and I've bought yellow denim curtains and cushions and a mahogany desk (second hand for three dollars) and a rattan chair and a brown rug with an ink spot in the middle. I stand the chair over the spot.
您想知道我的房間布置嗎？它是一曲棕黃相間的交響樂。淡黃色的墻壁，配上我買來的黃色粗布窗簾和靠墊，一張3美元的舊紅木書桌，一把藤椅，一條正中有墨水跡的棕色地毯，我把椅子放在有墨跡的地方。

The windows are up high; you can't look out from an ordinary seat. But I unscrewed the looking-glass from the back of the bureau, upholstered the top and moved it up against the window. It's just the right height for a window seat. You pull out the drawers like steps and walk up. Very comfortable!
窗戶很高，坐在椅子上望不到窗外。我把鏡臺上的鏡子拆掉，鋪上桌布，隨后移到窗前，坐在上面看窗外高矮正合適。我把抽屜開成階梯式，上來下去，真夠舒服的。

Sallie McBride helped me choose the things at the Senior auction. She has lived in a house all her life and knows about furnishing. You can't imagine what fun it is to shop and pay with a real five-dollar bill and get some change--when you've never had more than a few cents in your life. I assure you, Daddy dear, I do appreciate that allowance.
這些東西是莎莉?麥可白幫我在高年級學生辦的拍賣會上挑的。她從小到大都在家里住，對于家具擺飾頗有經驗。如果您這輩子從沒拿超過5毛錢，您是很難體會那種購物的樂趣。用一張真的5元鈔票去買東西，還能找些零頭回來！我向您保證，親愛的叔叔，我對您給的零用錢真的心存感激。

Sallie is the most entertaining person in the world--and Julia Rutledge Pendleton the least so. It's queer what a mixture the registrar can make in the matter of room-mates. Sallie thinks everything is funny--even flunking--and Julia is bored at everything. She never makes the slightest effort to be amiable. She believes that if you are a Pendleton, that fact alone admits you to heaven without any further examination. Julia and I were born to be enemies.
莎莉算是全世界最好的人了，而茱莉亞?平萊頓則相反。注冊處的人將這么一對安排在一起，可真夠古怪的。莎莉覺得每件事，甚至連考試不及格都很有趣。而茱莉亞則不然，事事都讓她不開心，對人從未有過親切的表示。也許她相信，只要是平萊頓家族的，無庸置疑一定可以上天堂的——茱莉亞跟我是天生的冤家。

And now I suppose you've been waiting very impatiently to hear what I am learning?
現在您一定急于知道我的功課情況吧？

I. Latin: Second Punic war. Hannibal and his forces pitched camp at Lake Trasimenus last night. They prepared an ambuscade for the Romans, and a battle took place at the fourth watch this morning. Romans in retreat.
一、拉丁文：第二次布匿戰爭。昨晚，漢尼拔和他的部隊在特拉西美諾湖安營扎寨。他們在羅馬人周圍埋下伏兵，凌晨四點打了一仗，羅馬人在退卻。

II. French: 24 pages of the Three Musketeers and third conjugation, irregular verbs.
二、法文：讀了24頁《三劍客》，學了第三組不規則動詞的變位。

III. Geometry: Finished cylinders; now doing cones.
三、幾何學：學完圓柱體，在學圓錐體。

IV. English: Studying exposition. My style improves daily in clearness and brevity.
四、英文：學習表達能力。我的風格日益清晰、簡練。

V. Physiology: Reached the digestive system. Bile and the pancreas next time.
五、生理學：進行到消化系統，下節課學膽和胰。

Yours, on the way to being educated, Jerusha Abbott
您的正在受教育的喬若莎?艾伯特

PS. I hope you never touch alcohol, Daddy? It does dreadful things to your liver.
又及：我希望您滴酒不沾，長腿叔叔。酒能傷肝。

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Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

I've changed my name.
我改名字了。

I'm still 'Jerusha' in the catalogue, but I'm 'Judy' everywhere else. It's really too bad, isn't it, to have to give yourself the only pet name you ever had? I didn't quite make up the Judy though. That's what Freddy Perkins used to call me before he could talk plainly.
在學校花名冊上我仍叫喬若莎，不過在其他場合我就叫茱蒂了。要自己為自己取一個小名實在很悲哀，不是嗎？不過茱蒂也不是我憑空捏造的。弗萊迪?珀金斯牙牙學語前，都是這樣叫我的。

I wish Mrs. Lippett would use a little more ingenuity about choosing babies' names. She gets the last names out of the telephone book-- you'll find Abbott on the first page--and she picks the Christian names up anywhere; she got Jerusha from a tombstone. I've always hated it; but I rather like Judy. It's such a silly name. It belongs to the kind of girl I'm not--a sweet little blue-eyed thing, petted and spoiled by all the family, who romps her way through life without any cares. Wouldn't it be nice to be like that? Whatever faults I may have, no one can ever accuse me of having been spoiled by my family! But it's great fun to pretend I've been. In the future please always address me as Judy.
我希望李皮太太以后在給小寶寶取名字時能多動一點點腦筋。她從電話簿上取我們的姓氏——您要是翻開第一頁就會看到艾伯特了。而名字則都是信手拈來的，喬若莎是她從一塊墓碑上看到的。我一直都很討厭這名字，不過我挺喜歡茱蒂的。這是一個傻呼呼的名字，應該是一個與我完全不同的女孩子，一個有一雙藍眼睛，甜甜的，嬌生慣養，什么都不用煩惱地過一輩子的女孩子。那樣該有多好啊！不管我犯了什么錯，都沒人可以說是我的家人把我慣壞的。不過假裝一下也挺好玩的。以后就請叫我茱蒂。

Do you want to know something? I have three pairs of kid gloves. I've had kid mittens before from the Christmas tree, but never real kid gloves with five fingers. I take them out and try them on every little while. It's all I can do not to wear them to classes.
您想知道嗎？我有3副羊皮手套了。從前，在掛在圣誕樹上的禮物中我得到過羊皮無指手套，但從來沒有分開手指的那種真的羊皮手套。我不時拿出來戴在手上，好容易才忍住沒有戴到教室去。

(Dinner bell. Goodbye.)
午飯鈴響了，再見！

（來源：愛思英語網 編輯：丹妮）