A lesson in Living --by Maya Angelous

这篇文章摘自梅奥.安吉罗(Maya Angelous)所写的小说 I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings.这部自传性小说追述作者童年和少年时期所经历的一些对她尔后事业有重大影响的事件,以及她如何成长为一个杰出的女性.

小说1970年出版.那时,60年代狂风暴雨般的黑人民权运动刚刚平息.小说是在这一时代背景下写成的,.它反映了美国黑人的政治觉醒和民权运动的高涨.

这篇课文讲的是一个黑人女孩的故事,反映的趋势一个重要的事实:黑人认识到了自己的天才,智慧和力量.文章采用自述体,富有人情味!

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For nearly a year,I sopped around the house,the store the school and the church,like an old biscuit ,dirty and inedible,Then I met,or rather got to know ,the lahdy who threw me may first lifeline.

Mrs.Bertha Flowers was the aristocrat of Black Stamps,She had the grace of control to appear warm in the coldest weather,and on the Arkansas summer days it seemed she had a private breeze which swirled around ,cooling her.

Her skin was a rich black that would have peeled like a plum if snaged,but then no one would have thought of getting close enough to Mrs Flowers to ruffle her dress,let alone snag her skin.She didn't encourage familiarity,She wore gloves too.

She was one of the few gentlewomen i have ever known,and has remained throughtout my life the measure of what a human being can be.

She appealed to me because she was like people i had never met personally.Like women in English novels who walked the moors(荒野) (Whatever they ware)with their toyal dogs racing at a respectful distance.Like the women who sat in front of roaring fireplaces,dringking tea incessantly from silver trays full of scones and crumpets.Women who walked over the "heath"and read morocco-bound bookls and had two last names divided by a hyphen.It would be safe to say that she made me pround to be Negro,just by being herself.

One summer afteroon,sweet-milk fresh in my memory,she stopped at the Store to buy provisions(供应品,食品).Another Negro woman of her health and age would have been expected to carry the paper sacks(袋,麻袋) home in on e hand .bt Momma said,"sister Flowers,I'll send Bailey up to your house with these things."

"Thank you,Mrs Henderson,I'd prefer Marguerite,tough,"My name was beautiful wnen she said it."I've been meaning to talk to ker ,anyway."They gave each other agegroup looks.

There was a little path beside the rocky road,and Mrs Flowers walked in front swinging her arms and picking her way over the stones.

She said,without turning her head.to me,"I hear you're doing very good school work,Marguerite,but that it's all writen.The teachers report that they have trouble getting you to talk in class."We passed the triangular farm on our left and the path widened to allow us to walk together.I hung back in the separate unasked and unanswerable question.

"Come and walk along with me,Marguerite."I couldn't have rufused even if i wanted to.She pronunced my name so nicely.Or more correctly,she spoke each word with such clarity (清楚.透明)that i was certain a foreigner who didn't understand English could have understood her.

"Now no one is going to make you talk--possibly no one can,But bear in mind,lauguage is man's way of communicating with his fellow man and it;s language alone which separates him from the lower animals."That was a totally new idea to me,and I would need time to think aobout it.

"Your grandmother says you read a lot.Every chance you get.That's good,but not good enough.Words mean more than what is set down on paper.It takes the human voice to infuse them with the shades of deeper meaning."

I memorized the part about the human voice infused words.It seemed so valid(有效的) and poetic.

She said she was going to give me some books and that I not only must read them,I must read them aloud.She suggested that i try to make a sentence sound in as many different ways as possible.

"I'll accept no excuse if you return a book to me that has been badly handled. "My imagination boggled at the punishment I would deserve if in fact I did abuse a book of Mrs Flowers,Death would be too kind an brief.

The odors in the house supprised me,Somehow i had nerver connected Mrs Flowers with food or eating or any other common experence of common people.There must have been an outhouse,too,but my mind never recorded it.

The sweet scent (气味)of vanilla had met us as she opened the door.

"I made tea cookies this morning,You see,I had planned to invite you for cookies and lemonade so we could have this little chat.The lemonade is in the icebox.'

It followed that Mrs Flowers would have ice on an ordinary day,when most families our town boutght ice late on Saturdays only a few times during the summer to be used in the wooden icecream freezers.

"Have a seat,Marguerite,Over there by the table."She carried a platter covered with a tea towel.Although she warned that she hadn't tried her hand at baking sweets for some time.I was certain that likc everything else about her the cookies would be perfect.

As i ate she began the first of what we later called"My lesson in living."She said that i must always be intolerant of ignorance but understanding of illiteracy.That some people,unable to go to school.were more educated and even more intelligent than college professors.She encouraged me to listen carefullly to what country people called mother wit.That in those homely sayings was couched the collectice wisom of generations.

When i finished the cookie she brushed off the table and brought a thick,small book from the bookcase,I had read A Tale of Two Cities and found it up to my standards as a romantic novel.She opened the first page and i heard poetry for the first time in my life.

"It was the best of times and worst of times..."Her voice slid in and curved down through and over the words.She was nearly singing.I want to look at the pages.Were they the same that i had read?Her sounds began cascading gently.I know from listening to a thousand preachers that she was nearing the end of her reading,and i hadn't really heard,heard to understand,a single word.

"How do you like that?"

It occured   to me that she expected a response.The sweet vanilla flavor (滋味,味道)was still on my tongue and her reading was a wonder in my ears,i had to speak.

I said,"Yes,ma'am."It was the least i could do,but it's the most also.

"There's one more thing,Take this book of poems and memorize one for me.Next time you pay me a visit,i want you to recite."

I have tried often to search behind the sophistication of years for the enchantment i so easily found in those gifts.The essence escapes but its aura remains.To be alllowed,no,invisited,into the private lives of strangers,and to share their joys and fears,was a chance to exchange the Southern bitter wormwood for a cup of mead with Beowulf or a hot cup of tea and milk with Oliver Twist.When I said aloud,"It is a far,far better thing that i do,than i have ever done..."tears of love filled my eyes at my selflessness.

On that first day,I ran down the hill and into the road(Few cars ever came along it)and had the good sense to stop running before i reached the Store.

I was liked,and what a difference it made,I was respected not as Mr Henderson's grandchild or Bailey's sister but for just being Marguerite Johnson.

Childhood's logic never asks to be proved(all conclusions are absolute).I didn't question why Mr.Flowers had singled me out for attention,nor did it occur to me that Momma might have asked her to give me a little talking to.All i cared about was that she had made tea cookies for me and read to me from her favorite book.It was enough to prove that she liked me.

Momma and Bailery were waiting inside the store.He said,"My,what did she give you?"He had seen the books,but i held the paper sack with his cookie in my arms shieleded(防护) by the poems.

Momma said,"Sister,I know you acted like a little lady,That do my heart good to see settled people take to you all.I'm trying my best,the Lord knows ,but these days..."Her voice trailed( 逐渐变弱)off""Go on in and change your dress."

agegroup   n   年龄相近的一群人

aristocrat   n    有贵族气派的人,贵族阶层的成员.

aura    n 气氛,气息

cascade   vi   象瀑布般冲下或倾泻

cookie   n   甜点心

couch   bt   表达

crumpet   n   松脆饼

heath   n   石楠纵生的荒野

homely adj 家常的,质朴的

hyphen   n   连字符

inclusively   adv   包括一切地

infuse   v   灌输,灌注

illiteracy   n   文盲

intolerant    adj    不能容忍的

lifeline   n   救生绳索

memorize   vt   记住,熟记

mead   n   蜂蜜酒

moroco-bound     adj    摩洛哥山羊装订的

my   interj   表示惊讶的感叹词

odor   n   气味

outhouse   n 户外厕所,户外屋

platter   n   大浅盘

poetic    adj   有诗意的

Plum   n    李子

ruffle   bt   弄皱

saying    n   格言,所言

scone   n   烤饼,差点蛋糕

selflessness   n   无私

single    vt   选出(与out)连用

snag    vt   钩住

sop    v   浸,湿透

sophisticaton    n   复杂性,世故

swirl   b    旋转

triangular    adj   三角的,三角形的

vanilla    n   香草精

wormwood    n   苦艾