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加拿大英文教練(原溫哥華英文教練),致力于地道英文表達
最近讀完
The Madonnas of Echo Park,一本關于墨西哥裔美國人的生存現狀的小說。這本書由八個小故事構成,每個故事中的人物跟另外一個故事中的人物又有千絲萬縷的聯系,這種聯系,將八個或親或疏的人物串在了一起。其中一個人物,是一個老態龍鐘的大爺回憶他自己兒子的故事。我下面選取的這段來自于老人回憶早年間,兒子交了一個華裔女朋友,二人在一起包餃子,女孩兒駕輕就熟地將面團化為繞指柔,而她的墨西哥裔男朋友則笨拙地模仿。而老人在一旁瞥見這對 love birds 像一家人一樣做家務。雖然沒有描寫老人的心理狀態,但畫面一轉,我們才知道,這對小年輕后來沒有能夠在一起,而老人也沒有當成他們孩子的爺爺,但是他卻幻想了一個二人有了小孩、他自己含飴弄孫的場景,這個“未實現”的幻覺,透露他對二人沒有能夠結合的感傷。這一段,從女孩包一個餃子的動作寫起,到二人卿卿我我的小動作,再到幾十年后老人的幻覺,文字一路下來,細細密密,卻都點點滴滴在心頭。
She yanked out a taffy-drop hunk of flour and, slapping it on the block, rolled it into a thin tent-flap-shaped pancake. Then came a morsel of crabmeat, followed by an index finger moistened in the lemon water, kissing the edges of the pancake to create a momentary seal. A quick swoop of her hand, and the pancake was folded over in half. Bunching her fingers together, she kneaded small, ridged impressions onto the dough’s edges, plopping fat, raindrop dumplings onto the counter. He mimicked her motions, but his dumplings popped open, their deformed folds and ridges jutting out like baby fingers in clay. (特別注意這一段的動詞和有動詞形式的分詞。最后一句講沒有包好的餃子,也就是我們俗稱露餡兒的那種,作者用到baby fingers in clay這樣的比喻,讓人忍俊不禁)
“You’re packing them too big!” Tran exclaimed with a laugh. “Give me your hands.”
Her palm guided the backs of his hands across each ingredient, her fingertips dripping lemon water down his arm as their hands wrapped each dumpling together…Her black eye shadow brought out the delicate whalebone whites of her cheeks. And then, her face crinkled like wrapping paper when she stood on tiptoe to kiss him, with a look of either utter amazement at her recklessness or astonishment at the sincerity of her affection, right before she saw me looking at them and shoved him away.(女孩手把手教男孩兒包餃子,然后是二人親密的小動作,沒有察覺旁邊的老人,而等女孩發現的時候,她把男孩推開。注意此處用的shove,而非push。為何?學一下這個短語:when push comes to shove就知道原因了。通過這一段的描繪,作者把讀者帶到老人的“幫兇”的位置)
They made plans to elope, but for a reason that escapes, the plans fell through and what at that time was seen as a temporary setback became permanent separation, and the life I thought they’d be living now, the life I thought I’d see them have as a grandfather, haunted me—the hundreds of dinners they never cooked together, the photos I’d see from their family vacation trips to faraway places like Disney World or New York City left untaken, the children they never had tugging at my sleeves in a toy store asking me for a Barbie Dream House or a radio-controlled car, and me, hefting them up on my shoulders, planting a kiss on my daughter-in-law’s cheek, then waking up from my dream and realizing nobody was there.(這段提及二人準備私奔,但不知何故未能成行,直至永遠的分手。在老人傷感的夢中,是他們未能在一起做的數百個晚餐、他們沒有去成的迪斯尼和紐約之旅、是他們本應生下的孩子纏著爺爺買芭比玩具以及爺爺把孫子扛在肩上……夢醒之后,老人身邊空無一人。這一段讀來異常感傷,作者只提供了一些畫面,而讀者在腦補這些畫面的時候,自然融情于茲)
上面節選的三段,寫得非常細,細到這樣的程度,文字的力量自然就出來了。
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