傻瓜天堂

弗洛伊德·德爾（1887—1969），美國小說家、劇作家、詩人、散文家以及文學評論家，出生于伊利諾斯州。中學輟學以后，他在當地報紙和社會主義雜志做過記者，同時也開始在全國性報紙上發表詩歌作品。1908年，德爾搬到芝加哥，并成為了《周五文學評論》（The Friday Literary Review）的編輯，也成為了芝加哥文藝復興的領袖。期間，他曾力捧過西奧多·德萊賽、謝伍德·安德森、卡爾·桑德伯格及其他芝加哥作家的作品。五年后，他遷往紐約，在激進雜志《大眾》（The Masses）出任執行主編，也成為了戰前格林威治村波西米亞社區的領導者。主要作品有King Arthur’s Socks and Other Village Plays（《亞瑟王的襪子及其他鄉村戲劇》）、Little Accident（《小意外》）、Moon-Calf（《怪胎》）、 The Angel Intrudes（《天使入侵》）、 Women as World Builders（《作為世界創造者的婦女們》）等等。

本期“地道英文”選自他的一篇小說，限于篇幅，內容有刪減。故事講述的是一個孩子頓悟的過程，文中有多處暗示“我”的家境貧寒，但“我”卻渾然不覺；反而覺得用硬紙板充當鞋墊是毫無所謂，每天喝土豆湯很不錯，每天都可以和爸爸媽媽待在一起是件很幸福的事，“我”的天真沒有讓“我”過多地思考和懷疑。直到平安夜那晚，父母只字不提過節的事兒，“我”才意識到家中窮困的狀況，從而聯想到以前的種種，這讓“我”痛苦不已。小時候的痛苦記憶總會留下永不消退的傷疤，這也許就是為什么父母無論遇到什么困難都不和我們言說的原因吧。父母以隱忍成就了我們的無憂童年，感謝你們！

——Nichola

That fall， before it was discovered that the soles

of both my shoes were worn clear through， I still went to 1)Sunday school. And one time the Sunday-school 2)superintendent made a speech to all the classes. He said that these were hard times and that many poor children weren’t getting enough to eat. It was the first that I had heard about it. He asked everybody to bring some food for the poor children next Sunday. I felt very sorry for the poor children. Also， little envelopes were distributed to all the classes. Each little boy and girl was to bring money for the poor， next Sunday. The pretty Sunday-school teacher explained that we were to write our names， or have our parents write them， up in the left hand corner of the little envelopes. I told my mother all about it when I came home. And my mother gave me， the next Sunday， a small bag of potatoes to carry to Sunday school. I supposed the poor children’s mothers would make potato soup out of them. Potato soup was good. My father， who was quite a joker， would always say， as if he were surprised， “Ah! I see we have some nourishing potato soup today!” It was so good that we had it every day. My father was at home all day long and every day， now; and I liked that， even if he was 3)grumpy as he sat reading 4)Grant’s Memoirs. I had my parents all to myself， too; the others were away. My oldest brother was in Quincy， and memory does not reveal where the others were: perhaps with relatives in the country.

Taking my small bag of potatoes to Sunday school， I looked around for the poor children; I was disappointed not to see them. I had heard about poor children in stories. But I was told just to put my contribution with the others on the big table in the side room. I had brought with me the little yellow envelope， with some money in it for the poor children.

那年秋天，在我發現我兩只鞋子

的鞋底都徹底磨穿之前，我還到主日學校上學。有一次，校長對全校學生做了發言。……