Unit 8 My Forever Valentine 课文翻译 综合教程一

Unit 8 My Forever Valentine

The traditional holidays in our house when I was a child were spent timing elaborate meals around football games. My father tried to make pleasant chitchat and eat as much as he could during half time. At Christmas he found time to have a cup or two of holiday beer and do his holly shaped bow tie. But he didn't truly shine until Valentine's Day.

I don't know whether it was because work at the office slowed during February or because the football season was over. But Valentine's Day was the time my father chose to show his love for the special people in his life. Over the years I fondly thought of him as my "Valentine Man."

My first recollection of the magic he could bring to Valentine's Day came when I was six. For several days I had been cutting out valentines for my classmates. Each of us was to decorate a "mailbox" and put it on our desk for others to give us cards. That box and its contents ushered in a succession of bittersweet memories of my entrance into a world of popularity contests marked by the number of cards received, the teasing about boyfriends/girlfriends and the tender care I gave to the card from the cutest boy in class.

That morning at the breakfast table I found a card and a gift-wrapped package at my chair. The card was signed "Love, Dad," and the gift was a ring with a small piece of red glass to represent my birthstone, a ruby. There is little difference between red glass and rubies to a child of six, and I remember wearing that ring with a pride that all the cards in the world could not surpass.

As I grew older, the gifts gave way to heart shaped boxes filled with my favorite chocolates and always included a special card signed "Love, Dad." In those years my thank-yous became more of a perfunctory response. The cards seemed less important, and I took for granted the valentine that would always be there. Long past the days of having a "mailbox" on my desk, I had placed my hopes and dreams in receiving cards and gifts from "significant others," and "Love, Dad" just didn't seem quite enough.

If my father knew then that he had been replaced, he never let it show. If he sensed any disappointment over valentines that didn't arrive for me, he just tried that much harder to create a positive atmosphere, giving me an extra hug and doing what he could to make my day a little brighter.

My mailbox eventually had a rural address, and the job of hand delivering candy and cards was relegated to the . Postal Service. Never in ten years was my father's package late nor was it on the Valentine's Day eight years ago when I reached into the mailbox to find a card addressed to me in my mother's handwriting.

It was the kind of card that comes in an inexpensive assortment box sold by a child going door to door to try to earn money for a school project. It was the kind of card you used to get from a grandmother or an aging aunt or, in this case, a dying father.

It was the kind of card that put a lump in your throat and tears in your eyes because you knew the person no longer was able to go out and buy a real valentine. It was a card that signaled this would be the last you would receive from him.

The card had a photograph of tulips on the outside, and on the inside my mother had printed "Happy Valentine's Day." Beneath it, scrawled in barely legible handwriting was "Love, Dad."

His final card remains on my bulletin board today. It's a reminder of how special fathers can be and how important it has been to me over the years to know that I had a father who continued a tradition of love with a generosity of spirit, simple acts of understanding and an ability to express happiness over the people in his life.

Those things never die, nor does the memory of a man who never stopped being my valentine.

永远的情人

在我的童年记忆中，每逢节假日我们家总会一起踢足球，然后享用精心准备的晚餐。足球的中场休息时间父亲总是尽可能多地和我们谈一些开心的事，还吃好多东西。圣诞节时父亲会喝上一两杯啤酒，将他的领结整理成冬青树叶的样子，但只有到情人节的时候父亲才会真正地兴奋起来。

我不知道是否因为到了二月父亲办公室的工作会少些，还是因为足球赛季的结束，反正情人节是父亲向他生命中特别的人表达爱意的特殊日子。许多年来我很喜欢把父亲当成我的“情人节情人”。

我记得第一次父亲给我制造情人节惊喜是在我6岁时。那时，我在忙着帮班上的同学做情人节卡片。我们每个人桌上都有一个精心装饰的“邮箱”，等着别人给我的卡片。这个盒子以及里面的内容使我的记忆里开始有了快乐，也有了悲伤，同学们会以收到多少卡片来衡量一个人的受欢迎程度，同学之间会有关于男朋友、女朋友的取笑，而我也倍加珍惜班上最可爱的男孩送给我的卡片。

那天早上我在早餐桌上发现了一张卡片和椅子上的一件精心包装的礼物，卡片上写着“爱你的，父亲。”礼物是一个戒指，戒指上镶着一颗小小的红色玻璃，代表我的生日石，红宝石。对一个六岁的孩子来说，宝石和玻璃几乎没什么分别，我记得自己自豪地戴上这枚戒指，觉得世界上所有的卡片都没这戒指好。

我长大一些后，情人节的礼物发展成了一个心形的盒子，里面装满了我喜欢的巧克力，并且总是有一张署名“爱你的，父亲”的卡片。但是那些年我对父亲的答谢却变得敷衍起来。父亲的情人卡对我似乎已不那么重要，我理所当然地认为所有这些都会永远存在。而很长一段时间过去了，我所有的希望和梦想都在于收到“其他特别的人”的礼物和卡片，光有“爱你的，父亲”似乎不够。

父亲即使感觉到了这些他也会装作什么都不知道。如果他感觉到我在情人节没有收到礼物时的失落，就会尽量营造一种轻松氛围，多给我一个拥抱，或者尽量做一些能让我开心的事。

我终于有了一个自己在郊外的邮箱地址，于是给我邮递糖果或卡片的工作就交给了美国邮递系统。十年间父亲给我的邮包从来没有迟到过，八年前的那个也是，那次我在邮箱中看到了一张寄给我的卡片，卡上是母亲的笔迹。

这是一种曾和各种各样的东西一起被装在廉价盒子里的卡片，这种卡常常是一个孩子挨家挨户地去卖，以筹得一些学校某计划的费用。这是一种你曾从祖母或者年老的婶婶那里拿到过的卡片，或者，现在，这张卡来自一位临终的父亲。

这是一种让你感觉非常伤感并让你热泪盈眶的卡片，因为你知道寄给你卡片的这个人甚至已经无法自己出门买一份真正的情人节礼物了。这张卡在告诉你，这是你最后一次收到这个人的卡了。

卡片上是一幅郁金香，里面母亲写着“情人节快乐”，下面是父亲潦草难辨的字迹，“爱你的，父亲。”

父亲的最后一张卡片至今还留在我的记事板上。它让我知道父亲是多么的特殊，也让我明白拥有一位多年坚持无私地付出自己的爱的父亲对我来说是多么的重要，父亲总是对他生命中的所有人抱以理解和关怀，并尽力给他人带来快乐。

所有的这些都不会逝去，而父亲这位我永远的情人也将一直在我的记忆之中。