英语学习网站拉塞尔·贝克（Russell Baker）是美国著名记者和专栏作家。1925年8月14日出生于弗吉尼亚的拉塞尔·贝克是家中的长子；1947年他受雇于《马尔的摩太阳报》、1954年加入《纽约时报》，负责报道白宫、国会和国家政治新闻。1962年—1998年期间，拉塞尔·贝克长期为《纽约时报》写《观察栏》专栏，专门评论国政。1979年，贝克以其犀利机智的政府文章获得普利策评论奖。贝克也是一位出色的散文家和传记作者，其童年自传《成长》为他赢得了1983年的普利策传记奖。贝克本人后来还担任过普利策奖的评委。迄今为止，拉塞尔·贝克共出版了17部作品（包括著作和编著），《黄金时代》是他的另一部传记作品。
Russell Baker was born in Virginia on August 14, 1925, the eldest son in his family; he was hired by the Maltese Sun in 1947 and joined the New York Times in 1954 to cover the White House, Congress and national political news. -In 1979, Baker won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for his sharp and witty government articles. Baker is also an accomplished essayist and biographer whose childhood autobiography, Growing Up, won him the Pulitzer Prize for biography in 1983. Baker himself later served on the jury of the Pulitzer Prize. Russell Baker has published 17 works (both books and edited) to date, and The Golden Age is another of his biographical works.
拉塞尔·贝克的《成长》出版后曾连续72周高居畅销书排行榜前列，先后被多个国家翻译引进，直至今天仍然在全球各地畅销，总发行量已经超过220万册，创下美国出版史上的一个奇迹。
Russell Baker’s Growing Up was a bestseller for 72 weeks after its publication and has been translated and introduced in many countries, and is still a bestseller around the world today, with a total circulation of over 2.2 million copies, a miracle in American publishing history.
拉塞尔·贝克在美国有“当代的马克吐温”之称，他用朴实优美、幽默睿智的文字向我们讲述了一个单亲家庭中的小男孩在好强母亲的教育下成长成才的故事。
Russell Baker, known in the United States as the “Mark Twain of our time,” tells us the story of a young boy in a single-parent family who grows up under the tutelage of his strong mother in a simple, beautiful, humorous and wise way.
A long time ago, I lived in a village in northern Virginia, which was located along the crossroads. It was a lovely summer day, nothing important happened there, and I never had a taste of worry.
许久以前，我曾在弗吉尼亚北部的一个村子里住过，这村子坐落在十字路边。那是一个清纯宜人的夏天，那里没发生过什么重要的事儿，我也不曾尝过烦忧的滋味。
Seven bland and impersonal houses make up that village. A dirt road winds down the hill. At the bottom of the hill was a bootlegger’s store that still serves whiskey to the men of the village. Another dirt road led straight down to the creek. Cousin Cornelius and I used to sit by the stream and use worms as bait to fish. One day we killed a copperhead snake while it was sunning itself on a nearby rock. Such things are very unusual.
七幢平淡而没有个性的房子组成了那个村落。一条土路蜿蜒伸到山下。山下有家私酒商店，至今还在为村里的男人们供应着威士忌酒。另一条土路，直指溪边。我和科尼斯表哥总爱坐在溪畔，用蚯蚓作饵钓鱼儿。一天，我们打死了一条铜斑蛇，当时它正在附近的一块岩石上晒太阳。这样的事儿是很不寻常的。
The summer heat is gentle and lovely, and the moist and mellow air is filled with various fragrances that you can’t help but taste one by one. In the morning, the fragrance of wisteria; in the afternoon, the wild roses crawling all over the stone walls are in full bloom; in the evening, the fragrance of lonicera blossoms melts into the pale dusk, and the fragrance is overwhelming.
夏天的暑气温婉可人，湿润而醇厚的空气里弥散着各种各样的馨香，你禁不住要一一品咂。早晨，紫藤飘香；下午，铺铺叠叠爬满石墙的野蔷薇盛开了；傍晚，忍冬花的芳芬融进苍冥的暮霭里，香气袭人。
Even by the standards of the time, it was a backwater. There was no electricity. The dirt roads were not paved with anything. There was not even running water in the house. The shortage was reflected in the day-to-day work in the summer. Without electricity, people went to bed early; when they got up the next day, the dew was still hanging on the tips of the grass. Early in the morning, the women wiped the kerosene lamps they had used last night in a flurry of chatter. The children were sent out to carry the sweet spring water.
即便按当时的标准，那也是个落后的地方。没有电。土路上面也没铺点什么。屋子里连自来水都没有。夏天日复一日的活计都体现出这一桩桩的短缺来。没有电灯，人们便早早地上床睡了；第二天起身的时候，露珠儿还在草尖上挂着。一大清早，女人们便在一片叽叽喳喳声里把昨夜用过的煤油灯擦拭得锃亮锃亮。孩子们被打发出去担甘醇的泉水。
This gave us the opportunity to see every day if the crawfish had increased a lot more. Later, walking down the path to the bathroom outside the house, you have the opportunity to dream all kinds of dreams in the Sears-Roberts catalog, which are mostly beautiful dreams about shotguns or bicycles.
这倒使我们有机会天天看小龙虾是不是又增加了许多。后来，走在去屋外厕所的小道上，你又有机会在西尔斯·罗伯克商品目录里做着各式各样的梦，那多半是些有关猎枪或自行车的美梦。
Without electricity, the radio, which can tie the hearts of young people, is not useful. However, there were one or two families that did have radios. They used mail-order batteries that were about the size of today’s car batteries. But they weren’t for kids to play with, although sometimes you might be invited inside to listen to Amos and Andy.
没有电，能把年轻人的心儿拴住的收音机也就派不上用场。但是，倒也确有一两户人家有收音机。他们用的是邮购来的、大小和今天的汽车电瓶差不离儿的电池。不过，它们可不是给孩子们随便玩儿的，虽然有时，你也许被请进屋去听听《阿莫斯与安迪》。
When I think of that scene today, I just remember that it was kind of weird to hear the voices coming out of the furniture. Much later, someone nudged me to say that whoever listened to Amos and Andy was a racist. Fortunately, I didn’t listen to much ……
如今想起那种情景，只记得，听着声音从家具里冒出来，挺奇怪的。很久以后，有人点拨我说，谁听了《阿莫斯与安迪》，谁就是种族主义分子。幸而我听得不多……
In summer, staying inside the house is not much fun. Every happy thing happens outside in the world. Among the flowers, there are hummingbirds hiding, their tiny wings fluttering so rapidly that at first glance, it looks as if they don’t have wings at all.
夏天，待在屋子里是不会有什么乐趣的。每一桩开心的事儿都发生在外面的世界里。花丛中，藏着蜂鸟，小小的翅膀扑腾扑腾得那么急，乍一看，好像它们根本就没长翅膀似的。
In the heat of the afternoon, the women lowered the curtains and spread their blankets on the ground to cool off and take a nap. And at this time in the field, the cattle hid under the leafy trees, huddled in the thick shade of the blazing sun overhead. The afternoon was extremely still and quiet, but sound was everywhere. Bees were buzzing in the alfalfa bushes; the sound of an old steam grain elevator zapping in the far field was faintly audible; birds were flying around under the tin roofs, making rustling sounds.
暑气袭人的午后，女人们放下窗帘，把毯子铺到地上，乘凉、打盹儿。而此时的野外，牛群躲到枝繁叶茂的树下，挤在头顶烈日的浓阴里。下午极静极静，但声音却无处不在。蜜蜂在苜蓿丛中嗡嘤着；远方的田野上，一台老式蒸汽扬谷机扎扎扎的声音，隐约可闻；鸟雀在铁皮屋檐下飞来飞去，发出沙沙的声响。
On the dirt road over the hill, the dust rose up, signaling something was coming. A car was coming this way, and someone shouted “car coming”. People have come out of the house, while examining the approaching flying dust, while guessing who is sitting in the car.
山那边的土路上，尘土飞扬而起，预示着什么事情的来临。一辆车子正朝这边开来，谁喊了声「车来噜」。人们纷纷走出屋子，一边审视着渐渐逼近的飞扬的尘土，一边猜着车子里坐着的是什么人。
Then – and this was the biggest moment of the day – the car drove slowly past.
“Who is it?”
“Didn’t get a good look.”
“Looks like Pucky Painter.”
“It can’t be Parky. It’s not his car.”
接着——这是一天中最重大的时刻——汽车缓缓地驶了过去。
「是谁呀？」
「没看清楚。」
「像是帕基·佩恩特吧。」
「不会是帕基。不是他的车子。」
Afterwards, the silence falls softly like dust. You skulk past the chicken coop, and a hen is lying there laying her eggs, an incredible thing. The more tasty and exciting thing is still in the field. The bull is in the field. You can go there to test your mettle: see how close you dare to the bull, and then run back to the side of the fence.
过后，寂静复如灰尘一般轻轻地落了下来。你溜达着，从鸡舍前经过，一只母鸡正卧在那儿于着下蛋这样不可思议的事儿。更够味儿、更够刺激的事还是在田野上。公牛就在田野上。你可以到那儿去试试自己的胆量：看看你究竟敢与公牛挨得多近，然后再拼命跑回栅栏的这边。
The men wandered back to their homes with the sinking sun, the heat of exhaustion emanating from their bodies. They sat in tin baths, washing themselves in the spring water carried back in wooden barrels. I knew some of their secrets, such as who hid the whiskey in the Mason jar behind the linden barrel, why a certain someone had found an excuse to leave the kitchen and sneak out into the yard, where he was laughing – what the hell was he doing.
男人们驮着西沉的夕阳晃悠晃悠地回到了家里，身上散发着疲惫的热气。他们坐在铁皮澡盆里，在用木桶担回的泉水洗着身子。我知道一些他们的秘密，比方说谁把威士忌酒藏在了椴木桶后面的梅森瓶子里，某某人为什么要找个借口离开厨房，溜到院子里，在那儿哈哈大笑——他到底在干着什么好事儿。
I also know how women feel about this kind of thing, although I’m not sure what they think. Even at that time, I understood that the summer night’s breeze were ruined.
我也知道女人们对这种事的感觉，虽然不清楚她们的想法。甚至在那个时候，我就明白夏夜的清风都给毁了。
The sun was setting and people were sitting in front of their homes. The twilight was getting thicker. Fireflies were caught and bottled just as they flew out. The heavy twilight melted into the pale night. A bat swept across the dirt road. At that time, I was not afraid of bats, I was only afraid of ghosts. The ghosts made bedtime, even in a room where the kerosene lamps were almost out, so frightening.
太阳落山了，人们坐在自家的门前。暮色渐浓。萤火虫刚飞出来就被捉住、装进了瓶子里。浓重的暮霭融进了苍茫的夜色里。一只蝙蝠从土路上飞掠而过。那时，我不怕蝙蝠，我只怕鬼魂。鬼魂们使得就寝时分，哪怕是在一间快熄了煤油灯的屋子里，也是那么令人恐惧。
I am more afraid of toads, especially those under the door step. Just touching them gives me goose bumps. That’s what everyone said to me. One night, I was allowed to stay late until the stars filled the sky. In the village, an elderly woman was dying. It was said that it was auspicious to let the children stay outside the house late into the night at this time. The four of us sat in the dark. A shooting star crossed the night sky and who said, “Make a wish.”
我更怕的是癞蛤蟆，尤其是门阶下面的那些。只要一碰到它们，就会使我身上起鸡皮疙瘩。人人都是这么对我说的。一天夜里，我被允许待到很晚，一直到星星布满了天空。村里，一个老年妇女快要死了。据说这个时候让孩子们在屋外待到深夜，是吉利的。我们四个人在黑夜里坐着。一颗流星划过夜空，谁说了声：「许个愿吧。」
I didn’t know what it meant and I didn’t know what kind of wish I should make.
我不懂得这句话的含义，也不知道自己该许个什么样的愿。
译者：松风
文字来源：百度《心愿不及的夏天》，拉塞尔·贝克
