妹妹，謝謝你把我領進美國文學的大門

我來美這麽多年，昏昏噩噩，對英文早就視而不見。也幾乎不說英文。混了這些年靠的是中學那點英文基礎和大學那點苦功夫（把一本詞典翻爛了）。托福考試雖然語法得滿分，但聽力是零分，甭提了。
自從你一年半多前把The Catcher in the Rye介紹給我，我看到了一片新天地。沒想到英文文學這麽吸引人。讀了Catcher後，我又讀了A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the Grapes of Wrath, A Farewell to Arms, the Old Man and the Sea, the Sound and the Fury, 大部分的Gone with the Wind, 和 The Great Gat*****y (這個要謝那個誰）。寫首小詩表示我的感激。

The autumn rains washed away the dust
Flowing between two places miles apart
While growing love to a new height
In cheerful winds and tender hearts

How sweet I feel whene'er I think of you
And how much I should thank you, dear
For bringing me ’The Catcher in the Rye'
Which enthralled me for the rest of the year

For months I've been living in the kingdom
Of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck
Away from college algebra and trig
Reveling or wailing on the couch or deck

O, dear, thank you, thank you, thank you again
Please do forgive me for my clumsy pen

2011年 Thanksgiving 寫於 Dallas Library