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Girls Of Summer
Author: Unknown
We lived on the banks of the Tennessee River, and we owned the summers when we were girls. We ran wild through humid summer days that never ended but only melted one into the other. We floated down rivers of weekdays with no school, no rules , no parents, and no constructs other than our fantasies. We were good girls, my sister and I. We had nothing to rebel against. This was just life as we knew it, and we knew the summers to be long and to be ours.
The road that ran past our house was a one-lane rural route. Every morning, after our parents had gone to work, I' d wait for the mail lady to pull up to our box. Some days I would put enough change for a few stamps into a mason jar lid and leave it in the mailbox. I hated bothering mail lady with this transaction, which made her job take longer. But I liked that she knew that someone in our house sent letters into the outside world.
I liked walking to the mailbox in my bare feet and leaving footprints on the dewy grass. I imagined that feeling the wetness on the bottom of my feet made me a poet. I had never read poetry, outside of some Emily Dickinson. But I imagined that people who knew of such things would walk to their mailboxes through the morning dew in their bare feet.
We planned our weddings with the help of Barbie dolls and the tiny purple wild flowers growing in our side yard. We became scientists and tested concoctions of milk, orange juice, and mouthwash. We ate handfuls of bittersweet chocolate chips and licked peanut butter off spoons. When we ran out of sweets to eat, we snitched sugary Flintstones vitamins out of the medicine cabinet. We became masters of the Kraft macaroni and cheese lunch, and we dutifully called our mother at work three times a day to give her updates on our adventures. But don't call too often or speak too loudly or whine too much, we told ourselves, or else they'll get annoyed and she'll get fired and the summers will end.
We went on hikes into the woods behind our house, crawling under barbed wire fences and through tangled undergrowth. Heat and humidity found their way throught he leaves to our flushed faces. We waded in streams that we were always surprised to come across. We walked past cars and auto parts that had been abandoned in the woods, far from any road. We' d reach the tree line and come out unexpectedly into a cow pasture. We' d perch on the gate or stretch out on the large flat limes tone outcrop that marked the end of the Woods Behind Our House.
One day a thunderstorm blew up along the Tennessee River. It was one of those storms that make the day go dark and the humidity disappear. First it was still and quiet. There was electricity in the air and then the sharp crispness of a summer day being blown wide open as the winds rushed in. We threw open all the doors and windows. We found the classical radio station from two towns away and turned up the bass and cranked up the speakers. We let the wind blow in and churn our summer day around. We let the music that we were only vaguely familiar with roar through the house.
And we twirled. We twirled in the living room in the wind and in the music. We twirled and we imagined that we were poets and dancers and scientists and spring brides. We twirled and imagined that if we could let everything --- the thunder, the storm, the wind , the world --- into that house in the banks of the Tennessee River, we could live in our summer dreams forever. When we were girls.
美文：夏日女孩
作者：佚名 翻譯：佚名
在還是小女孩的時候，夏天是我們的，那時，我家住在田納西河畔。在那些永無盡頭、一天天彼此交融的濕潤夏日裏，我們撒了野地跑著。我們在長長的周日中放任著自己，沒有學校的管束，沒有規則的羈絆，沒有父母的訓誡，沒有既定的觀念，隻有屬於我們自己的夢幻。我和姐姐，我們都是好女孩，沒有什麽需要我們去對抗和反叛的。這就是我們所知的生活，我們知道夏日正長，而且是屬於我們的。
我家門前的那條路是一條單車道的鄉間小路。每天早上，每天早上，父母上班以後，我會等著女郵差把車停在我們的信箱跟前。有時候，我會在大口玻璃瓶的瓶蓋裏放上夠買幾張郵票的零錢，再把它放在信箱裏麵。我討厭為這樣的交易去麻煩女郵差，這會延長她的工作時間。但我喜歡讓她知道我們家裏也有人寄信到外麵的世界。
我喜歡赤足走向我家的信箱，在沾著露水的草地上留下腳印。我想像著，足底濕漉漉的感覺使我成了一個詩人。除了艾米莉·狄金森的一些作品外，我其實從不讀詩。但是我想，懂得這類東西的人一定會赤足踏著晨露走向他們的信箱。
我們用芭比娃娃和旁邊小花園裏紫色的小野花來籌辦我們的婚禮遊戲。我們是科學家，嚐試牛奶、橙汁和漱口水的混合物。我們吃光一把又一把甜中帶苦的巧克力片，把勺子上的花生醬舔得幹幹淨淨。糖果吃完了，我們就從藥箱裏偷拿有甜味的弗林斯通複合維生素。我們成了用卡夫通心麵和幹酪烹製午餐的專家，並盡職盡責地每天給正在上班的媽媽打3個電話匯報我們的最新情況。但是，我們告誡自己：不要打太多電話，不要說得太大聲，也不要在電話裏過多地訴苦，要不然他們就會生氣，媽媽就會被解雇，美好的夏日也就完結了。
我們到屋後的樹林裏遠足，從帶刺的鐵絲籬牆下爬過，穿過纏繞糾結的灌木叢。熱氣和濕氣透過樹葉的罅隙撲上我們緋紅的臉頰。每次我們總是會意外地遇到溪流，於是我們就在其中涉水而行。我們走過被丟棄在遠離大路的林中的轎車和汽車部件。我們會一直走到樹林邊上，結果意外走進一個奶牛場。我們會倚坐在門上休息，或者攤開四肢躺在露出地麵的又大又平的石灰岩上。這些岩石標誌著“屋後樹林”的盡頭。 有一天，田納西河沿岸出現了暴風雨。這樣的暴風雨讓天變得陰沉，也驅走了濕氣。剛開始，一切寧靜又安詳。空氣中孕含著電流，乍起的風把夏日的清爽吹得豁然大開。我們敞開所有的門窗，把收音機調到兩個鎮子之外的古典音樂台，加重低音並把音量開得大大的。我們讓風吹進來，讓它肆意攪動著我們的夏日。我們讓似曾相熟的音樂在屋子裏轟鳴，我們則在一邊隨著音樂飛快地旋轉。
在風中、在音樂裏、在客廳裏，我們飛旋。飛旋著，想像自己是詩人、是舞者、是科學家、是春天裏的新娘。我們飛旋著，想像要是能讓一切——雷聲、暴風雨、狂風以至整個世界——旋入田納西河畔的那座房子，我們就能永遠活在我們的夏日之夢裏。那時，我們還是小女孩。
林貝卡 2010夏 於美國
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謝謝聆聽和留言。
緣自知音,
Wow, they are absolutely beautiful. Thanks for sharing them.
Have a nice weekend,
Rebecca
Sorry that it took me a couple of days to figure out how to upload my personal photos to my WXC account. I do enjoy taking pictures a lot, but I'm still kinda learning. You may click on my ID picture to find those five pictures around up right-hand corner on my 個人檔案 page. These pictures were all taken from our house, and hope you'll like them.
TGIF!
Wow, I cannot wait to see the beautiful pics you took.
I like the last part of this article,too.
"And we twirled. We twirled in the living room in the wind and in the music. We twirled and we imagined that we were poets and dancers and scientists and spring brides. We twirled and imagined that if we could let everything --- the thunder, the storm, the wind , the world --- into that house in the banks of the Tennessee River, we could live in our summer dreams forever. When we were girls."
這篇描述快樂童年生活篇段的文章讀來讓人感覺如此地生動親切,我們家就住在風景如畫的一條大河邊,春來秋去四季美景盡受眼底(有機會給你看看我拍的四季美景的照片). 家門口的大河約流過一百英哩後,將匯入文中描寫的這條Tennessee River,最後奔向Mississippi River.
我的兩個孩子也和作者當時差不多年齡, 加上這如同盛夏樹上知了常鳴唱的悠然的口琴音樂,就仿佛是在讀我孩子們一個個歡快的夏天經曆似的,回味無窮!
充滿了詩情畫意，寫的真好，謝謝你的現代詩。
福田,
謝謝你告訴我，我才知道博客裏“評論管理”有“恢複”功能呢，我剛剛把你的留言恢複了。
Thanks again,
Rebecca
夏天是我們這裏醉人的景觀
景觀裏人融入山青水碧天藍
天藍裏溫馨的夢漂浮在雲端
雲端是回蕩在時空裏的秋千
秋千盡頭是闊別已久的樂園
我沒有辦法恢複留言，但是你有。請點擊你博客裏的“評論管理”--左起第四個標題就是評論管理。找到我的留言，點擊“恢複”。
林林，你真可愛。是個大淑女。晚安！
I am terribly sorry. 本來想刪除自己的留言重寫，可是點錯了，把你的留言給刪除了，真是對不起。如果你不介意的話，你可以重新補上嗎？Thank you very much.
Sincerely,
Rebecca
福田,
我剛回家不久，打開我的電腦，來到我的博客，看到你的留言，你說會讓我“很吃驚”，又嚇了我一跳。跑到你博客裏一看，讀了留言後，讓我好感動呀，謝謝你告訴我。
你上次在我的博客裏留言說：“喜歡林誌穎演唱的《十七歲的雨季》”，我前兩天把這首歌曲做成了帖子，連接在這裏呢：
歌曲：十七歲的雨季 演唱：林誌穎
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=201104&postID=6610
Have a nice day,
Rebecca
http://blog.wenxuecity.com/blogview.php?date=201102&postID=30937