My father was, I am sure, intended by nature to be a cheerful, kindly man. Until he was thirty-four years old he worked as a farm-hand for a man named Thomas Butterworth whose place lay near the town of Biddable, Ohio. He had then a horse of his own and on Saturday evenings drove into town to spend a few hours in social intercourse with other farm-hands. In town he drank several glasses of beer and stood about in Ben Head's saloon-crowded on Saturday evenings with visiting farm-hands. Songs were sung and glasses thumped on the bar. At ten o'clock my father drove home along a lonely country road, made his horse comfortable for the night and himself went to bed, quite happy in his position in life. He had at that time no notion of trying to rise in the world.

It was in the spring of his thirty-fifth year that father married my mother, then a country schoolteacher, and in the following spring I came wriggling and crying into the world. Something happened to the two people. They became ambitious. The American passion for getting up in the world took possession of them.

It may have been that mother was responsible. Being a schoolteacher she had no doubt read books and magazines. She had, I presume, read of how Garfield, Lincoln, and other Americans rose from poverty to fame and greatness and as I lay beside her---in the days of her lying-in---she may have dreamed that I would some day rule men and cities. At any rate she induced father to give up his place as a farm-hand, sell his horse and embark on an independent enterprise of his own. She was a tall silent woman with a long nose and troubled Grey eyes. For herself she wanted nothing. For father and myself she was incurably ambitious.

生活的转折点

舍伍德·安德生

我相信父亲天生就是一个快活、和善的人。他当过农场雇工，在俄亥俄州比德韦尔镇附近为一个名叫托马斯·马特活斯的人干活，一直干到三十四岁。那时他自己有一匹马。星期六晚上，他总要骑着它到镇上去，跟其他雇工们一起聊上几个小时。在镇上，他总泡在本·黑兹酒 吧间里，喝上几杯啤酒。每适星期六晚上，酒吧间里总是挤满了前来消遣的雇工，到处是歌声和酒杯碰击酒吧的声音。一到十点，父亲就沿着一条人迹稀少的乡间小道骑马回家。安顿好马以后，自己也就上床睡觉了。他对他所处的地位是相当满意的。那时他还没有要在这个世道上向上爬的念头。

在他三十五岁那年的春天，他和我母亲结婚了。当时母亲是乡村学校的一名教师。第二年春天，我就呱呱坠地了。从那时起，他俩也发生了变化，开始变得雄心勃勃了。美国人的那种要出人头地的强烈欲望占据了他们的心灵。

可能这要怪我母亲。她是一个教师，肯定读过一些书和杂志。我猜想，她读过有关伽菲尔德、林肯和其他一些美国人是怎样从穷苦人变成有声望的伟人的书籍；或许，在她的产期里，她也梦想过躺在她身边的我，有朝一日也会去统治人们和城市。不管怎么说，是她劝说父亲辞掉雇工工作，卖掉那匹马，去从事一项独立的事业。她个子挺高，沉默寡言，长长的鼻子，一双灰眼睛，流露出忧郁的神情。她为她自己并无所求，可为父亲和我，却有着无法遏制的勃勃野心。

【作者简介】舍伍德·安德生(1876—1941)，美国小说家，著名作品有《俄亥俄州温涅斯堡镇》。本文节选自短篇小说《蛋》。

【注释】lying-in:产期，分娩

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