“I did once,” he said.
The woman came to our table. “Drinks?” she inquired.
“We’ll have beer,” I said. She nodded and went away.
“How she has changed! Thank heaven she didn’t recognize me,” mutteredFather mopping his face with a handkerchief. “I knew her before I ever met yourmother, “he went on. “I was a student, on a tour. She was a lovely young thing,very graceful. I fell madly in live with her, and she with me.”
“Does Mother know about her?” I blurted out, resentfully.
“Of course,” Father said gently. He looked at me a little anxiously. I feltembarrassed for him.
I said, “Dad, you don’t have to-“
“Oh, yes, I want to tell you. I don’t want you wondering about this. Herfather objected to our romance. I was a foreigner. I had no prospects, and wasdependent on my father. When I wrote Father that I wanted to get married he cutoff my allowance. And I had to go home. But I met the girl once more, and toldher I would return to America, borrow enough money to get married on, and comeback for her in a few months.”
“We know,” he continued, “that her father might intercept a letter, so weagreed that I would simply mail her a slip of paper with a date on it, the timeshe was to meet me at a certain place; then we’d married. Well, I went home, gotthe loan and sent her the date. She received the note. She wrote me:” I’ll bethere.” But she wasn’t. Then I found that she had been married about two weeksbefore, to a local innkeeper. She hadn’t waited.”
Then my father said,” Thank God she didn’t. I went home, met your mother,and we’ve been completely happy. We often joke about that youthful loveromance.”
The woman appeared with our beer.
“You are from America?” she asked me.
“Yes,” I said.
She beamed. “A wonderful country, America.”
“Yes, a lot of your countrymen have gone there. Did you ever think ofit?”
“Not me. Not now,” she said. “I think so one time, a ling time ago. But Istay here. It much better here.”
We drank our beer and left. Outside I said,” Father, just how did you writethat date on which she was to meet you?”
He stopped, took out an envelope and wrote on it. “Like this,” he said.“12/11/73, which was, of course, December 11, 1973.”
“No!” I exclaimed. “It isn’t in Denmark or any European country. Over herethey write the day first, then the month. So that date wouldn’t be December 11but the 12th of November!”
Father passed his hand over his face. “So she was there!” he exclaimed.“And it was because I didn’t show up that she got married.” He was silent awhile. “Well,” he said., “I hope she’s happy. She seems be.”
As we resumed walking I blurted out, “It is a lucky thing it happened thatway. You wouldn’t have met Mother.”
He put his arm around my shoulders, looked at me with a heart-warmingsmile, and said, “I was doubly lucky, young fellow, for otherwise I wouldn’thave met you, either!”
【参考译文】
事情发生在丹麦的一个富有画意的客栈里 。这种客栈专逢迎游客，通用英语 。我和父亲这次旅行也是办事，也游乐，空闲的时候，玩得很痛快 。
父亲说：“可惜你 妈不能来 。如果能带她来逛逛，多好 。”
父亲年轻时到过丹麦 。我问他，“从你上次来，有多久了?”
“哦，差不多三十年了 。我记得那时就住在这家小客栈里 。”
父亲四下望望，回忆道：“那些日子真美……”他忽然住口不言，脸色转白 。我顺着他的眼光看去，只见房间那边有个女人正端着托盘在客人面前上酒 。她从前可能很美，但是现在已经发胖，头发也很乱 。我问父亲：“你认识她吗?”
他说：“从前认识 。”
女人走到我们的桌前 。问道“要酒吗?”
我说：“我们要啤酒 。”她点点头，去了 。
父亲掏出手巾擦额，低声说道：“她真变了!谢天谢地，幸而她没认出我来 。我认识她在你的妈妈之前，那时候我是学生，假期旅行到这里 。她年轻漂亮，非常可爱 。我爱她到了极点，她也爱我 。”
我很不高兴地冲口问道：“妈晓得她的事吗?”
“当然知道 。”父亲略感不安地望着我 。我都替他难为情 。
我说：“爸爸，你用不着……”
“哦，我要告诉你，我不要你乱猜 。她的父亲反对我们相爱 。我是外国人，又没有好前途，还要依靠父亲 。我写信给父亲说要结婚，父亲就不寄钱来 。我只好回家 。但是我又和她见了一次面，告诉她我要回美国去借结婚的钱，过几个月就来找她 。”
“我们知道，”他接着说，“她父亲可能会拆看我们的信件，所以商量好我只寄给她一张纸，上面写个日期，那是要她在某处和我见面的时间，然后我们就结婚 。后来我回家去，借到钱把日期寄给她 。”

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标题：英文散文|经典英语散文阅读精选( 三 )