翻译天堂  2016-09-03

Some say we never really know another person, that we really have only our perceptions of another while the real person remains a mystery, perhaps even to himself. At no time does this seem truer than after a person’s death, when perceptions are all that remain. It’s a truth that vividly came home to me after my father’s death. 有人说：我们从未能真正了解一个人，我们有的只是自己的看法，而这个人本身会保持神秘，甚至连他本人也无法完全地了解自己。尤其是当一个人去世之后，这就更加真实不过了，他所留在这个世上的就剩下人们对他的看法。当父亲去世时，我彻底地领悟到了这个真理。

My father’s office called my mother soon after he died to say they had decided to name one of their conference rooms in his memory. He had been prominent in their firm and they wanted to have a portrait of him to hang in the room. So we sat down, my mother, my brother, my sister and I, and began sorting through boxes and trunks, looking for pictures of him that could be used by the portrait artist. 我父亲去世后不久，他公司的同事就打电话给我母亲，说为了纪念父亲，他们决定以其名字命名公司其中一个会议室。父亲在公司颇有名声，他们想要一幅父亲的肖像挂在会议室里。所以母亲、哥哥、姐姐和我，坐下商量之后，开始在大大小小的箱子里搜寻能够为肖像画家所用的父亲的照片。

Curiously, there weren’t many. He’d never been fussy about having his picture taken, especially in his later years when he was crippled with arthritis. We finally came up with a handful; ranging from his Air Force picture when he was in his late twenties to a snapshot of him at age 60, sitting, cane in hand, in a lawn chair in the yard. 奇怪的是，照片并不多。父亲不怎么爱拍照，尤其是晚年患上关节炎，行动不便。我们最终找到父亲的一小部分照片，从他快30岁还在空军时到他60岁拄着拐杖坐在院子里的草坪躺椅上的。

My brother’s artist friend volunteered to do the portrait. We gathered in great anticipation when it was finished and my brother brought it for us to see. It was hideous. The artist started from father’s picture as an old man and tried to shave a few years off him. Dorian Grey’s portrait looked better. 我哥哥的朋友是个艺术家，他自告奋勇，想为我们画父亲的肖像。他画完时，我们都满怀期待，想聚在一起，等着哥哥把肖像带给我们看。太糟糕了！那个艺术家从我父亲晚年的照片着手，然后试图把父亲画得年轻几岁。道林·格雷的画像看起来都好看很多。

So I, the youngest daughter, piped up and suggested that he try again, this time starting with my father’s Air Force picture and making it a litter older. 因此，我作为最小的女儿，主动建议他重新画一幅，这次从我父亲当空军时的照片着手，然后把父亲画得成熟几岁。

A month later the portrait arrived. Everyone stared at it for a long time. My sister, always a very black and white person, announced as soon as she saw it that she didn’t like it; it wasn’t him. My mother agreed that it looked like his Air Force picture but said she just couldn’t remember my father back that far anymore. My brother liked it well enough but he said he really didn’t have an eye for these things. He never got along well with Dad so I think he felt that disqualified him. 一个月后，肖像送过来了。每个人都久久地凝视着画像。我的姐姐，一向是个黑白分明的人，一见到画像就声明她不喜欢这幅画，那并不是父亲。母亲同意说这看着确实想空军照片中的父亲，但是她记不起那个时候父亲的模样了。我的哥哥则相当喜欢这幅画，但是他说对于画像，他的鉴赏能力并不高。他和父亲不怎么相处得来，所以他认为自己并没有资格发表意见。

The firm didn’t like the portrait either. The secretaries all remembered him as the wizened, old man shuffling to his office. Even his partner of 30 years preferred to remember him that way. So they retained their own artist and commissioned another portrait, the portrait of an old man. 父亲公司的同事也不喜欢这副肖像。在秘书们的印象中，他是个消瘦的老头，总是缓慢地走向他的办公室。甚至和父亲共事30年的搭档也更倾向于记得他诗歌销售的老头。所以他们自己雇佣了画家，委托他重新画一幅肖像，一幅老人的肖像。