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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
Altogether autumn
Suddenly, I think of my youngest daughter, living now in Amsterdam. Very soon she will call and ask “Have you planted the bulbs yet?” Then I will answer teasingly that actually I’m waiting until she comes to help me. And then we will both be overcome by nostalgia1, because once we always did that together. One entire sunny autumn afternoon, when she was three and a half years old, she helped me with all enthusiasm and joyfulness2 of her age.
It was one of the last afternoons that I had her around, because her place in school has been already reserved. She wandered around so happily carefree with her little bucket and spade, covering the bulbs with earth and calling out “Night, night” or “Sleep night”, her little voice chattering4 constantly on. She discovered “baby bulbs”, “kiddie bulbs”, and “mummy and daddy bulbs”, the latter snuggling cozily together. While we were both working so industriously5, I watched my kid very deliberately6. She was such a tiny thing, between an infant and a toddler, with such a round little tummy.
Every autumn, throughout her childhood, we repeated the ritual of planting the bulbs together. Every autumn I saw her changing, the toddler became a schoolgirl, a straightforward7 realist, full of drive. Never once dreamy, her hands in her pockets; no longer happily indulging in her fantasies. The schoolgirl developed long legs, her jaw-line changed, she had her hair cut. It was autumn again that I thought “bye roses, bye butterflies, bye schoolgirl”. I listened to her stories while we painstakingly8 burrowed9 in the earth, planting the promise of spring.
Suddenly, much quicker than I had expected, a tall teenager was standing10 by my side. She is taller than I. The ritual became rather silent, and we no longer chatter3 from one subject to another. I thought about her room full of posters and knick-knacks, how it had been full of treasures in bottles and boxes, white peddles11, a copper12 brooch, colored drawings, the treasures of a child who still knew nothing of money, who wanted to be read to and who looked anxiously at a spider at her room and asked, “Would he want to be my friend?”
Then came the autumn when I planted the bulbs alone, and I knew from then on it would always be that way. But every year, in autumn, she talks about it. Full of nostalgia for the security of childhood, the seclusion13 of a garden, the final moments of a season. How both of us would dearly love to have a time machine. To go back. Just for a day.
1 nostalgia | |
n.怀乡病,留恋过去,怀旧 | |
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2 joyfulness | |
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3 chatter | |
vi./n.喋喋不休;短促尖叫;(牙齿)打战 | |
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4 chattering | |
n. (机器振动发出的)咔嗒声,(鸟等)鸣,啁啾 adj. 喋喋不休的,啾啾声的 动词chatter的现在分词形式 | |
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5 industriously | |
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6 deliberately | |
adv.审慎地;蓄意地;故意地 | |
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7 straightforward | |
adj.正直的,坦率的;易懂的,简单的 | |
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8 painstakingly | |
adv. 费力地 苦心地 | |
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9 burrowed | |
v.挖掘(洞穴),挖洞( burrow的过去式和过去分词 );翻寻 | |
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10 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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11 peddles | |
(沿街)叫卖( peddle的第三人称单数 ); 兜售; 宣传; 散播 | |
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12 copper | |
n.铜;铜币;铜器;adj.铜(制)的;(紫)铜色的 | |
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13 seclusion | |
n.隐遁,隔离 | |
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