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(单词翻译:双击或拖选)
35.
Our family was no longer getting larger. There were no new spouses1 on the horizon, no newbabies. My aunts and uncles, Sophie and Edward, Fergie and Andrew, had stopped growing theirfamilies. Pa, too, of course. An era of stasis had set in.
But now, in 2002, it dawned on me, dawned on all of us, that the family wasn’t static after all.
We were about to get smaller.
Princess Margaret and Gan-Gan were both unwell.
I didn’t know Princess Margaret, whom I called Aunt Margo. She was my great-aunt, yes, weshared 12.5 percent of our DNA2, we spent the bigger holidays together, and yet she was almost atotal stranger. Like most Britons, I mainly knew of her. I was conversant3 with the general contoursof her sad life. Great loves thwarted4 by the Palace. Exuberant5 streaks6 of self-destruction splashedacross the tabloids7. One hasty marriage, which looked doomed8 at the outset and ended up beingworse than expected. Her husband leaving poisonous notes around the house, scalding lists ofthings wrong with her. Twenty-four reasons why I hate you!
Growing up, I felt nothing for her, except a bit of pity and a lot of jumpiness. She could kill ahouseplant with one scowl9. Mostly, whenever she was around, I kept my distance. On those rarer-than-rare occasions when our paths crossed, when she deigned10 to take notice of me, to speak tome, I’d wonder if she had any opinion of me. It seemed that she didn’t. Or else, given her tone, hercoldness, the opinion wasn’t much.
Then one Christmas she cleared up the mystery. The whole family gathered to open gifts onChristmas Eve, as always, a German tradition that survived the anglicizing of the family surnamefrom Saxe-Coburg-Gotha to Windsor. We were at Sandringham in a big room with a long tablecovered with white cloth and white name cards. By custom, at the start of the night, each of uslocated our place, stood before our mound11 of presents. Then suddenly, everyone began opening atthe same time. A free-for-all, with scores of family members talking at once and pulling at bowsand tearing at wrapping paper.
Standing12 before my pile, I chose to open the smallest present first. The tag said: From AuntMargo.
I looked over, called out: Thank you, Aunt Margo!
I do hope you like it, Harry13.
I tore off the paper. It was…
A biro?
I said: Oh. A biro. Wow.
She said: Yes. A biro.
I said: Thank you so much.
But it wasn’t just any biro, she pointed14 out. It had a tiny rubber fish wrapped around it.
I said: Oh. A fish biro! OK.
I told myself: That is cold-blooded.
Now and then, as I grew older, it struck me that Aunt Margo and I should’ve been friends. Wehad so much in common. Two Spares. Her relationship with Granny wasn’t an exact analog15 ofmine with Willy, but pretty close. The simmering rivalry16, the intense competition (driven largelyby the older sibling), it all looked familiar. Aunt Margo also wasn’t that dissimilar from Mummy.
Both rebels, both labeled as sirens. (Pablo Picasso was among the many men obsessed17 withMargo.) So my first thought when I learned in early 2002 that she’d been taken ill was to wishthere’d been more time to get to know her. But we were well past that. She was unable to care forherself. After badly burning her feet in a bath, she was confined to a wheelchair, and said to beswiftly declining.
When she died, February 9, 2002, my first thought was that this would be a heavy blow toGan-Gan, who was also in decline.
Granny tried to talk Gan-Gan out of attending the funeral. But Gan-Gan dragged herself out ofher sickbed, and shortly after that day took a bad fall.
It was Pa who told me she’d been confined to her bed at Royal Lodge18, the sprawling19 countryhouse in which she’d lived part- time for the last fifty years, when she wasn’t at her mainresidence, Clarence House. Royal Lodge was three miles south of Windsor Castle, still in WindsorGreat Park, still part of the Crown Estate, but like the castle it had one foot in another world.
Dizzyingly high ceilings. Pebbled20 driveway winding21 serenely22 through vivid gardens.
Built not long after the death of Cromwell.
I felt comforted to hear that Gan-Gan was there, a place I knew she loved. She was in her ownbed, Pa said, and not suffering.
Granny was often with her.
Days later, at Eton, while studying, I took the call. I wish I could remember whose voice wasat the other end; a courtier, I believe. I recall that it was just before Easter, the weather bright andwarm, light slanting23 through my window, filled with vivid colors.
Your Royal Highness, the Queen Mother has died.
Cut to Willy and me, days later. Dark suits, downcast faces, eyes filled with déjà vu. Wewalked slowly behind the gun carriage, bagpipes24 playing, hundreds of them. The sound threw meback in time.
I began shaking.
Once again we made that hideous25 trek26 to Westminster Abbey. Then we stepped into a car,joined the cortège—from the center of town, along Whitehall, out to the Mall, on to St. George’sChapel.
Throughout that morning my eye kept going to the top of Gan-Gan’s coffin27, where they’d setthe crown. Its three thousand diamonds and jeweled cross winked28 in the spring sunlight. At thecenter of the cross was a diamond the size of a cricket ball. Not just a diamond, actually; the GreatDiamond of the World, a 105-karat monster called the Koh-i-Noor. Largest diamond ever seen byhuman eyes. “Acquired” by the British Empire at its zenith. Stolen, some thought. I’d heard it wasmesmerizing, and I’d heard it was cursed. Men fought for it, died for it, and thus the curse wassaid to be masculine.
Only women were permitted to wear it.
1 spouses | |
n.配偶,夫或妻( spouse的名词复数 ) | |
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2 DNA | |
(缩)deoxyribonucleic acid 脱氧核糖核酸 | |
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3 conversant | |
adj.亲近的,有交情的,熟悉的 | |
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4 thwarted | |
阻挠( thwart的过去式和过去分词 ); 使受挫折; 挫败; 横过 | |
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5 exuberant | |
adj.充满活力的;(植物)繁茂的 | |
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6 streaks | |
n.(与周围有所不同的)条纹( streak的名词复数 );(通常指不好的)特征(倾向);(不断经历成功或失败的)一段时期v.快速移动( streak的第三人称单数 );使布满条纹 | |
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7 tabloids | |
n.小报,通俗小报(版面通常比大报小一半,文章短,图片多,经常报道名人佚事)( tabloid的名词复数 );药片 | |
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8 doomed | |
命定的 | |
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9 scowl | |
vi.(at)生气地皱眉,沉下脸,怒视;n.怒容 | |
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10 deigned | |
v.屈尊,俯就( deign的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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11 mound | |
n.土墩,堤,小山;v.筑堤,用土堆防卫 | |
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12 standing | |
n.持续,地位;adj.永久的,不动的,直立的,不流动的 | |
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13 harry | |
vt.掠夺,蹂躏,使苦恼 | |
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14 pointed | |
adj.尖的,直截了当的 | |
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15 analog | |
n.类似物,模拟 | |
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16 rivalry | |
n.竞争,竞赛,对抗 | |
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17 obsessed | |
adj.心神不宁的,鬼迷心窍的,沉迷的 | |
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18 lodge | |
v.临时住宿,寄宿,寄存,容纳;n.传达室,小旅馆 | |
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19 sprawling | |
adj.蔓生的,不规则地伸展的v.伸开四肢坐[躺]( sprawl的现在分词 );蔓延;杂乱无序地拓展;四肢伸展坐着(或躺着) | |
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20 pebbled | |
用卵石铺(pebble的过去式与过去分词形式) | |
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21 winding | |
n.绕,缠,绕组,线圈 | |
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22 serenely | |
adv.安详地,宁静地,平静地 | |
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23 slanting | |
倾斜的,歪斜的 | |
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24 bagpipes | |
n.风笛;风笛( bagpipe的名词复数 ) | |
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25 hideous | |
adj.丑陋的,可憎的,可怕的,恐怖的 | |
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26 trek | |
vi.作长途艰辛的旅行;n.长途艰苦的旅行 | |
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27 coffin | |
n.棺材,灵柩 | |
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28 winked | |
v.使眼色( wink的过去式和过去分词 );递眼色(表示友好或高兴等);(指光)闪烁;闪亮 | |
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