母親的信

至今我依然記得母親的信。事情要從1941年12月說起。
Every night she sat at the big table in the kitchen and wrote to my brother Johnny, who had been drafted that summer.
母親每晚都坐在廚房的大飯桌旁邊，給我弟弟約翰寫信。那年夏天約翰應征入伍。
We had not heard from him since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
自從日本襲擊珍珠港以后，他就一直杳無音信。
I didn't understand why my mum kept writing Johnny when he never wrote back.
約翰從未回信，我不明白母親為何還要堅持寫下去。
Wait and see—well get a letter from him one day, she claimed.
可母親還是堅持說：等著瞧吧，總有一天他會給我們回信的。
I don't know if she said that to calm herself, dad or all of us down.
雖然我不肯定她是否只是在安慰自己，或是父親，或者是我們幾個孩子，
But I do know that it helped us stick together, and one day a letter really did arrive.
但我們一家人卻因此更加親密。而最終我們終于等到了約翰的回信，
She took the fountain pen, ink and air mail notepaper and began to write.
拿出鋼筆、墨水和信紙開始寫信。
When she had finished, she read the letter aloud to the woman.
寫完后為她大聲讀出來。
How did you know that was exactly what I wanted to say?
這正是我想說的話，您是怎么知道的呢?
I often sit and look at my boys' letters, just like you, without a clue about what to write.
我也和你一樣，常常坐在那里看兒子的來信，完全不知道寫什么好。
A few days later the woman returned with a friend, then another one and yet another one
幾天后，女人回來，帶來一個朋友，后來又來一個，再一個……
they all had sons who fought in the war, and they all needed letters.
他們都有兒子在戰(zhàn)場上奮戰(zhàn)，都需要寫信。
Mum had become the correspondent in our part of town. Sometimes she would write letters all day long.
媽媽變成了我們城鎮(zhèn)的通訊員，有時她一整天都在寫回信。
Mum always insisted that people signed their own letters.