心靈美文_我的老師，我的摯友 My Teacher, My Friend

看盡繁華,才懂淡然;經(jīng)歷磨礪,才得從容;讀懂人心,才知隨緣。夜深人靜的時候，聆聽來自心靈的呼喚。走進心靈，體會初衷。以下是聽力課堂小編整理的心靈美文_我的老師，我的摯友 My Teacher, My Friend的資料，希望你會喜歡!

　　一個充滿魅力的人生猶如順河漂流,你永遠不知道彎道那邊會有什么等著你,但你總是相信會有一些好心人在那里,以這樣或那樣的方式來幫助你,激勵你,引導你穿越激流。

　　
　　The man who stood at the entrance to my new world passed away recently, and though I hadn’t seen him in more than three decades, the news of his demise1) left me unexpectedly bereft2). I remember a warm voice, expressive eyes, and bushy eyebrows that wiggled3) comically at a pun or a joke. I remember someone who treated me with care, made me feel special when I—a stranger on a new shore—was terribly lost and bewildered.
　　那個曾引我進入新世界的人,最近辭世了。我已有三十多年沒有見過他,然而,聽到他離去的消息,我還是感到一種失去至親的痛苦,這是我始料未及的。我記得他那溫暖的聲音、炯炯的眼神、濃密的眉毛——一句雙關(guān)語、一個笑話便會使他那濃眉滑稽跳動。我記得,初次踏上這片陌生的海岸時,我曾感到那么地失落、迷茫,是他給了我無微不至的呵護,讓我感到自己與眾不同。

　　
　　My Class with Mr. K 　　凱先生的課程
　　Ernie Kaeselau was my first teacher in America. Having fled Saigon in spring of 1975 during finals in sixth grade, I landed in San Francisco a couple months later and attended summer school in Colma Junior High in Daly City, preparing myself for seventh grade. At that time I didn’t speak English, only Vietnamese and passable French.
　　I never knew what Mr. K’s politics were—liberal is my guess. But when it came to me—the first Vietnamese refugee in his classroom—his policy was plenary4) kindness.
　　Mr. K’s first question was my name and his second was how to properly pronounce it in Vietnamese. He would ask me to repeat this several times until, to my surprise, he got the complicated intonation almost right. And soon thereafter, the Vietnamese refugee boy became the American teacher’s pet. It was my task to go get his lunch, erase the blackboard, and collect and distribute homework assignments. When I missed the bus, he’d drive me home, a privilege that was the envy of the other kids.
　　For a while, I was his echo. “Sailboat,” he would say while holding a card up in front of me with an image of a sailboat on it, and “sailboat” I would repeat after him, copying his inflection and facial gestures. I listened to his diction. I listened to the way he annunciated5) certain words when he read passages from a book. If he could say my Vietnamese name, surely I could bend my tongue to make myself sound more American.
　　That first summer, he gave me A’s that didn’t count. He took our little group bowling, formed a little team, and taught us how to keep score. Then, he took us on a baseball field trip, my first. He took his time to explain to me the intricacy of the game. It was followed by a trip to Sonoma to see wineries and cheese factories. I remember crossing the Golden Gate Bridge for the first time, with Mr. K’s voice narrating its history, how it was built, and I remember asking him afterward if it was made of real gold, and the entire bus erupted in laughter.
　　Along with a bowling team, Mr. K formed a little book club. And for a few dollars, we—children of the working class and immigrants—became owners of a handful of books. The box came one morning in the middle of class, and it felt a bit like Christmas in July. We jostled each other to be up front at his desk as Mr. K read the title of each book out loud, then matched the book with the name of its owner. My first book in America was The Wind in the Willows, by Kenneth Grahame6), and I remember poring over7) its pristine8) pages in wonder. Perhaps it was then that the smell of fresh ink, paper and glue indelibly9) became for me the smell of yearning and imagination. I did not yet know how to read in English, oh, but how impatient I was to learn!
　　I pushed myself very hard to move forward. Within a few months, I began to speak English freely, though haltingly, and outgrew Mr. K’s cards. I made friends. I joined the school newspaper, became something of a cartoonist. By my second year in, I was getting straight A’s, no fake A’s needed anymore. Mr. K marveled at the change. I remember his astonished face when I argued against the class clown and won. I found my bearings10); I embraced my new world. 

　　厄尼·凱瑟勞是我在美國的第一位老師。1975年的春天,在六年級期末考試期間,我逃離了西貢,幾個月之后來到了舊金山,在達利市的柯瑪初級中學上暑期課程班,為上七年級作準備。 那時,我還不會說英語,只會說越南語,還會勉強說點法語。
　　我從不知道凱先生信奉什么樣的政治觀點——我想大概是自由派吧。但在對待我——他班上第一個越南難民的態(tài)度上,他采取的政策是無限的仁愛。
　　凱先生問我的第一個問題是我叫什么名字,第二個問題是這個名字在越南語里如何正確地發(fā)音。他要我一遍又一遍地重復這個發(fā)音,直到他差不多完全掌握了那復雜的音調(diào),這一點令我非常驚訝。此后不久,我這個越南難民男孩就成了這位美國老師身邊的紅人。替他打午飯、擦黑板、收發(fā)家庭作業(yè)都是我的差事。如果我趕不上班車,他就會開車送我回家,這種特殊待遇讓所有同學都羨慕不已。
　　有段時間,我簡直就是他的“應(yīng)聲蟲”。他把一張畫有帆船的卡片舉到我面前,說:“帆船。”我便模仿他的語調(diào)和面部表情,跟著他念:“帆船。”我留心聽他如何咬字,聽他朗誦課文段落時對于某些詞如何發(fā)音。他都能學會說我的越南名字,那我也一定能學會卷舌頭,好讓自己說起話來更像美國人。
　　在美國的第一個暑期,他給我的成績是A, 但我知道這并不是我真實的成績。他帶著我們一小伙兒人去玩保齡球,還組建了一支小型球隊,教我們怎樣記分。接著,他又帶我們?nèi)グ羟驁隹幢荣?那是我第一次看棒球比賽。此后,他又帶我們?nèi)チ怂髦Z馬參觀釀酒廠和奶酪廠。我至今還記得第一次通過金門大橋時的情景,耳邊還回響著凱先生向我們講述大橋的歷史和建造過程時的聲音。我記得后來我還問他,金門大橋是否真的是用金子造的,結(jié)果引得車上的同學們一陣爆笑。
　　除了組建保齡球隊,凱先生還成立了一個小小的讀書俱樂部。我們這些勞動階層和移民的孩子,只需花上幾美元便可成為一小部分書的主人。那箱子書是在一個上午送來的,當時我們正在上課,一看到書,教室里立馬歡騰起來,就像是在七月過圣誕一樣。我們一擁而上,跑到凱先生的桌前,聽他大聲朗讀每本書的書名,然后將書名與主人的名字對號。我在美國擁有的第一本書是肯尼斯·格雷厄姆的《柳林風聲》。當時自己仔細閱讀那些嶄新書頁的情形,我至今仍記憶猶新?；蛟S就是從那時起,清新的油墨、嶄新的書頁和芳香的膠水所散發(fā)的味道,對我來說成了渴望與想象的氣息,永難磨滅。當然,我當時還不能讀英文書,但我是多么如饑似渴、迫不及待地想要學會讀書啊!
　　我刻苦勤奮,以求進步。短短幾個月內(nèi),我已經(jīng)可以自如地說英語了,盡管說得不是那么流利。我掌握的詞匯也已超出凱先生的卡片范圍。我開始結(jié)交朋友,還加入了校報,為報紙畫漫畫。到了第二年,我每門課程的成績都是A,而且是我名符其實的成績,我已不再需要作為鼓勵的虛假成績了?？吹轿疫@些變化,凱瑟勞先生驚嘆不已。我至今仍記得,當我和班上有名的調(diào)皮鬼辯論并獲勝時,凱先生露出的表情是多么驚訝。我找到了自己的位置;我熱情地擁抱著我的新世界。

　　
　　My Beautiful City 　　催人奮進的城市
　　In my eighth-grade yearbook, in the lower left hand corner, Mr. K in his succinct11) and modest way left this note:
　　“To my good Friend. It’s been a pleasure to be your teacher & friend for 2 years. Don’t forget to keep me informed of your progress. Ernie Kaeselau.”
　　When I graduated from junior high, I came to say goodbye to Mr. Kaesleau and he gave me the cards to take home as mementos, knowing full well that I didn’t need them anymore. That day, I remember taking a shortcut over a hill and on the way down, I tripped and fell. The cards flew out of my hand to scatter like a flock of playful butterflies on the verdant12) slope. Though I skinned my knee, I laughed. Then, as I scampered13) to retrieve the cards, I found myself yelling out ecstatically14) the name of each image on each one of them—“school”, “cloud”, “bridge”, “house”, “dog”, “car”—as if for the first time.
　　It was then that I looked up and saw, far in the distance, San Francisco’s downtown, its glittering high-rises resembling a fairy-tale castle made of diamonds, with the shimmering sea dotted with sailboats as backdrop15). “City,” I said, “my beautiful city.” And the words rang true; they slipped into my bloodstream and suddenly I was overwhelmed by an intense hunger. I wanted to swallow the beatific landscape before me.
　　And that was that16), as they say. And I sailed on.

　　在我八年級的紀念冊里左下角的位置上,凱先生以他那簡潔而謙遜的筆調(diào)寫下了他的留言:
　　“致好友:很榮幸做了你兩年的老師和朋友。有了進步,勿忘告知。 厄尼·凱瑟勞。”
　　初中畢業(yè)時,我去向凱瑟勞先生告別。他將那些詞匯卡片交給我,要我?guī)Щ丶易鱾€紀念,顯然他很清楚,我已不再需要它們了。那天,我記得自己抄近路爬山回家。下山的時候,我絆了一跤,摔倒了?？ㄆ幌伦訌奈沂种酗w出,像一群嬉戲的蝴蝶一般灑落在郁郁蔥蔥的山坡上。雖然摔倒時擦破了膝蓋,但我卻大笑起來。然后,我開始小跑著拾撿卡片,一邊拾一邊還如癲似狂地喊著卡片上每一幅圖片的名稱──“學?！薄霸撇省薄皹颉薄胺孔印薄肮贰薄捌嚒暴ぉぞ拖裎沂堑谝淮巫x到它們似的。
　　就在那一刻,我舉目遠眺,在遙遠的前方,我看到了舊金山市中心。在帆船點點、波光蕩漾的大海的映襯下,那里熠熠閃耀的高樓猶如童話中用寶石打造的城堡?！俺鞘邪?”我喊道,“我美麗的城市。”這呼喊發(fā)自我的肺腑,溶入了我的血液。我忽然被一陣強烈的渴望所征服,我甚至想要吞噬眼前這片美麗的景色。
　　套用人們常說的一句話:“那個階段的生活就此劃上了句號。”我繼續(xù)揚帆前行。
　　
　　My Article 　　作者無意,讀者有心
　　I went to Lowell High School—a prestigious public school in San Francisco. I made new friends and ended up at Berkeley. That is to say, I left the working-class world and worked myself toward all the shimmering high-rises and the city’s golden promises.
　　I didn’t bother to look back, didn’t bother to keep my mentor and friend abreast of my progress. Several decades later, I, on one whimsical17) weekend, decided to write an article about learning English, and Mr. K was featured promptly.
　　Did I know that Mr. K read and treasured that article? Did I know that he, in retirement, kept coming back to it, to my writing—to me?
　　No. Not until this note from his best friend, another teacher, informed me of his passing.
　　“Most of us know what pleasure Ernie got from your article.… He sent copies to many relatives back East. I’m sure he couched18) it in pride for what you have accomplished, but he was deeply honored. What no one knows is he was a bit unhappy that there was no retirement recognition. He told me many times he didn’t want any big deal, but as the years passed, he would speak somewhat wistfully19) of the lack of acknowledgement. You gave him acknowledgement.”
　　To be honest, it never occurred to me to see the story from Mr. K’s angle. I had grieved for Vietnam, for my lost homeland, for many other things. I had traveled around the world many times, but I didn’t go back to where that little junior high stood at the foot of the mountains. Living so nearby, I had felt, unreasonably, that were I to drive to the junior high and peek through the window of my mentor’s classroom, he would still be there—that Mr. K would always be there, making other needy kids feel special, and that there would always be little bowling teams and little book clubs in the summer. And in dreams and reveries20), haven’t I revisited him countless times?
　　But that’s the trouble with childhood, isn’t it, especially happy ones? Happy children don’t question their contentment any more than fish wonder about the river’s current; they swim on. My childhood, interrupted by war, was rekindled by kindness. I felt blessed and happy, I went on blessedly with my business of growing up. Mr. K opened the gate and ushered me in, and I, so hungry for all its possibilities, rushed through it.  

　　我上了洛厄爾高中——這是舊金山一所知名的公立學校。我結(jié)交了新的朋友,最后進入了加州大學伯克利分校。換句話說,我離開了勞動階層的世界,開始一步步靠近那熠熠閃光的高樓大廈,奔向城市里的金色前程。
　　我從未回首,也不曾費心思向我的老師和朋友匯報自己的新情況。只是幾十年后,在某一個周末,我忽然心血來潮地打算寫一篇關(guān)于英語學習的文章,凱先生的形象片刻間躍入我的腦海,成了我描繪的對象。
　　凱先生曾讀過我寫的這篇文章,對之珍愛有加;即便退休以后,他還常常重讀這篇文章,重溫我的作品,重新憶起我的點點滴滴。捫心自問:這些我都知道嗎?
　　不,對此我一無所知,直到他最好的朋友,也是一位老師,來信告訴我他去世的消息。
　　“我們很多人都知道,你的文章給厄尼帶來了無盡的快樂……他給東岸的許多親戚都寄去了這篇文章。對你取得的成就,我想他一定引以為豪,同時也深感榮耀。但人們不知道的是,他對退休時沒有得到表彰一直有些耿耿于懷。他多次對我說,他并無多大奢求。然而,隨著歲月的流逝,他常常會悵然若失地談到自己沒有得到應(yīng)有的認可。是你給了他這種認可。”
　　說實話,我從未想到過從凱先生的角度來看待問題。我曾為越南感到悲傷,為我失去的故鄉(xiāng)感到悲傷,為許多其他的事情感到悲傷。我曾多次周游世界,但卻從未回到過那座位于山腳下的初級中學。也許是因為住得太近,我竟毫無緣由地認為,只要我驅(qū)車前往學校,從我啟蒙老師的教室窗口往里張望,他一定還會在那里——凱先生一定會永遠在那里,讓其他出身窮苦的孩子感到自己與眾不同,暑期里也總還是會有小型的保齡球隊,還有小小的讀書俱樂部。而在夢境與幻想中,我難道沒有一次又一次地與他重逢?
　　然而,這不正是童年——特別是幸福童年——的通病嗎?幸福的孩子總是對自己的幸福習以為常,猶如河中的魚兒總是對河中的流水習以為常一樣;他們只管前行。我的童年一度被戰(zhàn)爭打亂,但在仁愛的呵護下,我又重獲新生。我因此而感到幸福、快樂,并在幸福中自在成長。凱先生為我打開了一扇大門,引導我走進新世界,我對其中蘊含的無限奧妙求知若渴,于是匆匆穿過大門,直向前沖去。

　　Remembering Mr. K 　　凱先生的葬禮
　　The retired teachers sat on their pews to somber organ music. Wizened21), gray-haired, they rose, one by one, moving slowly, to speak with affection and humor of a man who was known as much for his aesthetic sensibilities and practical jokes and friendship as he was for his devotion to the art of teaching and to his students. Shared memories echoed inside the gilded columbarium22) like some ode to beauty itself …
　　He was a talented organist … loved driving cross-country … Spanish architecture and colonial history of California …created beautiful stained glass objects...
　　To all this I would say yet that his greatest talent is empathy: He intuited how one felt and, like a bodhisattva23), performed his magic to assuage24) grief.

　　在管風琴莊重的演奏聲中,退休教師們安坐在教堂的長椅上。形容枯槁、白發(fā)蒼蒼的他們一個個站起身,緩緩地走上前去,感情充沛而又不失幽默地講述著一位逝者的故事:他既以獻身于教育藝術(shù)和他的學生而著稱,又以審美觸覺敏銳、言談幽默、為人友善而聞名。共同的記憶在鍍金的骨灰壁龕里回蕩著,猶如一曲美的贊歌……
　　他是一位有才華的管風琴家……喜歡駕車越野……喜愛西班牙風格建筑以及加州殖民史……會制作漂亮的彩色玻璃物品……
　　除了這一切,我還想說,他最出眾的才華是他的善解人意和感同身受般的待人之心:憑著直覺,他能體會到別人的感受,然后,像菩薩一樣,施展法力替別人解難排憂。
　　
　　Sailing Toward the Unknown 　　念師恩,走人生
　　Suddenly he stood by the edge of a full-fed river … The Mole was bewitched, entranced, fascinated. By the side of the river he trotted as one trots, when very small, by the side of a man who holds one spellbound25) by exciting stories.(編者注:這里選自童話《柳林風聲》,詳見注釋6)
　　I did not fully appreciate the beauty of Grahame’s words. Yet even then, I knew that it had something to do with me—who, like Mole, albeit against my will, also left my insulated world and sailed toward the unknown.
　　A charmed life is one that goes down a river not knowing what’s behind the bend, but confident nevertheless that gracious strangers will be there in one form or another to aid and abet and be a guide through turbulent waters. Charmed was how I felt when I first came here and more than three decades later, charmed is how I feel today—and much of that, I will acknowledge, has to do with Mr. K.
　　
　　不知不覺間,他來到一條河水充盈的河畔?！B鼠像著了魔一般,看得如癡如醉。他沿著河畔一路小跑,就像一個人小時候被大人的故事迷住了,因而緊跟在大人身邊一路小跑一樣。
　　那時,我還不能完全領(lǐng)略格雷厄姆的文字之美。然而,即使在那時,我也知道文中所述與我有著某種聯(lián)系。我,和鼴鼠一樣,盡管情非所愿,卻也離開了我那封閉的環(huán)境,駛向一片未知的世界。
　　一個充滿魅力的人生猶如順河漂流,你永遠不知道彎道那邊會有什么等著你,但你總是相信會有一些好心人在那里,以這樣或那樣的方式來幫助你,激勵你,引導你穿越激流。我初來乍到時,感受到的就是這種魅力;三十多年后的今天,我感受到的依然是這種魅力——而在很大程度上,我必須承認,這與凱先生有莫大的關(guān)系。

　　1. demise [dI5maIz] n. 死亡
　　2. bereft [bI5reft] adj. 喪失親人的,忍受失去所愛之人而痛苦的
　　3. wiggle [5wIgl] vi. 擺動
　　4. plenary [5pli:nErI] adj. 無限的,充分的
　　5. annunciate [E5nQnFIeIt] vt. 宣告
　　6. Kenneth Grahame:肯尼斯·格雷厄姆(1859～1932),童話作家,生于英國蘇格蘭的愛丁堡,代表作有《柳林風聲》(The Wind in the Willow)、《黃金時代》(The Golden Age)、《做夢的日子》(Dream Days)等。其中,《柳林風聲》是一部經(jīng)典的童話,講述的是發(fā)生在蟾蜍、鼴鼠、河鼠和老獾等大森林動物們身上的故事,是一部關(guān)于友誼和家園的溫情之作。
　　7. pore over:用心閱讀,細心研究
　　8. pristine [5prIstaIn] adj. 干凈的,嶄新的
　　9. indelibly [In5delIblI] adv. 不可磨滅地,難忘地
　　10. bearing [5bZErIN] n. 相對位置,方位
　　11. succinct [sEk5sINkt] adj. 簡潔的,簡明扼要的
　　12. verdant [5vE:dEnt] adj. 青翠的
　　13. scamper [5skAmpE] vi. 奔跑
　　14. ecstatically [eks5tAtIklI] adv. 入迷地,欣喜若狂地
　　15. backdrop [5bAkdrRp] n. 背景,背景幕
　　16. that’s that:用于表示談?wù)?、調(diào)查、進展等的結(jié)束
　　17. whimsical [5(h)wImzIkEl] adj. 因心血來潮或異想天開而作決定的
　　18. couch [kautF] vt. (用語言)表達
　　19. wistfully [5wIstfulI] adv. 愁悶地,憂郁地
　　20. revery [5revErI] n. 空想,幻想
　　21. wizened [5wIznd] adj. 消瘦的,枯槁的
　　22. columbarium [7kClEm5bZErIEm] n. 骨灰盒壁龕
　　23. bodhisattva [7bRdI5sB:tvE] n. 菩薩
　　24. assuage [E5sweIdV] vt. 使緩和,使緩解
　　25. spellbound [5spelbaJnd] adj. 著迷的,出神的