Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

Is it snowing where you are? All the world that I see from my tower is draped in white and the flakes are coming down as big as pop-corns. It's late afternoon--the sun is just setting (a cold yellow colour) behind some colder violet hills, and I am up in my window seat using the last light to write to you.
您那里下雪了嗎？從我的小閣樓望去，大地茫茫的一片雪白，雪花如爆米花般紛紛揚揚飄落下來。此刻正是傍晚時分，太陽剛落到寒冷的紫色山頭后面，我坐在高高的窗臺上，在最后一點余輝中，寫信給您。

Your five gold pieces were a surprise! I'm not used to receiving Christmas presents. You have already given me such lots of things--everything I have, you know--that I don't quite feel that I deserve extras. But I like them just the same. Do you want to know what I bought with my money?
意外地收到您寄來的5個金幣！我還沒有養(yǎng)成收圣誕禮物的習(xí)慣。您已經(jīng)給我這么多東西了——我所擁有的一切，您知道的——我覺得自己已經(jīng)擁有太多了。但是我還是很高興。您想知道我用錢買了什么嗎？

I. A silver watch in a leather case to wear on my wrist and get me to recitations in time.
一、一只皮表帶的銀手表，使我能夠準(zhǔn)時復(fù)習(xí)功課。

II. Matthew Arnold's poems.
二、馬修?阿諾德的詩集。

III. A hot water bottle.
三、一個熱水壺。

IV. A steamer rug. (My tower is cold.)
四、一條輪船上用的小毯子（我的小閣樓很冷）。

V. Five hundred sheets of yellow manuscript paper. (I'm going to commence being an author pretty soon.)
五、500張黃色稿紙（我很快就要開始寫作了）。

VI. A dictionary of synonyms. (To enlarge the author's vocabulary.)
六、—本同義詞字典（可以增加作家的詞匯量）。

VII. (I don't much like to confess this last item, but I will.) A pair of silk stockings.
七、（我不太想告訴您最后一件，不過還是告訴您吧）一雙絲襪。

And now, Daddy, never say I don't tell all!
瞧，長腿叔叔，我對您沒有任何保留。

It was a very low motive, if you must know it, that prompted the silk stockings. Julia Pendleton comes into my room to do geometry, and she sits cross-legged on the couch and wears silk stockings every night. But just wait--as soon as she gets back from vacation I shall go in and sit on her couch in my silk stockings. You see, Daddy, the miserable creature that I am but at least I'm honest; and you knew already, from my asylum record, that I wasn't perfect, didn't you?
如果您一定要知道的話，是個很淺薄的動機促使我去買絲襪的。茱利亞?平萊頓每晚到我的房間里來做幾何題練習(xí)，她穿著絲襪，盤腿坐在我床上。不過等著好了，等她一放假回來，我就要走進(jìn)去，穿著絲襪坐在她的床上。您瞧，叔叔，我真是壞坯子，不過，至少我很誠實，您早就從約翰?格利爾孤兒院的記錄里知道我不是完美的了，不是嗎？

To recapitulate (that's the way the English instructor begins every other sentence), I am very much obliged for my seven presents. I'm pretending to myself that they came in a box from my family in California. The watch is from father, the rug from mother, the hot water bottle from grandmother who is always worrying for fear I shall catch cold in this climate--and the yellow paper from my little brother Harry. My sister Isabel gave me the silk stockings, and Aunt Susan the Matthew Arnold poems; Uncle Harry (little Harry is named after him) gave me the dictionary. He wanted to send chocolates, but I insisted on synonyms.
總而言之（英語教師每句話都會帶上這個詞），我對您送的這7件禮物都心存感激。我假裝它們是裝在一個大箱子里，從加州的家里寄來的。爸爸送表，媽媽送毯子，祖母送熱水袋——她老怕我在這種季節(jié)著涼——稿紙是弟弟哈里送的，妹妹伊莎貝爾送我長統(tǒng)襪，蘇珊姨媽送詩集，哈里舅舅（小哈里與他同名）送詞典。他本想送巧克力，可我堅持要同義詞詞典。

You don't object, do you, to playing the part of a composite family?
您不會反對扮演所有這些家庭成員吧？

And now, shall I tell you about my vacation, or are you only interested in my education as such? I hope you appreciate the delicate shade of meaning in 'as such'. It is the latest addition to my vocabulary.
現(xiàn)在我該跟您談?wù)勎业募倨诹耍蛟S您更關(guān)心的是我的學(xué)業(yè)本身。希望您能體會“本身”這一詞的微妙含義，這是我掌握的最新詞匯。

The girl from Texas is named Leonora Fenton. (Almost as funny as Jerusha, isn't it?) I like her, but not so much as Sallie McBride; I shall never like any one so much as Sallie--except you. I must always like you the best of all, because you're my whole family rolled into one. Leonora and I and two Sophomores have walked 'cross country every pleasant day and explored the whole neighbourhood, dressed in short skirts and knit jackets and caps, and carrying shiny sticks to whack things with. Once we walked into town--four miles-- and stopped at a restaurant where the college girls go for dinner. Broiled lobster (35 cents), and for dessert, buckwheat cakes and maple syrup (15 cents). Nourishing and cheap.
來自德州的女孩名叫藍(lán)依拉?芬頓（這名字幾乎和喬若莎一樣可笑，不是嗎？）。我喜歡她，不過比不上喜歡莎莉?麥克白，我可能不會喜歡其他人像我喜歡莎莉一樣——除了您。我應(yīng)該永遠(yuǎn)把您放在首位，因為您是我一大家子的化身。每當(dāng)天氣晴朗的日子，藍(lán)儂拉跟我還有兩個二年級的女孩子就散步到鄉(xiāng)間，穿著短裙和針織外衣，戴上線縫的帽子，拿上光滑的棍子四下里敲敲打打。我們的足跡遍布四周。有一回我們走到4英里外的鎮(zhèn)上，停在一家大學(xué)女孩子都在那里用餐的餐館。要了紅燜龍蝦（3角5分），吃完后再吃煎餅和楓糖漿（1角5分）。老天啊，有營養(yǎng)，又便宜！

It was such a lark! Especially for me, because it was so awfully different from the asylum--I feel like an escaped convict every time I leave the campus. Before I thought, I started to tell the others what an experience I was having. The cat was almost out of the bag when I grabbed it by its tail and pulled it back. It's awfully hard for me not to tell everything I know. I'm a very confiding soul by nature; if I didn't have you to tell things to, I'd burst.
這可真有趣！尤其對我而言，因為這跟孤兒院太不一樣了——每回我離開學(xué)校，總覺得好像逃獄的犯人。我不假思索就談起我的感受，幾乎說破了自己的秘密。我趕緊收住話題，守口如瓶真非易事。我天性誠實坦率，要不是有您來傾訴一番，我非憋死不可。

We had a molasses candy pull last Friday evening, given by the house matron of Fergussen to the left-behinds in the other halls. There were twenty-two of us altogether, Freshmen and Sophomores and juniors and Seniors all united in amicable accord. The kitchen is huge, with copper pots and kettles hanging in rows on the stone wall-- the littlest casserole among them about the size of a wash boiler. Four hundred girls live in Fergussen. The chef, in a white cap and apron, fetched out twenty-two other white caps and aprons-- I can't imagine where he got so many--and we all turned ourselves into cooks.
上星期五晚上我們吃麥芽糖，是由我們大樓的管理員提供的。還邀請了其他宿舍樓沒有回家的同學(xué)參加。22名不同年級的同學(xué)友好地聚集在一起。廚房很寬敞，石頭墻壁上掛著一排排銅鍋銅壺，最小的雙耳壺也和煮衣服的鍋一般大小。費高森樓住了400名女生呢。頭頂白帽，圍著圍裙的廚師又找出22套白圍裙和白帽子——想不出來他從哪里弄來的——于是我們?nèi)炎约貉b扮成廚師。

It was great fun, though I have seen better candy. When it was finally finished, and ourselves and the kitchen and the door-knobs all thoroughly sticky, we organized a procession and still in our caps and aprons, each carrying a big fork or spoon or frying pan, we marched through the empty corridors to the officers' parlour, where half-a-dozen professors and instructors were passing a tranquil evening. We serenaded them with college songs and offered refreshments. They accepted politely but dubiously. We left them sucking chunks of molasses candy, sticky and speechless.
真的很有趣，雖然我吃過更好吃的麥芽糖。當(dāng)一切終于結(jié)束時，我們每個人、整個廚房連同門板全都粘嗒嗒的，我們依然頂著白帽，圍著圍裙，每個人都帶著一把大湯匙或平底鍋，列隊穿過空蕩蕩的大廳到了教師休息室，那里有半打的教授和講師正在打發(fā)寧靜的夜晚。我們?yōu)樗麄兂８?，然后送上麥芽糖。他們彬彬有禮卻又猶猶豫豫地接了下來。我們離開了，留下他們吃著大片的麥芽糖，粘嗒嗒而且好吃得說不出話來。

So you see, Daddy, my education progresses!
所以您瞧瞧，叔叔，這就是我的求學(xué)過程！

Don't you really think that I ought to be an artist instead of an author?
您真的不認(rèn)為我應(yīng)該當(dāng)個藝術(shù)家，而不是作家？

Vacation will be over in two days and I shall be glad to see the girls again. My tower is just a trifle lonely; when nine people occupy a house that was built for four hundred, they do rattle around a bit.
再過兩天假期就要結(jié)束，我又可以高興地見到同學(xué)們了。我已經(jīng)感到有些寂寞不安了。9個人住著400人的房子，確實有些坐立不安。

Eleven pages--poor Daddy, you must be tired! I meant this to be just a short little thank-you note--but when I get started I seem to have a ready pen.
可憐的叔叔，您一定累了！我本來打算要寫封簡短的感謝函——不過我一提起筆，就寫了11頁了。

Goodbye, and thank you for thinking of me--I should be perfectly happy except for one little threatening cloud on the horizon. Examinations come in February.
晚安，謝謝您會惦記著我——我本應(yīng)該是無比快樂的，可惜心頭有一小朵烏云籠罩著----2月份要考試了。

Yours with love, Judy
您充滿愛的茱蒂

PS. Maybe it isn't proper to send love? If it isn't, please excuse. But I must love somebody and there's only you and Mrs. Lippett to choose between, so you see--you'll HAVE to put up with it, Daddy dear, because I can't love her.
又及：致上對您的愛意可能不太適當(dāng)吧！如果這樣，請您原諒。我總得愛個什么人吧，而可以選擇的只有您和李皮太太，所以您瞧，您得忍耐—下，親愛的叔叔，我實在無法愛她呀！

（來源：愛思英語網(wǎng) 編輯：丹妮）