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A Stranger at Home Volume1: Homecoming 原乡陌路人 第一章: 故乡

课文朗读

课文讲解

繁體中文譯本

Whenever someone asks me, Where are you from? I have to stop for a second and decide how to answer. I am from Boston, USA. But I am also from Poland.

每当有人问起，「你来自何方？」我得踌躇个几秒，才能决定该怎么答。我来自美国波士顿，但我也来自波兰。

I was born in Krakow, the old capital dotted with hundreds of red-brick churches, whose towers rise high above cobblestone streets like slender needles, gracefully bearing witness to one thousand years of the city’s history. The river Vistula weaves through Old Town like a silver ribbon, and on its bank stands the royal castle, a mosaic of stocky Gothic towers, elegant Renaissance galleries and baroque chapels.

我出生在科拉库，点缀着几百座红砖教堂的故都；鹅卵石的街道上，教堂的楼塔高耸如细针，优雅地见证城市历史上千年。维斯杜拉河像条银丝带蜿蜒穿过老城，岸边矗立着皇家城堡，一座拥有结实的哥德式楼塔，高雅的文艺复兴回廊与巴洛克式礼拜堂的镶嵌细工。

One day, when I was thirteen, my parents told me that they wanted to emigrate to the United States; it was 1987, and Poland was still ruled by the Communist Party.To my parents’ dismay, I burst into tears. I knew that living in the West meant a better future: If we left, I would be able to get into college without bribing the deans; I could get a good job without joining a political organization. To many people, this would sound like a dream come true. But I was old enough to know that it also meant something else; forever forsaking the place that I had known as home.

在我十三岁的某一天，爸妈告诉我，他们想移居美国；当时是一九八七年，波兰仍受共产党统治。我突然大哭了起来，教爸妈惊慌失措。我知道去西方世界生活意味着会有更好的未来：如果我们离开波兰，不必贿赂教务长，我就可以上大学；毋须加入政治组织，我就可以找到好工作。对很多人来说，这听来，像是美梦成真。但我也成熟到足以了解，这还意味着别的事：永远离弃这个我已经认定是家的地方。

Vocabulary

单词发音

dot [dɑt] v. 星罗棋布于；（星星点点地）布满

cobblestone [ˋkɑb!͵ston] n. 圆石；鹅卵石

slender [ˋslɛndɚ] adj. 修长的，苗条的；纤细的

bear witness to  作证支持...; 证明

weave [wiv] v. 迂回行进，穿行

mosaic [məˋzeɪk] n. 镶嵌；镶嵌工艺; 马赛克

stocky [ˋstɑkɪ] adj. 矮胖的；健壮结实的

Gothic [ˋgɑθɪk] adj.【建】哥德式的

Renaissance ['renəsɑns] n.（R-）文艺复兴; adj. 文艺复兴（时代）的

baroque [bəˋrok] n. 巴洛克风格; adj. 巴洛克式的

chapel [ˋtʃæp!] n.（附属于大教堂的）小礼拜堂

emigrate [ˋɛmə͵gret] v. 移居外国（或外地区）[（+from/to）]

to one’s dismay 令某人惊愕的是…

dismay [dɪsˋme] n. 惊慌，沮丧，气馁

burst into tears 突然哭起来

dean [din] n.（大学的）教务长；学院院长

forsake [fɚˋsek] v. 抛弃；遗弃；背弃

Sentence of the Day

They took their leave.

他们告辞了。

take one’s leave  告别; 告辞

课文朗读

课文讲解

Many years later, I went back to Poland for the first time. It was six in the morning when my train crossed the Polish border. Out of the window, I watched the sleepy countryside emerge slowly from the gray morning mist. The rolling hills, covered with a grid of fields, looked like a checkerboard with green and yellow squares. Village women came out of farmhouses, leading cows out onto the pastures. On the roads, noisy tractors, puffing up black clouds of smoke, passed horse-drawn wagons stacked with mounds of hay. This was the Poland I remembered. I couldn’t believe that I had been away for so long.

多年后，我第一次回到波兰。当火车进入波兰边界，时间是清晨六点。朝窗外看，睡眼惺忪的乡间，从灰蒙蒙的晨雾中慢慢浮现。起伏的山丘覆着一格又一格的田地，看来彷佛绿黄方格相间的棋盘。村妇从农舍里出来，领着乳牛朝牧场去。路上，吵杂的牵引机喷着团团黑烟，驶过载着一丘一丘干草的货运马车。这是我记忆中的波兰没错。不敢相信，我已经离开那么久了。

But even homecomings can be painful; they remind us that we are no longer truly a part of the place in which we grew up. When I finally arrived in Krakow, I had to check the map to get to my old house; in my native language, I asked the people on the street for directions. I had become a traveler in the city of my birth. That was when I knew that I would always keep traveling –and that home for me would be every place I came to love.

但是回家之路更教人痛苦；那提醒了我们，我们不再属于我们成长之地的一部分。最后抵达科拉库时，我得查地图才能找到老家，得用母语沿街问路。在出生的城市中，我变成了一名旅客。这当儿，我了解我将会一直旅行下去──而家，对我来说，将是一个一个我爱上的地方。

－by Dominika Baran

Vocabulary

单词发音

border [ˋbɔrdɚ] n. 边界，边境，国界

mist [mɪst] n.  薄雾，霭

rolling [ˋrolɪŋ] adj.  绵延起伏的

grid [grɪd] n. 格子

checkerboard [ˋtʃɛkɚ͵bord] n. 西洋跳棋棋盘；象棋棋盘

pasture [ˋpæstʃɚ] n. 牧草地，放牧场

tractor [ˋtræktɚ] n. 牵引机；拖拉机

puff [pʌf] v. 一阵阵地吹（或喷）

stack [stæk] v. 堆放[H][（+with）]

mound [maʊnd] n.（一）堆；（一）垛[（+of）]

Sentence of the Day

Home is where the heart is.

家是心所向的地方。

Home is where the heart is:（谚）心之所在即为家，金窝银窝，不如自家的狗窝  your true home is with the person or in the place that you love most

Krakow- Poland's Cultural Capital