Wendy Hobday Haugh

景一选译

No one is useless in this world who lightens the burdens of another.

——Charles Dickens在这个世界上能减轻别人负担的人，都是有用的人。

——查理·狄更斯

As a child，1Was pretty lazy when it came to “doing”for my familv.1 worked hard atschool， did tons of homework， practiced for piano lessons. and sometimes looked after myyounger sister. Still.I found myself regularly resistingi the urge 2 to help out at home witheven the simplest things.

當我还是个孩子的时候，在为家人“做事”这件事上，我是相当懒惰的。我在学校努力学习，做一大堆家庭作业，上钢琴课，有时还照顾我妹妹。尽管如此，我还是发现自己经常抗拒在家帮忙做事的冲动，哪怕做的是最简单的事情。

If mv mother or father asked me to do something，1 would do it：not a problem. But thefact that I alwavs needed to be asked or told to do things-things I could plainly3 see neededdoing-undoubtedly bugged 4 my parents. What Mom and Dad didn't realize， though， was thatby age ten mv resistance5 to chipping in6 even bugged me！

如果我妈妈或爸爸让我做什么事情，我会去做——这没问题。但事实上，我总是要被人要求或吩咐去做一些事情——那是些显而易见需要我做的事情——这无疑困扰着我的父母。然而，爸爸妈妈没有意识到的是，在10岁前，我对他人插手的抗拒甚至让我心烦！

For a long time，1 wasn't bothered7 enough to actuallv do anvthing about it.But mvguilty consciences-knoWing I could and should do more for my families. and not justWhenasked-led me to feel pretty bad about myself.

很长一段时间以来，我都没有烦恼到要真的去做点什么。但是我的内疚感——我知道我可以而且应该为我的家人做更多的事，而不仅仅只是在被要求做的时候去做——让我觉得自己很差劲。

Every Wednesday afternoon， for example， my mother drove me to another town for apiano lesson. During my lesson， she'd rush to the nearby store and buy a week's worth ofgroceries. Given the fact that mv mom had just driven me twelve miles there. twelve milesback， paid for mV lesson. and boughr me a candy bar， you'd think I'd be grateful andgracious9 enough to help her bring the groceries into the house without being asked. But Iwasn't.

比如每个星期三的下午，我妈妈开车送我去另一个镇上钢琴课。在我上课期间，她会跑到附近的商店买一周分量的杂货。考虑到我妈妈刚刚开车12英里送我到那儿，又开车12英里把我送回来，为我付学费，给我买了一块糖果，你会认为我会很感激，会在未被要求的情况下很有礼貌地帮助她把杂货拿进屋里。但是我没有这样做。

I knew I should help her. But with homework weighing heavily on my mind-and with“me”still the center of my uruverse-lgenerally just brought in an armload and left the restfor Mom as I ran to my room， shut the door. and started studying.

我知道我应该帮助她。但是，由于家庭作业沉重地压在我的心头，而且“我”仍然是我世界的中心，我通常只抱着一堆东西进屋，把剩下的留给妈妈，然后我跑进房间，关上门，开始学习。

Don' t get me wrong： being conscientious 10 about school is a good thing， and I know myparents appreciated my hard work and good grades. But che thing is， even holed up in myroom I still felt guiity about not helping my mother morce.Sure I had workto do ——but shed worked all day，too！And after hauling 11 in thouse bags，and putting the food away， Momstill had to prepare for a tastydinner for the five of us. Smallwonder I felt guilty.

别误会我的意思：认真对待学习是件好事，我知道我的父母很欣赏我的勤奋和好成绩。……