Mr. D.-L.-L. Smith,
長腿叔叔史密斯先生：

SIR: You never answer any questions; you never show the slightest interest in anything I do. You are probably the horridest one of all those horrid Trustees, and the reason you are educating me is, not because you care a bit about me, but from a sense of Duty.
先生，您從不回答任何問題，對我的所作所為沒有表示出一點點興趣。您可能是那些理事里最可惡的一個，您讓我受教育，完全是出于一種道義和責任，而毫無半點關懷和愛意。

I don't know a single thing about you. I don't even know your name. It is very uninspiring writing to a Thing. I haven't a doubt but that you throw my letters into the waste-basket without reading them. Hereafter I shall write only about work.
我對您一無所知，甚至不知道您的名字；寫信給“一個東西”沒有絲毫的意義。我絲毫不懷疑您讀都不讀我的信，就將它們扔進廢紙簍。今后，除了學業之外，我再也不寫其他任何事情了。

My re-examinations in Latin and geometry came last week. I passed them both and am now free from conditions.
我的幾何學跟拉丁文上星期補考都通過了。我一點問題都沒有就過關了。

Yours truly, Jerusha Abbott
您最真實的喬若莎?艾伯特

**************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

I am a BEAST.
我是個壞孩子。

Please forget about that dreadful letter I sent you last week-- I was feeling terribly lonely and miserable and sore-throaty the night I wrote. I didn't know it, but I was just sickening for tonsillitis and grippe and lots of things mixed. I'm in the infirmary now, and have been here for six days; this is the first time they would let me sit up and have a pen and paper. The head nurse is very bossy. But I've been thinking about it all the time and I shan't get well until you forgive me.
請原諒我上星期寄給您的那封蠻橫無禮的信——寫信那晚，我感覺到非常孤獨，渾身不舒服，喉嚨還隱隱作痛。現在我住進了大學病房已經6天了，今天他們第一次讓我坐起來，還給我紙筆。護士長兇極了。我總是心神不安，也許得不到您的原諒，我永遠都好不起來了。

Here is a picture of the way I look, with a bandage tied around my head in rabbit's ears.
這就是我現在的模樣，繃帶繞過我的頭，綁了個大結，像兔子的耳朵。

Doesn't that arouse your sympathy? I am having sublingual gland swelling. And I've been studying physiology all the year without ever hearing of sublingual glands. How futile a thing is education!
這樣您會有點同情嗎？我的淋巴結腫了。學了一年的生理課都不知道淋巴結在哪里，教育是多么無用呀。

I can't write any more; I get rather shaky when I sit up too long. Please forgive me for being impertinent and ungrateful. I was badly brought up.
我不能寫了，坐久了感覺有點虛弱。請原諒我的粗魯和忘恩負義。我從小就缺乏教養。

Yours with love, Judy Abbott
您充滿愛的茱蒂?艾伯特

**************************

Dearest Daddy-Long-Legs,
最親愛的長腿叔叔：

Yesterday evening just towards dark, when I was sitting up in bed looking out at the rain and feeling awfully bored with life in a great institution, the nurse appeared with a long white box addressed to me, and filled with the LOVELIEST pink rosebuds. And much nicer still, it contained a card with a very polite message written in a funny little uphill back hand (but one which shows a great deal of character). Thank you, Daddy, a thousand times. Your flowers make the first real, true present I ever received in my life. If you want to know what a baby I am I lay down and cried because I was so happy.
昨天傍晚，我坐在病床上，望著窗外的雨景，有一種強烈的感覺，覺得人生真是無聊煩惱透了。護士送了一個大的白色盒子給我，里面裝滿了鮮艷的玫瑰花。更令人愉快的是，上面還附有一張措辭優雅的便箋，一筆頗有性格的左斜體，一點點爬升上去。叔叔，謝謝您，一千個謝謝。您的花讓我第一次感覺如此真實，在我生命中第一次如此清晰的呈現。我高興極了，像個孩子似的，躺下來大哭一場。

Now that I am sure you read my letters, I'll make them much more interesting, so they'll be worth keeping in a safe with red tape around them--only please take out that dreadful one and burn it up. I'd hate to think that you ever read it over.
現在我確定您讀了我的信了。我以后會寫得更有趣些，這樣才值得用紅緞帶扎起來放在保險柜里——不過請找出那封糟糕透頂的信燒掉它。真不愿意您再重新讀起它。

Thank you for making a very sick, cross, miserable Freshman cheerful. Probably you have lots of loving family and friends, and you don't know what it feels like to be alone. But I do.
謝謝您使一個生病的，神經兮兮，又悲傷的新生高興起來。也許您有很多親愛的家人與朋友，無法明白孤獨是什么樣的滋味，可我的體會太深刻了。

Goodbye--I'll promise never to be horrid again, because now I know you're a real person; also I'll promise never to bother you with any more questions.
晚安。我保證以后決不再胡鬧了，因為我現在知道您是一個活生生的真人，而且我也保證以后不再拿問題來煩您了。

Do you still hate girls?
您還討厭女孩子嗎？

Yours for ever, Judy
您永遠的茱蒂

**************************

Dear Daddy-Long-Legs,
親愛的長腿叔叔：

Did you ever see this campus? (That is merely a rhetorical question. Don't let it annoy you.) It is a heavenly spot in May. All the shrubs are in blossom and the trees are the loveliest young green-- even the old pines look fresh and new. The grass is dotted with yellow dandelions and hundreds of girls in blue and white and pink dresses. Everybody is joyous and carefree, for vacation's coming, and with that to look forward to, examinations don't count.
您曾看到過我們的學校嗎？（這只是一句客套話，請別在意。）5月時節，這里的景致美妙極了。灌木叢中花團爛漫，樹枝上泛起一片青綠色——連最蒼老的松樹也煥然一新。草皮上點綴著黃色蒲公英，還有幾百個穿著藍的白的和粉紅衣裳的女孩們。每個人都歡欣快樂，無憂無慮。因為假期即將來臨，還有伴隨而來令人期待的一切，考試的憂慮也就拋在九霄云外了。

Isn't that a happy frame of mind to be in? And oh, Daddy! I'm the happiest of all! Because I'm not in the asylum any more; and I'm not anybody's nursemaid or typewriter or bookkeeper (I should have been, you know, except for you).
真令人心曠神怡，而我，叔叔，是里面最快樂的一個！因為我再也不是在約翰?格利爾孤兒院了，不再是誰的保姆、打字員，或會計（可您知道，如果沒有您，我只能是其中的一個）。

I'm sorry now for all my past badnesses.
對過去我所做的一切壞事，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I was ever impertinent to Mrs. Lippett.
我曾經可惡地對李皮太太，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever slapped Freddie Perkins.
我曾經打弗萊迪?平頓，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever filled the sugar bowl with salt.
我曾經把鹽倒到糖罐里，我很抱歉。

I'm sorry I ever made faces behind the Trustees' backs.
我曾經在理事們的背后扮鬼臉，我很抱歉。

I'm going to be good and sweet and kind to everybody because I'm so happy. And this summer I'm going to write and write and write and begin to be a great author. Isn't that an exalted stand to take? Oh, I'm developing a beautiful character! It droops a bit under cold and frost, but it does grow fast when the sun shines.
我以后要聽話、溫柔、又善良地對待大家，因為我太快樂了。而這個夏天我要開始寫作，開始成為一個偉大的作家。這還算不得一個崇高的目標嗎？我在培養一種美好的氣質！盡管寒冷和冰霜會使它低落下去，但燦爛的陽光又會使它迅速高漲起來。

That's the way with everybody. I don't agree with the theory that adversity and sorrow and disappointment develop moral strength. The happy people are the ones who are bubbling over with kindliness. I have no faith in misanthropes. (Fine word! Just learned it.) You are not a misanthrope are you, Daddy?
這是每個人的必由之路。我不相信所謂逆境、憂傷或失意會造就道德力量的理論。幸福的人才會熱情洋溢。我也不相信厭世者（好字眼，剛剛學的）。長腿叔叔，您不是一個厭世者吧！

I started to tell you about the campus. I wish you'd come for a little visit and let me walk you about and say:
我一開始就告訴您學校風景。我希望您能來稍微參觀一下，我可以陪您到處走走，告訴您：

'That is the library. This is the gas plant, Daddy dear. The Gothic building on your left is the gymnasium, and the Tudor Romanesque beside it is the new infirmary.'
“親愛的叔叔，那是圖書館，這是煤氣廠。您左手邊的哥特式建筑物是體育館，而它旁邊都鐸式建筑是新的醫院。”

Oh, I'm fine at showing people about. I've done it all my life at the asylum, and I've been doing it all day here. I have honestly.
哦！我很會帶人參觀喔。過去在約翰?格利爾孤兒院，我常常帶人參觀。今天還領人走了一整天。真的，不騙您。

And a Man, too!
而且是一位男士！

That's a great experience. I never talked to a man before (except occasional Trustees, and they don't count). Pardon, Daddy, I don't mean to hurt your feelings when I abuse Trustees. I don't consider that you really belong among them. You just tumbled on to the Board by chance. The Trustee, as such, is fat and pompous and benevolent. He pats one on the head and wears a gold watch chain.
真是一個不同尋常的經歷。我從未跟男人說過話（除了個別理事，但他們不算），對不起，叔叔，當我那樣談理事們的時候，并不是故意要冒犯您。我并沒有把您看著是他們中的一員。所謂理事，應當是肥胖、傲慢、一副慈善模樣，喜歡摸人腦袋，還掛了一個金懷表。

That looks like a June bug, but is meant to be a portrait of any Trustee except you.
那樣看起來像一只金甲蟲，可這是除您以外的其他所有理事的畫像。

However--to resume:
不過——言歸正傳：

I have been walking and talking and having tea with a man. And with a very superior man--with Mr. Jervis Pendleton of the House of Julia; her uncle, in short (in long, perhaps I ought to say; he's as tall as you.) Being in town on business, he decided to run out to the college and call on his niece. He's her father's youngest brother, but she doesn't know him very intimately. It seems he glanced at her when she was a baby, decided he didn't like her, and has never noticed her since.
我同一名男土散步、聊天、喝茶。他是一個很了不起的人物——茱莉亞家族的杰維?平萊頓先生。簡單地說，是她叔叔（詳細說來，我應該告訴您，他的身材和您一樣高）。他到城里辦事，順便來學校里看看侄女。他是茱莉亞爸爸最小的弟弟，但茱莉亞和他并不親密。好像在她的童年時代，他看了她一眼，沒有太多的好感，就再也不關注她了。

Anyway, there he was, sitting in the reception room very proper with his hat and stick and gloves beside him; and Julia and Sallie with seventh-hour recitations that they couldn't cut. So Julia dashed into my room and begged me to walk him about the campus and then deliver him to her when the seventh hour was over. I said I would, obligingly but unenthusiastically, because I don't care much for Pendletons.
無論如何，他來了，端坐在接待室里，帽子、手杖、手套放在一邊。莎莉和茱莉亞第7節是朗讀課，不能缺席。所以茱莉亞沖進我的房間，求我陪他到處走走，等她上完第7堂課再領他去找她。出于禮貌，我勉強答應了，因為我對平萊頓家族沒有多大的好感。

But he turned out to be a sweet lamb. He's a real human being-- not a Pendleton at all. We had a beautiful time; I've longed for an uncle ever since. Do you mind pretending you're my uncle? I believe they're superior to grandmothers.
不過他是一個溫文爾雅、情感豐富的人——一點也不像平萊頓家族的人。我們度過了一段美好的時光，從那時起我就渴望有個叔叔。您來作我的叔叔好嗎？我覺得叔叔比祖母還好。

Mr. Pendleton reminded me a little of you, Daddy, as you were twenty years ago. You see I know you intimately, even if we haven't ever met!
平萊頓先生讓我想起您，叔叔，像20年前的您。您瞧，我對您多么熟悉，盡管我們還沒有見面。

He's tall and thinnish with a dark face all over lines, and the funniest underneath smile that never quite comes through but just wrinkles up the corners of his mouth. And he has a way of making you feel right off as though you'd known him a long time. He's very companionable.
他高高瘦瘦，臉色黝黑，輪廓很深，雖然沒有開懷大笑，只把嘴角一咧，就能讓您覺得很舒服。盡管認識不久，卻一見如故。

We walked all over the campus from the quadrangle to the athletic grounds; then he said he felt weak and must have some tea. He proposed that we go to College Inn--it's just off the campus by the pine walk. I said we ought to go back for Julia and Sallie, but he said he didn't like to have his nieces drink too much tea; it made them nervous. So we just ran away and had tea and muffins and marmalade and ice-cream and cake at a nice little table out on the balcony. The inn was quite conveniently empty, this being the end of the month and allowances low.
我們走遍了中央廣場到游樂場的每個角落。他說他走累了，要喝杯茶，提議我們去學院小吃店。小吃店不遠，就在校門外的小路旁。我說該喊茱莉亞和莎莉一起去。他說他不愿自己的侄女喝茶太多，這會使她變得神經質。所以我們就徑直去了，坐在走廊上一張雅致小桌子旁用茶、蛋糕、冰淇淋和餅干。因為是月底了，大家的零用錢也都快花光了，店里正好沒人。

We had the jolliest time! But he had to run for his train the minute he got back and he barely saw Julia at all. She was furious with me for taking him off; it seems he's an unusually rich and desirable uncle. It relieved my mind to find he was rich, for the tea and things cost sixty cents apiece.
我們玩得很開心！可一回到學校，他就得去趕火車，只匆匆見了茱莉亞一面。茱莉亞對于我把他帶出去很惱火。看來他是一位非比尋常的富有又值得人家羨慕的叔叔。知道了他很富有，讓我感覺好過一些，因為茶和點心很貴，每樣要6角錢呢。

This morning (it's Monday now) three boxes of chocolates came by express for Julia and Sallie and me. What do you think of that? To be getting candy from a man!
今天早上（今天是星期一）快遞送來3盒巧克力，給茱莉亞、莎莉和我。您覺得如何？一個男人送來巧克力！

I begin to feel like a girl instead of a foundling.
我開始感到自己像個女孩子，而不是個孤兒。

I wish you'd come and have tea some day and let me see if I like you. But wouldn't it be dreadful if I didn't? However, I know I should.
我希望您哪天來吃茶點，讓我看看喜不喜歡您。可是如果我不喜歡，那豈不太糟糕了？不過，我相信自己應該要喜歡您的。

Bien! I make you my compliments.
好了，向您致意！

'Jamais je ne t'oublierai.'
我永遠不會忘記您

Judy
茱蒂

（來源：愛思英語網 編輯：丹妮）