她缓缓地转身做了一个足尖旋转，见到我站在门口。她的歌声嘎然而止，还有她那优美的动作，一切停止得如此突然，感觉像是从一场美梦中被人摇醒了。突如其来的寂静冲击着我的耳朵。祖母看起来很像是一个伸手从饼干罐里偷吃却被抓了个正着的小孩，我不禁发出了一阵略带一丝紧张的大笑。祖母叹了口气，转身走向厨房。我跟在她身后，还是不敢相信自己的眼睛。她穿着那双美丽的舞鞋，行走自如。我们坐在了桌边，从她那美味的蜜桃派中切出了大大的几块，俩人一起吃。

“那么……”我脱口而出道，“你的腿是怎么好了的？”

“To tell you the truth—my legs have been well all my life,” she said.

“跟你说实话吧——我的腿一直都挺好的，”她说。

 

“But I don’t understand!” I said, “Your dancing career… I mean… You pretended all these years?

“可是我不明白！”我说，“你的舞蹈事业……我是说……难道这些年来你一直在假装？”
 

“Very much so,” Grandmother closed her eyes and savored the peach pie, “And for a very good reason.”

“的确如此，”祖母闭上眼睛，品尝着蜜桃派，“而且是因为一个非常好的理由。”

“What reason?”

“什么理由？”

“Your grandfather.”

“你的祖父。”
 

“You mean he told you not to dance?”

“你是说，他让你不要再跳舞了？” 

 

“No, this was my choice. I am sure I would have lost him if I had continued dancing. I weighed fame and love against each other and love won.”

“不，这是我自己的选择。我确信如果我再继续跳舞的话，我就会失去他了。我权衡名利和爱情孰轻孰重之后，选择了爱情。”
 

She thought for a while and then continued. “We were talking about engagement when your grandfather had to go to war. It was the most horrible day of my life when he left. I was so afraid of losing him, the only way I could stay sane was to dance. I put all my energy and time into practicing—and I became very good. Critics praised me, the public loved me, but all I could feel was the ache in my heart, not knowing whether the love of my life would ever return. Then I went home and read and re-read his letters until I fell asleep. He always ended his letters with ‘You are my Joy. I love you with my life’ and after that he wrote his name. And then one day a letter came. There were only three sentences: ‘I have lost my leg. I am no longer a whole man and now give you back your freedom. It is best you forget about me.’”
 

她想了一下，然后接着说道：“当你祖父不得不去从军参战的时候，我们已经到了谈婚论嫁的阶段了。他离开的那段日子是我一生中度过的最可怕的时期。我很害怕会失去他，能让我不至于疯掉的唯一方法就是跳舞。我把我所有的精力和时间都投入到了练习之中，于是我成为了很棒的舞者。评论家对我好评连连，公众对我钟情有嘉，可我唯一能感觉到的却是我心中的痛，因为不知道我一生的挚爱是否能平安归来。然后我回到家里，一遍又一遍地读着他的来信，直到睡去。他总是在信的结尾写着：‘你才是我的幸福。爱你一生。’然后才是他的签名。但有一天我又收到了他的来信。信中只有三句话：‘我失去了一条腿。我不再是一个完整的人了，所以现在我将自由归还给你。你最好还是把我忘掉吧。’”
 

“I made my decision there and then. I took my leave, and traveled away from the city. When I returned I had bought myself a cane and wrapped my leg tightly with bandages. I told everyone I had been in a car crash and that my leg would never completely heal again. My dancing days were over. No one suspected the story—I had learned to limp convincingly before I returned home. And I made sure the first person to hear of my accident was a reporter I knew well. Then I traveled to the hospital. They had pushed your grandfather outside in his wheelchair. There was a cane on the ground by his wheelchair. I took a deep breath, leaned on my cane and limped to him. ”
 

“于是我立刻做出了决定。我向众人告别，离开了这个城市。当我再度归来的时候，我为自己买了一副拐杖，并用绷带把我的腿包得紧紧的。我告诉每一个人，说我遭遇了一场车祸，我的腿再也不可能完全复原了。我的舞蹈生涯就此结束了。没有人怀疑这个故事——我在回家之前已经学会如何惟妙惟肖地跛行。我确保第一个听说我出车祸的是一位我熟知的记者。接着我来到了你祖父所在的医院。他们用轮椅把他推了出来。在他轮椅旁边的地上有一副拐杖。我深深吸了一口气，靠在我的拐杖上，一瘸一拐地向他走去。”
 

By now I had forgotten about the pie and listened to grandma, mesmerized. “What happened then?” I hurried her when she took her time eating some pie.

此刻，我已经忘记了那块蜜桃派，入迷地听着祖母说话。“然后发生了什么事情呢？”当她停下来吃了几口派时，我追问道。
 

“I told him he was not the only one who had lost a leg, even if mine was still attached to me. I showed him newspaper clippings of my accident. ‘So if you think I’m going to let you feel sorry for yourself for the rest of your life, think again. There is a whole life waiting for us out there! I don’t intend to be sorry for myself. But I have enough on my plate as it is, so you’d better snap out of it too. And I am not going to carry you-you are going to walk yourself.’” Grandma giggled, a surprisingly girlish sound coming from an old lady with white hair.

“我告诉他，他并不是唯一失去了一条腿的人，尽管我的腿没给截掉。我给他看了关于我发生车祸的剪报。‘所以，如果你觉得我会让你在余生自怨自艾，想都别想。在外面还有全新的生活在等待着我们！我不打算为此而顾影自怜。而眼下我要做的事情已经够多的了，所以你最好也赶紧给我振作起来。而且你可别想我会背你——你要自己向前走。’”祖母咯咯地笑着，这位满头银发的老妇人令人吃惊地发出了少女般的笑声。
 

“I limped a few steps toward him and showed him what I’d taken out of my pocket. ‘Now show me you are still a man,’ I said, ‘I won’t ask again.’ He bent to take his cane from the ground and struggled out of that wheelchair. I could see he had not done it before, because he almost fell on his face, having only one leg. But I was not going to help. And so he managed it on his own and walked to me and never sat in a wheelchair again in his life.”
 

“我一瘸一拐地走开了几步，然后让他看我从口袋里掏出的一样东西。‘现在让我看看，你还是个男子汉。我可不会说第二次。’他弯下腰从地上拿起他的拐杖，挣扎着从那副轮椅中站出来。可以看得出他之前从未这样做过，现在只有一条腿的他差点扑倒在地。但我没打算帮他。接着他设法自己站稳了，向我走来，而且在他的后半生里再也没有坐回到轮椅上。”
 

“What did you show him?” I had to know. Grandma looked at me and grinned. “Two engagement rings, of course. I had bought them the day after he left for the war and I was not going to waste them on any other man.”

“你给他看了什么东西呢？”我一定要知道。祖母看着我咧嘴而笑，说道：“当然是一对订婚戒指了。在他从军参战的第二天我就买了这对戒指，我可不想把戒指浪费在任何其他男人身上。”
 

I looked at the drawing on the kitchen wall, sketched by my grandfather’s hand so many years before. The picture became distorted as tears filled my eyes. “You are my Joy. I love you with my life.” I murmured quietly. The young woman in the drawing sat on her park bench and with twinkling eyes smiled broadly at me, an engagement ring carefully drawn on her finger.
 

我看着厨房墙壁上的那幅画像,那是多年前我祖父亲手绘就的。我眼中满含泪水,眼前的画像变得模糊起来。“你才是我的幸福。爱你一生。”我轻声低语道。画像中的年轻女人坐在公园长椅上,眼神清亮,笑容可掬地看着我,她的手指上被精心地画有一枚订婚戒指。