翻譯/季翔
謝謝妳的大照片，妳比以前更漂亮，我喜愛這張照片超過任何其它照片。妳已經長大了許多，我曾經把妳當作一個總是剪短頭髮和穿著學校制服的小女孩般地想念妳。…….我非常地高興看見妳為自己做得很好。
我希望我能像妳一樣地聰明，Hsing-Yi，我美麗的花兒！請努力地讀好書，如果妳用功讀書，以後妳的生活將會富有和快樂。教育和上帝是兩件最重要的事情，擁有它妳以後的生活將會更快樂。是的，我信仰上帝，我是個天主教徒，妳受洗了嗎？
Hsing-Yi，我的花兒！我想念妳，不論我們住得有多遙遠！我想念妳，我有多想要聽到妳聲音！我多想要親自遇見妳！此刻這是不可能的事，許多次妳出現在我的夢裏。……..我將告訴妳有關我的世界、我的生活以及我自己…，我將盡可能詳細告訴妳，希望妳可以瞭解到我生活中的色彩與聲音，用這個方法也許妳能夠和我分享我的生活。
首先，我必需告訴妳有關於我自己，我23歲，2月23日我將變成24歲，身高183公分、棕色的短髮、綠色的眼睛。
我住在長島海峽旁的一間白色的小屋，妳能夠在地圖上找到它嗎？希望能很快送妳一張我房子的照片，以便妳能瞭解到我是如何生活。我單獨住，我的貓名字叫Patricia。
我房子旁的花園有許多花樹和矮樹叢。我喜歡我的花園，它是非常漂亮的。在春天，樹上開滿淡紅色和白色的花，許多花綻放成紅色黃色和白色，天空充滿了鳥兒甜美的聲音，我的家是非常漂亮的。
現在是冬天，沒有花朵，樹是暗沉的，不毛之地。小鳥全部往南飛過冬，天空再也沒有小鳥唱歌。很快地太陽將漸漸強烈照射天空，然後所有的樹木、花朵將吐露發芽生綠葉和帶來美麗的花朵，小鳥的歌聲將佈滿在天空中，我的花園將再度恢復美麗。
收到你了來信時，這裏正是暴風雪…
在我的國家，大部份的人以膚色、穿著、宗教信仰來判斷一個人，我認為我不會這樣做，我喜歡看一個人是看他的優點而不是缺點。我一邊讀你的信，一邊看著你的照片，我知道妳是一個非常漂亮年輕的女子，我向上帝祈禱有一天能夠很快地親自與你見面。
Hsing-Yi,我愛妳，請再度寫信給我。
Hsing-Yi,
Thank you for the large photograph of you. You are more beautiful than the school photographs ever show. I love that photograph more than any other. You have grown so much. I used to think of you as a
little girl with her hair cut short and always wearing a school uniform. I thought you lived at school with hundreds of other girls just like you, who depended on the school for food and shelter. Maybe you did when you were younger. I am very glad to see that you are doing well for yourself.
You are at the same point in life that I was at when I first started to write letters to you, three years ago. I was nineteen and had become a freshman. I wish I was as smart as you are. Hsing-Yi, My beautiful flower, please work hard in college and do well. If you do well in college you will be rich and happy later in your life. Education and God are the two most important things to have so you will be happy later in life. Yes, I believe in God. I am Catholic. What were you baptized?
Hsing-Yi, my flower, I think of you and how far away we live. I think of you and how much I would like to hear the song of your voice, how much I would like to meet you in person. At the moment this is not possible, eventhough I visit you many times in my dreams. I can not fit into the envelope with this letter. So I’m going to have to tell you about my world, my life, and myself with little stories, and descriptions. I will use as much detail as I can, with the hope that you will be able to see the colors and hear the sounds that fill my life. In this way maybe you will be able to share my life with me.
First, I must tell you about myself. I am twenty-three years old. On February 23 I will be 24. I am six feet tall. That is about one meter and eighty-three centimeters. My hair is short and brown like that in my picture. My eyes are green like those of a cat.
I live in a little white house by the ocean. What I am calling the ocean is really the Long Island Sound. Can you find it on a map? Hopefully, soon I will be able to send you a photograph of my house, so you will see how I live. I live alone in my little house with my cat. My cat’s name is Patricia. I call her Tricia.
I have many flowers, trees, and bushes in the garden beside my house. I like my garden. It is very beautiful. In the spring the trees are filled with pink and white blossoms, the flowers are blooming into red, yellow, and white flowers. The sky is filled with the sweet song of birds. My home is very beautiful.
Right now it is winter in my part of the world. There are no flowers, the trees are dark and barren. The birds have all flown south for the winter. There are no bird songs in the air. Soon the sun will grow stronger and warm the air. Then the trees and flowers will burst forth with deep green leaves and bright beautiful flowers. The birds will return soon to sing their songs and fill the air with their music. My garden will be reborn again only to grow more beautiful with each passing day.
You speak of seeing the snow. The snow is beautiful but it is also very cold. In order to have snow the ground must be frozen and the air must be 0°C if not colder. At that temperature you must wear many
heavy clothes. So many clothes it is hard to move. We get snow in Connecticut every winter. When I got your letter we were having a snow storm. The icy wind was blowing hard. The wind cut right through my heavy clothes and made me cold. Even inside my house it is hard to stay warm. The wind sucks the heat out of my house. There are days when the wind is tired of blowing, and the sun smiles warmly down on a fluffy blanket of snow. That is when the snow is most beautiful but only if looked at from inside a warm house.
You asked me if I had any brothers or sisters. To answer that I have to say yes. I have five brothers and three sisters. There are nine children in my family. Counting my mother and father there are eleven in my family. I am number four in the family. I have one older sister who is twenty-six, two older brothers who are both twenty-five. I am next in line. I am Twenty-three. I have three younger brothers and two younger sisters. My brothers’ ages are twenty-two, twenty, and nineteen. My two little sisters are fourteen and thirteen.
It sounds so funny to tell you about my “big” family. I always thought people from less fortunate countries, like those in South America and Asia, had big families and here I am telling you, who only has one father and a mother about my five brothers and three sisters. I guess I am an exception to that silly rule of mine. I know it is not right to judge a person before I really get to know that person.. In my country many people, not all, make judgments about others simply because of the color of one’s skin, or the way they dress, or by what religion one is. I don’t think I do this, at least not in a negative way. I like to look at a person and see the good qualities not the bad. I look at your picture and read your letters and I see that you are a very beautiful young woman. I pray to God that someday soon I will be able to meet you I person.
I love you Hsing-Yi. Please write to me again.
Tom
March 4,1981
P.S. I’m sorry, I cannot write Chinese. Do you think you could teach me?
1981.4月7
******************************************************
回覆Tom的信
Dear Tom:
I really would like to tell you many things about my country my life and Chinese customs, but I can’t describe it in English. I am sorry for not giving you a fine letter. I wish you can understand my broken English letter.
Yes, our point of view have changed gradually when we grow up. As I want to speak to you, so do you speak to me. I am surprised. Yes. last time I found it on a map. Can you find Taiwan on a map?
I wish you thought of me as a little girl. I’m still a little girl in mother’s eyes. This will make me happy as a little girl. I depend on my mother for food and clothing from childhood to now. Tom, I must tell you that I am not a very healthy child. So my mother needs to work extra hard. So I can’t do well in college. I think if I don’t go to college and be sick, my mother won’t want to work very hard. I will plan to work during the summer in order to reduce mother’s pressure of poverty. Sometimes I fancy that I can go to U.S.A. while I suffer in health. Especially I like natural beautiful scenery there. I always fancy that I live together with natural beautiful scenery before I go to bed.
Yes, education and God are the two most important things in life. My school is a catholic college,but I am a Christian. I have not been baptized yet. I think Catholic and Christianity is resemble in nature. My mother don’t like my faith. Most people don’t believe in God in Asia. I am a student of the department of accounting. We usually go home, go to play, go to see the movie or go shopping on weekend and Sunday. We go to see the movie in school and it is always American film. So we get some idea about America. We don’t feel strange about America. Actually we spend the time on studying. I very like to read and I spend the money on buying books.
People who have green eyes are beautiful and it look charming & energetic. I am one meter and sixty centimeters. It seems tall in Taiwan but is short in U.S.A. I am a thin girl.
Spring is coming. Right now the weather looks like summer here. Does the snow melt away there? The beautiful days will come when the sun smiles warmly, you pretty garden will also give you pleasure. I wish I can see your beautiful garden and white building one day. In Taiwan most people like winter because of the summer too heat, but I like summer because I am afraid of cold.
You live alone so I thought you didn’t have any brothers or sisters. Do people who have grown up leave home? Do you have a family reunion often? Why do you not live together with your family. I like big family so that I am not lonely. Last time I asked you why do you not marry. I thought if you marry, and you will not be lonely. If you marry and your wife can help your work. Supposing you marry, do you still think of me?
Yes, I am glad to teach you Chinese and I hope you can write Chinese one day. At first I hope you can write name of my Chinese. “Chen Hsing-Yi” is XXX. To learn Chinese is a large knowledge. I did not know how to teach so that you will realize Chinese. But I would like to do as I can.
The language of Chinese remind me of my country. The island of Taiwan is located about 100 miles off the coast of South China and is about the same size as Holland. Taiwanese come from China Continent
and we often think of our China. I know China is more beautiful than Taiwan even though we have never went. But it is not beautiful now!
Tom, thank you for your long fine letter. I hope I can write as well as you do. I have not spoken English yet. Tom, I really want to tell you many things, but I can not show my thought in English. In the summer I will have more the time that I hope I can give you fine letter and write letter to you often. I hope I also spend a lot of time in learning English during the summer.
I think you have a very good patience. Let me know your world in any other way. May you be happy!
Hsing-Yi
文章定位：
