The Son from America
子由美归来
Isaac Bashevis Singer
艾萨克·巴什维斯·辛格
The village of Lentshin was tiny. It was surrounded by fields and little huts with thatched roofs. In the fields, the owners planted vegetables or pastured their goats.
伦特欣是个很小的村庄。周围都是一些盖有茅草屋顶的小屋及田地。在田地里，主人们种菜或放羊。
In the smallest of these huts lived old Berl, a man in his eighties, and his wife Berlcha. Old Berl was one of the Jews driven out of Russia who had settled in Poland. He was short, broad-shouldered, and had a small white beard, and in summer and winter he wore a sheepskin hat, a padded cotton jacket, and stout boots. He had a half acre of field, a cow, a goat, and chickens.
最小的那个棚屋里住着80多岁的老伯尔和他的老伴儿伯尔莎。老伯尔是那些被驱离俄国而后定居在波兰的犹太人中的一个。他个小肩宽，留着一小撮白胡子。不论冬夏，他都戴着一顶羊皮帽子，穿着一件棉夹克和一双厚实的靴子。他有半英亩土地、一头奶牛、一只山羊和一些鸡。
The couple had a son, Samuel, who had gone to America forty years ago. It was said in Lentshin that he became a millionaire there. Every month, the Lentshin letter carrier brought old Berl a money order and a letter that no one could read because many of the words were English. How much money Samuel sent his parents remained a secret. They never seemed to use the money. What for? The garden, the cow, and the goat provided most of their needs.
这对夫妇有一个儿子叫塞缪尔，40年前去了美国。伦特欣的人都说他在那儿成了一个百万富翁。每个月伦特欣的邮差都会给老伯尔带来一张汇票和一封没人能读懂的信，因为里面有很多英语单词。塞缪尔给他父母寄了多少钱一直是个谜。他们似乎从不花这些钱。花它干什么？菜园、奶牛和山羊为他们提供了大部分的生活所需。