I came to college with few resources, but one of them was an understanding, however crude, of how I might use my opportunities there. This I began to develop because of my father, who had never been to college, in fact, he'd barely gotten out of high school. One night after dinner, he and I were sitting in our kitchen at 58 Clewley Road in Medford, Massachusetts, hatching plans about the rest of my life. I was about to go off to college, a feat no one in my family had accomplished in living memory. "I think I might want to be prelaw," I told my father. I had no idea what being prelaw was. My father compressed his brow and blew twin streams of smoke, dragonlike, from his magnificent nose. "Do you want to be a lawyer?" he asked. My father had some experience with lawyers, and with policemen, too; he was not well-disposed toward either. "I'm not really sure,"I told him, "but lawyers make pretty good money, right?"
我读大学的时候也很懵懂，但是我大概知道自己应该如何用好读大学的机会。我的这个想法源于我的父亲，他从来没有读过大学, 事实上，他差一点高中都没毕业。有一天，吃过晚饭后，我和他在我们坐落在马萨诸塞州梅德福市的考利路58号的家里，坐在厨房里，我将来的生活炮制计划。当时的我就要离家去读大学，这是记忆中我的家族里从来没有人能够完成的伟业。我告诉父亲：“我可能想读法学预科。”我并不知道法学预科是什么。父亲皱了皱眉，像龙一样，大大的鼻孔里冒着烟。他问我：“你想成为律师?”父亲和一些律师打过交道，当然，还有警察。他对这两类人都没什么好感。“我也不确定，”我告诉他，“但是律师很挣钱，对吧？”
My father detonated. (That was not uncommon. My father detonated a lot.) He told me that I was going to go to college only once, and that while I was there I had better study what I wanted. He said that when rich kids went to school, they majored in the subjects that interested them, and that my younger brother Philip and I were as good as any rich kids. (We were rich kids minus the money.) Wasn't I interested in literature? I confessed that I was. Then I had better study literature, unless I had inside information to the effect that reincarnation wasn't just hype, and I'd be able to attend college thirty or forty times. If I had such info, prelaw would be fine. Otherwise I better get to work and pick out some English classes from the course catalogue.
父亲勃然大怒。（这并不是什么稀奇事，他经常这样。)他告诉我读大学的机会只有一次，到了那儿， 想学什么就学什么。他说富裕人家的孩子读大学，都会选一些自己感兴趣的专业，而我还有我弟弟菲利普和那些富裕的孩子一样优秀。（我们是没有钱的富裕孩子)。他问我不是对文学感兴趣吗？我承认了。他说那么我最好还是学文学，除非我有内部消息知道轮回这档子事不是炒作，我可以有三四十次机会读大学。如果我有这样的消息，法学预科也可以。否则，我最好还是从课程表中选一些英语课程学学。