Two Kinds
两类人
Amy Tan
谭恩美
My mother believed you could be anything you wanted to be in America. You could open a restaurant. You could work for the government and get good retirement. You could buy a house with almost no money down. You could become rich. You could become instantly famous.
母亲相信，在美国，任何梦想都能成为现实：你可以开餐馆；可以为政府工作以领取丰厚的退休金；可以几乎不用首付现款就买栋房子；可以变成富翁；可以一夜成名。
"Of course you can be a prodigy, too," my mother told me when I was nine. "You can be best anything. What does Auntie Lindo know? Her daughter, she is only best tricky."
“你当然也可以成为天才。”我9岁时，母亲对我说。“你样样事都会做得最好。琳朵阿姨知道什么？她那女儿，只不过心眼多一点而已。”
America was where all my mother's hopes lay. She had come to San Francisco in 1949 after losing everything in China: her mother and father, her family home, her first husband, and two daughters, twin baby girls. But she never looked back with regret. There were so many ways for things to get better.
母亲将一切未遂的希望都寄托在美国。她1949年来到这里。在中国，她失去了一切：双亲、家园、前夫以及一对孪生女婴。可她不用悔怨的目光回顾过去。很多途径都可以改善现状。
We didn't immediately pick the right kind of prodigy. At first my mother thought I could be a Chinese Shirley Temple. We'd watch Shirley's old movies on TV as though they were training films. My mother would poke my arm and say, "Ni kan."—You watch. And I would see Shirley tapping her feet, or singing a sailor song, or pursing her lips into a very round O while saying "Oh, my goodness."
至于我将成为哪方面的天才，我们并没有即时决定。起初，母亲以为我可以成为华裔秀兰·邓波儿。我们常常看电视上秀兰的老电影，好像可以用来培训。母亲常碰碰我的胳膊，“Nikan”(你看）。秀兰不是在跳踢踏舞，就是唱一首水手歌曲，或者把嘴撮成O形说，“噢，我的上帝。”
"Ni kan," said my mother as Shirley's eyes flooded with tears. "You already know how. Don't need talent for crying!"
“你看，”在秀兰眼泪汪汪时，母亲说，“你早就会哭了。会哭不算天才！”
Soon after my mother got this idea about Shirley Temple, she took me to a beauty training school in the Mission District and put me in the hands of a student who could barely hold the scissors without shaking. Instead of getting big fat curls, I emerged with an uneven mass of crinkly black fuzz. My mother dragged me off to the bathroom and tried to wet down my hair.
了解秀兰·邓波儿后，她很快带我去米什地区一家美容培训班的实习理发店，把我交到一个学员手里。这个学员甚至连剪刀都拿不稳。我的头发没有做出我要的大卷花，而是给我弄成一头乱蓬蓬的黑色小卷毛。母亲把我拽进卫生间，想把我的头发蘸水归拢整齐。