Lesson22 Bounty of Love

慷慨母爱
My mother had a habit of keeping my letters, binding them carefully in neat bundles with green tape, but this was her own secret. She never told me she was doing it. In 1957, when she knew she was dying, I was in hospital in Oxford having a serious operation on my spine and I was unable to write to her. So she had a telephone specially installed beside her bed in order that she might have one last conversation with me.

母亲习惯保存我写给她的信件，她把这些信小心翼翼地用绿丝带捆得整整齐齐。但这是她自己的秘密，她从来没有告诉过我她在这么做。1957年，她知道自己将不久于人世了，那时我正在牛津住院，做一个重大的脊椎手术，所以无法给她写信。于是，她让人专门给她的床边安装了一部电话，这样她就能够和我最后说上几句话。

She didn't tell me she was dying, nor did anyone else for that matter, because I was in a fairly serious condition myself at the time. She simply asked me how I was and hoped I would get better soon and sent me her love. I had no idea that she would die the next day. She knew perfectly that her life was numbered in hours, but she still wanted to reach out and speak to me for the last time.

她没有告诉我她即将要不久人世了，别的人也没有告诉我，因为我当时自己的身体状况也很不乐观。她只是问我怎么样了，希望我早日康复，并且说她爱我。我丝毫不知她第二天就要去世了。她很清楚地知道自己在这世上也就几个小时的光景了，但仍然想要最后一次和我通话。
When I recovered and went home, I was given this vast collection of my letters, all neatly bound with a green tape, more than six hundred of them altogether, dating from 1925 to 1945, each one in its original envelope with the old stamps still on them. I am very lucky to have something like this to refer to in my old age.
我康复后回到家，拿到了那一大捆我的信件，整整齐齐地用绿丝带捆着，总共有六百多封，写信的时间是在1925到1945年间，每一封都装在原来的信封里，贴着原来的旧邮票。在年老时能拥有像这样的东西时常翻看我真是幸运。