Nancy G. Chaikin
本文作者南珊·蔡金，1945年毕业于密西根大学。她的作品不多，但是她的短篇小说曾两度选入《美国短篇小说佳作选》。
本文原题“Bachelor of Arts”，刊载于The Best American Short Stories 1955，长达六七千字，这里所选的只是短短的几段。蔡金女士的作风，大抵属于“婉约”一派。本文描写一个大学女生毕业那一天的种种心理变化，细腻熨贴，丝丝入扣。这一派作家可以说都是私淑Henry James的。
In the morning, with the sun slanting across the floor of her room, she put on her cap and gown and stood before the mirror looking at herself, pleased with how right they looked on her. She could never remember which way the tassel went, but she/'d see when she got down to the procession. Now she would only have to come back to this room to collect her bags—they were all packed—and they stood alone in the middle of the floor of the half empty room.
● slanting：斜（照），斜（射）。此字为动词的分词形式。cap and gown：学士帽与学士服。美国大学生通常只在举行毕业典礼那天，才戴方帽子，穿学士袍。how right they looked on her：这种衣帽给她穿戴了（on her），看来是多么的合适。名词性从句，是with的宾语。（她看了心里很高兴。）
● the tassel：流苏。学士帽顶上的那束丝穗，该披（went）在左边，还是右边呢？别人也许指教过她，但是她是永远记不得的。she/'d see=she would see。the procession：行列，由校长、教授所率领的毕业生行列。他们排队进入大礼堂，是毕业仪式的一部分。流苏管它偏左还是偏右，她走到队伍里，看见别人的样式，自己也就知道了。
● she would only have to：所要做的只有这么一件事。（have to：必须）。to collect her bags：检取行李。collect有“一件一件检起来，归聚在一处”之意。bags：凡是皮包衣箱等，都可称为bags。packed：装好，理好。
She thought of calling the Union, where her parents had presumably spent the night after arriving very late, but decided, instead, to go directly over there and meet them for breakfast.
● calling：打电话。the Union即下文的the Union Building。美国大学校园里很多有这样一座座大楼，大楼里有餐厅，有各种社交娱乐设备，也有旅馆房间。来参观毕业典礼的学生家长和校友大多借住在里面。（Union是Students/' Union的简称。）
● presumably：可以这么假定。arriving very late：晚上到得太晚，来不及和女儿见面，直接到“招待所”去投宿了。instead：不打电话了。
She knew they would expect her to be excited and pleased and loving, that they would not understand. She was their only child—the next best thing to a son; if she could not be a professional she could at least be a Bachelor of Arts. They were unbearably proud of her, and she was embarrassed by their open, unashamed pride, their overstated affection, their naive conviction that in giving her a college education they had attained the peak of parental obligation. Instead, she thought sadly, they had driven her further and further from them—with their strange emotional way of life, their pathetic ignorance of everything she had come to love.
● 这一段描写父母与女儿间心理上的距离。父母看见女儿大学毕业，一定非常高兴；可是女儿自己前途茫茫，心事重重。（一方面舍不得离开学校，一方面回到家里又怎么样？）实在提不起兴致，可是又不得不陪着父母高兴。父母和女儿之间竟然还有这种隔膜吗？这种隔膜的确是存在的，这就是“现实”，小说家假如要描写现实，一定不会忽略这种现象的。
● excited：兴奋。loving：（看见父母）表示亲热。她知道在她父母意料之中，她一定是这样高兴的；她知道父母是不会了解的。（understand这里作不及物动词用。）
● 按用法习惯，假如有一个以上的名词性从句作为宾语之用，第一个从句的连接词that可以省掉，但是第二个第三个名词性从句一定要用连接词that。在这里，She knew后面有两个名词性从句，第一个名词性从句they would expect…前面没有that，但是第二个名词性从句they would not understand前面就有that。第一个从句没有that，读者不难判知它的语法地位；假如第二个从句没有that，读者怎么知道它是knew的宾语呢？
● the next best thing to a son：她是独生女儿；在她父母心目之中，女儿虽然比不上儿子，但是比儿子也仅差一级。儿子算是the best thing，女儿就算是the next best thing了。to a son的to是连next的。
● a professional：专门职业人才。美国的父母大多希望儿子成为一专门职业人才（enter a profession），如医生、律师、教授、牧师等。
● 女儿虽然成不了专门职业人才，她至少也可以成为一个文学士（B. A.），父母也可以聊以自慰了。
● unbearably：父母引女儿以自豪，但是女儿忍受不了。open, unashamed pride：父母讲起女儿来，其骄傲自得之状，溢于辞表（open），不知害羞为何物。overstated affection：父母爱子女，本出天性，但是爱（affection）不必放在嘴上讲，这两位父母把爱说得有点肉麻了。naive conviction：天真的想法（信念）。他们以为把女儿栽培到大学毕业，他们已经尽了最大的责任——达到尽父母之责（parental obligation）的最高峰。他们这种态度是使她很窘迫难受（embarrassed）的。
● she thought sadly是插入的说明（parenthetic），在本句语法结构中没有地位。Instead：此字在本段中第二次出现。这里的意思大约是：她的父母“非但没有”尽父母的责任，反而使她疏远起来了。他们把她“赶得愈来愈远”。
● 父母的骄傲得意，他们的过分亲爱，这就是他们的以情感为主的“奇怪的生活方式”。
● pathetic：可怜的。everything she had come to love：文学、思想、美术等，她本来也不一定能欣赏，进了大学以后，她就喜欢这些东西了。（had come to表示今昔之间的变迁。）可是这些东西，她父母可怜地仍是一无所知。with their strange…是形容词短语，形容前面的them。
She walked slowly over to the Union Building, feeling the unfamiliar folds of the black robe about her legs, the pressure of the four-cornered hat upon her brow. And they were there in the lobby of the tall white building, huddled close to one another on a leather sofa, watching anxiously for her through the crowds of noisy alumni and polished, expectant looking fathers and mothers, and eager black-gowned graduates.
● unfamiliar：不习惯的。学士服下半截有好多道“褶子”，包在腿部周围（about her legs），走起路来，觉得很不习惯。four-cornered hat：方帽子。
● lobby：前厅。huddled是过去分词，形容主语they：父母二人正紧紧（close）地依偎着，坐在皮沙发上，在人群之中，焦急地张望着他们的女儿。
● alumni是alumnus（校友）的复数形式。返校参观毕业典礼的校友，声音很吵闹。polished, expectant looking fathers and mothers：家长们服装很整洁，神态上若有所待。eager black-gowned graduates：毕业生穿着黑袍，亟盼参加典礼。
When they saw her, they smiled broadly, looking slowly down her, from the stiff top of her cap with its ridiculous displaced tassel, to her shoes, just showing from beneath the gown. Then they were kissing her and saying the things she had known they would say.
● smiled broadly：虽然是微笑，可是笑得很明显，“笑容可掬”。英文也有a broad smile这样的成语。looking slowly down her：慢慢地把她从头到脚地看。（这里是从头上的帽子看到脚下的鞋子。）注意：looking down her和looking down upon her（瞧不起）不同。stiff：僵硬的。ridiculous：可笑的。displaced tassel：放错了地方的丝穗。showing：学士服长可掩足，鞋子只露出一点来。beneath the gown是个“介词短语”，但是这个短语又是介词from的宾语（从学士服下面显露出来）。这种用法很普通，如The cat came out from under the table。
● they were kissing her：动词进行式，使动作显得特别生动。“他们现在吻起她来了。”
● the things she had known they would say：她早知道他们会说出来的那些话。
● 本文的句子大多拖得很长，该断的地方不断，再加上许多字去补充说明前面的话。如本段第一句：they smiled broadly照语法结构，句子断于broadly亦无不可，但作者在后面加上looking…这么一个分词短语；到to her shoes，句子也可停住了，但作者另加just showing…这么另外一个分词短语。这种句法，修辞学上称为loose sentence。善用loose sentence者，修饰描写，不厌其详，必定使句子内容更为丰富，而且句子尾巴拖得很长，欲尽不尽，回味无穷。loose sentence读起来有种懒洋洋的感觉，好处是宽舒平易，和“戛然而止”斩钉截铁式的periodic sentence不同。本文这位小姐百无聊赖，面临喜事而兴趣索然，多用loose sentence，和全篇小说的情调也是很调和的。
They had their breakfast in the big oak-paneled dining room of the Union, but no one was very hungry. Her parents simply kept shaking their heads and looking curiously, proudly, about the big room. And for Anne, she did not know what there was for her to say to her parents—but they did a good deal of talking themselves.
● oak-paneled：不是普通泥灰墙，墙上精镶橡木板——很讲究的房间，才有这种装饰。
● no one was very hungry：真不饿乎？抑因精神兴奋而无暇进食乎？或因心事重重而食不下咽乎？
● kept shaking their heads：不断地摇头（叹为观止的神情）。the big room：大学招待所竟有如此富丽堂皇的餐厅，而女儿就在这所大学毕业，父母看来，既觉得新奇，又觉得得意。what there was：“有”什么话可说的。did a good deal of talking：女儿虽不开口，他们自己却说了很多话。（themselves用以加强主语they。）
/"You know, Anne, what a great day this is for us—our own daughter graduating. We want you to know how proud it is for us./" Her father laid his cool, old hand over her perspiring one, then passed it swiftly, lightly over her cheek.
/"Yes, Pa, I know, I know./"
● how proud it is for us：proud在这里解作“值得骄傲的”。
● her perspiring one：她的出汗的手。passed it中的it代替his hand。pass the hand over有“抚摸”之意。
● 第二个I know的I重读。语气中有不耐烦的神气。
She left them there, indicating the building to which they were to go and arranging to meet them again at the Union for lunch. So she stood in line with the others, under the blazing sun, her head throbbing beneath the cap—and watched their figures moving toward the doorway of Blane Auditorium. Then the procession started and she felt nothing except the burning of the sun through her gown, the hot pavement through the soles of her thin summer shoes.
● indicating：用手指点。the building：大礼堂。arranging：约定。
● stood in line：排队。blazing sun：火热的太阳。throbbing：（胸口，太阳穴等处）反常的、剧烈的跳动。
● their figures：父母的身影。Blane Auditorium：这座大礼堂大约是纪念一个叫做Blane的人的。
● procession：毕业生列队进入大礼堂了。pavement：不一定是马路边上的人行道，这里只是指铺过（水泥、柏油或石板等）的路。soles：鞋底。队伍行进时，除了身上脚下热以外，别的什么都感觉不到。
She was grateful that, in the huge auditorium, with the visitors all sitting behind the graduates, she could not see the faces of her parents or hear their murmured wonder and pride when the honors were announced.
● grateful：来宾都坐在毕业生的后面，她因此看不见父母的脸，听不到他们低声赞叹（wonder）和得意的话，心里好受得多。她对于这样的安排，心里是感激的。
● when the honors were announced：发表优秀学生名单时。她自己也在优秀之列，可是她自己并不觉得得意，她也不愿意看见父母得意的样子。honors：优异的学业成绩。此字此义永远是用复数形式的。
Then, at last, they were singing the Alma Mater—and she sobbed as if she were a slobbering old alumnus at a reunion dinner who had too much to drink.
● they：泛指全体师生来宾。the Alma Mater：拉丁文原义是“鞠我育我的母亲”，转作“母校”。这里是“校歌”。
● sobbed：啜泣。slobbering：唾液直流或语无伦次的。reunion：校友返校重聚。drink：专指“喝酒”而言。老校友重聚时，饮酒过多，感怀今昔，鲜有不怆然涕下者，现在这位小姐忽然也像这种人一样，呜咽地哭起来了。