Forty Years On
Plot
When the author was young, his Aunt Carrie always came to his home with news about the extraordinary accomplishments her another nephew John Bullyer had made. Then John Bullyer was like a nightmare to the author. The comparisons between them hadn’t stop until they met each other when they reached their sixties.
2. Message
The comparison and its influences: Comparsion is a double-edged sword; "Boys being what they are, an occasional prod in the rear is no such bad thing. "
The policy of comparison may enable a child to see the merits of others and his/her draw-backs, and inspire him/ her to be a better self, but it may also cause a handicap of diffidence in him/her.
3. Irony
As for the author:
“I always thought of you as nine feet high, better looking than Robert Taylor and more versatile than Churchill.”
As for John Bullyer:
“I grew up with the idea that you were at least eight feet tall, tremendously handsome and more talented than da Vinci…You were the b-bug- bear of my life.”
A happy ending:
“We looked at one another: Then it probably dawned on us both that the place in which we sat is not the haunt of men who have been failures in life, and that, boys being what they are, an occasional prod in the rear is no such bad thing. "
暗战四十载 (译文节选)
我和约翰•布雷尔第一次相见是在1956年，那时我们都已是六十出头的人了。老实说，他对我一生的影响可比任何人都要大，我的不自信便是他造成的，尽管别人说我这毛病掩得挺好。
约翰•布雷尔走进我的生活缘于我的舅舅乔治。他就住在我家不远，很晚才结婚。那年他娶到了一位很娴淑的女子，后来成了我最喜欢的亲戚----她就是凯丽姨妈。那个时期，人们还不怎么娇惯小孩子。有这么一位漂亮的姨妈，总是好善乐施，仁爱有加。给糖果时慷慨大方，夸奖时不吝赞美之词，谁犯错时又会找各种理由替他开脱。这在当时真是少有，所以显得弥足珍贵。
对我而言，美中不足的便是，她也是约翰•布雷尔的姨妈。约翰是凯丽姨妈姐姐的儿子，家住格沃斯特郡。她总是一口一个（口口声声）“我那侄子约翰”，而且言必提他。
很多年后，我终于明白了她的用心。她初来乍到，对我们不熟悉。于她而言，我母亲既是姻亲、近邻，又是位可交的朋友；我们两个孩子年龄相仿，背景又相似，于是便成了她们喝茶闲聊时拉近彼此距离的稳妥话题。
我们相顾无言(四目相对/面面相觑), 也许这时我俩都明白，这地方可不是生活中的失败者能光顾的，而且也能理解，男孩子嘛，偶尔在背后推一把并不是什么坏事。我们举起酒杯，虽然谁也没有说话，但我们知道这一杯是为纪念凯丽姨妈而干的。
