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我一出生卡洛琳就陪伴着我，能为她送终是我莫大的荣幸。家父去世后，我在大妈的眼里就成了一家之主。为这个家，大妈忠心耿耿奉献了半个世纪,但是我们之间从来都不是主仆关系。她至今还留在我最早的记忆中，不仅仅作为一个人，也作为一种源泉。她，教我如何做人行事,确保我身体健康,一向对我疼爱有加。她对我循循善诱,始终是我的行为典范。从她那里，我学会了坦诚待人、克制浪费、体贴弱者、尊敬长者。在她身上，我看到了一种对于并非自家人的忠诚,对于并非亲生子女的深情厚爱。 大妈一出生就处于受奴役的境地。她皮肤黝黑，年轻时大部分时间都在其出生地、在黑暗而又悲惨的岁月中度过。她经历过盛衰变故,可那都不是她造成的;她有过担忧和悲伤，但那些都不是她自己的担忧和悲伤。她为此得到报酬，但那报酬仅仅是一点钱而已。她所得微薄，因而从未攒下这世界上的一谷一粟。可她还是接受了这一现实，毫不挑剔，毫不计较，毫不抱怨。正因为如此，她赢得了她为之奉献忠心那家人的感激和爱戴;也正因为如此，她的离去让热爱她的异族人感到悲痛、惋惜。 她出生在这里，在这里生活过，奉献过。现在她去世了，人们在这里哀悼她。如果真有天堂的话，她一定到那里去了。 Mammy Caroline Barr Caroline has known me all my life. It was my privilege to see her out of hers. After my father's death, to Mammy I came to represent the head of that family to which she had given a half-century of fidelity and devotion. But the relationship between us never became that of master and servant. She still remained one of my earliest recollections, not only as a person, but as a fount of authority over my conduct and of security for my physical welfare, and of active and constant affection and love. She was an active and constant precept for decent behavior. From her I learned to tell the truth, to refrain from waste, to be considerate of the weak and respectful to age. I saw fidelity to a family which was not hers, devotion and love for people she had not borne. She was born in bondage and with a dark skin and most of her early maturity was passed in a dark and tragic time for the land of her birth. She went through vicissitudes which she had not caused ； she assumed cares and grieves which were not even her cares and grieves. She was paid wages for this, but pay is still just money. And she never received very much of that, so that she never laid up anything of this world’s goods. Yet she accepted that too without cavil or calculation or complaint so that by that very failure she earned the gratitude and affection of the family she had conferred the fi¬delity and devotion upon, and gained the grief and regret of the aliens who loved and lost her. She was born and lived and served, and died and now is mourned； if there is heaven, she has gone there. |
