I stopped to let the car cool off and to study the map.I had expected to be near my objective by now, but everything still seemed alien to me.I was only five when my father had taken me abroad, and that we eighteen years ago.When my mother had died after a tragic accident, he did not quickly recover from the shock and loneliness.Everything around him was full of her presence, continually reopening the wound.So he decided to emigrate.In the new country he became absorbed in making a new life for the two of us, so that he gradually ceased to grieve.He did not marry again and I was brought up without a woman's care;but I lacked for nothing, for he was both father and mother to me.He always meant to go back one day, but not to stay.His roots and mine bad become too firmly embedded in the new land.But he wanted to see the old folk again and to visit my mother's grave.He became mortally ill a few months before we had planned to go and, when he knew that he was dying, he made me promise to go on my own.I hired a car the day after landing and bought a comprehensive book of maps,which I found most helpful on the cross-country journey, but which I did not think I should need on the last stage.
我停下车,让汽车发动机冷却一下,同时查看一下地图.我本想离目的地已经不远,但周围一切对我仍很陌生.我5岁那年,父亲就带我出了国,那是18年前的事了.当时我母亲在一次事故中惨死,父亲未能很快从悲痛与孤独中恢复过来.他身边的一切都是母亲的影子不断勾起他的伤感.于是他决定移居他国.在这个新的国家里,父亲专心致志地为我们俩开创一种新的生活,慢慢地不伤心了.父亲没有再娶,因此,我在没有母亲的环境里长大成人.但我却什么都不缺,他既当父亲又当母亲.他总想将来回国看看,但却不愿长期住下去,因为他与我一样已经把根深深地扎在异国的土地上.但是,他想看一看家乡父老乡亲,为我的母亲扫墓.就在他计划回国的前几个月,他突然身患绝症.他知道自己已奄奄一息,于是他要我答应一定单独回故乡一趟.我下飞机后租了一辆车,并买了一本详尽的地图册.在乡间行车途中,我觉得它非常有用,但快到家了,我倒觉得它没什么用了.
暂无注释
