57 John O’hara to His Daughter

名称：57 John O’hara to His Daughter
内容简介：
晨读英语美文 文化百科
[00:03.32]Quogue, Long Island
[00:06.00]16 September, 1962, Sunday
[00:10.10]My dear,
[00:13.21]Well, here we are-but not here.
[00:16.27]You at St. Tim's, Sister in Princeton, and me in Quogue,
[00:21.22] and another brand-new year is about to start for you.
[00:25.00]For me, too. I always seem to approach the autumn
[00:29.43] in the frame of mind that spring induces in most people.
[00:33.31] The excitement of new things: the new plays,
[00:36.44]the new books, new clothes, etc., etc., etc.
[00:39.94] At the same time the autumn for me
[00:43.30] is a season of a sweet melancholy
[00:46.02] that is hard to explain. I love the early evenings,
[00:50.02] the leaves burning, the lights in houses.
[00:53.11]It is the beginning of a big year for you,
[00:55.86]in many respects your biggest so far.
[00:58.86]By the time June comes around you will be 18,
[01:03.10]and graduating from school.
[01:05.22] In the past week or so I have called you “Kid”
[01:08.86]but subconsciously I have been doing that
[01:11.69] because your kid days are over,or just about.
[01:15.60] I suspect that you are going through the experience of first love,
[01:20.10]and no matter what else happens,
[01:22.37]after that experience you are never a kid again.
[01:26.25]Most of the nice things we associate with being a kid
[01:30.36] are okay-while you are still kid.
[01:33.33]But you gain more than you lose.
[01:35.95]You gain in understanding,
[01:38.07]in appreciation of people,
[01:40.28]in understanding and appreciation of yourself.
[01:43.59]You begin to see the wisdom in that quotation
[01:46.82] I have so often repeated to you: to thine own self be true.
[01:51.98] Every year at this time I have repeated that quotation to you,
[01:56.50]and the time is not really too far distant
[01:59.59] when you will be passing it on to your own children.
[02:02.99]It is probably the best single piece of advice I can give you,
[02:07.97] or you can give them.　
[02:10.26]You have done well, and I am pleased with you,
[02:13.86]not only for what you have done, but for what you are.
[02:17.69]As Miss Finnegan said to Sister,
[02:20.48]“Wylie has the right reactions.”
[02:23.01]So good luck in your Senior Year,
[02:25.75] and always know that the old man loves you very much.
[02:30.53]Always
[02:31.59]Dad