Nancy G. Chaikin
本文作者南珊·蔡金，1945年畢業於密西根大學。她的作品不多，但是她的短篇小說曾兩度選入《美國短篇小說佳作選》。
本文原題「Bachelor of Arts」，刊載於The Best American Short Stories 1955，長達六七千字，這裡所選的只是短短的幾段。蔡金女士的作風，大抵屬於「婉約」一派。本文描寫一個大學女生畢業那一天的種種心理變化，細膩熨貼，絲絲入扣。這一派作家可以說都是私淑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）。此字為動詞的分詞形式。cap and gown：學士帽與學士服。美國大學生通常只在舉行畢業典禮那天，才戴方帽子，穿學士袍。how right they looked on her：這種衣帽給她穿戴了（on her），看來是多麼的合適。名詞性從句，是with的賓語。（她看了心裡很高興。）
● the tassel：流蘇。學士帽頂上的那束絲穗，該披（went）在左邊，還是右邊呢？別人也許指教過她，但是她是永遠記不得的。she\'d see=she would see。the procession：行列，由校長、教授所率領的畢業生行列。他們排隊進入大禮堂，是畢業儀式的一部分。流蘇管它偏左還是偏右，她走到隊伍裡，看見別人的樣式，自己也就知道了。
● she would only have to：所要做的只有這麼一件事。（have to：必須）。to collect her bags：檢取行李。collect有「一件一件檢起來，歸聚在一處」之意。bags：凡是皮包衣箱等，都可稱為bags。packed：裝好，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：打電話。the Union即下文的the Union Building。美國大學校園裡很多有這樣一座座大樓，大樓裡有餐廳，有各種社交娛樂設備，也有旅館房間。來參觀畢業典禮的學生家長和校友大多借住在裡面。（Union是Students\' Union的簡稱。）
● presumably：可以這麼假定。arriving very late：晚上到得太晚，來不及和女兒見面，直接到「招待所」去投宿了。instead：不打電話了。
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.
● 這一段描寫父母與女兒間心理上的距離。父母看見女兒大學畢業，一定非常高興；可是女兒自己前途茫茫，心事重重。（一方面捨不得離開學校，一方面回到家裡又怎麼樣？）實在提不起興致，可是又不得不陪著父母高興。父母和女兒之間竟然還有這種隔膜嗎？這種隔膜的確是存在的，這就是「現實」，小說家假如要描寫現實，一定不會忽略這種現象的。
● excited：興奮。loving：（看見父母）表示親熱。她知道在她父母意料之中，她一定是這樣高興的；她知道父母是不會瞭解的。（understand這裡作不及物動詞用。）
● 按用法習慣，假如有一個以上的名詞性從句作為賓語之用，第一個從句的連接詞that可以省掉，但是第二個第三個名詞性從句一定要用連接詞that。在這裡，She knew後面有兩個名詞性從句，第一個名詞性從句they would expect…前面沒有that，但是第二個名詞性從句they would not understand前面就有that。第一個從句沒有that，讀者不難判知它的語法地位；假如第二個從句沒有that，讀者怎麼知道它是knew的賓語呢？
● the next best thing to a son：她是獨生女兒；在她父母心目之中，女兒雖然比不上兒子，但是比兒子也僅差一級。兒子算是the best thing，女兒就算是the next best thing了。to a son的to是連next的。
● a professional：專門職業人才。美國的父母大多希望兒子成為一專門職業人才（enter a profession），如醫生、律師、教授、牧師等。
● 女兒雖然成不了專門職業人才，她至少也可以成為一個文學士（B. A.），父母也可以聊以自慰了。
● unbearably：父母引女兒以自豪，但是女兒忍受不了。open, unashamed pride：父母講起女兒來，其驕傲自得之狀，溢於辭表（open），不知害羞為何物。overstated affection：父母愛子女，本出天性，但是愛（affection）不必放在嘴上講，這兩位父母把愛說得有點肉麻了。naive conviction：天真的想法（信念）。他們以為把女兒栽培到大學畢業，他們已經盡了最大的責任——達到盡父母之責（parental obligation）的最高峰。他們這種態度是使她很窘迫難受（embarrassed）的。
● she thought sadly是插入的說明（parenthetic），在本句語法結構中沒有地位。Instead：此字在本段中第二次出現。這裡的意思大約是：她的父母「非但沒有」盡父母的責任，反而使她疏遠起來了。他們把她「趕得愈來愈遠」。
● 父母的驕傲得意，他們的過分親愛，這就是他們的以情感為主的「奇怪的生活方式」。
● pathetic：可憐的。everything she had come to love：文學、思想、美術等，她本來也不一定能欣賞，進了大學以後，她就喜歡這些東西了。（had come to表示今昔之間的變遷。）可是這些東西，她父母可憐地仍是一無所知。with their strange…是形容詞短語，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：不習慣的。學士服下半截有好多道「褶子」，包在腿部周圍（about her legs），走起路來，覺得很不習慣。four-cornered hat：方帽子。
● lobby：前廳。huddled是過去分詞，形容主語they：父母二人正緊緊（close）地依偎著，坐在皮沙發上，在人群之中，焦急地張望著他們的女兒。
● alumni是alumnus（校友）的複數形式。返校參觀畢業典禮的校友，聲音很吵鬧。polished, expectant looking fathers and mothers：家長們服裝很整潔，神態上若有所待。eager black-gowned graduates：畢業生穿著黑袍，亟盼參加典禮。
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：雖然是微笑，可是笑得很明顯，「笑容可掬」。英文也有a broad smile這樣的成語。looking slowly down her：慢慢地把她從頭到腳地看。（這裡是從頭上的帽子看到腳下的鞋子。）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：放錯了地方的絲穗。showing：學士服長可掩足，鞋子只露出一點來。beneath the gown是個「介詞短語」，但是這個短語又是介詞from的賓語（從學士服下面顯露出來）。這種用法很普通，如The cat came out from under the table。
● they were kissing her：動詞進行式，使動作顯得特別生動。「他們現在吻起她來了。」
● the things she had known they would say：她早知道他們會說出來的那些話。
● 本文的句子大多拖得很長，該斷的地方不斷，再加上許多字去補充說明前面的話。如本段第一句：they smiled broadly照語法結構，句子斷於broadly亦無不可，但作者在後面加上looking…這麼一個分詞短語；到to her shoes，句子也可停住了，但作者另加just showing…這麼另外一個分詞短語。這種句法，修辭學上稱為loose sentence。善用loose sentence者，修飾描寫，不厭其詳，必定使句子內容更為豐富，而且句子尾巴拖得很長，欲盡不盡，回味無窮。loose sentence讀起來有種懶洋洋的感覺，好處是寬舒平易，和「戛然而止」斬釘截鐵式的periodic sentence不同。本文這位小姐百無聊賴，面臨喜事而興趣索然，多用loose sentence，和全篇小說的情調也是很調和的。
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：不是普通泥灰牆，牆上精鑲橡木板——很講究的房間，才有這種裝飾。
● no one was very hungry：真不餓乎？抑因精神興奮而無暇進食乎？或因心事重重而食不下嚥乎？
● kept shaking their heads：不斷地搖頭（歎為觀止的神情）。the big room：大學招待所竟有如此富麗堂皇的餐廳，而女兒就在這所大學畢業，父母看來，既覺得新奇，又覺得得意。what there was：「有」什麼話可說的。did a good deal of talking：女兒雖不開口，他們自己卻說了很多話。（themselves用以加強主語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在這裡解作「值得驕傲的」。
● her perspiring one：她的出汗的手。passed it中的it代替his hand。pass the hand over有「撫摸」之意。
● 第二個I know的I重讀。語氣中有不耐煩的神氣。
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：用手指點。the building：大禮堂。arranging：約定。
● stood in line：排隊。blazing sun：火熱的太陽。throbbing：（胸口，太陽穴等處）反常的、劇烈的跳動。
● their figures：父母的身影。Blane Auditorium：這座大禮堂大約是紀念一個叫做Blane的人的。
● procession：畢業生列隊進入大禮堂了。pavement：不一定是馬路邊上的人行道，這裡只是指鋪過（水泥、柏油或石板等）的路。soles：鞋底。隊伍行進時，除了身上腳下熱以外，別的什麼都感覺不到。
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：來賓都坐在畢業生的後面，她因此看不見父母的臉，聽不到他們低聲讚歎（wonder）和得意的話，心裡好受得多。她對於這樣的安排，心裡是感激的。
● when the honors were announced：發表優秀學生名單時。她自己也在優秀之列，可是她自己並不覺得得意，她也不願意看見父母得意的樣子。honors：優異的學業成績。此字此義永遠是用複數形式的。
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：泛指全體師生來賓。the Alma Mater：拉丁文原義是「鞠我育我的母親」，轉作「母校」。這裡是「校歌」。
● sobbed：啜泣。slobbering：唾液直流或語無倫次的。reunion：校友返校重聚。drink：專指「喝酒」而言。老校友重聚時，飲酒過多，感懷今昔，鮮有不愴然涕下者，現在這位小姐忽然也像這種人一樣，嗚咽地哭起來了。