My father doesn’t have a studio or anything, and since the garage is stuffed with things that everyone thinks they need but no one ever uses, he paints outside.
我爸爸并没有一个画室，自从地下室堆满了大家认为会用上，但是从来不用的物品，他开始在室外画画。
Outside is where the best landscapes are, only they’re nowhere near our house. So what he does is keep a camera in his truck. His job as a mason takes him to lots of different locations, and he’s always on the lookout for a great sunrise or sunset, or even just a nice field with sheep or cows. Then he picks out one of the snapshots, clips it to his easel, and paints.
外面有最好的风景，不过它们都离我们家很远。所以他总是把相机放在他的卡车里。因为他是石匠，所以要去各种不同的地方，他总是会寻找美丽的黎明或是夕阳，有的时候甚至只是一片田地，上面有牛或羊。然后从快照中选出一张，夹在他的画架上，开始画画。
I love to watch my father paint. Or really, I love to hear him talk while he paints. The words always come out soft and somehow heavy when he’s brushing on the layers of a landscape. Not sad. Weary, maybe, but peaceful.
我很爱看我爸爸画画。真的，我也喜欢一边看他画画一边听他讲话。不知为什么，那些词汇会在他的刷子蘸在风景画上时温柔而沉重地冒出来。并不是忧伤。也许有些疲乏，但是很平静。
The paintings come out fine, but I’ve always felt a little sorry for him, having to paint beautiful scenes in our backyard, which is not exactly picturesque. It never was much of a yard, but after I started raising chickens, things didn’t exactly improve.
画总是很好看，但是我总是为他感到一点遗憾，必须要在我们的并不美丽的后院画美丽的东西。它看起来并不像个院子，而且自从我开始养鸡，情况更没有什么好转。
Dad doesn’t seem to see the backyard or the chickens when he’s painting, though. It’s not just the snapshot or the canvas he sees either. It’s something much bigger. He gets this look in his eye like he’s transcended the yard, the neighborhood, the world. And as his big, callused hands sweep a tiny brush against the canvas, it’s almost like his body has been possessed by some graceful spiritual being.
但是爸爸似乎并不能在画画的时候看见院子或鸡。而他能看见的似乎不仅仅是照片和画布。而是什么更大的东西。他的眼睛里有某种东西让他看起来已经脱离了院子，街区，甚至世界。当他结满老茧的大手拿着小小的刷子扫过画布时，这看起来几乎像是他的身体被什么优美的灵魂占据了。
When I was little, my dad would let me sit beside him on the porch while he painted, as long as I’d be quiet. I don’t do quiet easily, but I discovered that after five or ten minutes without a peep, he’d start talking.
我小的时候，只要我安静，我爸爸会在他画画时让我坐在边上的门廊。我通常并不能安静下来，但我发现只要我五至十分钟内不发出任何声音，他就会开始说话。
When I got a little older, he still talked about himself and his childhood, but he also started asking questions about me. What were we learning at school? What book was I currently reading? What did I think about this or that.
当我再大一点的时候，他仍旧会说关于他和他的童年，但是他也会问关于我的问题。我在学校都学了什么？我现在在读什么书？我怎么想这件那件事。
Then one time he surprised me and asked me about Bryce. Why was I so crazy about Bryce?
有一天他出人意料地问了我关于布莱斯的事。为什么我这么迷恋布莱斯？
I’ve learned a lot about my dad that way. He told me all sorts of stories about what he’d done when he was my age, and other things, too — like how he got his first job delivering hay, and how he wished he’d finished college.
我用这样的方式了解了他很多。他告诉我他像我这么大的时候曾做过各种各样的事，还有其他的——比如他怎么找到第一份运干草的工作，比如他后悔自己没有完成大学学业。
I didn’t really know what he meant by that, but it made me want to argue with him. How could he possibly understand about Bryce? He didn’t know him!
那时候我并不知道这是什么意思，但是这让我想和他争吵。他怎么可能了解布莱斯呢？他根本不了解他！
I told him about his eyes and his hair and the way his cheeks blush, but I don’t think I explained it very well because when I was done Dad shook his head and told me in soft, heavy words that I needed to start looking at the whole landscape.
我告诉了他有关他的眼睛，他的头发和他脸红的样子，但是我认为我并没有解释清楚。因为当我说完的时候爸爸摇了摇头并用温和却沉重的语气告诉我，我需要看到整体。
But this was not an arguing spot. Those were scattered throughout the house, but not out here.
但是这并不是个应该争吵的地方。那些争吵地点散布在房子的各个角落，但不是这里。
Proper lighting? What was that supposed to mean? I sat there wondering, but I was afraid that by asking I’d be admitting that I wasn’t mature enough to understand, and for some reason it felt obvious. Like I should understand.
适当的光线？那应该是什么意思呢？我坐在那儿想，但是我害怕如果问了就会承认自己还不够成熟，不能理解这些，但是不知为什么这感觉很明显。好像我应该理解似的。
Mostly the things he talked about floated around me, but once in a while something would happen and I would understand exactly what he had meant. “A painting is more than the sum of its parts,” he would tell me, and then go on to explain how the cow by itself is just a cow, and the meadow by itself is just grass and flowers, and the sun peeking through the trees is just a beam of light, but put them all together and you’ve got magic.
大部分时间他说的话我都没听进去，但是一段时间过后会发生一些事，我就能够完全理解他的意思。“一幅画并不仅仅是它各个部分的简单组合。”他会告诉我，然后继续解释一头牛只是一头牛，草地只是一片长满青草和花朵的土地，透过树枝的阳光也只不过是一束光线而已，但是将它们组合在一起，你却会发现奇迹。
We were both quiet for a record-breaking amount of time before he kissed me on the forehead and said, “Proper lighting is everything, Julianna.”
我们沉默的时间再次打破了记录，但是他吻了吻我的额头然后说：“适当的光线才是一切，朱莉安娜。”
After that he didn’t talk so much about events as he did about ideas. And the older I got, the more philosophical he seemed to get. I don’t know if he really got more philosophical or if he just thought I could handle it now that I was in the double digits.
在那之后他谈论思想比谈论事件更多些。我越长大，他听起来越哲学化。我不知道真的是他越来越哲学化，还是他认为我能够理解这些带双重含义的话。
I’ve flown kites before and I know — sometimes they’re gone forever, and sometimes they’re just waiting in the middle of the road for you to rescue them. Kites can be lucky or they can be ornery. I’ve had both kinds, and a lucky kite is definitely worth chasing after.
我以前放过风筝所以我知道——有的时候它们永远地飞走了，有的时候它们会等待在路中央等你去救它们。风筝可以很幸运或者坏脾气。两种类型的我都有过，幸运的风筝总是值得被追逐。
The sycamore tree had been at the top of the hill forever. It was on a big vacant lot, giving shade in the summer and a place for birds to nest in the spring. It had a built-in slide for us, too. Its trunk bent up and around in almost a complete spiral, and it was so much fun to ride down. My mom told me she thought the tree must have been damaged as a sapling but survived, and now, maybe a hundred years later, it was still there, the biggest tree she’d ever seen. “A testimony to endurance” is what she called it.
那棵梧桐树一直以来就在山坡的高处。那是块很大的空地，在夏天洒下绿荫，给鸟儿一个栖息地。我们还有一个建造的滑道。它的树干几乎弯曲成一个完整的螺旋形，从上面滑下来非常有趣。妈妈对我说，这棵树还是幼苗的时候可能被损害过，但它活了下来，现在，可能是一百年之后，她还在那儿，是她所见过的最大的树。她把她叫做“一个忍耐的证明”。
I had always played in the tree, but I didn’t become a serious climber until the fifth grade, when I went up to rescue a kite that was stuck in its branches. I’d first spotted the kite floating free through the air and then saw it dive-bomb somewhere up the hill by the sycamore tree.
我经常在树上玩，但是我没有成为一个真正的爬树高手，直到五年级，我爬上去解救了一个被树梢挂住的风筝。我先发现一只风筝在空中飘浮，接下去，它一个俯冲就栽在了山坡的梧桐树上。
I understood what he was saying, but I never felt what he was saying until one day when I was up in the sycamore tree.
我明白他的意思，但是我从没有真正感受到他说的，直到有一天，我在那棵梧桐树上。
Ornery kites dive-bomb out of spite. They never get exhausted because they won’t stay up long enough to poop out. Thirty feet up they just sort of smirk at you and crash for the fun of it.
坏脾气的风筝撞在树上都是故意的。它们从来不会疲倦，因为它们从不在空中多呆。它们仅仅往上三十英尺就会冲着你傻笑然后撞来撞去作为娱乐。
So Champ and I ran up to Collier Street, and after scouting out the road, Champ started barking at the sycamore tree. I looked up and spotted it, too, flashing blue and yellow through the branches.
所以钱普和我跑到科里尔街上，经过一段时间的侦查，钱普开始对着梧桐树狂叫。我向上看也发现了它，在树枝间发出蓝黄相间的光。
This kite looked lucky to me. It wasn’t anything fancy, just an old-fashioned diamond with blue and yellow stripes. But it stuttered along in a friendly way, and when it dive-bombed, it seemed to do so from exhaustion as opposed to spite.
这个风筝对我来说挺幸运。它并不华丽，只是老式的菱形风筝，上面有蓝黄相间的条纹。但是它以一种很友好的方式飞行，而且它栽在树上也只是因为筋疲力尽，而并不是出于恶意。
It was a long ways up, but I thought I’d give it a shot. I shinnied up the trunk, took a shortcut across the slide, and started climbing. Champ kept a good eye on me, barking me along, and soon I was higher than I’d ever been. But still the kite seemed forever away.
爬上去会是很长一段路，但是我认为我能做到。我攀上了树干，从滑道的地方抄近路，然后开始向上爬。钱普一直注视着我，冲着我叫，没一会儿我就爬到了以前从没到过的高度。但是风筝看起来还是遥不可及。
Then below me I noticed Bryce coming around the corner and through the vacant lot. And I could tell from the way he was looking up that this was his kite.
然后我注意到下面布莱斯从角落走向了空地。我从他向上看的表情就能看出那是他的风筝。
The branches were strong, with just the right amount of intersections to make climbing easy.
树枝很强壮，有足够数量的交叉点，使攀爬变得容易。
Then I looked down. Down at Bryce. And suddenly I got dizzy and weak in the knees. I was miles off the ground! Bryce shouted, “Can you reach it?”
然后我往下看。往下看布莱斯。突然之间我觉得一阵眩晕，膝盖也开始颤抖。我离地面好远啊！布莱斯喊道：“你能拿到吗？”
I caught my breath and managed to call down, “No problem!” then forced myself to concentrate on those blue and yellow stripes, to focus on them and only them as I shinnied up, up, up. Finally I touched it; I grasped it; I had the kite in my hand!
我平复了呼吸然后向下喊：“没问题！”然后强迫自己仅仅专注于那些蓝黄相间的条纹，只有这样我才能继续向上，向上，向上爬。最后我终于碰到它了，我抓紧风筝，风筝在我手上了！
“Sure!” I called back. And up, up, up I went!
“当然。”我回答道。然后继续上去，上去，上去！
And the higher I got, the more amazed I was by the view. I’d never seen a view like that! It was like being in an airplane above all the rooftops, above the other trees. Above the world!
我爬得越高，风景就越发曼妙迷人。我从没见过这样的景色！这感觉就像是乘着飞机在所有的屋顶上方，所有树的上方。在整个世界上方！
What a lucky, lucky kite this was turning out to be!
这是个多么，多么幸运的风筝啊！
But the string was tangled in the branches above and I couldn’t seem to pull it free. Bryce called, “Break the string!” and somehow I managed to do just that.
但是风筝线缠在了更高的树枝上，我似乎不能把它解开。布莱斯喊道：“拉断风筝线！”我照做了。
“Can you climb that high?” he called up to me.
“你能爬那么高吗？”他朝我喊道。
When I had the kite free, I needed a minute to rest. To recover before starting down. So instead of looking at the ground below me, I held on tight and looked out. Out across the rooftops.
当我解下风筝后，我需要一点时间休息。在爬下去之前恢复体力。所以我没有再往下看地面，而是紧紧抱住树干看着外面。一排屋顶后面的地方。
That’s when the fear of being up so high began to lift, and in its place came the most amazing feeling that I was flying. Just soaring above the earth, sailing among the clouds.
这时候在高空的恐惧消失了，却有另一种令人惊奇的感受，感觉我几乎在飞。就在地球上方翱翔，在云间穿行。
Then I began to notice how wonderful the breeze smelled. It smelled like… sunshine. Like sunshine and wild grass and pomegranates and rain! I couldn’t stop breathing it in, filling my lungs again and again with the sweetest smell I’d ever known.
然后我感觉可以嗅到微风的芬芳，闻上去像阳光。像阳光，野草，石榴和雨！我忍不住深呼吸，一次又一次让肺中充盈着我有生以来最香甜的气息。
Alone!
单独！
By the time I hit the slide, the heady feeling I’d had in the tree was changing into the heady realization that Bryce and I were alone.
当我踩上滑道的时候，我在树上陶醉的感觉变成了陶醉的发现我和布莱斯正单独在一起。
Bryce called up, “Are you stuck?” which brought me down to earth. Carefully I backed up, prized stripes in hand, and as I worked my way down, I could see Bryce circling the tree, watching me to make sure I was okay.
布莱斯喊道：“你不能动了吗？”这让我重回了地球。我小心翼翼地向后退，把风筝抓在手里，我一点点往下，我能够看见布莱斯围着树绕来绕去，确定我没事。
My heart was positively racing as I held the kite out to him. But before he could take it, Champ nudged me from behind and I could feel his cold, wet nose against my skin. Against my skin?
我的心跳在我把风筝交给他的时候不断加速。但是在他接过去之前，钱普从背后推了推我，我能感觉到他又冷又湿的鼻子碰到我的皮肤。碰到我的皮肤？
I grabbed my jeans in back, and that’s when I realized the seat of my pants was ripped wide open.
我抓住了牛仔裤的后面，这时我才发现牛仔裤臀部的部位被划开了一道口子。
I wanted to see it, to feel it, again. And again.
我想看看，再次去体会。然后再一次。
Bryce laughed a little nervous laugh, so I could tell he knew, and for once mine were the cheeks that were beet red. He took his kite and ran off, leaving me to inspect the damage.
布莱斯紧张地笑了笑，所以我知道他已经发现了，头一次我的脸颊像烧着了一样红。他接过风筝就立刻跑走了，留下我检查身上的损坏。
It was on a day like that when my father’s notion of the whole being greater than the sum of its parts moved from my head to my heart. The view from my sycamore was more than rooftops and clouds and wind and colors combined. It was magic.
就在那一天，我开始真正明白爸爸所说的“整体大于部分和”。我从梧桐树上看到的景色并不仅仅是屋顶，云朵，风和颜色的结合。那是魔力。
It wasn’t long before I wasn’t afraid of being up so high and found the spot that became my spot. I could sit there for hours, just looking out at the world. Sunsets were amazing. Some days they’d be purple and pink, some days they’d be a blazing orange, setting fire to clouds across the horizon.
没多久我就不再害怕在那么高的地方，从此那就成为了我最爱的地方。我可以在那里坐上几个小时，看着这个世界。那儿的夕阳美极了。有时它是紫色或粉色的，有时候，橙色的余晖会点燃地平线的晚霞。
I did eventually get over the embarrassment of my jeans, but I never got over the view. I kept thinking of what it felt like to be up so high in that tree.
我最后终于摆脱了牛仔裤的尴尬，但是我再也不能忘记那个景色。我不停地想在那么高的树上是什么感觉。
And I started marveling at how I was feeling both humble and majestic. How was that possible? How could I be so full of peace and full of wonder? How could this simple tree make me feel so complex? So alive.
然后我惊奇地发现我感觉既渺小又伟大。这怎么可能呢？我怎么能感觉如此安宁和充满了希望？这棵简简单单的树怎么能让我觉得这么复杂？这么有活力？就这么活着。
I went up the tree every chance I got. And in junior high that became almost every day because the bus to our school picks up on Collier Street, right in front of the sycamore tree.
只要找到机会我就会爬上树。到了初中那变成了每一天，因为去学校的公车就停在科里尔街上，就在梧桐树前面。
I tried to convince the kids at the bus stop to climb up with me, even a little ways, but all of them said they didn’t want to get dirty. Turn down a chance to feel magic for fear of a little dirt? I couldn’t believe it.
我试过让在树下等车的学生和我一起上树，但是所有人都说他们不想弄得很脏。有一个感受魔法的机会却害怕弄脏一点点？我不相信。
At first I just wanted to see how high I could get before the bus pulled up, but before long I was leaving the house early so I could get clear up to my spot to see the sun rise, or the birds flutter about, or just the other kids converge on the curb.
一开始我只是想知道在公车到站之前我能爬多高，但没多久后我会早早地离开家，这样我就能坐在树上看到日出，或者是鸟的飞翔，或者仅仅是其他的学生在路边会合。
I’d never told my mother about climbing the tree. Being the truly sensible adult that she is, she would have told me it was too dangerous. My brothers, being brothers, wouldn’t have cared.
我从没告诉过我妈妈关于爬树的事。她是个敏感理性的人，她一定会告诉我这太危险了。我的哥哥们，作为哥哥，倒是不在乎。
That left my father. The one person I knew would understand. Still, I was afraid to tell him.
这就剩下爸爸了。我知道能够理解的人。但是我仍旧害怕告诉他。
He’d tell my mother and pretty soon they’d insist that I stop. So I kept quiet, kept climbing, and felt a somewhat lonely joy as I looked out over the world.
他会告诉妈妈，之后没多久他们就会让我停下来。所以我什么都没说，继续爬树，然后在我俯视整个世界的时候感觉到一点点孤独的快乐。
In all the times I’d sat out there with him, he’d never asked me that. I looked at him but couldn’t seem to speak.
所有的时间我像那样和他坐在一起，他从没这样问过。我看着他，但是似乎无法开口。
I got my jacket and went out to sit beside him, quiet as a mouse.
我拿上了外套然后出去坐在了他旁边，像老鼠一样安静。
After a few minutes he said, “What’s on your mind, sweetheart?”
过了几分钟他问，“你在想什么呢，亲爱的？”
That night after dinner my father went outside to paint. In the cold of the night, under the glare of the porch light, he went out to put the finishing touches on a sunrise he’d been working on.
那天晚上吃过晚饭后我爸爸去了外面画画。在清冷的夜里，在门廊里强光的照射下，他出去给他画了很久的日出做最后的收尾。
Then a few months ago I found myself talking to the tree. An entire conversation, just me and a tree. And on the climb down I felt like crying. Why didn’t I have someone real to talk to? Why didn’t I have a best friend like everyone else seemed to? Sure, there were kids I knew at school, but none of them were close friends. They’d have no interest in climbing the tree. In smelling the sunshine.
然后，几个月之前我发现自己开始和树谈话。一段完整的谈话，只有我和树。但是往下爬的时候我却想哭。为什么我没有可以真正谈天的人？为什么我没有最好的朋友，像其他人那样？当然，我在学校有认识的人，但是没有一个是亲密的朋友。他们都对爬树不感兴趣。对呼吸阳光不感兴趣。
He mixed two hues of orange together, and very softly he said, “Talk to me.”
他把两种橙色调混合在一起，然后非常温柔地说：“和我说说。”
He tried kidding me. “Would you mind explaining it to your mother?”
他试着开我的玩笑。“你会向你妈妈解释吗？”
I sighed so heavily it surprised even me. “I understand why you come out here, Dad.”
我沉重地叹了口气，连自己都感到惊讶了：“我理解你为什么爱呆在外面了，爸爸。”
He didn’t interrupt me once, and when my confession was through, I looked at him and whispered, “Would you climb up there with me?”
他一次都没有打断我，当我的坦白结束后，我看着他低语道：“你会和我一起爬上去吗？”
So I told him about the sycamore tree. About the view and the sounds and the colors and the wind, and how being up so high felt like flying. Felt like magic.
所以我告诉了他梧桐树的事。关于风景，它的声音，色彩和风，还有在那么高的地方感觉像在飞。感觉有魔力。
He stopped mixing. “You do? What happened? Tell me about it!”
他停下了调色。“你明白了？发生什么了？告诉我。”
I went to bed so excited that I don’t think I slept more than five minutes the whole night. Saturday was right around the corner. I couldn’t wait!
我去睡觉的时候非常兴奋，我根本不认为整个晚上睡着了多于五分钟。星期六很快就到了。我等不及了！
He thought about this a long time, then smiled and said, “I’m not much of a climber anymore, Julianna, but I’ll give it a shot, sure. How about this weekend, when we’ve got lots of daylight to work with?”
他想了很久，然后微笑着说：“我不再是个攀爬者了，朱莉安娜，但是我会试试。这个周末怎么样，当我们有很多日光的时候？”
“Great!”
“太好了！”
“Really, Dad. I understand now about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts.”
“真的，爸爸。我理解‘整体大于部分和’的意思了。”
The next morning I raced to the bus stop extra early and climbed the tree. I caught the sun rising through the clouds, sending streaks of fire from one end of the world to the other. And I was in the middle of making a mental list of all the things I was going to show my father when I heard a noise below.
第二天早上我提前到了车站爬上了树。我能够从云中看见太阳缓缓升起，把火焰般的光芒洒向整个世界。当我在脑海里排列所有要给爸爸看的东西的清单时，我听到了下面一阵噪音。
One of the men called, “Hey! You better come down from there. We gotta take this thing down.”
其中一个男人喊道：“嗨！你最好下来。我们要把这东西砍掉了。”
There were four men standing around talking, drinking from thermoses, and I almost called down to them, “I’m sorry, but you can’t park there… That’s a bus stop!” But before I could, one of the men reached into the back of a truck and started unloading tools. Gloves. Ropes. A chain. Earmuffs. And then chain saws. Three chain saws.
有四个男人站在一起聊天，用保温瓶喝水，我几乎对他们喊道：“我很抱歉，但是你们不能在那儿停车，那是个公交车站！”但是在我开口之前，其中一个男人站到了卡车后面并开始卸下工具。手套，粗绳，一条铁链，耳塞，再然后是链锯，三把链锯。
And still I didn’t get it. I kept looking around for what it was they could possibly be there to cut down. Then one of the kids who rides the bus showed up and started talking to them, and pretty soon he was pointing up at me.
但是我还是不明白。我继续往周围看他们可能要锯下的东西。然后一个乘车的学生出现并开始和他们交谈，没过多一会儿他指向了我。
“Yeah, now come on down.”
“没错，现在赶紧下来。”
I held on to the branch tight, because suddenly it felt as though I might fall. I managed to choke out, “The tree?”
我紧紧抱住了树干，因为突然间我感觉到我可能摔下去。我震惊地说：“这棵树？”
I looked down, and parked right beneath me were two trucks. Big trucks. One of them was towing a long, empty trailer, and the other had a cherry picker on it — the kind they use to work on overhead power lines and telephone poles.
我向下看，在我正下方停了两辆卡车。大卡车。其中一辆拖着一个长长的空拖车，另外一辆上有一个升降台——用来装空中电力线和电话电极的那种。
“The owner!” he called back.
“树的主人！”他喊道。
“But why?”
“为什么？”
“But who told you to cut it down?”
“但是谁告诉你要砍掉的？”
Even from forty feet up I could see him scowl. “Because he’s gonna build himself a house, and he can’t very well do that with this tree in the way. Now come on, girl, we’ve got work to do!”
就算在四十英尺的高空我也能看见他对我怒目而视。“因为他要造个房子，树挡住了路。现在下来，小女孩，我们有活儿要干！”
By that time most of the kids had gathered for the bus. They weren’t saying anything to me, just looking up at me and turning from time to time to talk to each other. Then Bryce appeared, so I knew the bus was about to arrive. I searched across the rooftops and sure enough, there it was, less than four blocks away.
那时大部分的学生聚集起来等车。他们没有对我说话，只是转来转去并和其他人聊天。然后布莱斯出现了，因此我知道公车很快就会到站。我看着房屋后面然后，没错，就在那儿，不到四站远。
My heart was crazy with panic. I didn’t know what to do! I couldn’t leave and let them cut down the tree! I cried, “You can’t cut it down! You just can’t!”
我的心因为恐慌而跳动得飞快。我不知道怎么做！我不能就这样离开让他们砍下树！我哭喊道：“你们不能砍掉它，不能！”
One of the men shook his head and said, “I am this close to calling the police. You are trespassing and obstructing progress on a contracted job. Now are you going to come down or are we going to cut you down?”
其中一个男人摇摇头说：“我很快就要叫警察了。你侵犯了土地并且阻碍了工作协议的进程。现在是你下来还是我们把你一起砍下来？”
The bus was three blocks away. I’d never missed school for any reason other than legitimate illness, but I knew in my heart that I was going to miss my ride. “You’re going to have to cut me down!” I yelled. Then I had an idea. They’d never cut it down if all of us were in the tree. They’d have to listen! “Hey, guys!” I called to my classmates. “Get up here with me! They can’t cut it down if we’re all up here! Marcia! Tony! Bryce! C’mon, you guys, don’t let them do this!”
公车只有三站远了。我以前除了合理的病假外从来没有因任何原因不去学校，但是内心深处我知道这一次我会错过车次。“你们只有把我砍下来了！”我喊道。然后我有了一个主意。如果我们全在树上他们绝不会砍树。他们必须要听！“嗨，大家！”我对我的同学喊道。“和我一起上来！如果我们都在上面他们就不会砍树了！玛西亚！托尼！布莱斯！来啊，别让他们这么做。”
What happened after that is a bit of a blur. I remember the neighbors gathering, and the police with megaphones. I remember the fire brigade, and some guy saying it was his blasted tree and I’d darn well better get out of it.
在那之后一切都很模糊了。我记得邻居们围在树下，还有带着扩音器的警察。我记得消防队，还有什么人说这是他的树我最好赶紧离开。
They just stood there, staring up at me.
他们都只是站在那儿，向上瞪着我。
I could see the bus, one block away. “Come on, you guys! You don’t have to come up this high. Just a little ways. Please!”
我能看见公车，只有一站路了。“你们快上来啊！不需要爬得这么高，只要上树就行。求你们了！”
The bus blasted up and pulled to the curb in front of the trucks, and when the doors folded open, one by one my classmates climbed on board.
公车如同一阵疾风似的开来，停止了车站的前面，当折叠门打开之后，我的同学一个接着一个地登上了车。
Then my father came racing up. He jumped out of his pickup truck, and after talking with my mother for a few minutes, he got the guy in the cherry picker to give him a lift up to where I was. After that it was all over. I started crying and tried to get him to look out over the rooftops, but he wouldn’t. He said that no view was worth his little girl’s safety.
然后爸爸跑着来了。他从他的卡车里跳出来，用了几分钟和我妈妈谈话后，他让控制升降台的人把他升到了和我一样的高度。在那之后一切都结束了。我开始哭，试着让他看看房顶后面的景色，但是他不肯。他说任何景色都比不上他小女儿的安全重要。
Somebody tracked down my mother, who cried and pleaded and acted not at all the way a sensible mother should, but I was not coming down. I was not coming down.
有人找来了我妈妈，她哭着请求我，一点都不像原来那个理智的妈妈，可是我不会下去。我绝不会下去。
He got me down and he took me home, only I couldn’t stay there. I couldn’t stand the sound of chain saws in the distance.
他把我拉下去带回了家，但是我不能呆在那儿。我不能忍受远处传来的电锯的声音。
I must’ve cried for two weeks straight. Oh, sure, I went to school and I functioned the best I could, but I didn’t go there on the bus. I started riding my bike instead, taking the long way so I wouldn’t have to go up to Collier Street. Up to a pile of sawdust that used to be the earth’s most magnificent sycamore tree.
我至少哭了整整两个星期。当然，我仍然坚持去去学校，尽可能集中注意，但是我没有去车站。我开始骑车上学，绕道走这样我就可以不用经过科里尔街。经过一堆锯末，那里原来有世界上最壮丽的梧桐树。
“Oh, Dad, it’s okay. I’ll get over it.”
“哦，爸爸，没关系。我会忘记的。”
So Dad took me with him to work, and while he put up a block wall, I sat in his truck and cried.
所以他把我带到了他工作的地方，他一边建起一面磁畴壁，我一边坐在他的卡车里哭。
Then one evening when I was locked up in my room, my father came in with something under a towel. I could tell it was a painting because that’s how he transports the important ones when he shows them in the park. He sat down, resting the painting on the floor in front of him. “I always liked that tree of yours,” he said. “Even before you told me about it.”
之后有天晚上我把自己锁在了房间，爸爸拿了一个被毛巾盖住的东西进来。我知道那是一幅画因为他就是那样运送那些重要的画作去公园的。他坐下来，把画放在他前面的地板上。“我一直都很喜欢你的那棵树，”他说，“甚至在你告诉我之前。”
“No, Julianna. No, you won’t.”
“不，朱莉安娜，你不会的。”
I started crying. “It was just a tree…”
我开始哭。“那只是棵树…”
“I never want you to convince yourself of that. You and I both know it isn’t true.”
“我从来都不希望你对自己承认这一点。你和我都知道这不是真的。”
“Bear with me a minute, would you?” He took a deep breath. “I want the spirit of that tree to be with you always. I want you to remember how you felt when you were up there.” He hesitated a moment, then handed me the painting. “So I made this for you.”
“先等我说我，好吗？”他深吸了口气。“我希望那棵树的灵魂永远伴随着你。我希望你永远不要忘记在树上的感觉。”他犹豫了一会儿，然后把画递给我，“所以我画了这个给你。”
“But Dad…”
“但是爸爸…”
I hung the painting across the room from my bed. It’s the first thing I see every morning and the last thing I see every night. And now that I can look at it without crying, I see more than the tree and what being up in its branches meant to me. I see the day that my view of things around me started changing.
我把画挂在了床对面的墙上。那幅画是我每天早上醒来看到的第一个事物，也是我每天睡前看到的最后一件事物。当我不在面对画落泪时，我只看到的不仅仅是一棵树，我开始明白了在树上的那些时光带给我的意义。从那一天起我的世界观发生了变化。
I pulled off the towel, and there was my tree. My beautiful, majestic sycamore tree. Through the branches he’d painted the fire of sunrise, and it seemed to me I could feel the wind. And way up in the tree was a tiny girl looking off into the distance, her cheeks flushed with wind. With joy. With magic.
我拉下画布，那就是我的树了。我美丽的、高大的梧桐树。透过火焰般燃烧着的日出，我几乎能感受到风。在高高的树枝上是一个小女孩俯视着一切，她的面颊被风吹得通红。充满了欢乐和魔力。
I wiped the tears from my cheeks and gave a mighty sniff. “Thank you, Daddy,” I choked out. “Thank you.”
我抹掉面颊上的泪水，吸了吸鼻子。“谢谢，爸爸，”我哽咽着，“谢谢。”
“Don’t cry, Julianna. I want it to help you, not hurt you.”
“别哭了，朱莉安娜。我想帮助你，而不是伤害你。”
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