母亲的信

至今我依然记得母亲的信。事情要从1941年12月说起。
Every night she sat at the big table in the kitchen and wrote to my brother Johnny, who had been drafted that summer.
母亲每晚都坐在厨房的大饭桌旁边，给我弟弟约翰写信。那年夏天约翰应征入伍。
We had not heard from him since the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
自从日本袭击珍珠港以后，他就一直杳无音信。
I didn't understand why my mum kept writing Johnny when he never wrote back.
约翰从未回信，我不明白母亲为何还要坚持写下去。
Wait and see—well get a letter from him one day, she claimed.
可母亲还是坚持说：等着瞧吧，总有一天他会给我们回信的。
I don't know if she said that to calm herself, dad or all of us down.
虽然我不肯定她是否只是在安慰自己，或是父亲，或者是我们几个孩子，
But I do know that it helped us stick together, and one day a letter really did arrive.
但我们一家人却因此更加亲密。而最终我们终于等到了约翰的回信，
She took the fountain pen, ink and air mail notepaper and began to write.
拿出钢笔、墨水和信纸开始写信。
When she had finished, she read the letter aloud to the woman.
写完后为她大声读出来。
How did you know that was exactly what I wanted to say?
这正是我想说的话，您是怎么知道的呢?
I often sit and look at my boys' letters, just like you, without a clue about what to write.
我也和你一样，常常坐在那里看儿子的来信，完全不知道写什么好。
A few days later the woman returned with a friend, then another one and yet another one
几天后，女人回来，带来一个朋友，后来又来一个，再一个……
they all had sons who fought in the war, and they all needed letters.
他们都有儿子在战场上奋战，都需要写信。
Mum had become the correspondent in our part of town. Sometimes she would write letters all day long.
妈妈变成了我们城镇的通讯员，有时她一整天都在写回信。
Mum always insisted that people signed their own letters.