The Professor（21）

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He was eight years old.

他那时8岁。

A telegram came from the hospital, and since his father, a Russian immigrant, could not read English, Morrie had to break the news, reading his mother's death notice like a student in front of the class.

一封电报从医院发来，因为他的父亲，一个俄罗斯移民，不认得英文，莫瑞不得不代为告知这个消息，像一个站在全班同学面前朗读的学生阅读着他妈妈的死亡通知。

"We regret to inform you... " he began.

“我们很抱歉地通知您... ”他从头开始读着。

On the morning of the funeral, Morrie's relatives came down the steps of his tenement building on the poor Lower East Side of Manhattan.

葬礼的清晨，莫瑞的亲戚们从他家在穷困的曼哈顿下东区租住的公寓大楼台阶上陆陆续续走出来。

The men wore dark suits, the women wore veils.

男人们穿着黑西装，女人们戴着面纱。

The kids in the neighborhood were going off to school, and as they passed, Morrie looked down, ashamed that his classmates would see him this way.

邻居家的孩子们都开始出发上学了，在他们经过的时候，莫瑞头低低地看着地面，耻于让他的同学们看见他这副样子。

One of his aunts, a heavyset woman, grabbed Morrie and began to wail: "What will you do without your mother? What will become of you?"

他的一个姨妈，一个魁梧的胖大娘，抓住莫瑞大声哀嚎着：“没妈你可咋办哟？你将来可得长成啥样哟？”

Morrie burst into tears.

莫瑞也禁不住大哭了起来。

His classmates ran away.

他经过的同学们都纷纷跑开了。

At the cemetery, Morrie watched as they shoveled dirt into his mother's grave.

在墓地，莫瑞看着他们一铲子一铲子把土铲进了他妈妈的坟墓。

He tried to recall the tender moments they had shared when she was alive.

他努力回想着妈妈生前与他共同度过的温暖瞬间。

She had operated a candy store until she got sick, after which she mostly slept or sat by the window, looking frail and weak.

生病之前她一直经营着一家糖果店，生病之后她多数时间要么在窗前坐着或睡着，看起来特别脆弱无力。

Sometimes she would yell out for her son to get her some medicine, and young Morrie, playing stickball in the street, would pretend he did not hear her.

有时候她会冲她的儿子喊叫着给她拿些药来，而正在大街上玩棍球的小莫瑞，会假装听不见。

In his mind he believed he could make the illness go away by ignoring it.

那时候在他的观念里，他觉得通过视而不见就可以让疾病消失。

How else can a child confront death?

不然一个小孩又能有什么别的方式去面对死亡呢？

Morrie's father, whom everyone called Charlie, had come to America to escape the Russian Army.

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