美文賞析:可以請你嫁給我丈夫嗎？

艾米·羅森塔爾於3月13日逝世，就在本文發表後的10天。你可以去看她的訃告。

I have been trying to write this for a while, but the morphine and lack of juicy cheeseburgers (what has it been now, five weeks without real food?) have drained my energy and interfered with whatever prose prowess remains. Additionally, the intermittent micronaps that keep whisking me away midsentence are clearly not propelling my work.forward as quickly as I would like. But they are, admittedly, a bit of trippy fun.
一段時間以來，我一直想寫這篇文章，但嗎啡加上美味的奶酪漢堡的缺失（現在已經五週沒吃真正的食物了吧？）導致我精疲力盡，並且影響了我僅存的文字能力。另外，間歇性的打盹常常讓我在語句寫到一半時停下來，它們顯然沒有像我希望的那樣迅速地推進我的工作，不過倒也的確算是一種迷迷糊糊的小快樂。

Still, I have to stick with it, because I’m facing a deadline, in this case, a pressing one. I need to say this (and say it right) while I have a) your attention, and b) a pulse.
但我必須堅持，因爲我面臨一個最後期限，而且這一次的最後期限頗爲緊張。我必須趁自己還 a）有你們的關注並且 b）有脈搏時，把這些話說出來（還要準確地說出來）。

I have been married to the most extraordinary man for 26 years. I was planning on at least another 26 together.
我和這個最特別的男人已經結婚 26 年了。我本來打算和他再一起生活至少 26 年。

Want to hear a sick joke? A husband and wife walk into the emergency room in the late evening on Sept. 5, 2015. A few hours and tests later, the doctor clarifies that the unusual pain the wife is feeling on her right side isn’t the no-biggie appendicitis they suspected but rather ovarian cancer.
想聽個倒胃口的笑話嗎？一對夫婦在 2015 年 9 月 5 日的深夜走進急診室。幾個小時過去了，在進行了一些檢查後，醫生明確表示，妻子右半邊身體感覺到的劇痛不是他們所以爲的沒什麼大不了的闌尾炎，而是卵巢癌。

No wonder the word cancer and cancel look so similar.
難怪 cancer（癌症）這個詞和 cancel（取消）看上去這麼相像。

This is when we entered what I came to think of as Plan “Be,” existing only in the present. As for the future, allow me to introduce you to the gentleman of this article, Jason Brian Rosenthal.
這時，我們開始活在當下，我把它當作 Be 計劃（Plan Be）。至於未來，請允許我向你介紹本文的主人公賈森•布萊恩•羅森塔爾（Jason Brian Rosenthal）。

He is an easy man to fall in love with. I did it in one day.
他是一個容易讓人愛上的人。我就是在一天時間裏愛上他的。

Let me explain: My father’s best friend since summer camp, “Uncle” John, had known Jason and me separately our whole lives, but Jason and I had never met. I went to college out east and took my first job in California. When I moved back home to Chicago, John — who thought Jason and I were perfect for each other — set us up on a blind date.
我解釋一下吧：我父親從夏令營時代開始的摯友約翰叔叔是分別看着我和賈森長大的，但我和賈森從沒見過面。我在東部上的大學，並在加州找到了自己的第一份工作。當我搬回芝加哥時，認爲我和賈森是絕配的約翰給我們安排了一次相親。

It was 1989. We were only 24. I had precisely zero expectations about this going anywhere. But when he knocked on the door of my little frame house, I thought, “Uh-oh, there is something highly likable about this person.”
那是 1989 年。我們都只有 24 歲。我本來對事情會怎麼發展沒抱任何期望。但當他敲響我的小木板房的門時，我想，“哇哦，這個人有一種非常討人喜歡的東西。”

By the end of dinner, I knew I wanted to marry him.
到晚餐結束時，我知道自己想嫁給他。

Jason? He knew a year later.
賈森呢？他是一年後知道的

I have never been on Tinder, Bumble or eHarmony, but I’m going to create a general profile for Jason right here, based on my experience of coexisting in the same house with him for, like, 9,490 days.
我從來沒用過 Tinder、Bumble 或 eHarmony（均爲社交交友平臺——譯註），但我要在這裏根據和他在同一屋檐下生活了大概 9490 天的經歷，給賈森創建一份概括性的個人簡介。

First, the basics: He is 5-foot-10, 160 pounds, with salt-and-pepper hair and hazel eyes.
首先，基本信息如下：身高 5 英尺 10 英寸（約合 178cm）、體重 160 磅（約合 73 公斤）、頭髮花白、眼睛淡褐色。

The following list of attributes is in no particular order because everything feels important to me in some way.
接下來要列出的特點沒有特定的順序，因爲在某種程度上，每個特點對我來說都很重要。

He is a sharp dresser. Our young adult sons, Justin and Miles, often borrow his clothes. Those who know him — or just happen to glance down at the gap between his dress slacks and dress shoes — know that he has a flair for fabulous socks. He is fit and enjoys keeping in shape.
他衣着入時。我們年輕但已成年的兒子賈斯汀（Justin）和邁爾斯（Miles）經常借他的衣服穿。認識他的人——或僅僅是恰好向下瞥見了他禮服褲子與鞋子之間的那個間隙的人——知道，他在襪子的搭配上天賦驚人。他身體健康，且喜歡保持體型。

If our home could speak, it would add that Jason is uncannily handy. On the subject of food — man, can he cook. After a long day, there is no sweeter joy than seeing him walk in the door, plop a grocery bag down on the counter, and woo me with olives and some yummy cheese he has procured before he gets to work on the evening’s meal.
如果我們的家會說話，它會補充一點，賈森非比尋常地心靈手巧。說到飲食這個話題——天哪，他太會做飯了。結束漫長的一天後，沒有比看着他走進門、啪嗒一聲把裝着食品雜貨的袋子放在櫃子上、用買到的油橄欖或一些美味的奶酪討好我然後再開始準備晚飯更甜蜜的快樂。

Jason loves listening to live music; it’s our favorite thing to do together. I should also add that our 19-year-old daughter, Paris, would rather go to a concert with him than anyone else.
賈森喜歡聽現場音樂，這是我們最喜歡一起做的事。我還應該補充一點，我們 19 歲的女兒帕里斯（Paris）寧願和他而不是其他任何人去聽音樂會。

When I was working on my first memoir, I kept circling sections my editor wanted me to expand upon. She would say, “I’d like to see more of this character.”
寫第一部回憶錄時，我總是用筆把編輯想讓我擴充內容的章節圈出來。她會說，“我想看到更多和這個角色有關的內容。”

Of course, I would agree — he was indeed a captivating character. But it was funny because she could have just said: “Jason. Let’s add more about Jason.”
當然， 我同意。他的確是一個吸引人的角色。但有意思的是，她本來可以直接說：“賈森。咱們再補充一些和賈森有關的內容吧。”

He is an absolutely wonderful father. Ask anyone. See that guy on the corner? Go ahead and ask him; he’ll tell you. Jason is compassionate — and he can flip a pancake.
他是一位非常優秀的父親。你可以問任何人。看到拐角處的那個人了嗎。去問他吧，他會告訴你的。賈森富有同情心，而且還會掂鍋，讓煎餅翻面。

Jason paints. I love his artwork. I would call him an artist except for the law degree that keeps him at his downtown office most days from 9 to 5. Or at least it did before I got sick.
賈森會畫畫。我喜歡他的畫。要不是因爲有法律學位，我會叫他畫家。他的法律學位讓他大部分時候，或者至少是在我生病前要在市中心的辦公室從上午 9 點待到下午 5 點。

If you’re looking for a dreamy, let’s-go-for-it travel companion, Jason is your man. He also has an affinity for tiny things: taster spoons, little jars, a mini-sculpture of a couple sitting on a bench, which he presented to me as a reminder of how our family began.
如果你在找一個不瞻前顧後、願意說走就走的人結伴旅行，賈森就是你要找的人。他還喜歡小物件：小勺子、小罐子、一對夫婦坐在一條長凳上的迷你雕塑。他把那尊雕塑拿給我是爲了提醒我，我們的家庭是怎麼開始的。

Here is the kind of man Jason is: He showed up at our first pregnancy ultrasound with flowers. This is a man who, because he is always up early, surprises me every Sunday morning by making some kind of oddball smiley face out of items near the coffeepot: a spoon, a mug, a banana.
賈森是這樣一種人：他手捧獻花出現在我們第一次做孕期超聲波檢查的地方。因爲一向早起，他會在每個週日的早上用咖啡壺旁邊的物品，比如勺子、馬克杯、香蕉擺出某種奇怪的笑臉，來給我驚喜。

This is a man who emerges from the minimart or gas station and says, “Give me your palm.” And, voilà, a colorful gumball appears. (He knows I love all the flavors but white.)
這個男人會從小商店或加油站出來，說：“攤開手掌。”然後，哇！繽紛的球狀口香糖從天而降（他知道哪種口味我都喜歡，除了白色的。）

My guess is you know enough about him now. So let’s swipe right.
我猜你現在對他有了足夠多的瞭解。那麼我們就“向右拖曳”吧。

Wait. Did I mention that he is incredibly handsome? I’m going to miss looking at that face of his.
等等。我有沒有提到他非常帥？我會想念凝視他的臉龐的感覺。
memoir (written entirely before my diagnosis), I invited readers to send in suggestions for matching tattoos, the idea being that author and reader would be bonded by ink. [/en]
如果覺得他像是一位王子，我們的愛情像是一個童話，倒也不算太離譜，只要略去兩個玩了 25 年過家家的人所有的日常生活。還有就是我患癌的部分。呸。

I am wrapping this up on Valentine’s Day, and the most genuine, non-vase-oriented gift I can hope for is that the right person reads this, finds Jason, and another love story begins.
我是在情人節那天寫完這篇文字的 ，而我希望得到的鮮花以外真正的禮物便是，一個對的人能讀到它，找到賈森，開始另一段愛情故事。

I’ll leave this intentional empty space below as a way of giving you two the fresh start you deserve.
我會刻意把底下的空間留白，爲你們奉上你們應得的新的開始。