英语短文-写给女孩的一封信-关于美丽的事实和真相

英语短文

写给女孩的一封信:关于美丽的事实和真相


Dear Girls,
我亲爱的孩子们，
You’re so young right now, but I hope these letters
will be helpful to you one day when you’re older. There is
so much I wish I could ask my mother now that I am a grown woman.
There is so much we never got to talk about. I’m planning on
being around for you well into your lives and adulthood, but
even so, I think having these letters will be useful in some
way. Who knows how things might change down the road, and at
least you’ll have your 34-year-old mother’s thoughts down
on paper.
你们现在如此稚嫩，但我希望将来某一天等你们长大了，
这封信将会对你们有帮助。作为一 个成年女人，我也有很多想问我妈
妈的问题，有很多我和她从未谈及过的事情。在你们的成长中，我会< br>在你们身边帮你们过好生活长大成人，但即使这样，我认为这封信也
能通过其他方式使你们获益。 谁也不知道将来会发生什么，但至少你
们会有我这个34岁的母亲把想法写下来供你们参考。

Anyway, I want this letter to be about beauty and
my relationship to it. I feel this enormous responsibility,
as a mother of two little girls, to lead you down a path that
is relatively healthy when it comes to beauty and self image.
In a lot of women’s eyes I’ve probably already failed in that
respect due to the amount of pink-princess-Barbie mess
cluttering up Vera’s room right now.
不管怎 么样，我希望谈谈关于美以及我对美的看法。作为
一个有两个女儿的母亲，在谈到美和自身形象的问题， 我有重要的责
任为你们引导相对健康的认识之路。虽然在许多女人眼里，我这方面
做得并不值得 称赞，因为现在在Vera的房间里还乱糟糟地塞满了卡
哇伊的芭比娃娃。
But I will say this about Barbie (and all the rest
of that princess garbage): I played with that stuff for a solid
decade when I was growing up and here I am now at a healthy
weight with a healthy outlook about my body and image. I have
a masters degree and have a successful career and a published
book. If Barbie were really so damaging to my femininity and
self-image I highly doubt I could list all of the latter as
accomplishments.
但对于芭比娃娃（以及系列相关的公主垃圾玩具）我 想说
的是，我小时候玩了整整十年的洋娃娃，现在我是一个拥有体重标准、

保持 健康外貌的女性，我获得了硕士学位，我事业成功还出版了一本
书。如果芭比娃娃真的对我的女性特质和 个人形象有破坏性的影响，
那么我真是非常怀疑我列出的那些成就是怎么来的。
But I get it too. It’s hard for women to maintain
a healthy self-image. It’s hard not to obsess over our weight
and to wish we could afford more stylish clothes. It’s hard
not to covet someone else’s hair or hips or eyelashes, and
to spend inordinate amounts of time trying to achieve looks
that we were never suited for in the first place.
但是我也懂，对女人来讲保持健康的形象很不容易。想要不被体重困扰，不奢求自己能有经济能力购买更时尚的衣服，这真的
很难；不觊觎别的女生的发型、 翘臀和睫毛，不在自己身上无节制的
花时间试图让自己驾驭那些完全不适合的造型，这些也都太难了。
I have girlfriends around whom I have to brace myself
to see, because even though I love them, just being around them
makes me self-conscious. I look at old pictures of my mother
and wonder why I’ve never been able to be as skinny as she
was. And then I have friends who are thinner than their mothers
ever were. We women go round and round in circles, holding hands
and trying to be one another sometimes.
我身边有一群女性朋友，虽然我很爱她们，但每次跟她们
接触我都需要打起精神，只是和她们待在一起我都会觉得不自然。看

着我妈妈的 老照片，我总是纳闷为什么自己永远不能像她那么骨感，
然后我发现身边有朋友比她妈妈年轻时还要瘦。 我们女人总在转圈圈，
有时还牵着彼此的手试着扮演对方的角色。
Men like to think we dress and style ourselves for
them, but why would we when they hardly notice? I’ve never
tried so hard to look good as when I know I’m about to meet
up with a stylish girlfriend. It’s she who will notice my
slimmed down waist or the thinnest, little bracelet on my arm.
男人以为我们穿衣服打扮自己是为了给他们看，但为什 么
当男人几乎不去注意这些时我们依然乐此不疲呢？在我知道自己马
上将会见一个时髦的女性朋 友之前，我就会非常非常努力地打扮自己，
让自己看起来容光焕发。而她也肯定会注意到我苗条的腰线和 手臂上
纤细精巧的手镯。
And I have no doubt that the two of you, Veronica
and Juliette, will endlessly compare yourselves to each other.
You will wonder why one of you got longer legs or shinier hair
or bigger breasts or thicker eyelashes. I know this, not
because I know sisters, but because I know women. The thing
I’ll tell you, the thing to remember is this: not even the
prettiest of us feel settled. The girl you think looks the most
perfect in all the world is probably the girl who wants to
change herself more than anyone else.

毫无疑问，我亲爱的女儿维多妮卡和朱丽叶，你们以后也
会无止境地相互比 较。你们会郁闷为什么对方的腿比自己长，头发比
自己亮，胸部比自己丰满或者她有更浓密的睫毛。我懂 这些，不是因
为我了解姐妹关系，而是我了解女人。我要告诉你们而你们必须牢记
的一件事是： 即使最漂亮的女人也没有安全感，在你眼里最完美的女
孩或许比任何人都想改变自己。
Don’t take these on. Don’t let that message carry
any weight within yourselves. You are not worthless. You are
so full of love and light and you should let it shine through
you every second of every day. If someone pushes you down for
standing tall then just push yourself back up and stand even
taller. And know that the reason they pushed you down in the
first place is just because they’re scared. I will tell you
that I have never in my life felt more beautiful than when I
have stood my tallest.
不要太在乎这些，不要让这样的信息增加自己的负担。你
有自己独特的价值。你的生命中充 满爱和光芒，让它们每天每分每秒
都照耀着你的生活吧！如果有人为了站得高一点而把你推倒，那么你< br>得自己坚强地站起来，让自己站得更高！要知道他们推你下去只是因
为他们恐惧。而我要告诉你们 的是：当我站在人生最高处的时候，我
觉得那是我觉得最美丽的时刻！
Stand tall.

昂首挺立。
Love,
爱你们的，
Mom
妈妈