A Beautiful Memory

Er ... the loveliest house that I’ve ever lived in was one that I lived in with my grandparents when I was a child. And the name of the house was Crosslands. And I have some very happy memories of Crosslands.

　　It was, it seemed so huge to me as a child. And it had a lovely living room with a piano in it and a lovely sort of hall with lots of carpets and chests1 and antiques2 and so on. And there was a mysterious room, it was the drawing room, and we only used it on Sundays, or when the vicar came for tea, or Christmas Day or Easter Day, and I was － used to be amazed3 about this room because it had the best furniture in it but it was covered up with sheets － it was as if all the furniture was wearing clothes － and it seemed to me ridiculous4 that we couldn’t en- joy this beautiful furniture all the week through really.

　　And probably my favorite room was the kitchen. It had a lovely red flagstone floor, which was always highly5 polished6, and an Aga, you know one of those big cookers that heats the whole room so it was always warm there, and there was a kind of clothes-horse above it that we used to hang all our clothes on, and it was just － it was lovely. It was a very warm room with baked bread and － my grandmother used to make ice cream and we’d eat it in there and ... there was a vegetable garden leading from there so I spent a lot of time in the vegetable garden picking peas7 and eating them － my grandmother used to get really cross with me because I used to pick all the vegetables and the fruit for our meals and then I’d eat half of them, because they tasted so delicious coming fresh from the garden.

　　Now, I went back to it a few years ago and it was a big mistake. They’ve modernized8 it inside, they’ve got rid of those lovely old fire- places... have just gone. And they’ve knocked a wall down so the drawing room and the living room have become one big modern plastic kind of room.

　　But I think what upset me most about it was the feeling that the house had shrunk9, it had become smaller and that my memory of this lovely large warm comfortable house had turned into an old house with modernized rooms inside it. And it taught me a lesson really, that you can’t go back on the past and recapture it. But there’s a beautiful memory there.

　　呃……我住过的最可爱的房子，就是小时侯和爷爷奶奶一起住的房屋了。房子的名字叫“十字地带”，它留给我一些令人非常愉快的回忆。

　　房子，在儿时的我眼里，感觉真是好大啊！可爱的起居室里摆放着一架钢琴，漂亮的大厅里有各种各样的地毯、柜子、古董等东西。还有一间很神秘的房间，就是会客厅，我们只在周日，以及牧师来喝茶、圣诞节或者复活节的时候才用它。里面有最好家具，却总是覆盖着东西―― 就好像所有的家具都穿上了外衣，因此，那时候我一直对这间房子很好奇。不过，令我感到荒谬的是，这么漂亮的家具我们却一个星期都不能连续享用。

　　我最喜欢的房间，也许就是厨房了吧。令人愉快的红色石质地板，总是被擦得亮亮的。房间里有一个大壁炉，把整个屋子烤得暖暖和和的，壁炉上面挂着一个衣架，我们的衣服都挂在衣架上，真的是很合适，也很漂亮。烤着香香的面包，房间里真是好温暖啊。奶奶还常做冰淇淋，我们就在这个房间里吃……从厨房能够通往菜园，我常在园子里摘豌豆吃。我会把菜园里的蔬菜和水果摘个精光，做好饭后我几乎能吃掉一半，奶奶有时就真的生气了。主要是因为从菜园里摘的蔬菜太好吃了。

　　几年后，我回到这里--这真是一个很大的错误--房子里面装修得很现代化了，那些漂亮的壁炉也拆掉了……都已经不存在了。他们把会客厅和起居室之间的墙拆掉，改为一大间很现代的可塑型的房间。

　　然而，我认为最让我不舒服的是感觉房子好像变小了。它越来越小，我记忆中的那个既漂亮温暖又舒服的大房子变成了一套房间装修得很现代化的老房子。我得出了一个教训，那就是你不能回到过去，更不能重新拥有它，但是，关于老房子的回忆还是一样的美好。