Retracing1 History

By Leo Luo

青春意味着什么？激情、热血、探索……每个人都有各自的答案。高尔基曾说：“青春是一个普通的名称，它是幸福美好的，但它也充满着艰苦的磨练。”本文作者今年暑假重回父母当年的母校——北京大学——进行短期暑期学习并探望北京的爷爷。爷爷用一本家族相册带他回顾了几代人年轻的岁月。他有着怎样的所见、所闻、所想呢？他对于自己和父母的青春有着怎样的感悟呢？

Like many young people these days, or perhaps like many young people throughout history, I have gone through a period when I thought my parents were “un-cool.” This period stereotypically coincides with middle school when kids are beginning to assert their own independence,2. stereotypically: 带有成见地；coincide with: 与……一致；assert: 坚持，主张。but can continue well into a child’s college years. Movies often portray parents as either out of touch with the modern world or far too eager to participate in their children’s lives, both of which result in embarrassment for the kid. Maybe the movies carry a grain of truth. But I believe that the root of this perception stems from how kids rarely imagine that their parents, so wise and full of answers, were also young and foolish once.3.但是我认为，这种观点的产生是因为孩子们几乎未曾想过，如此明智、无所不知的父母，也曾经年轻和无知过。perception: 看法。If we young people could take the time to listen to and possibly relive those stories, as I did this summer, then perhaps we just may find ourselves staring at our reflections within our parents.

“Lee-ooooo. Come here. I have something to show you.” My grandpa called through the apartment. I leapt up at the opportunity to talk more with this 89-year-old man, brimming with4. brim with: 洋溢着，充满着。history of my family. He was a human library of sorts, except the stories that he told emerged like the numbers of a slot machine; no one could predict what would pop out of the depths of his mind.5.没人能预知他的内心深处会迸发出什么想法。predict: 预知；pop out: 突然出现。I sat down at the dining room table, where the storytelling always took place. There was something old-fashioned, yet comforting about how these histories were shared around the dinner table, the older generation enthralling6. enthral: 迷住。the younger with tales of a time long past. The scene harkened back to an age not so long ago, when kids were not engrossed in their phones and computers and only had conversation and books to open their eyes to the world,7. 场景回溯到不久之前的那个时代：那时的孩子们不会沉迷于手机和电脑，他们通过交流和书本来了解这个世界。harken back to: 回溯到；be engrossed in: 热衷于……。(though the irony that I am writing this on a computer is not lost on me). That was a simpler age, where my grandpa’s stories took place.

He tottered out of his study, grasping an enormous photo album in his spindly hands.8. totter: 蹒跚，踉跄；spindly: 细长且纤弱的。I jumped out of my seat and helped ease9. ease: 小心缓慢地移动，这里指小心搀扶。him into his chair. The wood creaked10. creak: 发出嘎吱嘎吱声。just as his old bones did as he settled down.After cracking open the album, he pointed my gaze towards a black and white photo of a baby-faced bespectacled boy.11. crack: 打开； gaze: 注视；bespectacled: 戴眼镜的。“Which of my relatives was this?” I wondered to myself as I tried to pick out any familiar features. “Who’s this?” I asked, making sure that my voice was loud enough to reverberate12. reverberate: 使回响。off the walls, as my grandpa did not have the best hearing. He smiled wryly13. wryly: 挖苦地。and said “That’s me when I was 12.”

It was a good five minutes before I picked my jaw off the floor and stuttered out a “no way…”14. 足有5分钟我才从目瞪口呆中回过味儿来，结结巴巴地说：“不可能吧……” stutter: 结结巴巴地说。It’s a peculiar experience for a grandson,who has always seen his grandparents as old, to see pictures of them when they were younger, as if peering into a primitive time machine.15. peer: 仔细看，凝视；primitive: 远古的，原始的。My grandpa was already directing my attention towards his family picture and explaining all the intrigues and relationships between each person in the photo, but my eyes kept darting back to the first picture he showed me.16. intrigue: 复杂的事；dart: 投射目光。Despite the wrinkles17. wrinkle: 皱纹。and shock of white hair, my grandpa still kept the same eyes he had when he was 12.

北大未名湖、博雅塔

The pages kept turning and I kept gazing into the past glories of my uncles, aunts and the rest of the network of relatives that Chinese families are so renowned for. Each had some sort of connection that my grandpa traced by telling me their stories. Finally, he arrived at a page that revealed a young boy with a smile that stretched from ear to ear.18. 最后，他翻到了一页，上面有一个男孩咧着嘴在笑。reveal: 显示。Once again, I searched for recognizable features. This one seemed more familiar, because“That’s your dad when he was 12.” My grandpa said. I immediately began to laugh. Wow, my dad looked funny at that young age, so full of young energy and innocence: totally unlike the down-to-earth19. down-to-earth: 实际的，现实的。man with graying hair that he is now.

From that point on, the photos were of my parents’ generation,showcasing20. showcase: 展示。my aunts, my uncles, and my mom and dad in their glory days, eager to live their lives to the fullest. The blemishes and wears of middle age melted away in those photos, replaced by the illuminated eyes and full smiles of twenty-somethings off to find both love, opportunities,and themselves.21.人到中年的那些缺点和穿着在这些照片中渐渐模糊，取而代之的是他们有神的眼睛和二十几岁时灿烂的笑容，从他们的脸上可以看到爱、机遇和自我。blemish: 瑕疵，缺点；illuminated: 闪烁的。As I marveled at22. marvel at: 对……惊叹。these precious windows into the past,my aunt joined us and shook her head with a grin. “Wow, looking back at these photos, it’s hard to imagine that just like that, 30 years have flown by in a blink of an eye23. a blink of an eye: 一转眼。.” Hearing her words was like having a bag of bricks dropped on my mind. They reminded me of how those glory days, the very days that I am living now, will disappear before I realize it. Yet they also reminded me that she, and especially my parents, was young once as well, with the same fears and excitements that I feel now.

Throughout my life, particularly during these most recent years, I have received all sorts of advice from my parents covering almost every subject imaginable, from academics to girlfriends to perspectives24. perspective: 看法。on the world. Sometimes I listen with rapt25. rapt: 全神贯注的，入迷的。attention, drinking in every word. Other times… well…let’s just say that I’ve memorized what they will say to me before they even open their mouths. Those are the times when the arguments break out, partly because it is the billionth time they’ve told me so, but mostly because I have been lethargic26. lethargic: 昏睡的，无生气的。at following said advice, or that I don’t want to hear it. Of course, as I enter into the first few years of full adulthood, I want to assert my independence. If I make mistakes, then I will learn from those mistakes. Whenever their nagging becomes too much, I love to pull out my trump card:27. nagging: 唠叨，挑剔；trump card: 王牌，最有效的策略。I remind them that this is my generation, my age now. But looking at those pictures made me realize that my parents were young and foolish once as well. Although they may not have had the technology I have access to, or the world challenges that I will have to face in the future, they also went through quite a bit during their younger years, and probably made most of the same mistakes that I did.In the end, their advice is simply tough, parental love, because as the old saying goes, they have “been there, done that.” By looking at those pictures, I was finally able to connect with my parents on a much more intimate28. intimate: 亲密的。level, not as parent and child, but as two sides of the same coin.

This summer I was lucky enough to attend a program at Peking University.Strolling along the pathways, I took in the sights of the magnificent pagoda and the Nameless Lake,29. stroll: 散步，闲逛；pagoda:（东方寺院的）宝塔，文中指北大未名湖畔的博雅塔。with eager students sitting below the willow branches. I could not help but begin to laugh, for I was retracing the very steps that my parents would have taken during their youthful years at PKU. I found myself standing outside the computer science building, where my father once studied. Imagining him holed up in his studies, much like what I do today, made me smile just as he smiled all those years ago when he was twelve. Socializing with my newfound friends, discussing everything from politics to life to simply enjoying each other’s company made me think of my mom’s wild and unconquerable30. unconquerable: 不可征服的，不可战胜的。spirit, and realize how much we were more alike than I had ever thought. Perhaps those four weeks at Peking University was my own personal time machine, reliving the time when my parents must have also not known anything, but only knew that they were ready to take on the world,just as my generation and I must do so now.