The first memory I have of him — of anything, really — is his strength. It was in the late afternoon in a house under construction near ours. The unfinished wood floor had large, terrifying holes whose yawning[張大嘴] darkness I knew led to nowhere good. His powerful hands, then age 33, wrapped all the way around my tiny arms, then age 4, and easily swung[搖擺] me up to his shoulders to command all I surveyed.

我對他——實際上是對所有事的最初記憶，就是他的力量。那是一個下午的晚些時候，在一所靠近我家的正在修建的房子里，尚未完工的木地板上有一個個巨大可怕的洞，那些張著大口的黑洞在我看來是通向不祥之處的。時年33歲的爸爸用那強壯有力的雙手一把握住我的小胳膊，當時我才4歲，然后輕而易舉地把我甩上他的肩頭，讓我把一切都盡收眼底。

The relationship between a son and his father changes over time. It may grow and flourish[繁茂] in mutual maturity[成熟]. It may sour in resented dependence or independence. With many children living in single-parent homes today, it may not even exist.

父子間的關系是隨著歲月的流逝而變化的，它會在彼此成熟的過程中成長興盛，也會在令人不快的依賴或獨立的關系中產生不和。而今許多孩子生活在單親家庭中，這種關系可能根本不存在。

But to a little boy right after World War II ,a father seemed a god with strange strengths and uncanny[離奇的] powers enabling him to do and know things that no mortal could do or know. Amazing things, like putting a bicycle chain back on, just like that. Or building a hamster[倉鼠] cage.Or guiding a jigsaw[拼板玩具] so it forms the letter F;I learned the alphabet[字母表] that way in those pre-television days.

然而，對于一個生活在二戰剛剛結束時期的小男孩來說，父親就像神，他擁有神奇的力量和神秘的能力，他無所不能，無所不知。那些奇妙的事兒有上自行車鏈條，或是建一個倉鼠籠子，或是教我玩拼圖玩具，拼出個字母“F”來。在那個電視機還未誕生的年代，我便是通過這種方法學會了字母表的。

There were, of course, rules to learn. First came the handshake. None of those fishy[冷冰冰的] little finger grips, but a good firm squeeze accompanied by an equally strong gaze into the other's eyes. “ The first thing anyone knows about you is your handshake,” he would say. And we'd practice it each night on his return from work, the serious toddler in the battered[用舊了的] Cleveland Indian's cap running up to the giant father to shake hands again and again until it was firm enough.

當然，還得學些做人的道理。首先是握手。這可不是指那種冷冰冰的手指相握，而是一種非常堅定有力的緊握，同時同樣堅定有力地注視對方的眼睛。老爸常說： “人們認識你首先是通過同你握手。”每晚他下班回家時，我們便練習握手。年幼的我，戴著頂破克利夫蘭印第安帽，一本正經地跌跌撞撞地跑向巨人般的父親，開始我們的握手。一次又一次，直到握得堅定，有力。