每天分享一篇中英雙語閱讀，對英語口語的練習很有幫助，也是積累英語考試中寫作，翻譯素材的好資料，加油吧!

Appointment with love

愛的約會

Six minutes to six, said the clock over the international booth in New York’s Grand Central Station. The tall young Army lieutenant lifted his sunburned face and narrowed his eyes to note the exact time. His heart was pounding with a beat. In six minutes he would see the woman who had filled such a special place in his life for the past 13 month, the woman he had never seen, yet whose written words had sustained him unfailingly.

在紐約地鐵中心總站，咨詢處上方的時鐘指向了5點54分。年輕高大的陸軍中尉抬起黝黑的臉龐，瞇著眼睛看上面的時間，一顆心激動得怦怦直跳，6分鐘后，他就要見到那個女人了——在過去的13個月里一直占據著他心靈某個特殊位置的女人。雖然他們素未謀面，但她的信卻一直是他的精神支柱。

Lieutenant Blandford remembered one day in particular, during the worst of the fighting, when his plane had been caught in the midst of a pack of enemy’s planes. In one of his letters he had confessed to her that he often felt fear, and only a few days before this battle he had received her answer: “Of course you fear…all brave men do. Next time you doubt yourself, I want you to hear my voice reciting to you: ‘yeah, though I walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death, I will hear no evil: for thou art with me.’…” He had remembered, and it had renewed his strength.

布蘭福德中尉記得那天，戰斗艱苦的時刻，他的飛機被敵機重重包圍。他曾在一封信里對她坦言，他常會感到畏懼。就在戰斗打響的前幾天，他收到了她的回信：“你當然會畏懼……勇士們都會那樣，下次你在不自信時，我希望你能聽到我為你朗誦的聲音：‘啊，是的，盡管我要走過死亡之谷，但我將勇往直前，因為你與我同在。’”他記得，正是那封信使他重新振作。

Now he was going to hear her real voice. Four minutes to six.

此時，他就要聽到她真實的聲音了，還有4分鐘就6點了。

A girl passed close to him, and Lieutenant Blandford started. She was wearing a flower, but it was not the little red rose they had agreed upon. Besides, this girl was only about 18, and Hollis Meynell had told him she was 30. “What of it?” he had answered. “I’m 32.” He was 29.

一個女孩走近他，布蘭福德中尉一驚。她戴著一朵花，但不是他們約好的那種紅玫瑰。這個女孩只有18歲左右，而霍麗絲.梅內爾告訴過他，她已30歲。“有什么關系呢?”他還回信說，“我32歲”，其實他只有29歲

His mind went back to that book he had read in the training camp. Of Human Bondage it was; and throughout the book were notes in a woman’s handwriting. He had never believed that a woman could see into a man’s heart so tenderly, so understandingly. Her name was on the book plate: Hollis Meynell. He had got hold a New York City telephone book and found her address. He had written; she had answered. Next day he had been shipped out, but they had gone on writing.

他又想到了在訓練營時看過的一本書——《人性的枷鎖》，書里有一個女人的批注。他難以相信，一個女人竟能如此透徹地讀懂男人的心，書簽上有她的名字：霍麗絲.梅內爾。于是他找來一本紐約市電話簿，查到了地址，給她寫信，并收到了回信。因為執行任務，第二天他就坐船離開了，但他們仍保持通信。

For 13 months she had faithfully replied. When his letters did not arrive, she wrote anyway, and now he believed that he loved her and that she loved him.

13個月里，她始終誠摯地給他回信，通常是他的信還未到，她的信就來了。因此，他深信，他們彼此深愛著。