麦琪的礼物
Gift of the Magi
《麦琪的礼物》讲述了一个在圣诞节里发生在社会底层的小家庭中荒唐却感人的故事。男主人公吉姆是一位薪金仅够维持生活的小职员，女主人公德拉是一位贤惠善良的主妇。他们的生活贫穷，但吉姆和德拉各自拥有一样极珍贵的宝物——吉姆祖传的一块金表，就算“地下室堆满金银财宝、所罗门王又是守门人的话，每当吉姆路过那儿，准会摸出金表，就能让那所罗门王忌妒得吹胡子瞪眼睛”；德拉的那一头美丽的瀑布般的秀发，可以与之相媲美。为了能在圣诞节送给对方一件礼物，吉姆卖掉了他的金表为德拉买了一套“镶着珠宝”的梳子；德拉卖掉了自己的长发为吉姆买了一条白金表链。他们都为对方舍弃了自己最宝贵的东西，而换来的礼物却因此变得毫无用处了。
Narrator:
Tomorrow will be Christmas. But Della feels very sad. Because she has no money to buy a present for her husband，Jim . She has only one dollar and eighty-seven cents. They have only 20 dollars a week，it doesn’t leave much for saving.
In fact，Della and Jim have two possessions in which they both take very great pride. One is Jim’s gold watch，which has been his father’s and his grandfather’s. The other is Della’s long beautiful hair.
Della：Life is so hard for me. Though I saved the money for many months，I still have only one dollar and eighty seven cents. I— I— I have to have my hair cut and sold it . In that way I can get some money and I can buy a beautiful present for Jim.
(At the shop—“Madame Sofronie. We Buy Hair Goods of All Kinds”)
Della：Will you buy my hair?
Madame：Yes，I buy all kinds of hair. Sit down，please. Take your hat off and let me have a look. Oh，very beautiful. Very good! Twenty dollars，OK?
Della：All right. But please give it to me quickly.
Madame：Here you are. Twenty dollars.
Della：Thank you. Bye.
Madame：Bye.
Narrator：Della spent two hours in the streets. Then she stopped at a Gold shop and bought a gold watch chain. Now，Della is at home.
Della：Oh，what a beautiful gold watch chain. I think it must match Jim’s watch. When he sees it he must be very happy .
(Suddenly the door opened and in came Jim. )
Jim：You—?
Della：Jim. Don’t look at me in this way. I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present. Jim，it will grow quickly. You don’t mind，do you ? I just had to do it. My hair grows very fast，you know. Say“Merry Christmas!”Jim，and let’s be happy.
Jim：You’ve cut off your hair?
Della：I’ve cut it off and sold it. It’s sold. I tell you sold and gone，too. It’s Christmas Eve，Jim. Be good to me，for it went for you.
Jim：Well，Della. Don’t make any mistake about me. I don’t think there’s anything about a hair cut that could make me love you any less. I know，it went for me. Look at this package.
Della：What ?
Jim：Look at it yourself. You’ll see.
Della：Ah! The combs. They were in the shop windows for many months!
Jim：Yes，the beautiful combs，pure tortoiseshell，with jewelry rims—just the color to wear in your beautiful hair.
Della：Jim. They are expensive combs. I know，my heart had longed for them without the least hope of possession. Now they are mine. Thank you Jim.
Jim：Now，you will see why I was upset at first.
Della：Jim，you don’t know what a nice，what a beautiful，nice gift I’ve got for you. Can you guess?
Jim：I’m sorry. I won’t guess.
Della：Look. A gold watch chain. Isn’t it lovely，Jim? I hunted all over the town to find it. You’ll have to look at the time a hundred times a day now. Give me your watch. I want to see how it looks on it .
Jim：Della，Let’s put our Christmas gifts away and keep them a while. They’re too nice to use just at present. I sold the watch to get the money. And I bought the combs. Now，Let’s have our supper.
旁白
明天是圣诞节，但是德拉觉得很难过，因为她没钱为她丈夫吉姆买一件圣诞礼物，她只有1.87美元，他们一周只有20美元的收入，很难有节余的了。
事实上，德拉和吉姆有两件让他们引以为豪的宝贝，一件是吉姆的金表，那是他祖父和父亲留传下来的，还有一件就是德拉那一头美丽的长发。
德拉：生活对我来说太困难了，虽然我在好几个月以前就开始存钱了，但我仅存了1.87美元。我……我……我不得不卖我的头发了，那样我就有给吉姆买礼物的钱了。
（在店门口，写着“夫人：我们买各种各样的头发”）
德拉：你们买我的头发吗？
夫人：是的，我们买各式各样的头发。请坐，把你的帽子脱下来，让我看一下你的头发。哦，好美的头发啊，发质很好，20美元，行不行？
德拉：好的，但是请你马上把钱给我。
夫人：给你，20美元。
德拉：谢谢你，再见。
夫人：再见。
旁白：德拉在街上逛了两个小时。后来，她在一家金店买了一条金表链。现在德拉回到了家。
德拉：哦，多么漂亮的金链子啊。我想它跟吉姆的手表很配。他看到它时，一定会很高兴的。
（突然，门打开了，吉姆走了进来）
吉姆：你——？
德拉：吉姆，不要这样看着我，我把我的头发卖了，因为我无法度过一个不送你礼物的圣诞节。吉姆，它长得很快的，你不介意的，是不是？我必须这么做，我的头发长得很快，这你是知道的，说“圣诞快乐”！吉姆，让我们高兴起来吧。
吉姆：你剪了你的头发？
德拉：我剪了头发并卖了。它被卖掉了，我跟你说它被卖掉了，没有了！现在是圣诞节前夜，对我好一点，吉姆，那都是为了你。
吉姆：哦，德拉，别误会我。我想我不会因为你剪了头发就减少对你的爱。我知道，那是为了我，看看这个盒子。
德拉：什么？
吉姆：你自己看吧！看了你就明白了。
德拉：啊，是梳子！就是几个月前陈列在橱窗里的那套吗？
吉姆：是的，那套漂亮的梳子，纯龟甲的，镶珠宝的，那颜色正好配你的发色。
德拉：吉姆，这些都是很贵的。我知道，我一直渴望但却没有丝毫的奢望拥有它。现在，它们是我的了。谢谢你，吉姆。
吉姆：现在，你知道我为什么一开始那么悲伤了吧。
德拉：吉姆，我给你买了一件又漂亮又好的礼物，你能猜出来吗？
吉姆：对不起，我不想猜。
德拉：看，一条金表链，吉姆，它是不是很可爱？我找遍了整个城市才找到的，你从现在起可得一天要看一百次时间了。把你的表给我，我想看一下表链装在表上是什么样子。
吉姆：德拉，我们把圣诞礼物收起来珍藏一段时间吧，它们太好了，但我们现在都用不着了，我把表卖了，卖了钱才买了这套梳子。我们先吃饭吧。
作者介绍
欧·亨利（O.Henry）是其笔名，原名为威廉·西德尼·波特(William Sydney Porter)，美国著名批判现实主义作家，世界三大短篇小说大师之一。曾被评论界誉为曼哈顿桂冠散文作家和美国现代短篇小说之父。他的作品构思新颖、语言诙谐，结局往往出人意外，代表作有小说集《白菜与国王》、《四百万》、《命运之路》等。
核心单词
chain [tFein] n. 链，链条；项圈
package [5pAkidV] n. 包裹；包装箱
possession [pE5zeFEn] n. 所有物；财产
hunt [hQnt] v. 搜索；寻找
名句诵读
I had my hair cut off and sold it because I couldn’t have lived through Christmas without giving you a present.
我把我的头发卖了，因为我无法度过一个不送你礼物的圣诞节。
I don’t think there’s anything about a hair cut that could make me love you any less.
我想我不会因为你剪了头发就减少对你的爱。