11-12 红木钢琴

The Red Mahogany1 Piano

Many years ago, when I was a young man in my twenties, I worked as a salesman for a St. Louis piano company.

We sold our pianos all over the state by advertising 1 in small town newspapers and then, when we had received sufficient replies, we would load our little trucks, drive into the area and sell the pianos to those who had replied.

Every time we advertised in the cotton country of Southeast Missouri, we would receive a reply on a postcard which said, in effect, “ Please bring me a new piano for my little granddaughter. It must be red mahogany. I can pay ＄ 10 a month with my egg money.” The old lady scrawled2 on and on and on that postcard until she filled it up, then turned it over and even wrote on the front around and around the edges until there was barely room for the address.

Of course, we could not sell a new piano for ＄ 10 a month. No finance company would carry a contract with payments that small, so we ignored her postcards.

One day, however, I happened to be in that area calling on other replies, and out of curiosity I decided 3 to look the old lady up. I found pretty much what I expected: The old lady lived in a one room sharecroppers3 cabin in the middle of a cotton field.

The cabin had a dirt floor and there were chickens in the house. Obviously, the old lady could not have qualified 4 to purchase anything on credit no car, no phone, no real job, nothing but a roof over her head and not a very good one at that. I could see daylight through it in several places. Her little granddaughter was about 10, barefoot and wearing a feedsack dress.

I explained to the old lady that we could not sell a new piano for ＄ 10 a month and that she should stop writing to us every time she saw our ad. I drove away heartsick, but my advice had no effect she still sent us the same postcard every six weeks. Always wanting a new piano, red mahogany, please, and swearing she would never miss a ＄ 10 payment. It was sad.

A couple of years later, I owned my own piano company, and when I advertised in that area, the postcards started coming to me. For months, I ignored them what else could I do?

But then, one day when I was in the area something came over me. I had a red mahogany piano on my little truck. Despite knowing that I was about to make a terrible business decision, I delivered the piano to her and told her I would carry the contract myself at ＄ 10 a month with no interest, and that would mean 52 payments. I took the new piano in the house and placed it where I thought the roof would be least likely to rain on it. I admonished4 her and the little girl to try to keep the chickens off it, and I left sure I had just thrown away a new piano.

But the payments came in, all 52 of them as agreed sometimes with coins taped to a 3x5 inch card in the envelope. It was incredible!

So, I put the incident out of my mind for 20 years.

Then one day I was in Memphis on other business, and after dinner at the Holiday Inn on the Levee, I went into the lounge. As I was sitting at the bar having an after dinner drink, I heard the most beautiful piano music behind me. I looked around, and there was a lovely young woman playing a very nice grand piano.

Being a pianist of some ability myself, I was stunned 6 by her virtuosity 75, and I picked up my drink and moved to a table beside her where I could listen and watch. She smiled at me, asked for requests, and when she took a break she sat down at my table.

“Aren't you the man who sold my grandma a piano a long time ago?”

It didn't ring a bell6, so I asked her to explain.

She started to tell me, and I suddenly remembered. My Lord, it was her! It was the little barefoot girl in the feedsack dress!

She told me her name was Elise and since her grandmother couldn't afford to pay for lessons, she had learned to play by listening to the radio. She said she had started to play in church where she and her grandmother had to walk over two miles, and that she had then played in school, had won many awards and a music scholarship. She had married an attorney in Memphis and he had bought her a grand piano.

Something else entered my mind. “Look, Elise,” I asked, “ May I ask you what kind of wood is your first piano made of, the one your grandmother bought you?”

“It's red mahogany,” she said, “Why?”

I couldn't speak.

Did she understand the significance of the red mahogany? The unbelievable audacity 87 of her grandmother insisting on a red mahogany piano when no one in his right mind would have sold her a piano of any kind? I think not.

And then did the old lady understand the marvelous accomplishment 9 of that beautiful, terribly underprivileged8 child in the feedsack dress? No, I'm sure she didn't understand that either.

But I did, and my throat tightened 10.

Finally, I found my voice. “I just wondered,” I said. “I'm proud of you, but I have to go to my room.”

And I did have to go to my room, because men don't like to be seen crying in public.

注释：

1. mahogany [mE5hC^Eni] n. 红木，桃花心木

2. scrawl 2 [skrC:l] vi. 涂写，乱画，乱涂

3. sharecropper [5FeEkrRpE(r)] n. （尤指美国南部）收益分成的佃农

4. admonish 5 [Ed5mCniF] vt. 警告，告诫

5. virtuosity [7vE:tju5Csiti] n. （在美术、音乐等方面的）精湛技巧

6. ring a bell [口]引起模糊的回忆，激起怀旧兴趣

7. audacity [C:5dAsiti] n. 大胆，无畏，大无畏精神

8. underprivileged [5QndE5privilidVid] a. 贫困的，社会经济地位低下的，生活水平低下的

红木钢琴

许多年前，当我还是个20几岁的年轻人时，我曾是圣路易斯市一家钢琴公司的推销员。

　　我们通过在小城镇的报纸上刊登广告的方式在全州出售我们的钢琴，当我们收到足够多的订单时，我们便会用我们的小卡车载上钢琴，送到已订货的顾客家中。

　　每次我们在密苏里东南部的棉花之乡刊登广告时，总会收到一份写在明信片上的订单，大意是：“请给我的小孙女送一架新钢琴来。一定要红木的。我可以用我卖鸡蛋的钱每月付10美元。”老妇人在那张明信片上密密麻麻地写满了字，然后又翻过来在正面四边上写——到处都写满了，几乎没有地方写地址了。

　　当然，我们不可能接受每月10美元的付款方式而出售一架新钢琴。没有一家信贷公司会接受每期付款额如此之小的合同，所以我们对老妇人寄来的明信片不予理睬。

　　然而有一天，我碰巧去老妇人住的那个地区送货，出于好奇，我决定去看看这位老妇人。我看到的跟我所想像的真是差不多：老妇人住在棉花田当中一个只有一间房的佃农小木屋里。

　　小木屋的地是泥地，屋里还养着鸡。显然，老妇人没有资格以信贷方式购物——她没有汽车，没有电话?没有正式的工作，什么都没有，只有头顶上的屋顶，而这屋顶还不怎么样。我可以从好几处看到透进来的阳光。她的小孙女大约10岁，赤着脚，穿着一件用饲料袋改制成的连衣裙。

　　我跟老妇人说我们不能以每月10美元的方式出售一架新钢琴，请她不要每次看到我们的广告就给我们写订单。我心情沉重地驾车离开，但是我的劝告并没有起作用——每隔6周她依然给我们寄来同样的明信片，总是说要一架新钢琴，要红木的，请求我们同意，并发誓她一定不会不付每月10美元的付款。这真令人悲伤。

　　几年之后，我拥有了自己的钢琴公司，当我在那个地区做广告时，明信片开始寄给我。好几个月我不予理睬——我别无选择。

　　但有一天，当我身在那地区时，忽然冒出一个念头。我的小卡车上有一架红木钢琴。尽管我知道我就要做一单糟糕的生意，我还是把钢琴送到了老妇人的小木屋，告诉她我愿以我个人的名义签订这个每月10美元的无息合同，这意味她需付款52次。我把钢琴搬进小木屋，放在我认为最不可能漏雨的地方。我告诫老妇人和小女孩不要让鸡飞上来，然后我就离开了——就当我白扔了一架新钢琴。

　　但是付款都按期寄到，正如事先所约定的，共计52次付款——有时是硬币，用透明胶带粘在3×5英寸的卡片上，装在信封里。简直不可思议！

　　可这不可思议的事后来我还是忘得一干二净，一忘就是20年。

　　后来，有一天我在孟菲斯市办理其他业务，在座落在黎威河畔的假日饭店用完晚餐之后，我走进大厅。当我坐在酒吧点了杯餐后饮品时，我听到身后传来最美妙的钢琴声。我转身望去，看到一位可爱的年轻女子在一架相当不错的大钢琴上弹奏着。

　　因为我自己多少可以算个钢琴演奏者，我对她的精湛技巧大为惊叹。我拿起我的饮料转移到她身边的桌上，这样我可以一边听一边看。她向我微微一笑，问我点什么曲目。在她中间休息时，她坐到了我的桌旁。

　 “您就是多年前卖给我奶奶一架钢琴的那位先生吧？”

　　我一时没有反应过来，便请她解释一下。

　　她开始给我讲，我忽然一下记起来了。天哪，竟然是她！就是那个光着脚穿着一件用饲料袋改成的连衣裙的小女孩！

　　她告诉我她叫埃莉斯，因为祖母无法承担她学琴的费用，她就听收音机学习弹奏。她说她开始在教堂演奏时，她和祖母要走两英里多的路程才能到教堂，后来她在学校演奏，赢得过许多奖项，还得了音乐奖学金。她嫁给了孟菲斯的一位律师，他给她买了一架大钢琴。

　　听着听着，我想起什么。“埃莉斯，”我问，“能告诉我你的第一架钢琴——也就是你祖母为你买的那架——是什么木质的吗？”

　　“是红木的，”她说，“怎么了？”

　　我一时说不出话来。

　　她明白红木意味着什么吗？当没有人会考虑卖给她祖母一架任何品牌、任何类型的钢琴时，老人却以令人难以置信的无畏和执拗坚持要一架红木钢琴。我想她难以明白。

　　而那位老妇人能明白昔日穿着一件饲料袋改成的连衣裙、美丽而又极为贫困的孙女会有今天这般令人赞叹的成就吗？我想她也难以明白。

　　但是我能明白，我的喉咙发紧了。

　　终于，我开口说道：“我只是好奇。我为你感到骄傲，但是我得回房间了。”

我不得不回房间，因为男人流泪不愿被人看见。