妹妹，谢谢你把我领进美国文学的大门

我来美这么多年，昏昏噩噩，对英文早就视而不见。也几乎不说英文。混了这些年靠的是中学那点英文基础和大学那点苦功夫（把一本词典翻烂了）。托福考试虽然语法得满分，但听力是零分，甭提了。
自从你一年半多前把The Catcher in the Rye介绍给我，我看到了一片新天地。没想到英文文学这么吸引人。读了Catcher后，我又读了A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, the Grapes of Wrath, A Farewell to Arms, the Old Man and the Sea, the Sound and the Fury, 大部分的Gone with the Wind, 和 The Great Gat*****y (这个要谢那个谁）。写首小诗表示我的感激。

The autumn rains washed away the dust
Flowing between two places miles apart
While growing love to a new height
In cheerful winds and tender hearts

How sweet I feel whene'er I think of you
And how much I should thank you, dear
For bringing me ’The Catcher in the Rye'
Which enthralled me for the rest of the year

For months I've been living in the kingdom
Of Hemingway, Faulkner, and Steinbeck
Away from college algebra and trig
Reveling or wailing on the couch or deck

O, dear, thank you, thank you, thank you again
Please do forgive me for my clumsy pen

2011年 Thanksgiving 写于 Dallas Library