Learning to Swim at Thirty
Until I was thirty, I could not swim.
三十岁以前，我不会游泳。
When I was seven, I fell into a river and someone pulled me out.
我七岁的时候掉进过一条河，有人把我拉了出来。
After that I was afraid of deep water for more than twenty years.
从那以后，我怕深水怕了二十多年。
I avoided swimming pools, beaches and boats.
我躲着游泳池、海边和船。
Then a friend invited me to a lake for her birthday.
后来一个朋友过生日，请我去湖边。
Everybody swam and I sat on the grass alone.
大家都去游泳了，只有我一个人坐在草地上。
That evening I searched for swimming lessons for adults.
那天晚上我搜索了成人游泳课。
At my first lesson I was the oldest person in the group by ten years.
第一节课上，我比组里所有人都大十岁。
The teacher did not ask me to swim. She asked me to put my face in the water.
老师没有让我游泳。她让我把脸放进水里。
That took me three lessons.
这花了我三节课。
After two months I could swim from one side of the pool to the other.
两个月以后，我能从泳池的这边游到那边了。
It was twenty-five metres, and it felt like a marathon.
只有二十五米，可是感觉像跑了一场马拉松。
Nobody clapped, because nobody else knew what it meant.
没有人鼓掌，因为没有人知道那意味着什么。
But I sat on the side of the pool and could not stop smiling.
但是我坐在池边，笑个不停。