Kahlil Gibran 

In the picture, the one my ex-husband’ s(ex-husband前夫) girlfriend ripped(rip撕裂) in half, I am wearing a white blouse and yellow gathered(gathered打褶的) skirt that billows(billow鼓起) over full petticoats(petticoat衬裙) like an open parasol（parasol遮阳伞）. I am sitting on the edge of a fountain（fountain喷泉） in Paris, and I’m laughing----laughing because I’ve had a summer of freedom, I’m seventeen and I’m in love with the boy taking the picture. And we’re in Paris.

I wonder about the petticoats. I don’t remember packing（pack打包） them into that heavy, brown leather suitcase I lugged（lug拖拉） all summer, but the picture says I did. Surely I didn’t starch （starch浆）and iron（iron熨） them, as fashion required back in 1955, to make the pastel skirts（pastel skirts铅笔裙） appear to float. Where would I have found the starch and the iron? Yet there I am, fluffy（fluffy蓬松的） as a peony（peony牡丹）.

With every step the boy and I took, wandering the Latin Quarter（the Latin Quarter拉丁区）, drenched（drench湿透） in romance and innocence, we sealed our fate（sealed our fate决定了我们的命运）. I had my first taste of champagne（champagne香槟） and watch a dancer swathed（swathe裹） in leopard（leopard豹） skin slither （slither滑动）across the stage of the Moulin Rouge（the Moulin Rouge红磨坊）.

That evening I wore the pink linen（linen亚麻） dress my mother had made with loving care before she sent me off to a summer in Europe, thinking I would be protected from change because I was part of such a trustworthy, well –escorted（well –escorted很好保护的） group of students. The dress was so tight（tight紧的） around the waist----stitched（stitch缝） so at my insistence（insistence 坚持）----that I could take only shallow（shallow浅的） breaths, and I never wore it again.

I had arrived in Paris on a train of World War Ⅱ vintage（vintage年代）, crouching（crouch蹲伏） in the dust under the compartments（compartment车厢） wooden seat. Sheltered（Shelter受保护） by my friend’s legs and blankets, I rode there all night, cramped（cramped伸不开手脚） and drowsy （drowsy 昏昏欲睡的）as the wheels clickety-clacked（clickety-clacked咯哒咯哒的） over the rails of Western Europe. I was hiding the conductor（conductor 列车长）because I had lost both my passport and my train ticket from Copenhagen（Copenhagen哥本哈根）. As the train rolled into the old, echoey（echoey充满回声的）, smoky station and my friends whispered that the coast was clear（the coast was clear已经没有被发现的危险了）, I crawled（crawl爬行） out and stretched（stretch伸展）, gigging（gigging咯咯笑）. “Anybody got a comb（comb梳子）?”