父親留下的信 仍在靜候奧巴馬
NEW YORK — The archivist stumbled across the file in a stack of boxes on the second floor of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem. The yellowing letters inside dated back more than half a century, chronicling the dreams and struggles of a young man in Kenya.
紐約――哈萊姆區朔姆伯格黑人文化研究中心(Courtesy of Luo Siling)的二層，檔案管理員在一摞盒子裏偶然發現了這份文檔。文檔裏面，那些泛黃的信件來自半個多世紀以前，記載了肯尼亞一個年輕人的夢想與奮鬥。
He was ambitious and impetuous, a 22-year-old clerk who could type 75 words a minute and translate English into Swahili. But he had no money for college. So he pounded away on a typewriter in Nairobi, pleading for financial aid from universities and foundations across the Atlantic.
這個22歲的職員充滿雄心和衝勁，他一分鐘可以打75個單詞，會把英語翻譯爲斯瓦西里語。但他沒錢上大學，所以只好在內羅畢奮力敲着打字機，向大西洋對岸的大學與基金會申請資助。
His letters would help change the course of American history.
這些信將幫助改變美國曆史的進程。
“It has been my long cherished ambition to further my studies in America,” he wrote in 1958.
“赴美深造是我長久以來一直珍視的理想，”他在1958年寫道。
His name was Barack Hussein Obama, and his dispatches helped unleash a stream of scholarship money that carried him from Kenya to the United States. There, he fathered the child who would become the nation’s first black president, only to vanish from his son’s life a few years after his birth.
他的名字是貝拉克·侯賽因·奧巴馬(Barack Hussein Obama)。這些信件幫他獲取了一系列獎學金，令他可以離開肯尼亞，來到美國。在這裏，他生下了一個兒子，後來這個孩子成了這個國家的第一位黑人總統，但他本人在兒子出生後幾年，就從他的生活中消失了。
In 2013, the Schomburg Center invited President Barack Obama to see the newly discovered documents, which included nearly two dozen of his father’s letters, his transcripts from the University of Hawaii and Harvard University, and references from professors, advisers and supporters. Nearly three years later, as Obama celebrates his last Father’s Day in the White House, the center is still waiting for a response.
2013年，朔姆伯格中心邀請貝拉克·奧巴馬總統觀看這批新發現的文件，其中包括20多封他父親的信件，他在夏威夷大學與哈佛大學的成績單，以及教授、導師與支持者們爲他寫的推薦信。將近三年後，奧巴馬最後一次在白宮過父親節，這個中心仍在等待他的回覆。
The trove of documents, described publicly here for the first time, renders a portrait of Barack Obama Sr. in his own words, sometimes in his own handwriting, as he describes his studies in the United States. But it also lays bare the beginnings of the fractured relationship between father and son.
本文是對這批文件的第一次公開描述，在這些文件之中，老貝拉克·奧巴馬描述了自己在美國的學習生涯，用他自己的語言——有時還是他本人親筆——爲人們勾勒了一幅他的肖像。但是這些文字也直白呈現了一段父子關係破裂的開端。
A senior White House official said Obama would be interested in seeing the documents after he leaves office next year but declined to comment on why administration officials had not responded to the letter or to follow-up correspondence.
一位白宮高級官員說，奧巴馬明年離任後會有興趣去看那些文件，但此人拒絕評論白宮官員爲何沒有對信件及後續通信做出迴應。
“The papers are rich; they tell a fascinating, traditional, self-made man’s story,” said Khalil Gibran Muhammad, director of the Schomburg Center, who said he hoped Obama would read them someday. “There’s a reason to bear witness to the personal legacy that is here.”
“這些文件非常豐富；它們講述了一個引人入勝的、傳統的、白手起家的男人的故事，”朔姆伯格中心主任哈利勒·吉卜蘭·穆罕默德(Khalil Gibran Muhammad)說。他說，他希望奧巴馬今後能夠看到它們。“這份個人遺產理應獲得見證。”
As president, Obama has spoken openly and repeatedly about the void his father left in his life. Barack Obama Sr. went home to Kenya in 1964, when Obama was 3 years old, and returned to visit his son only once, for a month, when Obama was 10. In an interview with The New York Times last month, the president said his father’s absence had left him struggling as a teenager to figure out “what it meant to be a man.”
奧巴馬當上總統後曾多次公開談起父親在自己生活中的缺位。1964年，奧巴馬3歲的時候，老貝拉克·奧巴馬返回肯尼亞，只在奧巴馬10歲的時候來看望過兒子一次，停留了一個月。上月接受《紐約時報》採訪時，總統說起自己十幾歲的時候，父親的缺席令他必須努力弄清“身爲男人究竟意味着什麼”。
Barack Obama’s Sr.'s letters, which span the period from 1958 to 1964, offer new insights, particularly about his years in the United States. But the records, which were preserved among the papers of a foundation that provided scholarships to African students at the time, may also resurrect old pain.
老貝拉克·奧巴馬的信件年代跨越1958年到1964年，爲人們瞭解他提供了新的資料，特別是關於他在美國的那段歲月。這些資料一度被保存在當時一個向非洲學生提供獎學金的基金會，如今，它們也可能會喚起舊日的痛楚。
It was while pursuing his undergraduate degree at the University of Hawaii in 1960 that Barack Obama Sr. met Ann Dunham, a classmate. Although he already had a wife and two children in Kenya, he married her the following year, after she became pregnant. Their son was born on Aug. 4, 1961. But Barack Obama Sr. never mentioned his new wife and son, not even in his scholarship applications.
1960年，老貝拉克·奧巴馬在夏威夷大學攻讀本科學位期間，認識了同學安·鄧納姆(Ann Dunham)。他在肯尼亞已經有了妻子和兩個孩子，但在鄧納姆懷孕後，兩人還是於次年結了婚。他們的兒子於1961年8月4日出生。但是老貝拉克·奧巴馬從沒在信件中提起自己的新妻子和兒子，甚至在獎學金申請信裏也沒寫。
Relatives have described Barack Obama Sr. as a complicated man, brilliant and imperious, charming and brash, who began to drink heavily as his dreams of becoming one of Kenya’s leading government economists foundered. He died in a car crash at age 46 without ever fulfilling his early promise.
親戚們形容老貝拉克·奧巴馬是個性格複雜的人，才華橫溢而又傲慢自大，富於魅力而又無禮放肆，他曾經夢想成爲肯尼亞政府首席經濟學家中的一員，夢想破滅後就開始酗酒。46歲那年，他在車禍中逝世，早年的抱負從來未能實現。
The elder Obama’s youngest brother, Said Obama, noted in a telephone interview from Kenya this month that he hoped the records would help the family understand his sibling more fully. He said Barack Obama Sr. had never stopped caring about the son he left behind, recalling how he proudly showed off the photograph and school progress reports of the young man who would become president.
老奧巴馬最小的弟弟賽義德·奧巴馬(Said Obama)本月在肯尼亞接受電話採訪時說，他希望這些文件可以幫助家族更充分地瞭解自己的兄長。他說，老貝拉克·奧巴馬從未停止過關心自己在美國的兒子。他回憶，兄長曾經自豪地展示這位後來成爲總統的年輕人的照片和學校成績報告。
“He loved his son,” Said Obama recalled. “I don’t think you do such things if you don’t love your son.”
“他愛自己的兒子，”賽義德·奧巴馬回憶。“我覺得一個人如果不愛自己的兒子，是不會這樣做的。”
President Obama often describes his life as an only-in-America saga, the improbable rise of the son of a white woman from Kansas and a black man from Kenya to the American presidency. But his father’s ascent was astounding, too, as he journeyed from the dusty roads of his rural village to the halls of Harvard.
奧巴馬總統經常把自己的生活描述爲一段只能在美國發生的傳奇，一個堪薩斯州的白人女子與一個肯尼亞的黑人男子生下的兒子，最後不可思議地當上了美國總統。但是他的父親從塵土飛揚的鄉村小路出發，一直走進哈佛大學的殿堂，這段上進之路同樣震撼人心。
He was determined to join the wave of young Kenyans seeking higher education overseas as calls for independence swept the African continent. His letters helped him gain admission to the University of Hawaii and to come up with the money he needed to cover his costs. (An unexpected personal connection helped, too. It turned out that an official of a U.S. foundation had employed his father as a cook.)
當獨立運動席捲非洲大陸之際，年輕的肯尼亞人都在謀求到海外接受高等教育，老貝拉克·奧巴馬也決心加入這股浪潮。他的信件幫助他贏得了夏威夷大學的入學資格，也得到了足以支付他開銷的錢。（一個意外的人際關係也幫上了忙，美國某基金會的一位官員曾僱他父親當過廚師。）
On Aug. 4, 1959, he boarded Flight 162 of British Overseas Airways Corp. and flew from Nairobi to Rome, records show. From there, he flew to Paris and then on to New York. A bus carried him to Los Angeles, where he caught a plane to Hawaii. A year later, he would meet Dunham, President Obama’s mother.
記錄表明，1959年8月4日，他登上英國海外航空公司的162號航班，從內羅畢飛往羅馬。他從羅馬飛往巴黎，之後又飛到紐約。一輛巴士載着他來到洛杉磯，之後他又搭乘飛機來到夏威夷。一年後，他在那裏遇到了奧巴馬總統的母親鄧納姆。
Most people on campus had no idea that the star student had married a second wife during his sophomore year or that he was the father of a baby boy. By 1962, when he headed to Harvard to pursue a graduate degree, his American family had already fallen apart.
學校裏的大多數人都不知道，這位優秀學生在大二期間娶了自己的第二個妻子，成了一個小男孩的爸爸。到1962年，他來到哈佛攻讀研究生學位時，他的美國家庭已經解體了。
He ended up with a master’s degree in economics from Harvard — not the doctorate he had hoped for — and headed home to Kenya without his little boy. Christine McKay, the archivist who discovered the letters, said she could not help but think about that son as she pored over the pages.
最後，他在哈佛獲得了經濟學碩士學位，而不是他希望中的博士學位。他回到了肯尼亞，沒有帶上年幼的兒子。發現這些信件的檔案管理員克里斯蒂娜·麥凱(Christine McKay)說，瀏覽這些文件的時候，她不由得想到那個兒子。
“I thought it would be great if the president could see his father’s words,” she said.
“我覺得如果總統能看看自己父親親筆寫的東西就太好了，”她說。
So for now, the records reside in Box 214 of the Phelps Stokes Fund collection in the Schomburg’s temperature-controlled, off-site storage facility. Whenever Obama is ready, the center’s director said, his father’s file will be waiting.
如今，這些文件被放在保存菲爾普斯·斯托克斯基金會(Phelps Stokes Fund)藏品的214號箱中，儲存在朔姆伯格中心外面的一個恆溫庫房裏。中心主任說，只要奧巴馬做好了準備，這些文件隨時靜候。
