5 Chapter 4 Pianos and Toe Shoes

Chapter 4 Pianos and Toe Shoes As a child, Maria thought of herself as a "typical Indian girl." She was shy and polite and eager to please the adults in her life. Her brother Jerry, however, had a terrible temper like his father. Maria sometimes fought with Jerry. Mostly, she simply ran away from him.

钢琴和脚趾鞋小时候，玛丽亚认为自己是一个“典型的印度女孩”。 她害羞而有礼貌，渴望取悦她生活中的成年人。 然而，她的弟弟杰瑞和他父亲一样脾气暴躁。 玛丽亚有时和杰瑞打架。 大多数情况下，她只是逃离了他。

Maria's mother explained to her daughters that Jerry's problems began when he was just four years old. A horse kicked him in the head. Although Jerry seemed to recover, he could not learn the alphabet. He could not read, no matter how many times Ruth pointed and repeated the letters for him. One day, unable to control Jerry's outbursts, Maria's parents decided to send him away to a military school. Now that Jerry had left home, Ruth Tall Chief turned all her attention to her two daughters. One day, she promised herself, she would take her girls away from the reservation and the small town of Fairfax with its clanking oil derricks and dusty roads. She would take them away from their father's frightening binges fueled by oil money. Her girls would perform on stage and become famous. Traditional Indian dancing was not what Ruth Tall Chief had in mind, either. Her girls would dance ballet. During the summer when Maria was three years old, her mother took her for her first lesson. When Marjorie was three, she too began her lessons.

玛丽亚的母亲向女儿们解释说，杰里的问题从他四岁时就开始了。 一匹马踢了他的头。 虽然杰里似乎康复了，但他还是学不会字母表。 不管露丝指给他看多少遍，他都看不懂。 有一天，玛丽亚的父母无法控制杰瑞的情绪爆发，决定把他送去军校。 既然杰瑞已经离开了家，露丝·高酋长就把所有的注意力都放在了她的两个女儿身上。 她向自己保证，总有一天，她要带女儿们离开保留区和费尔法克斯小镇，那里有叮当作响的石油井架和尘土飞扬的道路。 她会把他们从父亲靠石油赚钱的可怕狂欢中带出来。 她的女儿们会在舞台上表演并成名。 传统的印度舞蹈也不是露丝·塔尔酋长想要的。 她的女儿们会跳芭蕾。 玛丽亚三岁那年夏天，妈妈带她去上第一节课。 玛乔丽三岁的时候，也开始上英语课了。

Maria's best friend was her sister. She and Marjorie dressed alike. They did everything together, including learning how to dance. In Fairfax, their teacher was a woman who knew very little about ballet. Mrs. Sabin didn't teach the Tall Chief girls the basic positions and movements. She forced five-year-old Maria to go up on her toes before her feet were strong enough to hold her. Mrs. Sabin did not know that dancing en pointe too early could damage forever a little girl's feet.

玛丽亚最好的朋友是她的姐姐。 她和玛乔丽穿得一样。 他们做任何事都在一起，包括学习跳舞。 在费尔法克斯，他们的老师是一个对芭蕾知之甚少的女人。 萨宾夫人没有教高酋长女孩们基本的姿势和动作。 她强迫五岁的玛丽亚在她的脚还不够强壮的时候踮着脚尖站起来。 萨宾夫人不知道过早地跳足尖舞可能会永远伤害一个小女孩的脚。

Ruth bought satin toe shoes in sizes too large for her girls. That way, they didn't outgrow their dancing slippers so quickly. She stuffed the toes of the slippers with cotton. Pain needled Maria's feet whenever she stood en pointe. She never told her mother about the pain. Ruth sewed the costumes for her daughters' dance routines. For one patriotic dance routine, Ruth made Maria a cape and sewed an American flag on the inside lining. On stage as the record "Stars and Stripes Forever" played, Maria twirled and twirled—sometimes on her toes and sometimes not—until she was dizzy.

露丝买的缎面鞋对她的女儿来说太大了。 这样，他们的舞鞋就不会那么快穿不下了。 她在拖鞋的脚趾里塞满了棉花。 每当玛丽亚站起来时，她的脚就像针刺一样痛。 她从来没有告诉过母亲她的疼痛。 露丝为女儿们缝制舞蹈服装。 在一次爱国舞蹈中，露丝给玛丽亚做了一件斗篷，在里面缝了一面美国国旗。 在舞台上，随着《星条旗永远》(Stars and Stripes Forever)的唱片响起，玛丽亚不停地旋转着——有时用脚趾头，有时不用——直到头晕。

A dancer must know music, and so Ruth also hired a piano teacher. While other children played outside after school, Maria now practiced both her piano lessons and her dance steps. Ruth watched her daughters closely. She saw that Marjorie could extend her leg almost to her head. That was much higher than Maria could. On the other hand, Maria could close her eyes and listen to a melody, then immediately identify the notes. "That's a C, that's a G," she'd tell the piano teacher. Then she played the same melody without making a mistake.

舞蹈演员必须懂音乐，所以露丝还请了一位钢琴老师。 当其他孩子放学后在外面玩耍时，玛丽亚现在既练习钢琴课，又练习舞蹈。 露丝密切注视着她的女儿们。 她看到玛乔丽的腿几乎可以伸到她的头。 这比玛丽亚能做到的要高得多。 另一方面，玛丽亚可以闭上眼睛听一段旋律，然后立即识别出音符。 “这是C调，这是G调，”她会告诉钢琴老师。 然后她演奏了同样的旋律，没有出错。

"Your daughter has perfect pitch," the piano teacher told Maria's mother. It was a remarkable musical talent. Ruth began to imagine different futures for her daughters. One day Marjorie would become a ballerina. Maria would become a concert pianist. For now, however, the two sisters continued to dance together. Sometimes they performed on stage in their father's movie theater. More often, they performed at county fairs, Boy Scout jamborees, and rodeos. The rodeo especially frightened Maria. The long-horned bulls in their pens snorted and pawed the dirt. The muscles along their flanks quivered

“你女儿的音高很好，”钢琴老师对玛丽亚的妈妈说。 这是一个非凡的音乐天才。 露丝开始想象女儿们不同的未来。 有一天，玛乔丽会成为一名芭蕾舞演员。 玛丽亚将成为一名音乐会钢琴家。 不过，现在两姐妹继续在一起跳舞。 有时他们在父亲的电影院的舞台上表演。 更多的时候，他们在县集市、童子军集会和牛仔竞技会上表演。 竞技表演使玛丽亚特别害怕。 围栏里长角的公牛哼着鼻子，用爪子刨着泥土。 它们两侧的肌肉在颤抖