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How can I speak in 10 minutes about the bonds of women over three generations,
10分钟何尝够我来讲述，关于三代妇女间的纽带，
about how the astonishing strength of those bonds took hold in the life of a four-year-old girl huddled with her young sister,
这条纽带有着惊人的力量，把4岁小姑娘和她的妹妹、母亲、祖母绑在一起5天5夜，
her mother and her grandmother for five days and nights in a small boat in the China Sea more than 30 years ago.
挤在一条小船飘在中国海，已经过去了30多年，
Bonds that took hold in the life of that small girl and never let go -- that small girl now living in San Francisco and speaking to you today.
这条纽带一直留在小女孩的脑海中，不曾磨灭--那个小女孩现在居住在旧金山，今天正在为你们讲述。
This is not a finished story. It is a jigsaw puzzle still being put together. Let me tell you about some of the pieces.
这是一个不断延续的故事，就像一幅正在被拼接的拼图一样，请允许我讲述其中的片段。
Imagine the first piece: a man burning his life's work.
回想起来的第一个画面是，一个男人拼尽全力地工作。
He is a poet, a playwright, a man whose whole life had been balanced on the single hope of his country's unity and freedom.
他是一个诗人兼剧作家，一生都致力于国家的统一和自由。
Imagine him as the communists enter Saigon -- confronting the fact that his life had been a complete waste.
想象着他作为一名共产主义者进入胡志明市，面对着完全被抛弃的一生。
Words, for so long his friends, now mocked him. He retreated into silence.
面对朋友们的嘲笑，他沉默以对。
He died broken by history. He is my grandfather. I never knew him in real life.
作为历史，他已经死去，他就是我的祖父，我从来不了解他的真实生活。
But our lives are much more than our memories. My grandmother never let me forget his life.
但是我们的生活比记忆更加丰富。祖父让我永记他的一生。
My duty was not to allow it to have been in vain, and my lesson was to learn that, yes, history tried to crush us, but we endured.
而我的职责就是不让他的经历成为徒劳，我的责任是从中学习，是的，历史试图打垮我们，而我们一直忍受着。
The next piece of the jigsaw is of a boat in the early dawn slipping silently out to sea.
下一块拼图是黎明的早上一叶扁舟，悄悄滑向大海
My mother, Mai, was 18 when her father died -- already in an arranged marriage, already with two small girls.
我母亲，Mai，18岁丧父，已经被包办了婚姻，有了两个小女儿。
For her, life had distilled itself into one task: the escape of her family and a new life in Australia.
对于她，生活唯一目的就是逃离家庭，在澳大利亚开始新生活。
It was inconceivable to her that she would not succeed. So after a four-year saga that defies fiction, a boat slipped out to sea disguised as a fishing vessel.
这对她来说，简直就是天方夜谭。因此，在经历了长达四年的难以描述的冒险之后，一艘伪装成渔船的船悄悄出海了。
All the adults knew the risks. The greatest fear was of pirates, rape and death.
大人们知道其中的危险。最大的威胁是海盗，强奸和死亡。
Like most adults on the boat, my mother carried a small bottle of poison.
和所有成年人一样，我母亲带了一小瓶毒药。
If we were captured, first my sister and I, then she and my grandmother would drink.
如果我们被抓获，我妹妹、我、母亲和祖母依次服毒自尽。
