前言
几天前，在哥哥的婚礼上，妹妹作为男方家唯一的演讲嘉宾演讲致辞，妹妹动情地讲述了她从小对哥哥的崇拜、依赖，和哥哥对她持之以恒的帮助、关爱。妹妹动情风趣的演讲多次赢得了在场嘉宾的热烈掌声和欢呼声。
我从妹妹那里要来了演讲原稿，尽管我已经临场听过妹妹的演讲，再读讲稿，依然心潮澎湃，讲稿字里行间，无不流露出深深的兄妹情谊。撇开情感因素，在我看来，讲稿本身行文流畅、结构完整，是一篇难得的非常优美的散文。
下面是英文原文，末后是我试着翻译的讲稿中文，与大家分享。
Thanks Tiffany! It’s gonna be hard to follow that speech. For the people out there who might not know me, I’m Casey — I’m Jesse’s little sister. I wanna start by thanking everybody for coming out to Colorado this weekend — Jesse and I really loved growing up out here. It’s a state that brings us both a lot of joy and pride, so I’m sure Jesse is really happy and grateful to have everyone here together.
Growing up, Jesse was always the person I looked up to. He always my one and only role model. I was such a stereotypical younger sibling — I really thought he could do no wrong. I remember when we were in elementary school, we both stayed at school for the after school program. They had a table for the big kids (meaning they fourth and fifth graders) and a table for the rest of the kids. All of us kids in the lower grades always thought the big kid table was the coolest place to be. They got the better activities and more importantly, seconds on the snacks. If you weren’t a big kid, you had to get the ever elusive invite to sit at the big kid table from a big kid themself. I didn’t really know any older kids, so when I was in third grade and Jesse was in fourth grade, I thought “this was my time, I’m finally going to be invited to sit at the big kid table.” I waited, and I waited, until I got the “ok fine I guess you can sit with us” from Jesse and I had never felt so honored. I was so proud to be the only third grader sitting at the big kid table, munching on my second serving of carrots and celery, bc I had connections.
One of things I’ve been the most proud of in my life is being Jesse’s little sister. In middle school, I was so proud to be the little sister of the kid who was winning all the mathcounts awards and clicking his little buzzer during the countdown rounds. In high school, he was always the kid with all the accomplishments — I just couldn’t keep up.
Since those golden years, Jesse’s grown a lot as a person too — he’s one of the first people I turn to when I’m going through tough times. He’s the one person in the whole world who has the same life experiences as I’ve had, so I never feel like I have to sugarcoat or explain myself. I can always count on him to take me seriously and have insightful things to say. I couldn’t ask for a better older brother.
So when he told me he was dating this girl Christine in college, I, of course, was skeptical. No one could ever be good enough for MY older brother. But when Christine stayed with us at home in Colorado over the first few months of the pandemic, I really got to know her better. I got to see how perfect they were for each other. Christine keeps Jesse grounded and keeps his head from getting too big. She makes sure he leaves the house once in a while and sees the world outside of his computer screen. But most importantly, Christine is kind and compassionate enough for the two of them.
I’ve always been so proud to have Jesse as my brother, and now I’m so proud to be able to call Christine my sister too. It’ll be an honor for us all to watch them grow old together, so let’s give another toast to the happy couple.
谢谢蒂芙尼！看来我接下来的演讲要想做到和蒂芙尼的演讲一样好，会很难。在座的宾客中可能有些人还不认识我，我是凯西——我是杰西的妹妹。首先，我想感谢大家这个周末能来科罗拉多州——杰西和我真的很喜欢在这里长大，科州给我们带来很多快乐和自豪，所以我相信杰西真的很高兴和感激大家能来到这里。
在我成长过程中，杰西一直是我敬仰的人，他一直是我的一个且唯一的一个榜样。我是这样一个刻板的妹妹——我真的认为他从来不会做错什么。我记得我们上小学的时候，我们放学后都留在学校参加课外活动。那里有一张给大孩子的桌子（这意味着他们是四年级和五年级的学生），还有一张给其他低年级孩子的桌子。我们所有低年级的孩子总是认为大孩子桌是最酷的地方，他们有更好的活动，更重要的是，有更多时间吃零食。如果你不是一个大孩子，你必须得到一个大孩子难以捉摸的邀请，才能坐在大孩子的桌子旁。我真的不认识任何大一点的孩子，所以当我上三年级，杰西上四年级时，我想“这是我的时间，我终于要被邀请坐在大孩子的桌子旁了。” 我等啊，等啊，直到我从杰西那里得到“好吧，我想你可以和我们坐在一起”，我从未感到如此荣幸。我很自豪是唯一一个坐在大孩子桌旁的三年级学生，咀嚼着我的第二份胡萝卜和芹菜，因为我有关系。
我一生中一直最自豪的事情之一就是做杰西的妹妹。在中学时，我为成为那个赢得所有中学数学比赛奖项并在计时抢答回合中不停点击小蜂鸣器的孩子的妹妹感到非常自豪。在高中时，他总是那个拥有所有成就的孩子——我就是跟不上。
自那些黄金岁月以来，杰西作为一个人也成长了很多——当我遇到困难的时候，他是我首先求助的人之一。他是世界上唯一一个和我有一样的生活经历的人，所以我从不觉得我必须粉饰或解释自己。我总是可以指望他认真对待我，跟我说有见地的话。我不能要求有一个更好的哥哥。
因此，当他告诉我他在大学里和一个叫克里斯汀的女孩约会时，我当然持怀疑态度，没有人能配得上我的哥哥！但在疫情爆发的头几个月里，当克里斯汀和我们一起住在科罗拉多州的家中时，我的确更了解她了。我看到他们是一对多么完美的组合，克里斯汀让杰西脚踏实地，防止他有太多不切实际的想法，她确保他偶尔离开家，看看电脑屏幕外的世界。但最重要的是，克里斯汀对他们俩来说有足够的善良和同情心。
我一直为杰西做我的哥哥而感到骄傲，现在我也为能称克里斯汀为我的姐姐而感到自豪，我们都将为能见证他们一起变老而深感荣幸，所以，让我们再次为这幸福的一对干杯！