first confession Frank O'Connor原文和翻译

First Confession – Frank O’Connor

In First Confession by Frank O’Connor we have the theme of persecution and the freeing of self. Taken from his short story collection My Oedipus Complex and Other Stories, the story is told with humour by a young seven year old boy called Jackie. Jackie lives with his parents, his sister Nora and his grandmother. The grandmother is a pivotal character in the story for she will become a large part of Jackie’s first confession.

First Confession begins with a story from Jackie. We are told about his life with his grandmother. She walks around the house barefoot, and eats her potatoes using her fingers as forks. Jackie is embarrassed by her and doesn’t like bringing any of his friends into the house when she is there because she is drinking porter. She also gives Nora a penny every Friday while Jackie gets nothing. Some critics suggest that Jackie’s grandmother is symbolism for an older Ireland.

The story moves on and we are told that it’s time for Jackie to make his first holy communion. An old woman called Mrs Ryan is teaching Jackie and his class mates about the Ten Commandments and hell. She tells the class the story of a man who made a bad confession (not telling the priest the truth) and whose hands burnt the bed of a priest. Really Mrs Ryan is trying to frighten the children into being good and trying to make sure that they don’t tell the priest a bad confession. To tell a bad confession in Jackie’s eyes means dying and burning in hell. Also the story of the man’s hands burning the bed of a priest is an example in the story of someone being persecuted.

Jackie doesn’t want to make a bad confession but knows that he will because he doesn’t think he’ll be able to tell the priest that he wants to kill his grandmother. The day the class are to make their confession Jackie pretends that he has a toothache so that he can avoid confession. Mrs Ryan gets wind of his absence and makes arrangements so that Jackie can go to confession the following Saturday and still be able to attend his first communion. Jackie’s mother isn’t available to bring him to the church on Saturday so she tells Nora to bring him instead. Nora is older than Jackie and on the way to the church she tries to frighten him about confession. Jackie knows that he’ll have to tell the priest that he tried to kill his sister with a bread knife as well.

When they arrive at the church Nora goes into the confession box first and Jackie can hear her talking to the priest like butter wouldn’t melt

in her mouth. O’Connor highlighting to the reader Nora’s hypocrisy. After Nora has finished its Jackie’s turn to go into the confession box. It is so dark in the confession box that Jackie first faces one of the walls instead of the hatch with the priest. Then he faces another wall and still he can’t hear anything. Eventually he decides to climb up on the small shelf where people rest their elbows, thinking that’s where the priest is. The priest opens up the hatch and Jackie falls down off the shelf and outside onto the aisle. When Nora sees Jackie on the ground she clips him across the ears, but the priest is more compassionate telling Jackie to wait till he’s seen everyone else and then to come into him. The priest jokes that Jackie must have a lot of sins to tell him as this is his first confession.

Eventually Jackie goes into the confession box and tells all his sins to the priest, O’Connor giving the reader an insight into the sins. They include him wanting to kill his grandmother and trying to kill his sister. The priest tells Jackie that there’s times he sometimes wants to kill people too, but doesn’t because he’s seen enough men hang for killing people. The reader knows the priest is joking, O’Connor creating a compassionate priest and Jackie is relived. He hasn’t made a bad confession and knows he won’t burn in hell.

First Confession ends with the priest walking Jackie out to his sister who is waiting on the railings outside the church. She asks what penance he got and Jackie tells her three hail Mary’s. Nora doesn’t believe him but Jackie tells her he is telling the truth, just like he did to the priest. Jackie’s sins have been forgiven.

翻译

书评：《我的第一次忏悔》

在法兰克·欧康纳的短篇小说《我的第一次忏悔》中，我们读到了这样的主题：惩戒与自我救赎。这部小说被收集在他的短篇小说集《我的俄狄浦斯情节及其他》中。故事是以一个七岁男孩杰基的幽默口吻讲述的。杰基和他的父母、姐姐及奶奶住在一起。他的奶奶在故事中是个关键人物，因为杰基的第一次忏悔大部分都是关于她的。

故事从杰基的叙述开始。读者被告知杰基的生活是如何与奶奶联系在一起的。奶奶光着脚在屋里走来走去，并且吃土豆不用刀叉而是用手指代替。杰基为奶奶的行为而感到难为情，不愿在奶奶在家时把他的任何朋友带回家中。因为她竟然喝黑啤酒（在当时，黑啤酒是给搬运工人及下人们喝的酒——译者注）。奶奶每周五给杰基的姐姐诺拉一便士却从不给杰基。一些评论家们认为杰基的奶奶其实就