英译中

　　Mother was an Oh. Her mother was the chemical engineer who first discovered a feasible way to store oxygen in tanks. And Father was Noel Ashenden, who though he did not actually invent the match-book, went into the field when it was still a not very flourishing novelty, and whose slogan, almost a poem, "Close Cover Before Striking"(a simple stroke, as Father liked to say), obvious only after someone else has already thought of it (the Patent Office refused to issue a patent on what it claimed was merely an instruction, but Father's company had the message on its matchbooks before his competitors even knew what was happening), removed the hazard from book matches and turned the industry and Father's firm particularly into a flaming success overnight—Father's joke, not mine. Later, when the inroads of Ronson and Zippo threatened the business, Father went into seclusion for six months and when he returned to us he had produced another slogan: "For Our Matchless Friends." It saved the industry a second time and was the second and last piece of work in Father's life.

　　家母随外婆姓欧。外婆是化学工程师，成功开发了罐装氧气。家父是诺尔?艾兴登。尽管纸板火柴不是他发明的，但当它还是个新玩意儿、不怎么旺销时，他就人了这个行业。他的推销广告颇有诗意：“阖盖一划火自来”(就像父亲常说的，轻轻一划就成)。很显然，这是拾人牙慧(专利局因此拒发专利证，说这只不过是句使用说明。但父亲的公司在对手还懵然不觉时，就抢先把这句广告词印在火柴盒上)。正是这句推销广告消除了纸板火柴使用时的危险，使整个行业，特别是父亲的火柴公司，一夜之间生意火了起来——这是父亲的玩笑而非我本人的幽默。后来，荣升和芝宝打火机打人市场，火柴生意受到威胁。父亲于是隐退，半年后推出了另一句广告词：“我友(有)火柴”，父亲因此第二次拯救了火柴业，这也是父亲一生中第二个也是最后一个成就。