英国卫报：中国,我想回来!(6)

搜索

复制

I saw how much I had never even known to ask. The essay showed how quick his mind was, his sharp awareness¹ of the history he was living through.

我看到了很多我从未知道也从未想要问的东西。从这篇文章能看出爷爷思维的敏捷，他对自己所经历的历史有着敏锐的认识。

I looked for his other writings. He had published four volumes of fiction and countless² articles in journals and newspapers.

我又找了一些他的其他作品。他出版了四卷小说，在报刊杂志上发表过无数篇文章。

But during the chaotic³ years of the Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, his books had gone out of print. Our family had lost their copies.

然而他的书在文革及其余波的混乱岁月里已经绝版，就连家里的副本也已丢失。

I asked my relatives to help me find them, and even enlisted⁴ Chinese friends to help me search, but novels by Qian Feng weren't listed in the used books databases, and I still haven't found them.

我曾托亲戚帮我找，还找了中国朋友帮我找，然而钱峰的小说并没有列在旧书数据库里，所以到现在我也没有找到。

Some notes from my journal, from that visit to China:

我日记中的一些笔记，关于那次中国之行：

At dinner with yeye, he looked at me and said, zhe ge gu niang shen me gui xing? ('What is this girl's last name,' or more properly, 'What family is this girl from?') …

记得我和爷爷在餐桌上，他望着我说：这位姑娘贵姓？(“这个女孩姓什么？”或者更确切地说，“这个闺女是谁家的？”)

Later we asked him how old he was, and he said 95. How many children did he have? Three. What were their names? Xiaojiang, Xiaobing, Xiaoer. Xiaosan.

后来我们问他多大了，他说95岁。问他有几个孩子？三个。他们叫什么名字？小江、小兵、小二、小三。

Then my aunt asked, So how many children is that? Isn't that four? Do you have any other children, or is that it? (He'd forgotten his fifth child, his eldest⁵ daughter.) …

阿姨又问：这是几个孩子？这不是四个吗？你还有其他孩子吗，还是就这些了？(他忘记了他的第五个孩子，他的大女儿)……

At dinner I watched nainai break open a crab⁶ shell and spoon the yellow yolk⁷ on to bread for yeye, very quietly, while everyone else was talking.

吃饭时，当其他人都在说话的时候，我静静地看着奶奶掰开一个蟹壳，把蛋黄舀到馒头上喂爷爷。

Jostling his elbow so he'd look down and see the bread in his hand, and methodically, unthinkingly eat it. His eyes barely open any more, I don't know if he sees. …

奶奶碰碰他的胳膊肘，他低头看到手里的馒头，然后就想也不想地慢慢吃下去。他的眼睛也快睁不开了，我不知道他能不能看到。 …

I realised this may be the last time I see yeye.

我意识到这可能是我最后一次见爷爷了。

After her birthday dinner, I spent three days interviewing my grandmother.

在祖母的生日晚餐后，我花了三天时间采访她。

Because she spoke⁸ in a thick dialect, my aunt had to be there to translate into standard Mandarin⁹ for me.

因为她的方言很重，我的阿姨必须在那里帮我翻译成标准的普通话。

In the evenings the three of us piled into the old, familiar bedroom across the only bathroom in the apartment, my grandmother grumbling¹⁰ about her hearing aids while I fiddled¹¹ with the microphone.

晚上，我们三个人挤进公寓唯一一间浴室对面的那间又老又熟悉的卧室，我的祖母在抱怨她的助听器，而我则在摆弄麦克风。

Together, we tried to cobble together some understanding of her history.

我们试图将她的过去拼凑起来。

1 awareness   

n.意识，觉悟，懂事，明智

参考例句：

• There is a general awareness that smoking is harmful.人们普遍认识到吸烟有害健康。
• Environmental awareness has increased over the years.这些年来人们的环境意识增强了。

2 countless   

adj.无数的，多得不计其数的

参考例句：

• In the war countless innocent people lost their lives.在这场战争中无数无辜的人丧失了性命。
• I've told you countless times.我已经告诉你无数遍了。

3 chaotic   

adj.混沌的，一片混乱的，一团糟的

参考例句：

• Things have been getting chaotic in the office recently.最近办公室的情况越来越乱了。
• The traffic in the city was chaotic.这城市的交通糟透了。

4 enlisted   

adj.应募入伍的v.（使）入伍， （使）参军( enlist的过去式和过去分词 )；获得（帮助或支持）

参考例句：

• enlisted men and women 男兵和女兵
• He enlisted with the air force to fight against the enemy. 他应募加入空军对敌作战。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 eldest   

adj.最年长的，最年老的

参考例句：

• The King's eldest son is the heir to the throne.国王的长子是王位的继承人。
• The castle and the land are entailed on the eldest son.城堡和土地限定由长子继承。

6 crab   

n.螃蟹，偏航，脾气乖戾的人，酸苹果；vi.捕蟹，偏航，发牢骚；vt.使偏航，发脾气

参考例句：

• I can't remember when I last had crab.我不记得上次吃蟹是什么时候了。
• The skin on my face felt as hard as a crab's back.我脸上的皮仿佛僵硬了，就象螃蟹的壳似的。

7 yolk   

n.蛋黄，卵黄

参考例句：

• This dish would be more delicious with some yolk powder.加点蛋黄粉，这道菜就会更好吃。
• Egg yolk serves as the emulsifying agent in salad dressing.在色拉调味时，蛋黄能作为乳化剂。

8 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

9 Mandarin   

n.中国官话，国语，满清官吏；adj.华丽辞藻的

参考例句：

• Just over one billion people speak Mandarin as their native tongue.大约有十亿以上的人口以华语为母语。
• Mandarin will be the new official language of the European Union.普通话会变成欧盟新的官方语言。

10 grumbling   

adj. 喃喃鸣不平的, 出怨言的

参考例句：

• She's always grumbling to me about how badly she's treated at work. 她总是向我抱怨她在工作中如何受亏待。
• We didn't hear any grumbling about the food. 我们没听到过对食物的抱怨。

11 fiddled   

v.伪造( fiddle的过去式和过去分词 )；篡改；骗取；修理或稍作改动

参考例句：

• He fiddled the company's accounts. 他篡改了公司的账目。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• He began with Palestrina, and fiddled all the way through Bartok. 他从帕勒斯春纳的作品一直演奏到巴塔克的作品。 来自辞典例句