我们看海去 Let’s Go to the Sea
作者：林海音
翻译：于光远
原文
因为放学后要练习跳舞,今天回来得晚一点儿。在兴华门的土坡上,我还是习惯地站了一会儿。城墙上面的那片天,是淡红的颜色了,海在这时也会变成红色的吗?我又默默地背起“我们看海去!我们看海去!…..金红的太阳,从海上升起来….,”那么现在不可以说是“金红的太阳,从天上落下去”吗?对的,我将来要写一本书,我要把天和海分清楚,我要把好人和坏人分清楚,我要把疯子和贼子分清楚,但是我现在却是什么也分不清。
我看见收买破烂货的挑子又停在隔壁人家门口了。挑挑子的人呢?我不由得举起脚步走向空草地那边去。这时门前的空地上,只见远远地有一个男人蹲在大槐树底下,他没有注意我。我迈进破砖墙,拨开高草,一步步向里走。
还是那个老地方,我看见了他!
“是你!”他也蹲在那里,嘴里咬着一根青草。他又向我身后张望了一下。招手叫我也蹲下来。我一蹲下来,书包就落在地上了。
“我猜你在这里。你该来了!”
“我该来了?你这话是什么意思?”他惊奇地问。
“没有什么意思呀!”我也惊奇地回答,“你还有故事没跟我讲哪!不是吗?”
“对对对,咱们得讲信用。”他点点头笑了。他靠坐在墙角,身旁有一大包东西,用油布包着,他就倚着这大包袱,好像宋妈坐在她的炕头上靠着被褥垛那样。
“你要听什么故事儿?”
“你弟弟的,你的。”
“好,可是我先问你，我还不知道你叫什么名儿呢?”
“英子。”
“英子,英子,”他轻轻地念着，“名儿好听。在学堂考第几?”
“第十二名。”
“这么聪明的学生才考十二名?应当考第一呀!准是贪玩分了你的心。”
我笑了,他怎么知道我贪玩?我怎么能够不玩呢!
他又接着说:
“我就是小时候贪玩,书也没念成,后悔也来不及了。我兄弟,那可是个好学生,年年考第一,有志气。他说,他长大毕了业,还要飘洋过海去念书。我的天老爷,就凭我这没出息的哥哥,什么能耐也没有,哪儿供得起呀!奔窝头,我们娘儿仨,还常常吃了上顿没下顿呢!唉!”他叹了口气,“走到这一步上,也是事非得已。小妹妹,明白我的话吗?”
我似懂,又不懂,只是直着眼看他。他的眼角有一堆眼屎,眼睛红红的,好像昨天没睡觉，又像哭过似的。
“我那瞎老娘是为了我没出息哭瞎的,她现在就知道我把家当花光了,改邪归正做小买卖，她不知道我别的。我那一心啃书本的弟弟,更拿我当个好哥哥。可不是,我供弟弟念书,一心要供到让他飘洋过海去念书,我不是个好人吗?小英子,你说我是好人?坏人?嗯?”
好人,坏人,这是我最没有办法分清楚的事,怎么他也来问我呢?我摇摇头。
“我不懂什么好人,坏人,人太多了,很难分。”我抬头看看天,忽然想起来了。“你分得清海跟天吗?我们有一课书,我念给你听。”
我就背起“我们看海去”那课书,我一句一句慢慢地念,他斜着头仔细地听。我念一句,他点头“嗯”一声。念完了我说:
“金红的太阳是从蓝色的大海升上来的吗?可是它也从蓝色的天空升上来呀?我分不出海跟天,我分不出好人跟坏人。”
“对,”他点点头很赞成我,“小妹妹,你的头脑好,将来总有一天你分得清这些。将来,等我那兄弟要坐大轮船去外国念书的时候,咱们给他送行去,就可以看见大海了,看它跟天有什么不一样。”
“我们看海去!我们看海去!”我高兴得又念起来。
“对,我们看海去,我们看海去,蓝色的大海上,扬着白色的帆,…..还有什么太阳来着?”
“金红的太阳,从海上升起来,…..”
我一句句教他念,他也很喜欢这课书了,他说:
“小妹妹,我一定忘不了你,我的心事跟别人没说过,就连我兄弟算上。”
什么是他的心事呢?刚才他所说的话,都叫做心事吗?但是我并不完全懂,也懒得问。只是他的弟弟不知要好久才会坐轮船到外国去?不管怎么样,我们总算订了约会,订了“我们看海去”的约会。
他从口袋掏出一串珠子,但是我不肯接过来。
“你放心,这是我自个儿的,奶奶给我的玩意儿多啦!全让我给败光了,就剩下这么一串小象牙佛珠,不知怎么,挂在镜框上,就始终没动过,今天正好送给你,这是咱们有缘。小英子,记住,我可不是坏人呀!”
他的话是诚实的,很动听,我就接过来了,绕两绕,套在我的手腕上。
几天后,我和同学走进新帘子胡同,也有几个巡警向胡同里面走去。又是谁家丢了东西吗?我的心跳了,忽然觉得有什么不幸。
前面一个巡警手里捧着一个大包袱,啊!是那个油布包袱!那么这一定是逮住他了,我拉紧了宋妈的衣角。
“小子不是做贼的模样儿呀!人心大变啦!好人坏人看不出来啦!”
一群人过来了,我很害怕,怕看见他,但是到底看见了,他的头低着,眼睛望着地下,手被白绳子捆上了,一个巡警牵着。我的手满是汗。
我慢慢躲进大门里,依在妈妈的身边,很想哭。
妈妈说:“小英子,看见这个坏人了没有?你不是喜欢作文章吗?将来你长大了,就把今天的事儿写一本书,说一说一个坏人怎么做了贼,又怎么落得这么个下场。”
“不!”我反抗妈妈这么教我!
我将来长大了是要写一本书的,但决不是像妈妈说的这么写。我要写的是:
“我们看海去”。
（有删改）
英文翻译
I had to go home a little later to practice my dance after class. On the little dirt slope near the gate, I stopped as usual, to take a short stand. The sky above the city walls had turned a pale red-would the sea be red at this moment? Silently, I began reciting the text:”Let’s go to the sea! Let’s go to the sea! … Golden red sun rises up from the sea…” Thus, couldn’t I just say “Golden red sun sets down from the sky” now? Yes, in the future I would write a book which will clearly distinguish the sky from the sea, and the good from the bad, and the mad from the thief. Now, however, I could distinguish nothing.
Again I saw the rag-picker’s shoulder-pole at the neighbor’s door. Where is the guy with the pole? In spite of myself, I set my pace for the meadow side. At this moment, in the front yard in front of the door, a man could be seen at some distance from me, crouching under a large locust-tree, and seeming to take no notice of me.. I passed through the cracked brick wall, pushed aside the tall grass, and, step by step, moved into the meadow.
It was the same old spot where I had seen him!
“It’s you! He was crouching there, too, with a blade of grass in his mouth. He then glanced behind me and beckoned me to crouch down too. As soon as I crouched down, my school bag fell to the ground.
“I guess you are here. You should come!”
“I should come? What do you mean?” He asked surprisingly.
“I mean nothing!” “” I answered, also in surprise.. “You still left some stories to tell me, didn’t you?”
“Yeah-yeah-yeah, we should be faithful.” He smiled and nodded. He was sitting against a corner of the wall, with a big tarpaulin-covered bag beside him, and he was leaning on it like how Maid Song sat on the edge of the bed, leaning on the quilt.
“What story would you like to listen to?”
“Your brother’s and yours.”
“OK, but I should ask you first - I still don’t know your name!”
“Yingzi.”
“Yingzi, Yingzi,” he murmured, “Good name. What’s your ranking in your school?”
“Twelfth.”
“Just twelfth? For such a brilliant student? You should be at the top! It must be playfulness that distracts you.”
I laughed. How could he know that I was playful? How could I live without playing?
“It was playful that I was exactly when I was young, and I failed to graduate from school, which is late for me to regret now. My younger brother, who I swear to be a good student, wins first place in the school every year, and he is full of ambition. He said that when he grows up and graduates from school, he will go overseas to pursue a further career. My Lord, how can I, his incapable, wooden brother, support him in his school-work, which depends on my poor skill? We three, my mother, my brother and I, were literally living hand-to-mouth, though we only ate coarse corn bread every day! Alas!” He sighed, “It’s not what I tended that I’ve driven myself to such a way. Understand, Yingzi?”
I just had a hazy notion, only staring at him directly. There were piles of gum in his eyelashes, and they were rather inflamed, as if he had not slept at all the day before, or had only been crying.
“My blind mother is blind because she would always cry for my incapability. All she knows now is that after I squandered all our savings, I tinkered with my ways and started a little business. She knew nothing more than that. My bookish brother also regarded me as his dear big brother, and that was that - I supported my brother’s cause, and I always wanted to support him until he finally went overseas. Am I not a good guy? Lil’Yingzi, tell me, am I a good guy? Or a bad guy, huh?”
Good guy, bad guy… They were the stuff which was the most difficult for me to differentiate. Why did he ask me that as well? I shook my head.
“I don’t know what the good or the bad exactly is. The population is too huge to distinguish.” I looked up at the sky, and at the same time was seized with a sudden thought. “Can you distinguish the sea and the sky? There’s a poem in our textbook and I’m gonna recite that to you.”
Then I started to recite “Let’s Go To the Sea” slowly, sentence by sentence, while he tilted his head and listened carefully. The moment I finished each sentence came up with his nod and “Yep”. When I had finished, I said:
“Does the golden red sun rise up from the blue sea? But it can also rise from the blue sky. I can’t distinguish the sea and the sky, neither can I distinguish the good and the bad.”
“Yep,” he nodded to show his sincere approval, “lil’sis, you are very brilliant and there will be a day that you can eventually distinguish them. In the future, when my brother will have to go abroad to study by ship, let’s go to see him off! We can see the sea and dig out the difference between it and the sky at that rate.”
“Let’s go to the sea! Let’s go to the sea!” I was electrified, and began to recite again.
“Yeah! Let’s go to the sea. Let’s go to the sea! On the blue sea we wave our white sails… And then? I remember that’s about the ‘sun’? “
“Golden red sun rises up from the sea…”
I taught him sentence by sentence, and he loved the text then, too. “Lil’sis, I won’t forget you, I swear. My thoughts have never been told to others before, even my younger brother.”
But what were his thoughts? Was that all he said? I did not quite understand, and at the same time I did not feel inclined to ask him. Well, how long would it be before his brother was finally able to sail abroad? Nevertheless, we booked a date, which was “Let’s go to the sea”.
He then took a string of beads from his pocket and offered them to me, but I was not willing to accept them.
“Don’t worry, it’s mine. It was a huge collection of toys and stuff that my granny gave me, but I wasted them all, except for this tiny string of ivory Buddha beads. I do not know why, but I had never before noticed it hanging from the eyeglass frame. It is fitting that I should send it to you to-day, as a proof of our predestined meeting. Lil’Yingzi, remember, I am not a’ bad guy’!”
His words were frank and willing, so I took them. I looped it twice around my wrist.
A few days later, when my classmates and I walked into Xinlianzi Hutong, there were also some police officers rushing into the hutong. Did someone lose something again? My heart leaped, and I felt a sudden sense of misfortune.
One of the policemen in front was carrying a large bag - oh no! It was the tarpaulin bag! Therefore, it must have been him who was arrested. I tugged hard at the corner of Maid Song’s coat.
“Little bastard is not the shape of a thief at all! How his heart had changed! It’s unable to distinguish whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy anymore!”
A crowd had gathered. I was afraid, afraid that he might see me. He saw me, however, at any rate. His head was bowed, his eyes fixed on the ground, and his hands were bound by a white rope led by a police officer. My hands began to sweat.
Slowly, I hid myself behind the door, leaning on my mother with a strong sense of bursting into tears.
My mom said: “Lil’Yingzi, did you see that bad guy? Don’t you like writing? You can write a book according to this incident when you grow up. You can describe how a bad guy becomes a thief and how he ends up in such a way.”
“NO!” I resisted the way my mom taught me. I did want to write a book when I grew up, but not in the way that my mom said. I was going to write:
“Let’s go to the sea.”
(Adapted)
中英对照
因为放学后要练习跳舞,今天回来得晚一点儿。在兴华门的土坡上,我还是习惯地站了一会儿。城墙上面的那片天,是淡红的颜色了,海在这时也会变成红色的吗?我又默默地背起“我们看海去!我们看海去!…..金红的太阳,从海上升起来….,”那么现在不可以说是“金红的太阳,从天上落下去”吗?对的,我将来要写一本书,我要把天和海分清楚,我要把好人和坏人分清楚,我要把疯子和贼子分清楚,但是我现在却是什么也分不清。
I had to go home a little later to practice my dance after class. On the little dirt slope near the gate, I stopped as usual, to take a short stand. The sky above the city walls had turned a pale red-would the sea be red at this moment? Silently, I began reciting the text:”Let’s go to the sea! Let’s go to the sea! … Golden red sun rises up from the sea…” Thus, couldn’t I just say “Golden red sun sets down from the sky” now? Yes, in the future I would write a book which will clearly distinguish the sky from the sea, and the good from the bad, and the mad from the thief. Now, however, I could distinguish nothing.
我看见收买破烂货的挑子又停在隔壁人家门口了。挑挑子的人呢?我不由得举起脚步走向空草地那边去。这时门前的空地上,只见远远地有一个男人蹲在大槐树底下,他没有注意我。我迈进破砖墙,拨开高草,一步步向里走。
Again I saw the rag-picker’s shoulder-pole at the neighbor’s door. Where is the guy with the pole? In spite of myself, I set my pace for the meadow side. At this moment, in the front yard in front of the door, a man could be seen at some distance from me, crouching under a large locust-tree, and seeming to take no notice of me.. I passed through the cracked brick wall, pushed aside the tall grass, and, step by step, moved into the meadow.
还是那个老地方,我看见了他!
It was the same old spot where I had seen him!
“是你!”他也蹲在那里,嘴里咬着一根青草。他又向我身后张望了一下。招手叫我也蹲下来。我一蹲下来,书包就落在地上了。
“It’s you! He was crouching there, too, with a blade of grass in his mouth. He then glanced behind me and beckoned me to crouch down too. As soon as I crouched down, my school bag fell to the ground.
“我猜你在这里。你该来了!”
“I guess you are here. You should come!”
“我该来了?你这话是什么意思?”他惊奇地问。
“I should come? What do you mean?” He asked surprisingly.
“没有什么意思呀!”我也惊奇地回答,“你还有故事没跟我讲哪!不是吗?”
“I mean nothing!” “” I answered, also in surprise.. “You still left some stories to tell me, didn’t you?”
“对对对,咱们得讲信用。”他点点头笑了。他靠坐在墙角,身旁有一大包东西,用油布包着,他就倚着这大包袱,好像宋妈坐在她的炕头上靠着被褥垛那样。
“Yeah-yeah-yeah, we should be faithful.” He smiled and nodded. He was sitting against a corner of the wall, with a big tarpaulin-covered bag beside him, and he was leaning on it like how Maid Song sat on the edge of the bed, leaning on the quilt.
“你要听什么故事儿?”
“What story would you like to listen to?”
“你弟弟的,你的。”
“Your brother’s and yours.”
“好,可是我先问你，我还不知道你叫什么名儿呢?”
“OK, but I should ask you first - I still don’t know your name!”
“英子。”
“Yingzi.”
“英子,英子,”他轻轻地念着，“名儿好听。在学堂考第几?”
“Yingzi, Yingzi,” he murmured, “Good name. What’s your ranking in your school?”
“第十二名。”
“Twelfth.”
“这么聪明的学生才考十二名?应当考第一呀!准是贪玩分了你的心。”
“Just twelfth? For such a brilliant student? You should be at the top! It must be playfulness that distracts you.”
我笑了,他怎么知道我贪玩?我怎么能够不玩呢!
I laughed. How could he know that I was playful? How could I live without playing?
他又接着说:
“我就是小时候贪玩,书也没念成,后悔也来不及了。我兄弟,那可是个好学生,年年考第一,有志气。他说,他长大毕了业,还要飘洋过海去念书。我的天老爷,就凭我这没出息的哥哥,什么能耐也没有,哪儿供得起呀!奔窝头,我们娘儿仨,还常常吃了上顿没下顿呢!唉!”他叹了口气,“走到这一步上,也是事非得已。小妹妹,明白我的话吗?”
“It was playful that I was exactly when I was young, and I failed to graduate from school, which is late for me to regret now. My younger brother, who I swear to be a good student, wins first place in the school every year, and he is full of ambition. He said that when he grows up and graduates from school, he will go overseas to pursue a further career. My Lord, how can I, his incapable, wooden brother, support him in his school-work, which depends on my poor skill? We three, my mother, my brother and I, were literally living hand-to-mouth, though we only ate coarse corn bread every day! Alas!” He sighed, “It’s not what I tended that I’ve driven myself to such a way. Understand, Yingzi?”
我似懂,又不懂,只是直着眼看他。他的眼角有一堆眼屎,眼睛红红的,好像昨天没睡觉，又像哭过似的。
I just had a hazy notion, only staring at him directly. There were piles of gum in his eyelashes, and they were rather inflamed, as if he had not slept at all the day before, or had only been crying.
“我那瞎老娘是为了我没出息哭瞎的,她现在就知道我把家当花光了,改邪归正做小买卖，她不知道我别的。我那一心啃书本的弟弟,更拿我当个好哥哥。可不是,我供弟弟念书,一心要供到让他飘洋过海去念书,我不是个好人吗?小英子,你说我是好人?坏人?嗯?”
“My blind mother is blind because she would always cry for my incapability. All she knows now is that after I squandered all our savings, I tinkered with my ways and started a little business. She knew nothing more than that. My bookish brother also regarded me as his dear big brother, and that was that - I supported my brother’s cause, and I always wanted to support him until he finally went overseas. Am I not a good guy? Lil’Yingzi, tell me, am I a good guy? Or a bad guy, huh?”
好人,坏人,这是我最没有办法分清楚的事,怎么他也来问我呢?我摇摇头。
Good guy, bad guy… They were the stuff which was the most difficult for me to differentiate. Why did he ask me that as well? I shook my head.
“我不懂什么好人,坏人,人太多了,很难分。”我抬头看看天,忽然想起来了。“你分得清海跟天吗?我们有一课书,我念给你听。”
“I don’t know what the good or the bad exactly is. The population is too huge to distinguish.” I looked up at the sky, and at the same time was seized with a sudden thought. “Can you distinguish the sea and the sky? There’s a poem in our textbook and I’m gonna recite that to you.”
我就背起“我们看海去”那课书,我一句一句慢慢地念,他斜着头仔细地听。我念一句,他点头“嗯”一声。念完了我说:
Then I started to recite “Let’s Go To the Sea” slowly, sentence by sentence, while he tilted his head and listened carefully. The moment I finished each sentence came up with his nod and “Yep”. When I had finished, I said:
“金红的太阳是从蓝色的大海升上来的吗?可是它也从蓝色的天空升上来呀?我分不出海跟天,我分不出好人跟坏人。”
“Does the golden red sun rise up from the blue sea? But it can also rise from the blue sky. I can’t distinguish the sea and the sky, neither can I distinguish the good and the bad.”
“对,”他点点头很赞成我,“小妹妹,你的头脑好,将来总有一天你分得清这些。将来,等我那兄弟要坐大轮船去外国念书的时候,咱们给他送行去,就可以看见大海了,看它跟天有什么不一样。”
“Yep,” he nodded to show his sincere approval, “lil’sis, you are very brilliant and there will be a day that you can eventually distinguish them. In the future, when my brother will have to go abroad to study by ship, let’s go to see him off! We can see the sea and dig out the difference between it and the sky at that rate.”
“我们看海去!我们看海去!”我高兴得又念起来。
“Let’s go to the sea! Let’s go to the sea!” I was electrified, and began to recite again.
“对,我们看海去,我们看海去,蓝色的大海上,扬着白色的帆,…..还有什么太阳来着?”
“Yeah! Let’s go to the sea. Let’s go to the sea! On the blue sea we wave our white sails… And then? I remember that’s about the ‘sun’? “
“金红的太阳,从海上升起来,…..”
“Golden red sun rises up from the sea…”
我一句句教他念,他也很喜欢这课书了,他说:
“小妹妹,我一定忘不了你,我的心事跟别人没说过,就连我兄弟算上。”
I taught him sentence by sentence, and he loved the text then, too. “Lil’sis, I won’t forget you, I swear. My thoughts have never been told to others before, even my younger brother.”
什么是他的心事呢?刚才他所说的话,都叫做心事吗?但是我并不完全懂,也懒得问。只是他的弟弟不知要好久才会坐轮船到外国去?不管怎么样,我们总算订了约会,订了“我们看海去”的约会。
But what were his thoughts? Was that all he said? I did not quite understand, and at the same time I did not feel inclined to ask him. Well, how long would it be before his brother was finally able to sail abroad? Nevertheless, we booked a date, which was “Let’s go to the sea”.
他从口袋掏出一串珠子,但是我不肯接过来。
He then took a string of beads from his pocket and offered them to me, but I was not willing to accept them.
“你放心,这是我自个儿的,奶奶给我的玩意儿多啦!全让我给败光了,就剩下这么一串小象牙佛珠,不知怎么,挂在镜框上,就始终没动过,今天正好送给你,这是咱们有缘。小英子,记住,我可不是坏人呀!”
“Don’t worry, it’s mine. It was a huge collection of toys and stuff that my granny gave me, but I wasted them all, except for this tiny string of ivory Buddha beads. I do not know why, but I had never before noticed it hanging from the eyeglass frame. It is fitting that I should send it to you to-day, as a proof of our predestined meeting. Lil’Yingzi, remember, I am not a’ bad guy’!”
他的话是诚实的,很动听,我就接过来了,绕两绕,套在我的手腕上。
His words were frank and willing, so I took them. I looped it twice around my wrist.
几天后,我和同学走进新帘子胡同,也有几个巡警向胡同里面走去。又是谁家丢了东西吗?我的心跳了,忽然觉得有什么不幸。
A few days later, when my classmates and I walked into Xinlianzi Hutong, there were also some police officers rushing into the hutong. Did someone lose something again? My heart leaped, and I felt a sudden sense of misfortune.
前面一个巡警手里捧着一个大包袱,啊!是那个油布包袱!那么这一定是逮住他了,我拉紧了宋妈的衣角。
One of the policemen in front was carrying a large bag - oh no! It was the tarpaulin bag! Therefore, it must have been him who was arrested. I tugged hard at the corner of Maid Song’s coat.
“小子不是做贼的模样儿呀!人心大变啦!好人坏人看不出来啦!”
“Little bastard is not the shape of a thief at all! How his heart had changed! It’s unable to distinguish whether he’s a good guy or a bad guy anymore!”
一群人过来了,我很害怕,怕看见他,但是到底看见了,他的头低着,眼睛望着地下,手被白绳子捆上了,一个巡警牵着。我的手满是汗。
A crowd had gathered. I was afraid, afraid that he might see me. He saw me, however, at any rate. His head was bowed, his eyes fixed on the ground, and his hands were bound by a white rope led by a police officer. My hands began to sweat.
我慢慢躲进大门里,依在妈妈的身边,很想哭。
Slowly, I hid myself behind the door, leaning on my mother with a strong sense of bursting into tears.
妈妈说:“小英子,看见这个坏人了没有?你不是喜欢作文章吗?将来你长大了,就把今天的事儿写一本书,说一说一个坏人怎么做了贼,又怎么落得这么个下场。
My mom said: “Lil’Yingzi, did you see that bad guy? Don’t you like writing? You can write a book according to this incident when you grow up. You can describe how a bad guy becomes a thief and how he ends up in such a way.”
不!”我反抗妈妈这么教我!
我将来长大了是要写一本书的,但决不是像妈妈说的这么写。我要写的是:
“NO!” I resisted the way my mom taught me. I did want to write a book when I grew up, but not in the way that my mom said. I was going to write:
“我们看海去”。
“Let’s go to the sea.”
（有删改）
(Adapted）
