(单词翻译:单击)
英文原文
In Warsaw there were strikers who demanded that the czar abdicate. Somebody by the name of Dr. Herzl had come up with the idea that Jews should settle again in Palestine. Berlcha listened and shook her head. Her face was yellowish and wrinkled like a cabbage leaf. She was half deaf. Berl had to repeat each word he said to her.
Here in Lentshin nothing happened except usual events: a cow gave birth to a calf, a young couple got married. Actually, Lentshin had become a village with few young people. The young men left for Zakroczym, for Warsaw, and sometimes for the United States. Like Samuel, they sent letters and photographs in which the men wore top hats and the women fancy dresses.
Berl and Berlcha also received such photographs. But their eyes were failing and neither he nor she had glasses. They could barely make out the pictures. Samuel had sons and daughters—and grandchildren. Their names were so strange that Berl and Berlcha could never remember them. But what difference do names make? America was on the other side of the ocean, at the edge of the world. A talmud teacher who came to Lentshin had said that Americans walked with their heads down and their feet up. Berl and Berlcha could not grasp this. How was it possible? But since the teacher said so it must be true.
参考译文
华沙的罢工者要求沙皇退位；有个叫赫兹的人献策说，犹太人应该再次迁入巴勒斯坦。蓓查边听边摇头。她的脸色发黄，脸像甘蓝叶一样皱巴。耳朵半聋，贝尔得把每个字反复说给她听。
在冷申村，什么不寻常的事都没有，除了平日的琐事：一头母牛生了一头小牛犊，一对年轻人成婚了。事实上，冷申村的年轻人已经不多了，青年男子们去了Zakroczym(波兰某地)，去了华沙，有的去了美国。他们像塞缪尔那样，往家里寄信、寄照片，照片上的男子都戴着高高的帽子，女人都穿着精美的衣服。
贝尔和蓓查也收过这样的照片，但是他们的老眼不行了，老两口都没有眼镜，他们几乎看不清照片上的人。塞缪尔有儿子们，也有女儿们，还有孙子呢。他们的名字很奇怪，贝尔和蓓查都记不住。但是这些名字有什么不同的意义呢？美国在大洋的另一端，地球的另一头。曾有一位教犹太法典的教师来到村子里，他告诉村里人，美国人走路是头朝下、脚朝上。贝尔和蓓查不明白，这怎么可能呢？但是既然这位教师是这么说的，那肯定是这样的。
