Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of an invisible orchestra. He looked ancient in my eyes. He had lost most of the hair on top of his head and he wore thick glasses and had eyes that always looked tired and sleepy. But he must have been younger than I thought, since he lived with his mother and was not yet married.
钟先生非常古怪，我暗地里叫他老钟头。他常常用手指随着一支无形乐团的无声音乐打着拍子。我看他就是个老古董。他秃顶，戴眼镜，长着一双整日昏昏欲睡的眼睛。可他一定没我想得那么老，因为他和他母亲住在一起，没结婚。
I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf. "Like Beethoven!" he shouted to me "We're both listening only in our head!" And he would start to conduct his frantic silent sonatas.
我很快明白老钟头为何不再教琴了。他是个聋子。“像贝多芬那样！”他扯大嗓门说，“咱俩只能用心来听! ”然后，他会开始指挥无章狂乱的无声奏鸣曲。
Our lessons went like this. He would open the book and point to different things, explaining their purpose: "Key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major! Listen now and play after me!"
我们的钢琴课是这样进行的——他会打开谱子，指着各种记号，讲解功能:“琴盘！高音部！低音部！没有升音或降音，这是C大调！现在先听我弹，然后跟我弹！”
And then he would play the C scale a few times, a simple cord, and then, as if inspired by an old, unreachable itch, he gradually added more notes and running trills and a pounding bass until the music was really something quite grand.
随后他弹几次C音节，一组简单的和弦。然后，好像有了一种心底里原有的无法抑制的激情，他弹奏得越来越多,又加上连续的颤音和重重的低音，汇成一首磅礴的乐曲。
I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and then I just played some nonsense that sounded like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans. Old Chong smiled and applauded and then say "Very good! Bt now you must learn to keep time!"
我会按照他的方式弹奏：简单的音阶、简单的和弦，可后来我就胡乱弹些音节，好像一只猫在垃圾箱上上蹿下跳。老钟微笑，鼓掌，然后说:“很好！但要学会掌握弹奏速度。”
So that's how I discovered that Old Chong's eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes I was playing. He went through the motions in half-time. To help me keep rhythm, he stood behind me, pushing down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced pennies on top of my wrists so that I would keep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had me curve my hand around an apple and keep that shape when playing chords. He marched stiffly to show me how to make each finger dance up and down, staccato like an obedient little soldier.
我这才发现老钟的眼神跟不上我错误的音节，比我弹奏的速度慢半拍。为了帮我保持节奏准确，他站在我身后，每一节拍按一下我的右肩。他把几枚硬币放在我的手腕上，以保证我为了保持硬币平隐而慢慢弹奏音阶和琶音。他把我的手放在一个苹果上，要我以同样的手形弹奏和弦。他会昂首正步，以演示在弹奏断奏时每个手指要像顺从的小战士那样上下跳动。