Little Hut
小茅屋
Wang Xiaolian
王孝廉
I don't know whether everyone misses the place where he once lived. But as for me, I still have a deep-felt affection for the little three-room hut where I lived during my childhood. The hut was rented at the cost of one dou* of rice every month. The little hut was cold in winter and warm in summer. Whenever it rained, our bed and desk would be like small islands. There were many bugs and small rodents that lived in our hut like geckoes that would climb on the walls, mosquitoes in the air, and rats that shuttled about the rooms. These uninvited guests far outnumbered my family members. Several times after the rain centipede-like myriapod worms from the cogongrass upon the roof would fall onto our books. From the corner of the clay wall a snake about two feet long would slither out, wandering left, then right. Afraid of being bitten by the snake, my elder brother and I curved up on our bed and sat motionless. At that time we didn't know how to tell if the snake was poisonous or not according to the shape of its head: triangle or elliptical. The only thing we could remember was that it had black and white stripes on its body.
不知道是不是每个人都会怀念他自己住过的地方，我如今却深深地怀念起童年所住过的那三间小茅屋了。三间茅屋是我们以一个月一斗米的代价租来的，冬冷夏暖，每逢下雨，我们的床和书桌就宛在水中央。此外出现在我们的房间里的动物也是很多的，墙上爬的壁虎，空中飞的蚊子，地上来回如梭的老鼠等，他类动物是远超过我的家人的。有几次雨后，屋顶的茅草中，掉下了几只类似蜈蚣的多足虫，刚好落在我书上；土墙角落的洞里也曾经钻出过两尺来长的蛇，在我们的房中摇摇摆摆地散步。为了怕蛇咬，我和哥哥蜷足屈膝地坐在自己的床上不敢动，那时候我们还不懂得从蛇的三角形和椭圆形分去辨它的有毒与否，只记得蛇身上有黑白鲜明的斑纹。
In front of the hut was a patch of land used to plant sugar cane and peanuts and behind the hut was a bamboo grove. When it was blowing, the noises produced by the bamboo grove would make me shiver with terror. Especially when the neighbouring children told me that a woman had hanged herself in the bamboo grove, my feeling of terror became still stronger. When we went to the bamboo grove to pick the fallen shells after the wind, the wet bamboo leaves would rustle under our feet. The soft sensation would always remind me of the horrible feeling connected with the woman that hanged there. Was she right under our feet?
茅屋的前面是一片种甘蔗和花生的田园，屋后是一片竹林，刮风的时候，竹林发出的声音使我感到恐怖，尤其是附近的孩子们告诉我那竹林子里曾经吊死过一个女人以后，这种恐怖的感觉就更深了。当我们在刮风后上竹林里捡掉落下来的竹壳子的时候，脚下那层阴湿而又沙沙有声的竹叶，那种软软的感觉每使我对吊死的女尸产生的恐怖的联想，她会不会就在脚底的竹叶下呢？
The history of the three-room hut was also mysterious. Some of the neighbours said that robbers had divided their spoils there, while others said they were once the place where mountain hunters had lived for a short time. And still others said that a poor peasant couple used to live there. When her husband was enlisted into the military by the Japanese troops and sent to Southeast Asia where he died, the wife hanged herself in the bamboo grove behind the hut.
那三间小茅屋的历史也是很神秘的，附近的人有的说是以前的强盗在那里分赃，有的说是上山打猎的猎人们在那里暂时休息住几天，也有人说茅屋里原住着一对贫穷的农家夫妇，丈夫被日本军征到南洋去作战死了，妻子就吊死在屋后的竹林子里。
Although the hut was in the bamboo grove at the foot of the mountain, although the bamboo became our friend and we used to make beds, desks, chairs, windows and floor with it; when I think of it nowadays, it has no poetic countryside charm. It is in this mysterious little hut that my younger sister came to this world.
虽然茅屋确实是在山脚下竹林中，虽然我们是竹床、竹桌、竹椅、竹窗地与竹为友，但就是现在回想起来，也实在无法产生什么诗意的田园情趣的。我的妹妹，就是在那神秘小茅屋里出生。
At that time, my elder brother and I were going to primary school. At dusk after school I would see my younger sister on the bamboo bed under a dim light. Her bony and fragile appearance made the empty bamboo bed still more vacant and beside her sat my mother looking pale and worn.
那时候我和哥哥都已经上小学了，黄昏放学回家，在昏暗的茅屋的竹床上，我看到了我的妹妹，她的瘦小和脆弱使空洞的竹床显得更空洞，她的身旁坐着苍黄疲倦的母亲。
We lived in the little hut until my younger sister grew old enough to follow me to fetch water from a well. Several years ago during my summer vacation, I returned to the little hut. There I found the three-room hut had reduced to two rooms and a half, for part of the hut on the right had already collapsed. The bamboo grove behind the hut had disappeared and instead there were some little fruit trees wrapped with rice stalks. The old well where we used to fetch water every day was dried and we could see the stones and garbage that lay at the bottom. The only thing unchanged was the sugar cane in front of the hut. It was green as before.
直到我的妹妹长得能跟着我一起上井边汲水，我们是住在那神秘的小茅屋里的。前几年暑假回去，我又回到了那茅屋，三间茅屋已剩了两间半，最右边的半间已经倒塌了，屋后的竹林不见了，换成了一些被稻草裹住身子的树苗，我们每天汲水的古井，枯干以后，可以看到井底的石头和垃圾，唯一没有变的是屋前的甘蔗依然青青。
My younger sister has grown into womanhood, while I myself have become a man with a beard. It is only when I think of the little hut where I lived during my childhood that I remember the time when my younger sister followed me to fetch water in the well against the cold wind and I often wonder whether that snake that frightened my elder brother and me so much is still alive?
如今妹妹已经是开始选择男朋友的年龄了，自己也已经是长了胡子的人。只是在想起童年住过的小茅屋的时候，总忘不了在冬天的寒风中跟着我上井边汲水的妹妹，而那只曾经使我和哥哥吓得不敢喘气的蛇，也不知还健在否？