《冬夜》——Winter Night
艾蕪
Ai Wu
冬天一個冰寒的晚上。在寂寬的馬路旁邊，疏枝交橫的樹下，候著最后一輛搭客汽車的，只我一人。雖然不遠的墻邊，也蹲有一團黑影，但他卻是伸手討錢的。馬路兩旁，遠遠近近都立著燈窗明燦的別墅，向暗藍的天空靜靜地微笑著。在馬路仁是冷冰冰的，還刮著一陣陣猛厲的風。留在枝頭的一兩片枯葉，也不時發(fā)出破碎的哭聲。
那蹲著的黑影，接了我的一枚銅板，就高興地站起來向我搭話，一面抱怨著天氣：“真冷呀，再沒有比這里更冷了！……先生，你說是不是?”
看見他并不是個討厭的老頭子，便也高興地說道：“鄉(xiāng)下怕更要冷些吧?”
It was a cold winter night. The street was deserted. I stood alone under a tree with an entanglement of bare branches overhead, waiting for the last bus to arrive. A few paces off in the darkness there was a shadowy figure squatting against the wall, but tie turned out to be a tramp. The street was lined with fine houses, their illuminated windows beaming quietly towards the dark blue sky. It was icy cold with a gust of strong wired howling around. A couple of withered leaves, still clinging to the branches, rustled mournfully from time to tithe. The shadowy figure, taking a copper coin from me with thanks, straightened up to attempt a conversation with me.
"It's really cold here," he complained. "It couldn't be colder anywhere else ....What do you think, sir?"
Seeing that he was not too nasty an old man, I readily responded: "It must he colder in the country, I'm afraid.”
“不，不?！彼又人云饋恚鲁龅脑?，塞在喉管里了。
我說：“為什么?你看見一下霜，鄉(xiāng)下的房屋和田野，便在早上白了起來，街上卻一點也看不見?！?/p>
他捶了幾下胸口之后，興奮地接著說道：“是的，是的……鄉(xiāng)下冷，你往人家門前的稻草堆上一鉆就暖了哪……這街上，哼，鬼地方！……還有那些山里呵，比鄉(xiāng)下更冷哩，咳，那才好哪！火燒一大堆，大大小小一家人，鬧熱呀！……”
接著他便說到壯年之日，在南方那些山中冬夜走路的事情。一個人的漂泊生活，我是喜歡打聽的，同時車又沒有馳來.便慫思他說了下去。
"No, no," he disagreed and began to cough, his words stuck up in his throat.
"Why?" I asked. "In the country when it frosts, you always find the roofs and the fields turning white in the morning, but you don't see that here on the streets.”
He patted his chest to ease off his coughing and went on excitedly: "True, true... it's cold in the country, but when you get into somebody's straw stack, you are warm again at once.... But this street, humm, what a terrible place! In the mountains, it's even colder, but when they have a fire in the house with the whole family sitting around it, wow, it's heaven!"
Then he began to relate to me the adventures of his younger days-travelling alone in winter nights through the mountains in the south. As I was interested in stories about wanderers and since the bus had not arrived yet, I encouraged him to go on.
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