作品原文
钟玲 《永远不许你丢掉它》
北风根根针尖似地刺着施老伯的喉头,他忙把蓝棉袄的领口扣上。他进了公园藏室,取出扫把和畚箕,然后走到秋千旁边,待要扫地下的落叶,忽然他瞪大双眼,惊奇地望着正前方:那张长椅上放的是什么鬼东西?黑色的大包裹?谁留下来的?怎么会有那么大的包裹?他定睛一瞧,才看出黑色包裹顶端有个人头,短短的黑发,是个男人。施老伯想,自己真是老眼昏花,明明是一对情侣,两人裹在男朋友的黑大衣里。公园是情侣流连之处,但是一早八点半,在阴暗的黑云下,吃着冷风谈情说爱,以前倒没见过。大衣里的小天地一定热烘烘。施老伯油然怀念被窝里老太婆胖敦敦的身骨,可是她已经去了,去了两年了。施老伯拿起扫把畚箕就往回走,自己还是不要打扰这一对恋人。
他走到公园另一端去扫水沟,沟水清浅,落了一堆堆黄褐色、橙红色的叶子,他扫到一处停下来,见到沟里散着些纸屑,有揉成一团的证件,有撕成碎片的名片,一定是什么人清理他的皮夹子。他用力一扫,扫把带起一张照片,又飘回透亮的沟水中,一张脸平贴在水面上,向他微笑,是张女孩子的小照。施老伯拾起照片:黑白照,有点泛黄,披肩的长发,清清秀秀的五官,施老伯信手翻过来,背面题了字:
“亲爱的国材:
永远不许你丢掉它!
你的丽云x年x月x日”
他似笑非笑地弯弯嘴角,照片由他手中飘落,落在水沟里一大堆落中。
作品译文
Yours Forever
Chung Ling
The north wind was biting the old gentleman Mr. Shi’s throat like needles, so he quickly buttoned up the collar of his blue cotton-padded coat. Mr. Shi went into the janitor’s closet in the park, brought out his broom and bamboo dustbin, then walked over to the swing. He was about to sweep the leaves on the ground when he suddenly opened his eyes wide. He was surprised when he saw a mysterious object lying on the bench ahead of him.
“What’s that weird thing on the bench?” he said to himself. “A big black bag? But who’s left it there? How come there’s such a huge bag?” Only when he gazed at it did he recognize a human head on top of the large bag—it was a man’s head with short black hair.
“Indeed, old age comes with bad eyes,” he thought. “Definitely it’s two lovers wrapped in the man’s black overcoat. The park is a place for lovers, but I’ve never seen two dating at 8:30 in the morning, under the dark clouds, in the biting wind.
“That little world must be nice and warm inside.” Somehow the old man thought of his old wife’s plump body under his own quilt, but she had gone, for two years already. Broom and dustbin in hand, he turned about and started walking away from the lovers. “I’d better leave them alone.”
Mr. Shi, instead, went to another corner of the park and started sweeping the ditch there. Covering the clear, shallow ditch were piles and piles of dark yellow leaves and orange leaves. He stopped at a spot where he saw paper fragments scattered all around, including an ID card crumpled into a ball and business cards torn into pieces.
“It must be someone who has cleaned out their wallet.” He swept them away at a stroke, his broom bringing up a photograph, which then floated back onto the clear ditchwater with a face smiling at him. It was a small black-and-white picture of a girl. He picked it up and found it had turned yellowish. It showed a girl with delicate features and with shoulder-length hair. Mr. Shi looked at the reverse and found the following handwritten words:
My dearest Guo Cai:
It’s yours forever!
Yours,
Li Yun
On this day of this month of this year.
An invisible smile emerged from the curved corners of his mouth as the photograph fell his hand drifting onto the huge pile of fallen leaves inside the ditch.