雙語散文|許地山——落花生
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落花生
我們屋后有半畝隙地。母親說：“讓它荒蕪著怪可惜，既然你們那么愛吃花生，就辟來做花生園罷。”我們幾姊弟和幾個小丫頭都很喜歡——買種的買種，動土的動土，灌園的灌園；過不了幾個月，居然收獲了！媽媽說：“今晚我們可以做一個收獲節(jié)，也請你們爹爹來嘗嘗我們底新花生，如何？”我們都答應了。母親把花生做成好幾樣的食品，還吩咐這節(jié)期要在園里底茅亭舉行。
那晚上底天色不大好，可是爹爹也來到，實在很難得！爹爹說：“你們愛吃花生么？”
我們都爭著答應：“愛！”
“誰能把花生底好處說出來？”
姊姊說：“花生底氣味很美。”
哥哥說：“花生可以制油。”
我說：“無論何等人都可以用賤價買它來吃；都喜歡吃它。這就是它的好處。”
爹爹說：“花生底用處固然很多；但有一樣是很可貴的。這小小的豆不像那好看的蘋果、桃子、石榴，把它們底果實懸在枝上，鮮紅嫩綠的顏色，令人一望而發(fā)生羨慕的心。它只把果子埋在地底，等到成熟，才容人把它挖出來。你們偶然看見一棵花生瑟縮地長在地上，不能立刻辨出它有沒有果實，非得等到你接觸它才能知道。”
我們都說：“是的。”母親也點點頭。爹爹接下去說：“所以你們要像花生，因為它是有用的，不是偉大、好看的東西。”我說：“那么，人要做有用的人，不要做偉大、體面的人了。”爹爹說：“這是我對于你們的希望。”
我們談到夜闌才散，所有花生食品雖然沒有了，然而父親底話現(xiàn)在還印在我心版上。
Peanuts
Behind our house there lay half a mou of vacant land. Mother said, "It's a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?" That exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!Mother said, "How about giving a party this evening to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?" We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.
It looked like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless. "Do you like peanuts?" asked father.
Yes, we do! we vied in giving the answer.
Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?
Peanuts taste good, said my elder sister.
Peanuts produce edible oil, said my elder brother.
Peanuts are so cheap, said I, "that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyone's favourite. That's why we call peanuts good."
It's true that peanuts have many uses, said father, "but they're most beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win people's admiration with their brilliant colours, tiny little peanuts bury themselves in the earth and remain underground until they're ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bears any nuts until you touch them."
That's true, we said in unison. Mother also nodded. "So you must take after peanuts," father continued, "because they're useful though not great and nice-looking."
Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking, I said.
That's what I expect of you, father concluded.
We kept chatting until the party broke up late at night. Today, though nothing is left of the goodies made of peanuts, father's words remain engraved in my mind.
本文是許地山（1892—1941）的一篇久為流傳的散文。作者回憶自己童年時代的一個小小片斷，以樸實無華、清新自然的筆調(diào)，從花生的平凡而有用，談到做人的道理，富于哲理，反映他身處舊社會的污泥濁流而潔身自好、不慕虛名的思想境界。
英譯時以保持原作娓娓講故事的樸素風格為要，譯文除符合英語習慣和規(guī)范外，遣詞宜力求通俗，造句宜力求簡潔。
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