姐姐的故事

My sister’s story

When I saw my sister in Baotou， she was wearing a long black woolen overcoat， which nearly covered her whole little body. With two spindle legs emerging from her skirt and a pair of black point-tipped boots， she looked like a witch who was riding a besom. Seeing us， my sister laughed， with her head incline. Her fluffy curls， totteringbehind her head， seemed too heavy for her neck. It suddenly coccurred to me that my 27-year-old sister who was laughing so shrilly， was already a wife and mother. I was a little disappointed—my sister was no longer that lovely little hoyden who used to be my helpful partner to search for the secretly-stored chocolate.

我在包頭見到姐時，她穿了一件黑色長款毛料大衣，剛好掩住瘦小的身材。裙下露出兩條細細的腿來，配上一雙尖頭黑色長靴，如同騎掃把的女巫。姐歪著頭笑，腦后大大的發(fā)卷仿佛要把她的脖子壓折似的，搖搖欲墜。這時我忽然想起，尖聲大笑的姐，已經(jīng)二十七歲為人妻為人母了。我有一點失落——姐已經(jīng)不再是那個帶著我偷吃巧克力的古靈精怪的小女孩了。

My sister had lived in Beijing for a long time. She said， during that period of time， she had changed lot， especially her personality.

姐在北京住過很長一段日子。她說這段日子甚至改變了她的性格。

When I was at the age of nine， my sister who was ten years older， came to Beijing for university education. She lived with our grandparents. Thus began my sister抯 story.

我九歲時，比我大十歲的姐來到北京上大學(xué)，住在爺爺奶奶家。姐的故事由此開始了。

My Sister was no more than 1.5 kilograms in weight when she was born. So she was taken to a greenhouse for a month， and survived fortunately. My family always said that my sister had a dogged life. They believed that escaping from death in a great catastrophe would bring the sufferer a good fortune， so they doted on her as if she was a noblest princess. My sister is clever and crabbed， and she was so spoiled that nobody could overpower her. Quite unexpectedly， my sister would live with our grandparents， both of whom were crazy about various rules and traditions. Our grandfather， once a university professor， was an unbelievably stern old man. In such a family with an old stubborn couple and a wild young girl， conflicts were unavoidable， and the conflicts?explosion someday was unavoidable， too.

姐一生下來只有不到三斤重，被放進暖房中住了一個月，才活下來。家里人都說這是她的命硬，大難不死必有后福，于是眾星捧月般地寵著她。姐生來機靈過人，性情乖張，從沒有人能限制她?？墒钦f來出人意料，她卻住在了有各種各樣規(guī)矩和傳統(tǒng)的奶奶家。自始至終是一對矛盾，而矛盾總會引爆的。

So as expected.

果然。

At one weekend， my sister took a classmate of hers called Hui home. The boy， who was from the south， looked quite gentle.

一個周末，姐把輝帶回家作客。輝是姐的同學(xué)，是個南方小伙子，長得文質(zhì)彬彬。

After Hui left， an serious academic seminar was immediately held at home—No， it would be better to say that it was a public accusation meeting. It was to discuss the issue of Hui and my sister.Grandfather said my sister was too young to fall in love and that she should concentrate on ber study only. “You completely let your parents down，”He yelled，“What on earth are you thinking about all day long?”My sister rebutted that she hadn’t done anything wrong.“Why do you pick a guy speaking like a bird?”Grandmother said. My sister burst into tears. She had never experienced a bitterer hurt. Gradually， this storm died away， but my sister remained unreconciled---She thought she had done nothing wrong. She seemed to offend our grandparents deliberately that she went on dating with Hui.

輝走后，爺爺在家里開了權(quán)威性的學(xué)術(shù)研討會——不，不如說是批斗會吧。主要是討論了輝的問題。爺爺說你小小年紀不把心思放在學(xué)習(xí)上，去搞什么對象，你對得起你爹、媽嗎？你腦袋里整天想是什么呀？姐說我沒有。那輝呢？還找個說鳥語的！奶奶說。姐從沒受過這樣的委屈。后來，這場風(fēng)波算是平息了，姐卻有些不甘心——她沒做錯什么。自這以后，姐像是與爺爺奶奶作對似的和輝交了朋友。

I once observed Hui thoroughly. He was tall and thin， with a pair of metal-rimmed glasses. It always mixed with more or less Cantonese when he spoke Mandarin. And he always laughed sickeningly when together with my sister. Whenever my grandfather saw this， he couldn’t help trembling because of anger. We little girls liked to surround him and made fun of him，“Brother-in-law， we want’s Pizza!”He smiled， but kept silent. If he couldn’t bear us any more， he would hide himself in my sister’s room. And my sister would shout， “Go away， let him alone.”At that time， almost the whole family was talking about this matter. Everybody insisted that there be no result for them， for my sister looked so ordinary， while Hui was too handsome. Besides， he was from the South. “It’s impossible，’our grandparents also said.

我曾細細地打量過輝。他身材很瘦很高，帶一副金屬邊兒的眼鏡，說起普通話來斯斯文文，夾著點兒廣東味，和姐在一起時總是很肉麻地笑。于是爺爺看了就氣得發(fā)抖。我們這些小女孩們常常圍在輝身邊打趣道：“姐夫，請我們吃‘必勝客’！”輝笑笑不說話。催得緊了，他便故意躲著不見我們。姐嗔道：“去去去，別煩他?！蹦菚r，差不多全家人都在談?wù)撨@件事。大家都說姐和輝不配，姐長得那么普通，而輝卻很英俊。而且輝還是南方人。他們成不了，爺爺奶奶也說。

So as expected.

果然。

Hui finally deserted my sister. And it was said that he had also defrauded my sister of a computer and some money as well.I remembered the day when Hui left for his hometown， my sister wept her heart out. It seemed as if she got mad that she rushed out of home and ran along the road ceaselessly. I also remembered that my grandfather chased her on a bike until very far---

輝把姐甩了，據(jù)說還騙走了她一臺電腦和一些錢。記得輝回老家的那天，姐哭得死去活來，還沖出家去瘋了似的一直不停地跑。我記得爺爺騎車追出去很遠……

Soon my sister graduated. She went back to Baotou later on . Two years later， she got married. It was a great surprise when I first saw my brother-in-law. To be more precise， I was scared. He was a typical Northeastern guy(it is inevitable)， very tall and strong. His faces were round， like a football， and he spoke quite frankly， to some extent，rudely， as well as with an air of simplicity and stupidity. I suspected that it was because my sister had been badly mentally hurt in the past that a certain chemical reaction had taken place in her aesthetic conceptions.

姐很快畢業(yè)了，之后，她回了包頭。兩年后，姐結(jié)婚了。我見過姐夫，出乎我的意料，或是嚇了我一跳。他是一個純正的東北大漢（這也必然），身材又高又胖，臉圓圓的，說起話來很直很沖，甚至帶著一股憨氣。我疑心是姐受了不小的刺激，以至審美觀發(fā)生了某種化學(xué)反應(yīng)。

My Sister looked quite happy when she leaned upon my brother-in-law， who was a head taller than her， taking a photo with him smilingly. As soon as my brother-in-law saw us ，he took us to a Pizza shop and ordered a really big meal. I noticed that my grandmother smiled， and then said something in a low voice like“my lovely silly grand-son-in-law.?姐一副很幸福的樣子，依著比她高一頭多的姐夫，與他一起傻乎乎地笑著拍了一張照片。姐夫見了我們立即請我們吃了一頓“必勝客”。我看見奶奶笑了，然后小聲說了一句“傻孫女婿”。

As to my sister’s first love， I thought， perhaps it would just have been a simple failure of love with a time-can-cure heartache， if without grandparents’interference. But now， it showed a serious problem that couldn’t be avoided—generation gap. It was difficult to tell precisely which generation was right while which was wrong. What we could do was to fill up the gap and make it as smaller as we could.

我想，姐的這段經(jīng)歷如果沒有爺爺奶奶的加盟，也許只是簡單的失戀，感情傷。而現(xiàn)在，它卻展示了一個不可回避的問題——代溝。我們不能說這是兩代人哪一邊的錯。我們能做的只是把這條溝化解成細縫而不是山谷。

Nothing more.

僅此而已。

I was a little afraid—maybe it would be my turn soon.

我有一點害怕——會不會下一個輪到我。