李小白的慢时光

我愿是株千年不凋的羽松,生长在炽热的南国,等待一场飞雪。

红星照耀中国/Red Star Over China

童年/Childhood( 四)

“我随表兄到那所学堂报了名,我说我是湘乡人,因为这所学堂只收湘乡人,后来,我发现这所学堂招收各地学生,我就改用湘潭的原来籍贯。我缴纳了1400个铜板,作为5个月的膳宿费用和学杂费,我父亲最后也同意我进这所学堂了,因为朋友们对他说,这种‘先进的’教育可以增加我赚钱的本领。这是我第一次离到家50里以外的地方去,那时我16岁。”

“I went to the school with my cousin and registered. I claimed  to be a Hsiang Hsiang man, beacuse I understood that the school was open only to natives of Hsiang Hsiang. Later on I took my true status as a Hsiang T'an native when I discovered that the place was open was open to all. I paid 1,400 coppers here for five months' board, lodging, and all materials necessary for study. My father finally agreed to let me enter, after friends had argued to him that this 'advanced' education would increase my earning powers. This was the first time I had been as far away from home as fifty li. I was sixteen years old.”

"在这所新学堂里,我能学到自然科学和西学的新学科。另外一件事值得一提,教员中有一个日本留学生,他戴着假辫子,很容易看出他的辫子是假的。大家都笑他,叫他‘假洋鬼子’。"

“In the new school I could study natural science and new subjects of Western learning. Another notable thing was that one of the teachers was a returned student from Japan, and he wore a false queue. It was quite easy to tell that his queue was false. Everyone laughed at him and called him the 'False Foreign Devil'.”

“我以前从没有见过这么多孩子聚在一起,他们大多数是地主子弟,穿衣讲究;很少农民供得起子弟上这样的学堂。我的穿着比别人都寒酸,我只有一套像样的短衫裤。学生是不穿大褂的,只有教员才穿,而洋服只有‘洋鬼子’才穿,我平常总是传一身破旧的衣衫,许多阔学生因此看不起我。可是在他们当中我也有朋友,特别有两个是我的好同志。其中一个现在是作家,住在苏联。(萧三)”

“I had never before seen so many children together. Most of them were sons of landlords, wearing expnesive clothes; very few peasants could afford to send their children to such a school. I was more poorly dressed than the others. I owned only one decent coat-and-trousers suit. Gowns were not worn by students, but only by the teachers, and none but 'foreign devils' wore foreign clothes. Many of the richer students despised me becasue usually I was wearing my ragged coat and trousers. However, among them I had friends, and two especially were my good comrades. One of those is now a writer, living in Soviet Russia.”

“人家不喜欢我也因为我不是湘乡人,在这个学堂,是不是湘乡本地人是非常重要的,而且还要看是湘乡哪一乡来的,湘乡有上、中、下三里,而上、下两里,纯粹出于地域观念而殴斗不休,彼此势不两立。我在这场斗争中采取中立的态度,因为我根本不是本地人,结果三派都看不起我。我精神上感到很压抑。”

“I was also dislike because I was not a native of Hsiang Hsiang. It was very important to be a native of Hsiang Hsiang and also important to be from a certain district of Hsiang Hsiang. There was an upper, lower, and middle district, and lower and upper were continually fighting, purely on a regional basis. Neither could become reconciled to the existence of the other. I took a neutral position in this war, because I was not a native at all. consequently all three factions despised me. I felt spiritually very depressed.”

“我在这个学堂里有了不少的进步,教员都喜欢我,尤其是那个教古文的教员,因为我写得一手好古文,但是我无心读古文,当时我正在读表兄送给我的两本书,讲的是康有为的变法运动,一本是《新民丛报》,是梁启超编的。这两本书我读了又读,直到可以背出来。我崇拜康有为和梁启超,也非常感谢我的表兄,当时我以为他是很进步的,但是后来他变成了反革命,变成了一个豪绅,在1925年1927年的大革命中参加了反动派。”

“I made good progress at this school. The teachers liked me, especially those who taught the Classics, beacuse I wrote good essays in the Classical manner. But my mind was not on the Classics. I was reading two books sent to me by my cousin, telling of the reform movement of K'ang Yu-Wei. One was by Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, editor of the Hsin-min Ts'ung-pao[New People's Miscellany]. I read and reread those books until I knew them by heart. I worshiped K'ang Yu-wei and Liang Ch'i-ch'ao, and was very grateful to my cousin, whom I then thought very progressive, but who later became a counterrevolutionary, a member of the gentry, and joined the reactionaries in the period of the Great Revolution of 1925——1927 ”

“许多学生因为假辫子而不喜欢那个‘假洋鬼子’,可是我喜欢听他谈日本的事情,他教音乐和英文,他教的歌中有一首叫做《黄海之战》的日本歌,我还记得里面的一些动人的歌词:

麻雀歌唱

夜莺跳舞

春天里绿色的田野多可爱

石榴花红

杨柳叶绿

展现一幅新图画

“Many of the students disliked  the False Foregin Devil becasue of his inhuman queue, but I liked hearing him talk about Japan. He taught music and English. One of his songs was Japanese and was called 'The Battle on the Yellow Sea' I still remember some charming words from it:

The sparrow sings

The nightgale dances

And the green fields are lovely in the spring

The willows are green-leaved

And there is a new picture

“这首歌是歌颂日本战胜俄国的,我当时从这首歌里了解到并且感觉到日本的美,也感觉到一些日本的骄傲和强大,我没有想到它还是一个野蛮的日本——我们今天所知道的日本”

“At that time I knew and felt the beauty of Janpan, and felt something of her pride and might, in this song of her victory over Russia, I did not think there was also a barbarous Japan——the Japan we know today.”

“我从假洋鬼子那里学到的就这些,我还记得在那个时候第一次听说光绪皇帝和慈禧太后都已经死去——虽然新皇帝宣统【傅仪】已经在朝两年了。那时我还不是一个反对帝制派,说实在的,我认为皇帝像大多数官吏一样都是诚实、善良和聪明的人。他们不过需要康有为帮助他们变法罢了,中国古代帝王尧舜禹、秦皇汉武的事迹使我向往,我读了许多关于他们的书,同时我也学了一些外国历史和地理,在一篇讲美国革命的文章里,我第一次听到美国这个国家,里面有这样一句话,‘华盛顿8年苦战最终获得胜利建立国家’,在一部叫做《世界英杰传》的书里,我也读到了拿破仑、俄国叶卡捷琳娜女皇、彼得大帝、惠灵顿、格莱斯顿、卢梭、孟德斯鸠和林肯。”

“This is all I learned from the False Foreign Devil. I recall also that at about this time I first heard that the Emperor and TzuHsi, the Empress Dowager, were both dead, although the new Emperor, Hsuan T'ung[P'u Yi], had already been ruling for two years. I was not yet an antimonarchist; indeed, I considered the Emperor as well as most officials to be honest,  good, and clever men. They only needed the help of K'ang Yu-wei's reforms. I was fascinated by accounts of the rulers of ancient China: Yao, Shun, Yu, Ch'in Shih Huang Ti, and Han WuTi, and read many books about them. I also learned something of foreign history at this time, and of geography. I had first heard of America in an article which told of the American Revolution and contained a sentence like this: 'After eight years of difficult war, Washington won victory and bulit up his nation. 'After eight years of difficult war, Washington won victory and built up his nation.' In a book called Great Heroes of the World, I read also of Napoleon, Catherine of Russia, Peter the Great, Wellington, Gladstone, Rousseau, Montesquieu, and Lincoln.”

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