一九一一年秋，我们从山东烟台回到福州老家去。在还乡的路上，母亲和父亲一再地嘱咐我，“回到福州住在大家庭里，不能再像野孩子似的了，一切都要小心。对长辈们不能没大没小的。祖父是一家之主，尤其要尊敬……”
In the autumn of 1911, we returned from Yantai of Shandong Province
to our native land Fuzhou. While on the way , my parents
warned me again and again, "Since
we'll be living in a big family in Fuzhou, remember always to
behave properly and
never act like a
naughty child. Show respect for your
elders, particularly your grandpa, who
is the head of the family..."
到了福州，在大家庭里住了下来，我觉得我在归途中的担心是多余的。祖父、伯父母、叔父母和堂姐妹兄弟，都没有把我当做野孩子，大家也都很亲昵平等，并没有什么“规矩”。我还觉得我们这个大家庭是几个小家庭的很松散的组合。每个小家庭都是各住各的，各吃各的，各自有自己的亲戚和朋友，比如说，我们就各自有自己的“外婆家”！
After settling down
in the big family in Fuzhou, however, I found that my previous worries on the way turned out to be unfounded. My grandpa, uncles, aunties and cousins
never thought me a naughty child. We treated each other
lovingly and equally. There never
existed anything like "family rules of good behaviour". I also
found that the big family was a loose community of several smaller ones, which lived and
ate separately. They each had their own relatives and friends, for
example, their own in-laws.
就在这一年，也许是第二年吧，福州有了电灯公司。我们这所大房子里也安上电灯，这在福州也是一件新鲜事，我们这班孩子跟着安装的工人们满房子跑，非常地兴奋欢喜！我记得这电灯是从房顶上吊下来的，每间屋子都有一盏，厅堂上和客室里的是五十支光，卧房里的光小一些，厨房里的就更小了。我们这所大房子里至少也有五六十盏灯，第一夜亮起来时，真是灯火辉煌，我们孩子们都拍手欢呼！
That year, or the year after, Fuzhou began to have its own
power company and
electric lights were to be installed
in our big house too. That was something new in our home town. We
kids, wild with
excitement and joy, ran
here and there in the house at the heels of the
electricians. Each room, I remember, had an electric lamp hanging
from the ceiling. The drawing room had a
50-watt bulb; the bedrooms each a
lower-wattage one; the kitchens each an even-lower-wattage one. The
whole big house at least had a total of some 60 electric lamps. The
first evening when they were turned on, the whole house was
suddenly ablaze with lights. We kids
clapped with joy.
但是总电门是安在祖父的屋里的。祖父起得很早也睡得很早，每晚九点钟就上床了。他上床之前，就把电闸关上，于是整个大家庭就是黑沉沉的一片！
The master switch
was fixed in grandpa's room. Grandpa,
who kept early
hours, would switch
off all the lights when he went to bed at 9 o'clock in the
evening, thus plunging the whole big house
into deep
darkness.
我们刚回老家。父母亲和他们的兄弟妯娌都有许多别情要叙，我们一班弟兄姐妹，也在一起玩得正起劲，都很少在晚九点以前睡的。为了防备这骤然的黑暗，于是每晚在九点以前，每个小家庭都在一两间屋里，点上一盏捻得很暗的煤油灯。一到九点，电灯一下子都灭了，这几盏煤油灯便都捻亮了，大家相视一笑，又都在灯下谈笑玩耍。
Having just set foot
in our old home, we seldom slept before 9 o'clock in the
evening. For it was
but natural that after the long separation, my parents
enjoyed hearty chats about the old
days with their brothers and in-laws,
and we kids of the younger generation played about together
to our heart's
content. Hence, in
anticipation of the sudden blackout at 9 o'clock, each small
family would get a dimly-lit kerosene
lamp ready in a couple of their rooms. No sooner had the big house been
blacked out on the hour than we turned up the wicks of
all the kerosene lamps. And, looking and smiling at each other, we
would continue to chat and play merrily by the light of the kerosene
lamps.
只有在这个时候，我才体会到我们这个大家庭是一个整体，而祖父是一家之主！
It was then that I realized what a complete whole our big family was, with grandpa as its
head.
加载中，请稍候......
喜欢
加载中…