我奶奶刚满十六岁时，就由她的父亲做主，嫁给了高密东北乡有名的财主单廷秀的独生子单扁郎。	ON HER SIXTEENTH birthday, my grandma was betrothed by her father to Shan Bianlang, the son of Shan Tingxiu, one of Northeast Gaomi Township's richest men.
单家开着烧酒锅，以廉价高粱为原料酿造优质白酒，方圆百里都有名。	As distillery owners, the Shans used cheap sorghum to produce a strong, high-quality white wine that was famous throughout the area.
东北乡地势低洼，往往秋水泛滥，高粱高秆防涝，被广泛种植，年年丰产。	Northeast Gaomi Township is largely swampy land that is flooded by autumn rains; but since the tall sorghum stalks resist waterlogging, it was planted everywhere and invariably produced a bumper crop.
单家利用廉价原料酿酒牟利，富甲一方。 我奶奶能嫁给单扁郎，是我外曾祖父的荣耀。	By using cheap grain to make wine, the Shan family made a very good living, and marrying my grandma off to them was a real feather in Great-Granddad's cap.
当时，多少人家都渴望着和单家攀亲，尽管风传着单扁郎早就染上了麻风病。	Many local families had dreamed of marrying into the Shan family, despite rumours that Shan Bianlang had leprosy.
单廷秀是个干干巴巴的小老头，脑后翘着一支枯干的小辫子。 他家里金钱满柜，却穿得破衣烂袄，腰里常常扎一条草绳。	His father was a wizened little man who sported a scrawny queue on the back of his head, and even though his cupboards overflowed with gold and silver, he wore tattered, dirty clothes, often using a length of rope as a belt.
奶奶嫁到单家，其实也是天意。 那天，我奶奶在秋千架旁与一些尖足长辫的大闺女耍笑游戏，那天是清明节，桃红柳绿，细雨霏霏，人面桃花，女儿解放。	Grandma's marriage into the Shan family was the will of heaven, implemented on a day when she and some of her playmates, with their tiny bound feet and long pigtails, were playing beside a set of swings. It was Qingming, the day set aside to attend ancestral graves; peach trees were in full red bloom, willows were green, a fine rain was falling, and the girls' faces looked like peach blossoms. It was a day of freedom for them.
奶奶那年身高一米六零，体重六十公斤，上穿碎花洋布褂子，下穿绿色缎裤，脚脖子上扎着深红色的绸带子。	That year Grandma was five feet four inches tall and weighed about 130 pounds. She was wearing a cotton print jacket over green satin trousers, with scarlet bands of silk tied around her ankles.
由于下小雨，奶奶穿了一双用桐油浸泡过十几遍的绣花油鞋，一走克郎克郎地响。	Since it was drizzling, she had put on a pair of embroidered slippers soaked a dozen times in tong oil, which made a squishing sound when she walked.
奶奶脑后垂着一根油光光的大辫子，脖子上挂着一个沉甸甸的银锁——我外曾祖父是个打造银器的小匠人。	Her long shiny braids shone, and a heavy silver necklace hung around her neck – Great-Granddad was a silversmith.
外曾祖母是个破落地主的女儿，知道小脚对于女人的重要意义。 奶奶不到六岁就开始缠脚，日日加紧。	Great-Grandma, the daughter of a landlord who had fallen on hard times, knew the importance of bound feet to a girl, and had begun binding her daughter's feet when she was six years old, tightening the bindings every day.
一根裹脚布，长一丈余，外曾祖母用它，勒断了奶奶的脚骨，把八个脚趾，折断在脚底，真惨！	A yard in length, the cloth bindings were wound around all but the big toes until the bones cracked and the toes turned under. The pain was excruciating.
我的母亲也是小脚，我每次看到她的脚，就心中难过，就恨不得高呼：打倒封建主义！	My mother also had bound feet, and just seeing them saddened me so much that I felt compelled to shout: 'Down with feudalism!
人脚自由万岁！	Long live liberated feet!'
奶奶受尽苦难，终于裹就一双三寸金莲。 十六岁那年，奶奶已经出落得丰满秀丽，走起路来双臂挥舞，身腰扭动，好似风中招飐的杨柳。	The results of Grandma's suffering were two three-inch golden lotuses, and by the age of sixteen she had grown into a well-developed beauty. When she walked, swinging her arms freely, her body swayed like a willow in the wind.
单廷秀那天挎着粪筐子到我外曾祖父村里转圈，从众多的花朵中，一眼看中了我奶奶。	Shan Tingxiu, the groom's father, was walking around Great-Granddad's village, dung basket in hand, when he spotted Grandma among the other local flowers.
三个月后，一乘花轿就把我奶奶抬走了。	Three months later, a bridal sedan chair would come to carry her away.
奶奶坐在憋闷的花轿里，头晕眼眩。 罩头的红布把她的双眼遮住，红布上散着一股强烈的霉馊味。	Grandma was lightheaded and dizzy inside the stuffy sedan chair, her view blocked by a red curtain that gave off a pungent mildewy odour.
她抬起手，掀起红布——外祖母曾千叮咛万嘱咐，不许她自己揭动罩头红布——一只沉甸甸的绞丝银镯子滑到小臂上，奶奶看着镯子上的蛇形花纹，心里纷乱如麻。	She reached out to lift it a crack – Great-Granddad had told her not to remove her red veil. A heavy bracelet of twisted silver slid down to her wrist, and as she looked at the coiled-snake design her thoughts grew chaotic and disoriented.
温暖的熏风吹拂着狭窄的土路两侧翠绿的高粱。	A warm wind rustled the emerald-green stalks of sorghum lining the narrow dirt path.
高粱地里传来鸽子咕咕咕咕的叫声。	Doves cooed in the fields.
刚秀出来的银灰色的高粱穗子飞扬着清淡的花粉。	The delicate powder of petals floated above silvery new ears of waving sorghum.
迎着她脸面的轿帘上，刺绣着龙凤图案，轿帘上的红布因轿子经年赁出，已经黯然失色，正中间油渍了一大片。	The curtain, embroidered on the inside with a dragon and a phoenix, had faded after years of use, and there was a large stain in the middle.
夏末秋初，阳光茂盛，轿夫们轻捷的运动使轿子颤颤悠悠，拴轿杆的生牛皮吱吱地响，轿帘轻轻掀动，把一缕缕的光明和比较清凉的风闪进轿里来。	Summer was giving way to autumn, and the sunlight outside the sedan chair was brilliant. The bouncing movements of the bearers rocked the chair slowly from side to side; the leather lining of their poles groaned and creaked, the curtain fluttered gently, letting in an occasional ray of sunlight and, from time to time, a whisper of cool air.
奶奶浑身流汗，心跳如鼓，听着轿夫们均匀的脚步声和粗重的喘息声，脑海里交替着出现卵石般的光滑寒冷和辣椒般的粗糙灼热。	Grandma was sweating profusely and her heart was racing as she listened to the rhythmic footsteps and heavy breathing of the bearers. The inside of her skull felt cold one minute, as though filled with shiny pebbles, and hot the next, as though filled with coarse peppers.
自从奶奶被单廷秀看中后，不知有多少人向外曾祖父和外曾祖母道过喜。	After Shan Tingxiu had spotted Grandma, a stream of people came to congratulate Great-Granddad and Great-Grandma.
奶奶虽然想过上马金下马银的好日子，但更盼着有一个识文解字、眉清目秀、知冷知热的好女婿。	Grandma pondered what it would be like to mount to the jingle of gold and dismount to the tinkle of silver, but what she truly longed for was a good husband, handsome and well educated, a man who would treat her gently.
奶奶在闺中刺绣嫁衣，绣出了我未来的爷爷的一幅幅精美的图画。	As a young maiden, she had embroidered a wedding trousseau and several exquisite pictures for the man who would someday become my granddad.
她曾经盼望着早日成婚，但从女伴的话语中隐隐约约听到单家公子是个麻风病患者，奶奶的心凉了，奶奶向她的父母诉说着心中的忧虑。 外曾祖父遮遮掩掩不回答，外曾祖母把奶奶的女伴们痛骂一顿，其意大概是说狐狸吃不到葡萄就说葡萄是酸的之类。	Eager to marry, she heard innuendos from her girlfriends that the Shan boy was afflicted with leprosy, and her dreams began to evaporate. Yet, when she shared her anxieties with her parents, Great-Granddad hemmed and hawed, while Great-Grandma scolded the girlfriends, accusing them of sour grapes.
外曾祖父后来又说单家公子饱读诗书，足不出户，白白净净，一表人材。	Later on, Great-Granddad told her that the well-educated Shan boy had the fair complexion of a young scholar from staying home all the time.
奶奶恍恍惚惚，不知真假，心想着天下没有狠心的爹娘，也许女伴真是瞎说。	Grandma was confused, not knowing if this was true or not. After all, she thought, her own parents wouldn't lie to her. Maybe her girlfriends had made it all up.
奶奶又开始盼望早日完婚。	Once again she looked forward to her wedding day.
奶奶丰腴的青春年华辐射着强烈的焦虑和淡淡的孤寂，她渴望着躺在一个伟岸的男子怀抱里缓解焦虑消除孤寂。	Grandma longed to lose her anxieties and loneliness in the arms of a strong and noble young man.
婚期终于到了，奶奶被装进了这乘四人大轿，大喇叭小唢呐在轿前轿后吹得凄凄惨惨，奶奶止不住泪流面颊。	Finally, to her relief, her wedding day arrived, and as she was placed inside the sedan chair, carried by four bearers, the horns and woodwinds fore and aft struck up a melancholy tune that brought tears to her eyes.
轿子起行，忽悠悠似腾云驾雾，偷懒的吹鼓手在出村不远处就停止了吹奏，轿夫们的脚下也快起来。	Off they went, floating along as though riding the clouds or sailing through a mist. Shortly after leaving the village, the lazy musicians stopped playing, while the bearers quickened their pace.
高粱的味道深入人心。	The aroma of sorghum burrowed into her heart.
高粱地里的奇鸟珍禽高鸣低啭。	Full-voiced strange and rare birds sang to her from the fields.
在一线一线阳光射进昏暗的轿内时，奶奶心中丈夫的形象也渐渐清晰起来。	A picture of what she imagined to be the bridegroom slowly took shape from the threads of sunlight filtering into the darkness of the sedan chair.
她的心像被针锥扎着，疼痛深刻有力。	Painful needle pricks jabbed her heart.
“老天爷，保佑我吧！”	'Old Man in heaven, protect me!'
奶奶心中的祷语把她的芳唇冲动。	Her silent prayer made her delicate lips tremble.
奶奶的唇上有一层纤弱的茸毛。 奶奶鲜嫩茂盛，水分充足。	A light down adorned her upper lip, and her fair skin was damp.
她出口的细语被厚重的轿壁和轿帘吸收得干干净净。	Every soft word she uttered was swallowed up by the rough walls of the carriage and the heavy curtain before her.
她一把撕下那块酸溜溜的罩头布，放在膝上。	She ripped the tart-smelling veil away from her face and laid it on her knees.
奶奶按着出嫁的传统，大热的天气，也穿着三表新的棉袄棉裤。	She was following local wedding customs, which dictated that a bride wear three layers of new clothes, top and bottom, no matter how hot the day.
花轿里破破烂烂，肮脏污浊。 它像具棺材，不知装过了多少个必定成为死尸的新娘。	The inside of the sedan chair was badly worn and terribly dirty, like a coffin; it had already embraced countless other brides, now long dead.
轿壁上衬里的黄缎子脏得流油，五只苍蝇有三只在奶奶头上嗡嗡地飞翔，有两只伏在轿帘上，用棒状的黑腿擦着明亮的眼睛。	The walls were festooned with yellow silk so filthy it oozed grease, and of the five flies caught inside, three buzzed above her head while the other two rested on the curtain before her, rubbing their bright eyes with black stick-like legs.
奶奶受闷不过，悄悄地伸出笋尖状的脚，把轿帘顶开一条缝。 偷偷地往外看。	Succumbing to the oppressiveness in the carriage, Grandma eased one of her bamboo-shoot toes under the curtain and lifted it a crack to sneak a look outside.
她看到轿夫们肥大的黑色衫绸裤里依稀可辨的、优美颀长的腿，和穿着双鼻梁麻鞋的肥大的脚。	She could make out the shapes of the bearers' statuesque legs poking out from under loose black satin trousers and their big, fleshy feet encased in straw sandals.
轿夫的脚踏起一股股噗噗作响的尘土。	They raised clouds of dust as they tramped along.
奶奶猜想着轿夫粗壮的上身，忍不住把脚尖上移，身体前倾。	Impatiently trying to conjure up an image of their firm, muscular chests, Grandma raised the toe of her shoe and leaned forward.
她看到了光滑的紫槐木轿杆和轿夫宽阔的肩膀。	She could see the polished purple scholar-tree poles and the bearers' broad shoulders beneath them.
道路两边，板块般的高粱坚固凝滞，连成一体，拥拥挤挤，彼此打量，灰绿色的高粱穗子睡眼未开，这一穗与那一穗根本无法区别，高粱永无尽头，仿佛潺潺流动的河流。	Barriers of sorghum stalks lining the path stood erect and solid in unbroken rows, tightly packed, together sizing one another up with the yet unopened clay-green eyes of grain ears, one indistinguishable from the next, as far as she could see, like a vast river.
道路有时十分狭窄，沾满蚜虫分泌物的高粱叶子擦得轿子两侧沙沙地响。	The path was so narrow in places it was barely passable, causing the wormy, sappy leaves to brush noisily against the sedan chair.
轿夫身上散发出汗酸味，奶奶有点痴迷地呼吸着这男人的气味，她老人家心中肯定漾起一圈圈春情波澜。	The men's bodies emitted the sour smell of sweat. Infatuated by the masculine odour, Grandma breathed in deeply – this ancestor of mine must have been nearly bursting with passion.
轿夫抬轿从街上走，迈的都是八字步，号称“踩街”，这一方面是为讨主家欢喜，多得些赏钱； 另一方面，是为了显示一种优雅的职业风度。	As the bearers carried their load down the path, their feet left a series of V imprints known as 'tramples' in the dirt, for which satisfied clients usually rewarded them, and which fortified the bearers' pride of profession.
踩街时，步履不齐的不是好汉，手扶轿杆的不是好汉，够格的轿夫都是双手卡腰，步调一致，轿子颠动的节奏要和上吹鼓手们吹出的凄美音乐，让所有的人都能体会到任何幸福后面都隐藏着等量的痛苦。	It was unseemly to 'trample' with an uneven cadence or to grip the poles, and the best bearers kept their hands on their hips the whole time, rocking the sedan chair in perfect rhythm with the musicians' haunting tunes, which reminded everyone within earshot of the hidden suffering in whatever pleasures lay ahead.
轿子走到平川旷野，轿夫们便撒了野，这一是为了赶路，二是要折腾一下新娘。	When the sedan chair reached the plains, the bearers began to get a little sloppy, both to make up time and to torment their passenger.
有的新娘，被轿子颠得大声呕吐，脏物吐满锦衣绣鞋；轿夫们在新娘的呕吐声中，获得一种发泄的快乐。	Some brides were bounced around so violently they vomited from motion sickness, soiling their clothing and slippers; the retching sounds from inside the carriage pleased the bearers as though they were giving vent to their own miseries.
这些年轻力壮的男子，为别人抬去洞房里的牺牲，心里一定不是滋味，所以他们要折腾新娘。	The sacrifices these strong young men made to carry their cargo into bridal chambers must have embittered them, which was why it seemed so natural to torment the brides.
那天抬着我奶奶的四个轿夫中，有一个成了我的爷爷——他就是余占鳌司令。	One of the four men bearing Grandma's sedan chair that day would eventually become my granddad – it was Commander Yu Zhan'ao.
那时候他二十郎当岁，是东北乡打棺抬轿这行当里的佼佼者	At the time he was a beefy twenty-year-old, a pallbearer and sedan bearer at the peak of his trade.
——我爷爷辈的好汉们，都有高密东北乡人高粱般鲜明的性格，非我们这些孱弱的后辈能比——	The young men of his generation were as sturdy as Northeast Gaomi sorghum, which is more than can be said about us weaklings who succeeded them.
当时的规矩，轿夫们在路上开新娘子的玩笑，如同烧酒锅上的伙计们喝烧酒，是天经地义的事，天王老子的新娘他们也敢折腾。	It was a custom back then for sedan bearers to tease the bride while trundling her along: like distillery workers, who drink the wine they make, since it is their due, these men torment all who ride in their sedan chairs – even the wife of the Lord of Heaven if she should be a passenger.
高粱叶子把轿子磨得嚓嚓响，高粱深处，突然传来一阵悠扬的哭声，打破了道路上的单调。 哭声与吹鼓手们吹出的曲调十分相似。	Sorghum leaves scraped the sedan chair mercilessly when, all of a sudden, the deadening monotony of the trip was broken by the plaintive sounds of weeping – remarkably like the musicians' tunes – coming from deep in the field.
奶奶想到乐曲，就想到那些凄凉的乐器一定在吹鼓手们手里提着。 奶奶用脚撑着轿帘能看到一个轿夫被汗水溻湿的腰，奶奶更多地是看到自己穿着大红绣花鞋的脚，它尖尖瘦瘦，带着凄艳的表情，从外面投进来的光明罩住了它们。 它们像两枚莲花瓣，它们更像两条小金鱼埋伏在澄清的水底。	As Grandma listened to the music, trying to picture the instruments in the musicians' hands, she raised the curtain with her foot until she could see the sweat-soaked waist of one of the bearers. Her gaze was caught by her own red embroidered slippers, with their tapered slimness and cheerless beauty, ringed by halos of incoming sunlight until they looked like lotus blossoms, or, even more, like tiny goldfish that had settled to the bottom of a bowl.
两滴高粱米粒般晶莹微红的细小泪珠跳出奶奶的睫毛，流过面颊，流到嘴角。	Two teardrops as transparently pink as immature grains of sorghum wetted Grandma's eyelashes and slipped down her cheeks to the corners of her mouth.
奶奶心里又悲又苦，往常描绘好的、与戏台上人物同等模样、峨冠博带、儒雅风流的丈夫形象在泪眼里先模糊后漶灭。 奶奶恐怖地看到单家扁郎那张开花绽彩的麻风病人脸，奶奶透心地冰冷。	As she was gripped by sadness, the image of a learned and refined husband, handsome in his high-topped hat and wide sash, like a player on the stage, blurred and finally vanished, replaced by the horrifying picture of Shan Bianlang's face, his leprous mouth covered with rotting tumours. Her heart turned to ice.
奶奶想这一双娇娇金莲，这一张桃腮杏脸，千般的温存，万种的风流，难道真要由一个麻风病人去消受？	Were these tapered golden lotuses, a face as fresh as peaches and apricots, gentility of a thousand kinds, and ten thousand varieties of elegance all reserved for the pleasure of a leper?
如其那样，还不如一死了之。	Better to die and be done with it.
高粱地里悠长的哭声里，夹杂着疙疙瘩瘩的字眼：	The disconsolate weeping in the sorghum field was dotted with words, like knots in a piece of wood:
青天哟——蓝天哟——花花绿绿的天哟——棒槌哟亲哥哟你死了——可就塌了妹妹的天哟——	A blue sky yo – a sapphire sky yo – a painted sky yo – a mighty cudgel yo – dear elder brother yo – death has claimed you – you have brought down little sister's sky yo –.
我不得不告诉您，我们高密东北乡女人哭丧跟唱歌一样优美。	I must tell you that the weeping of women from Northeast Gaomi Township makes beautiful music.
民国元年，曲阜县孔夫子家的“哭丧户”专程前来学习过哭腔。	During 1912, the first year of the Republic, professional mourners known as 'wailers' came from Qufu, the home of Confucius, to study local weeping techniques.
大喜的日子里碰上女人哭亡夫，奶奶感到这是不祥之兆，已经沉重的心情更加沉重。	Meeting up with a woman lamenting the death of her husband seemed to Grandma to be a stroke of bad luck on her wedding day, and she grew even more dejected.
这时，有一个轿夫开口说话：“轿上的小娘子，跟哥哥们说几句话呀！	Just then one of the bearers spoke up: 'You there, little bride in the chair, say something!
远远的路程，闷得慌。”	The long journey has bored us to tears.'
奶奶赶紧拿起红布，蒙到头上，顶着轿帘的脚尖也悄悄收回，轿里又是一团漆黑。	Grandma quickly snatched up her red veil and covered her face, gently drawing her foot back from beneath the curtain and returning the carriage to darkness.
“唱个曲儿给哥哥们听，哥哥抬着你哩！”	'Sing us a song while we bear you along!'
吹鼓手如梦方醒，在轿后猛地吹响了大喇叭，大喇叭说：	The musicians, as though snapping out of a trance, struck up their instruments. A trumpet blared from behind the chair:
“咚——咚——”	'Too-tah – too-tah –'
“猛捅——猛捅——”	'Poo-pah – poo-pah –'
轿前有人模仿着喇叭声说，前前后后响起一阵粗野的笑声。	One of the bearers up front imitated the trumpet sound, evoking coarse, raucous laughter all around.
奶奶身上汗水淋漓。	Grandma was drenched with sweat.
临上轿前，外曾祖母反复叮咛过她，在路上，千万不要跟轿夫们磨牙斗嘴。	Back home, as she was being lifted into the sedan chair, Great-Grandma had exhorted her not to get drawn into any banter with the bearers.
轿夫，吹鼓手，都是下九流，奸刁古怪，什么样的坏事都干得出来。	Sedan bearers and musicians are low-class rowdies capable of anything, no matter how depraved.
轿夫们用力把轿子抖起来，奶奶的屁股坐不安稳，双手抓住座板。	They began rocking the chair so violently that poor Grandma couldn't keep her seat without holding on tight.
“不吱声？	'No answer?
颠！	Okay, rock!
颠不出她的话就颠出她的尿！”	If we can't shake any words loose, we can at least shake the piss out of her!'
轿子已经像风浪中的小船了，奶奶死劲抓住座板，腹中翻腾着早晨吃下的两个鸡蛋，苍蝇在她耳畔嗡嗡地飞，她的喉咙紧张，蛋腥味冲到口腔，她咬住嘴唇。	The sedan chair was like a dinghy tossed about by the waves, and Grandma held on to the wooden seat for dear life. The two eggs she'd eaten for breakfast churned in her stomach, the flies buzzed around her ears; her throat tightened, as the taste of eggs surged up into her mouth. She bit her lip.
不能吐，不能吐！ 奶奶命令着自己，不能吐啊，凤莲，人家说吐在轿里是最大的不吉利，吐了轿子一辈子没好运……	Don't throw up, don't let yourself throw up! she commanded herself. You mustn't let yourself throw up, Fenglian. They say throwing up in the bridal chair means a lifetime of bad luck. . . .
轿夫们的话更加粗野了，他们有的骂我外曾祖父是个见钱眼开的小人，有的说鲜花插到牛粪上，有的说单扁郎是个流白脓淌黄水的麻风病人。	The bearers' banter turned coarse. One of them reviled my great-granddad for being a money-grabber, another said something about a pretty flower stuck into a pile of cowshit, a third called Shan Bianlang a scruffy leper who oozed pus and excreted yellow fluids.
他们说站在单家院子外，就能闻到一股烂肉臭味，单家的院子里，飞舞着成群结队的绿头苍蝇……	He said the stench of rotten flesh drifted beyond the Shan compound, which swarmed with horseflies. . . .
“小娘子，你可不能让单扁郎沾身啊，沾了身，你也烂啦！”	'Little bride, if you let Shan Bianlang touch you, your skin will rot away!'
大喇叭小唢呐呜呜咽咽地吹着，那股蛋腥味更加强烈，奶奶牙齿紧咬嘴唇，咽喉里像有只拳头在打击，她忍不住了，一张嘴，一股奔突的脏物蹿出来，涂在了轿帘上，五只苍蝇像子弹一样射到呕吐物上。	As the horns and woodwinds blared and tooted, the taste of eggs grew stronger, forcing Grandma to bite down hard on her lip. But to no avail. She opened her mouth and spewed a stream of filth, soiling the curtain, towards which the five flies dashed as though shot from a gun.
“吐啦吐啦，颠呀！” 轿夫们狂喊着，“颠呀，早晚颠得她开口说话。”	'Puke-ah, puke-ah. Keep rocking!' one of the bearers roared. 'Keep rocking. Sooner or later she'll have to say something.'
“大哥哥们…… 饶了我吧……”	'Elder brothers . . . spare me . . .'
奶奶在呃嗝中，痛不欲生地说着，说完了，便放声大哭起来。	Grandma pleaded desperately between agonising retches. Then she burst into tears.
奶奶觉得委屈，奶奶觉得前途险恶，终生难逃苦海。	She felt humiliated; she could sense the perils of her future, knowing she'd spend the rest of her life drowning in a sea of bitterness.
爹呀，娘呀，贪财的爹，狠心的娘，你们把我毁了。	Oh, Father, oh, Mother. I have been destroyed by a miserly father and a heartless mother!
奶奶放声大哭，高粱深径震动，轿夫们不再颠狂，推波助澜、兴风作浪的吹鼓手们也停嘴不吹。 只剩下奶奶的呜咽，又和进了一支悲泣的小唢呐，唢呐的哭泣声比所有的女人哭泣都优美。	Grandma's piteous wails made the sorghum quake. The bearers stopped rocking the chair and calmed the raging sea. The musicians lowered the instruments from their rousing lips, so that only Grandma's sobs could be heard, alone with the mournful strains of a single woodwind, whose weeping sounds were more enchanting than any woman's.
奶奶在唢呐声中停住哭，像聆听天籁一般，听着这似乎从天国传来的音乐。	Grandma stopped crying at the sound of the woodwind, as though commanded from on high.
奶奶粉面凋零，珠泪点点，从悲婉的曲调里，她听到了死的声音，嗅到了死的气息，看到了死神的高粱般深红的嘴唇和玉米般金黄的笑脸。	Her face, suddenly old and desiccated, was pearled with tears. She heard the sound of death in the gentle melancholy of the tune, and smelled its breath; she could see the angel of death, with lips as scarlet as sorghum and a smiling face the colour of golden corn.
轿夫们沉默无言，步履沉重。	The bearers fell silent and their footsteps grew heavy.
轿里牺牲的哽咽和轿后唢呐的伴奏，使他们心中萍翻桨乱，雨打魂幡。	The sacrificial choking sounds from inside the chair and the woodwind accompaniment had made them restless and uneasy, had set their souls adrift.
走在高粱小径上的，已不像迎亲的队伍，倒像送葬的仪仗。	No longer did it seem like a wedding procession as they negotiated the dirt road; it was more like a funeral procession.
在奶奶脚前的那个轿夫——我后来的爷爷余占鳌，他的心里，有一种不寻常的预感，像熊熊燃烧的火焰一样，把他未来的道路照亮了。	My grandfather, the bearer directly in front of Grandma's foot, felt a strange premonition blazing inside him and illuminating the path his life would take.
奶奶的哭声。 唤起他心底早就蕴藏着的怜爱之情。	The sounds of Grandma's weeping had awakened seeds of affection that had lain dormant deep in his heart.
轿夫们中途小憩，花轿落地。	It was time to rest, so the bearers lowered the sedan chair to the ground.
奶奶哭得昏昏沉沉，不觉得把一只小脚露到了轿外。 轿夫们看着这玲珑的、美丽无比的小脚，一时都忘魂落魄。	Grandma, having cried herself into a daze, didn't realise that one of her tiny feet was peeking out from beneath the curtain; the sight of that incomparably delicate, lovely thing nearly drove the souls out of the bearers' bodies.
余占鳌走过来，弯腰，轻轻地、轻轻地握住奶奶那只小脚，像握着一只羽毛未丰的鸟雏，轻轻地送回轿内。	Yu Zhan'ao walked up, leaned over, and gently – very gently – held Grandma's foot in his hand, as though it were a fledgling whose feathers weren't yet dry, then eased it back inside the carriage.
奶奶在轿内，被这温柔感动，她非常想撩开轿帘，看看这个生着一只温暖的年轻大手的轿夫是个什么样的人。	She was so moved by the gentleness of the deed she could barely keep from throwing back the curtain to see what sort of man this bearer was, with his large, warm, youthful hand.
我想，千里姻缘一线牵，一生的情缘，都是天凑地合，是毫无挑剔的真理。	I've always believed that marriages are made in heaven and that people fated to be together are connected by an invisible thread.
余占鳌就是因为握了一下我奶奶的脚唤醒了他心中伟大的创造新生活的灵感，从此彻底改变了他的一生，也彻底改变了我奶奶的一生。	The act of grasping Grandma's foot triggered a powerful drive in Yu Zhan'ao to forge a new life for himself, and constituted the turning point in his life – and the turning point in hers as well.
花轿又起行，喇叭吹出一个猿啼般的长音，便无声无息。	The sedan chair set out again as a trumpet blast rent the air, then drifted off into obscurity.
起风了，东北风，天上云朵麇集，遮住了阳光，轿子里更加昏暗。	The wind had risen – a northeaster – and clouds were gathering in the sky, blotting out the sun and throwing the carriage into darkness.
奶奶听到风吹高粱，哗哗哗啦啦啦，一浪赶着一浪，响到远方。	Grandma could hear the shh-shh of rustling sorghum, one wave close upon another, carrying the sound off into the distance.
奶奶听到东北方向有隆隆雷声响起。	Thunder rumbled off to the northeast.
轿夫们加快了步伐。	The bearers quickened their pace.
轿子离单家还有多远，奶奶不知道，她如同一只被绑的羔羊，愈近死期，心里愈平静。	She wondered how much farther it was to the Shan household; like a trussed lamb being led to slaughter, she grew calmer with each step.
奶奶胸口里，揣着一把锋利的剪刀，它可能是为单扁郎准备的，也可能是为自己准备的。	At home she had hidden a pair of scissors in her bodice, perhaps to use on Shan Bianlang, perhaps to use on herself.
奶奶的花轿行走到蛤蟆坑被劫的事，在我的家族的传说中占有一个显要的位置。	The holdup of Grandma's sedan chair by a highwayman at Toad Hollow occupies an important place in the saga of my family.
蛤蟆坑是大洼子里的大洼子，土壤尤其肥沃，水分尤其充足，高粱尤其茂密。	Toad Hollow is a large marshy stretch in the vast flatland where the soil is especially fertile, the water especially plentiful, and the sorghum especially dense.
奶奶的花轿行到这里，东北天空抖着一个血红的闪电，一道残缺的杏黄色阳光，从浓云中，嘶叫着射向道路。	A blood-red bolt of lightning streaked across the northeastern sky, and screaming fragments of apricot-yellow sunlight tore through the dense clouds above the dirt road, when Grandma's sedan chair reached that point.
轿夫们气喘吁吁，热汗涔涔。 走进蛤蟆坑，空气沉重，路边的高粱乌黑发亮，深不见底，路上的野草杂花几乎长死了路。	The panting bearers were drenched with sweat as they entered Toad Hollow, over which the air hung heavily. Sorghum plants lining the road shone like ebony, dense and impenetrable; weeds and wildflowers grew in such profusion they seemed to block the road.
有那么多的矢车菊，在杂草中高扬着细长的茎，开着紫、蓝、粉、白四色花。	Everywhere you looked, narrow stems of cornflowers were bosomed by clumps of rank weeds, their purple, blue, pink, and white flowers waving proudly.
高粱深处，蛤蟆的叫声忧伤，蝈蝈的唧唧凄凉，狐狸的哀鸣悠怅。	From deep in the sorghum came the melancholy croaks of toads, the dreary chirps of grasshoppers, and the plaintive howls of foxes.
奶奶在轿里，突然感到一阵寒冷袭来，皮肤上凸起一层细小的鸡皮疙瘩。	Grandma, still seated in the carriage, felt a sudden breath of cold air that raised tiny goosebumps on her skin.
奶奶还没明白过来是怎么一回事，就听到轿前有人高叫一声：	She didn't know what was happening, even when she heard the shout up ahead:
“留下买路钱！”	'Nobody passes without paying a toll!'
奶奶心里咯噔一声，不知忧喜，老天，碰上吃拤饼的了！	Grandma gasped. What was she feeling? Sadness? Joy? My God, she thought, it's a man who eats fistcakes!
高密东北乡土匪如毛，他们在高粱地里鱼儿般出没无常，结帮拉伙，拉骡绑票，坏事干尽，好事做绝。	Northeast Gaomi Township was aswarm with bandits who operated in the sorghum fields like fish in water, forming gangs to rob, pillage, and kidnap, yet balancing their evil deeds with charitable ones.
如果肚子饿了，就抓两个人，扣一个，放一个，让被放的人回村报信，送来多少张卷着鸡蛋大葱一把粗细的两拃多长的大饼。	If they were hungry, they snatched two people, keeping one and sending the other into the village to demand flatbreads with eggs and green onions rolled inside.
吃大饼时要用双手拤住往嘴里塞，故曰“拤饼”。	Since they stuffed the rolled flatbreads into their mouths with both fists, they were called 'fistcakes'.
“留下买路钱！” 那个吃拤饼的人大吼着。	'Nobody passes without paying a toll!' the man bellowed.
轿夫们停住，呆呆地看着劈腿横在路当中的劫路人。 那人身材不高，脸上涂着黑墨，头戴一顶高粱篾片编成的斗笠，身披一件大蓑衣，蓑衣敞着，露出密扣黑衣和拦腰扎着的宽腰带。 腰里别着一件用红绸布包起的鼓鼓囊囊的东西。	The bearers stopped in their tracks and stared dumbstruck at the highwayman of medium height who stood in the road, his legs akimbo. He had smeared his face black and was wearing a conical rain hat woven of sorghum stalks and a broad-shouldered rain cape open in front to reveal a black buttoned jacket and a wide leather belt, in which a protruding object was tucked, bundled in red satin.
那人用一只手按着那布包。	His hand rested on it.
奶奶在一转念间，感到什么事情也不可怕了，死都不怕，还怕什么？	The thought flashed through Grandma's mind that there was nothing to be afraid of: if death couldn't frighten her, nothing could.
她掀起轿帘，看着那个吃拤饼的人。	She raised the curtain to get a glimpse of the man who ate fistcakes.
那人又喊：“留下买路钱！ 要不我就崩了你们！”	'Hand over the toll, or I'll pop you all!'
他拍了拍腰里那件红布包裹着的家伙。	He patted the red bundle.
吹鼓手们从腰里摸出外曾祖父赏给他们的一串串铜钱，扔到那人脚前。	The musicians reached into their belts, took out the strings of copper coins Great-Granddad had given them, and tossed these at the man's feet.
轿夫放下轿子，也把新得的铜钱掏出，扔下。	The bearers lowered the sedan chair to the ground, took out their copper coins, and did the same.
那人把钱串子用脚踢拢成堆，眼睛死死地盯着坐在花轿里的我奶奶。	As he dragged the strings of coins into a pile with his foot, his eyes were fixed on Grandma.
“你们，都给我滚到轿子后边去，要不我就开枪啦！”	'Get behind the sedan chair, all of you. I'll pop if you don't!'
他用手拍拍腰里别着的家伙大声喊叫。	He thumped the object tucked into his belt.
轿夫们慢慢吞吞地走到轿后。	The bearers moved slowly behind the sedan chair.
余占鳌走在最后，他猛回转身，双目直逼吃拤饼的人。	Yu Zhan'ao, bringing up the rear, spun around and glared.
那人瞬间动容变色，手紧紧捂住腰里的红布包，尖叫着：“不许回头，再回头我就毙了你！”	A change came over the highwayman's face, and he gripped the object at his belt tightly. 'Eyes straight ahead if you want to keep breathing!'
劫路人按着腰中家伙，脚不离地蹭到轿子前伸手捏捏奶奶的脚。	With his hand resting on his belt, he shuffled up to the sedan chair, reached out, and pinched Grandma's foot.
奶奶粲然一笑，那人的手像烫了似的紧着缩回去。	A smile creased her face, and the man pulled his hand away as though it had been scalded.
“下轿，跟我走！” 他说。	'Climb down and come with me!' he ordered her.
奶奶端坐不动，脸上的笑容凝固了一样。	Grandma sat without moving, the smile frozen on her face.
“下轿！”	'Climb down, I said!'
奶奶欠起身，大大方方地跨过轿杆，站在烂漫的矢车菊里。	She rose from the seat, stepped grandly onto the pole, and alit in a tuft of cornflowers.
奶奶右眼看着吃拤饼的人，左眼看着轿夫和吹鼓手。	Her gaze travelled from the man to the bearers and musicians.
“往高粱地里走！” 劫路人按着腰里用红布包着的家伙说。	'Into the sorghum field!' the highwayman said, his hand still resting on the red-bundled object at his belt.
奶奶舒适地站着，云中的闪电带着铜音嗡嗡抖动，奶奶脸上粲然的笑容被分裂成无数断断续续的碎片。	Grandma stood confidently; lightning crackled in the clouds overhead and shattered her radiant smile into a million shifting shards.
劫路人催逼着奶奶往高粱地里走，他的手始终按着腰里的家伙。	The highwayman began pushing her into the sorghum field, his hand never leaving the object at his belt.
奶奶用亢奋的眼睛，看着余占鳌。	She stared at Yu Zhan'ao with a feverish look in her eyes.
余占鳌对着劫路人笔直地走过去，他薄薄的嘴唇绷成一条刚毅的直线，两个嘴角一个上翘，一个下垂。	Yu Zhan'ao approached the highwayman, his thin lips curled resolutely, up at one end and down at the other.
“站住！” 劫路人有气无力地喊着，“再走一步我就开枪！”	'Hold it right there!' the highwayman commanded feebly. 'I'll shoot if you take another step!'
他的手按在腰里用红布包裹着的家伙上。	
余占鳌平静地对着吃拤饼的人走，他前进一步，吃拤饼者就缩一点。	Yu Zhan'ao walked calmly up to the man, who began backing up.
吃拤饼的人眼里跳出绿火花，一行行雪白的清明汗珠从他脸上惊惶地流出来。	Green flames seemed to shoot from his eyes, and crystalline beads of sweat scurried down his terrified face.
当余占鳌离他三步远时，他惭愧地叫了一声，转身就跑。	When Yu Zhan'ao had drawn to within three paces of him, a shameful sound burst from his mouth, and he turned and ran.
余占鳌飞身上前，对准他的屁股，轻捷地踢了一脚。	Yu Zhan'ao was on his tail in a flash, kicking him expertly in the rear.
劫路人的身体贴着杂草梢头，蹭着矢车菊花朵，平行着飞出去，他的手脚在低空中像天真的婴孩一样抓挠着，最后落到高粱棵子里。	He sailed through the air over the cornflowers, thrashing his arms and legs like an innocent babe, until he landed in the sorghum field.
“爷们，饶命吧！	'Spare me, gentlemen!
小人家中有八十岁的老母，不得已才吃这碗饭。”	I've got an eighty-year-old mother at home, and this is the only way I can make a living.'
劫路人在余占鳌手下熟练地叫着。 余占鳌抓着他的后颈皮，把他提到轿子前，用力摔在路上，对准他吵嚷不休的嘴巴踢了一脚。	The highwayman skilfully pleaded his case to Yu Zhan'ao, who grabbed him by the scruff of the neck, dragged him back to the sedan chair, threw him roughly to the ground, and kicked him in his noisy mouth.
劫路人一声惨叫，半截吐出口外，半截咽到肚里，血从他鼻子里流出来。	The man shrieked in pain; blood trickled from his nose.
余占鳌弯腰，把劫路人腰里那家伙拔出来，抖掉红布，露出一个弯弯曲曲的小树疙瘩，众人嗟叹不止。	Yu Zhan'ao reached down, took the thing from the man's belt, and shook off the red cloth covering, to reveal the gnarled knot of a tree. The men all gasped in amazement.
那人跪在地上，连连磕头求饶。	The bandit crawled to his knees, knocking his head on the ground and pleading for his life.
余占鳌说：“劫路的都说家里有八十岁的老母。” 他退到一边，看着轿夫和吹鼓手，像狗群里的领袖看着群狗。	'Every highwayman says he's got an eighty-year-old mother at home,' Yu Zhan'ao said as he stepped aside and glanced at his comrades, like the leader of a pack sizing up the other dogs.
轿夫吹鼓手们发声喊，一拥而上，围成一个圆圈，对准劫路人，花拳绣腿齐施展。	With a flurry of shouts, the bearers and musicians fell upon the highwayman, fists and feet flying.
起初还能听到劫路人尖利的哭叫声，一会儿就听不见了。	The initial onslaught was met by screams and shrill cries, which soon died out.
奶奶站在路边，听着七零八落的打击肉体的沉闷声响，对着余占鳌顿眸一瞥，然后仰面看着天边的闪电，脸上凝固着的，仍然是那种粲然的、黄金一般高贵辉煌的笑容。	Grandma stood beside the road listening to the dull cacophony of fists and feet on flesh; she glanced at Yu Zhan'ao, then looked up at the lightning-streaked sky, the radiant, golden, noble smile still frozen on her face.
一个吹鼓手挥动起大喇叭，在劫路者的当头心儿里猛劈了一下，喇叭的圆刃劈进颅骨里去，费了好大劲才拔出。	One of the musicians raised his trumpet and brought it down hard on the highwayman's skull, burying the curved edge so deeply he had to strain to free it.
劫路人肚子里咕噜一声响，痉挛的身体舒展开来，软软地躺在地上。 一线红白相间的液体，从那道深刻的裂缝里慢慢地挤出来。	The highwayman's stomach gurgled and his body, racked by spasms, grew deathly still; he lay spread-eagled on the ground, a mixture of white and yellow liquid seeping slowly out of the fissure in his skull.
“死了？” 吹鼓手提着打瘪了的喇叭说。	'Is he dead?' asked the musician, who was examining the bent mouth of his trumpet.
“打死了，这东西，这么不禁打！”	'He's gone, the poor bastard. He didn't put up much of a fight!'
轿夫吹鼓手们俱神色惨淡，显得惶惶不安。	The gloomy faces of the bearers and musicians revealed their anxieties.
余占鳌看看死人，又看看活人，一语不发。	Yu Zhan'ao looked wordlessly first at the dead, then at the living.
他从高粱上撕下一把叶子，把轿子里奶奶呕吐出的脏物擦掉，又举起那块树疙瘩看看，把红布往树疙瘩上缠几下，用力摔出，飞行中树疙瘩抢先，红包布落后，像一只赤红的大蝶，落到绿高粱上。	With a handful of leaves from a sorghum stalk, he cleaned up Grandma's mess in the carriage, then held up the tree knot, wrapped it in the piece of red cloth, and tossed the bundle as far as he could; the gnarled knot broke free in flight and separated from the piece of cloth, which fluttered to the ground in the field like a big red butterfly.
余占鳌把奶奶扶上轿说：“上来雨了，快赶！”	Yu Zhan'ao lifted Grandma into the sedan chair. 'It's starting to rain,' he said, 'so let's get going.'
奶奶撕下轿帘，塞到轿子角落里，她呼吸着自由的空气，看着余占鳌的宽肩细腰。	Grandma ripped the curtain from the front of the carriage and stuffed it behind the seat. As she breathed the free air she studied Yu Zhan'ao's broad shoulders and narrow waist.
他离着轿子那么近，奶奶只要一翘脚，就能踢到他青白色的结实头皮。	He was so near she could have touched the pale, taut skin of his shaved head with her toe.
风利飕有力，高粱前推后拥，一波一波地动，路一侧的高粱把头伸到路当中，向着我奶奶弯腰致敬。	The winds were picking up, bending the sorghum stalks in ever deeper waves, those on the roadside stretching out to bow their respects to Grandma.
轿夫们飞马流星，轿子出奇的平稳，像浪尖上飞快滑动的小船。	The bearers streaked down the road, yet the sedan chair was as steady as a skiff skimming across whitecaps.
蛙类们兴奋地鸣叫着，迎接着即将来临的盛夏的暴雨。	Frogs and toads croaked in loud welcome to the oncoming summer rainstorm.
低垂的天幕，阴沉地注视着银灰色的高粱脸庞，一道压一道的血红闪电在高粱头上裂开，雷声强大，震动耳膜。	The low curtain of heaven stared darkly at the silvery faces of sorghum, over which streaks of blood-red lightning crackled, releasing ear-splitting explosions of thunder.
奶奶心中亢奋，无畏地注视着黑色的风掀起的绿色的浪潮，云声像推磨一样旋转着过来，风向变幻不定，高粱四面摇摆，田野凌乱不堪。	With growing excitement, Grandma stared fearlessly at the green waves raised by the black winds.
最先一批凶狠的雨点打得高粱颤抖，打得野草觳觫，打得道上的细土凝聚成团后又立即迸裂，打得轿顶啪啪响。 雨点打在奶奶的绣花鞋上，打在余占鳌的头上，斜射到奶奶的脸上。	The first truculent raindrops made the plants shudder. The rain beat a loud tattoo on the sedan chair and fell on Grandma's embroidered slippers; it fell on Yu Zhan'ao's head, then slanted in on Grandma's face.
余占鳌他们像兔子一样疾跑，还是未能躲过这场午前的雷阵雨。	The bearers ran like scared jackrabbits, but couldn't escape the prenoon deluge.
雨打倒了无数的高粱，雨在田野里狂欢，蛤蟆躲在高粱根下，哈达哈达地抖着颌下雪白的皮肤； 狐狸蹲在幽暗的洞里，看着从高粱上飞溅而下的细小水珠，道路很快就泥泞不堪，杂草伏地，矢车菊清醒地擎着湿漉漉的头。	Sorghum crumpled under the wild rain. Toads took refuge under the stalks, their white pouches popping in and out noisily; foxes hid in their darkened dens to watch tiny drops of water splashing down from the sorghum plants.
轿夫们肥大的黑裤子紧贴在肉上，人们都变得苗条流畅。	
余占鳌的头皮被冲刷得光洁明媚，像奶奶眼中的一颗圆月。	The rainwater washed Yu Zhan'ao's head so clean and shiny it looked to Grandma like a new moon.
雨水把奶奶的衣服也打湿了，她本来可以挂上轿帘遮挡雨水，她没有挂，她不想挂，奶奶通过敞亮的轿门，看到了纷乱不安的宏大世界。	Her clothes, too, were soaked. She could have covered herself with the curtain, but she didn't; she didn't want to, for the open front of the sedan chair afforded her a glimpse of the outside world in all its turbulence and beauty.