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3 河之歌
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沿着河流一路都可以听到这歌声。这是桨手的歌声，响亮有力。他们奋力地划着木船，顺急流而下，船尾翘得老高，桅杆猛烈地摆动。这是纤夫的号子声，他们在拼尽全力逆流拉船时，声音会更加急促，让人透不过气来。如果拉的是乌篷船，那可能有十几个人；如果拉的是扬着横帆的华丽大木船过急流，那就得有几百人。船中央站着一个汉子不停地击鼓，给他们助威，让他们使劲。于是纤夫们使出浑身气力，就像被魔咒驱使般，腰弯成了九十度。有时在极度费力的情况下，他们就全身趴地匍匐前进，像地里的牲口。顶着河水无情的阻力，他们拉呀，拉呀，拼命地拉。领头的在队伍前后来回奔走，看到有人没有拼尽全力，就用劈开的竹条抽打他们裸露的脊梁。每个人都必须全力以赴，否则所有的努力就白费了。就这样他们还唱着激昂又热切的号子，这是汹涌澎湃的河水的号子。我不知道如何用言语来描述这股劲儿，这里面带着心脏的拉扯，肌肉的撕裂，还有人们克服无情大自然时所表现出的不屈不挠的精神。虽然绳子可能断开，大船可能又会被荡回，但他们最终能涉过湍流，在疲惫的一天结束后，热闹地吃上一顿饱饭，也许还可以抽一枪鸦片，舒服地幻想一番。然而最令人揪心的是岸上的苦力唱的歌，他们得背着从船上卸下的大包，沿着陡峭的台阶，一直走到城墙那里。他们不停地上上下下，伴随着无尽的劳役响起有节奏的呐喊：嘿，哟——嗨，哟。他们赤着脚，光着膀子，汗水顺着脸颊直流。歌声里渗透着痛苦的呻吟。这是一种绝望的叹息，撕心裂肺，惨绝人寰。这是灵魂在极度痛苦中的呐喊，只不过带着音乐的节奏罢了。那最后的音符是对人性的终极哭诉。生活太难，太残酷，这是最后的绝望的反抗。那就是河之歌。
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（罗选民 译）
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4 BIRTH OF A SISTER
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By Tan Shih-hua
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BIRTH OF A SISTER, from A Chinese Testament , purporting to be the autobiography of Tan Shih-hua, as told to Sergiei Mikhailovich Tretiakov, New York, Simon and Shuster, 1934, Chapter XI.
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Tan Shih-hua （Teng Hsi-hua） was a student under Sergiei Tretiakov, a teacher of the Russian language in Peiping and known also for his Roar China , a dramatic episode in nine scenes.
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My uncle’s school moved to another temple—a little larger than the old one, but further away from our house. To prevent me from getting too tired, walking to and from the school, he took me to live with him, and sent me home every Saturday. He adopted the European method of holidays. In his school, just as in the public schools, we had one day a week for rest. In private schools the pupils had to sit over their books from one Chinese holiday to another, and holidays in China are as rare as springs in a desert.
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One week day I was called out from the class. Our maid was waiting for me. I gathered that something must be wrong with my mother. We had a maid in the house only on days when mother was unable to work. I walked home in a great hurry. On the way the maid told me news which I had not expected at all.
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“Your mother has borne you a sister.”
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I was glad; I had always been so lonely at home.
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The maid turned me over to my grandmother. Craftily and solemnly the old woman led me into mother’s room. My mother was lying silent on her bed. She was pale and thin. Her arms were stretched out on the cover. A funny little bit of a bed stood next to hers. Something wrapped in white and made entirely of little balls and wrinkles was in it.
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“A little girl,” said my grandmother.
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I wanted to touch my little sister, but my grandmother would not let me. Having failed in this, I decided to go immediately to a store and get her some sweets. My grandmother sat down on my mother’s bed and released her high, thin laughter. She would stop, look at me, then laugh again. I paid dearly for those sweets. My grandmother loved to tease me.
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I said to her, “It is nice to have a girl.”
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“No, it is very bad,” she said. “Here in Szechwan, we have to give a dowry with the bride. It is just an expense. It would be different if we were living in Kiangsu—there people pay the bride’s family.”
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I did not agree with my grandmother. But she did not care. She was laughing again, probably remembering those sweets.
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Careful not to spill it, the maid brought my mother a bowl of boiled chicken. Every woman in China gets boiled chicken for a few days after her labor. Chicken is good. I looked longingly at the bowl. Mother put me next to her on the bed, and we ate the chicken together.
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Taking away the empty bowl, my grandmother looked at me, and said seriously and in a businesslike manner, “Really, Shih-hua, it would not be bad if your mother bore you a sister or a brother every year; then you would eat chicken quite often.”
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A month later, our house was buzzing with relatives. Such a lot of them. My mother was walking about, sweet and affable, but still white and thin, although she had not worked all that month. She entered the sitting room with my little sister in her arms, and all the relatives, one after another, came up to her and touched the little big-eyed girl, whose small stomach was covered with a red flannel apron—a protection against the cold. The relatives argued about whose nose the little girl was going to have, whose eyes, whose mouth. They wished her good fortune.
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“May she grow up to be as intelligent as her mother.”
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“May she become a good hostess.”
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“May she be the most beautiful bride in Hsien-Shih.”
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“She will be a famous authoress.”
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