倍可親

吾家有女系列:上海的故事

作者:白露為霜  於 2011-6-25 21:54 發表於 最熱鬧的華人社交網路--貝殼村

作者分類:童言無忌|通用分類:留學生活|已有16評論

關鍵詞:上海, 童年

白露為霜註:這是大女兒在中學時寫的一篇命題作文(原文是英文)。要求是寫小時候的一個嚇人的故事(Scary Story)。有點象國內孩子常寫的記童年的一件事。但除此之外在內容或寫法都是沒有可比性的。

 

上海的故事

他們居然要在上海的街道上禁止自行車。

這樣的事在十年以前是不可想象的。那時到處是窄窄的弄堂,汽車也比現在少的多。馬邊上橫七豎八的堆滿了自行車,每棟樓的進口都被自行車的車油滴的象張布滿老人斑的臉。上百萬輛自行車編製成上海的交通網。

但現在這些都顯的太第三世界了。上海市正立法禁止自行車在市中心的主要馬路上通行。好為那些西方國家的政界商界的大牌首腦們讓路。諷刺意謂的是那些國家環保運動風起雲湧,自行車的使用正都越來越流行。

就象中國的許多政策一樣,這道法令幾乎自己把自己給絆倒了。但對我來說這不僅僅是個全球暖化問題也不僅僅是一個政治嘲諷。這己乎是針對我個人的。因為在我很小的時候我在上海住過一年半。那時的我是一個帶著輪子的地獄」 (hell on wheels)

外公給我買第一輛自行車是軍綠色的。我騎著它在十樓的客廳里轉來轉去,這讓九樓的住戶分外惱火。那時外公的家很小,再分成更小間的廚房,卧室,儲存室。我剛爬上自行車,手放在車把上,那堵白牆就像座冰川樣壓下來。我被迫停下,掉轉頭再來。你可以看出這不是學騎自行車的好方法。外公答應周末帶我到公園去騎。但每天的工作應酬以及沒完沒了的打掃衛生之後,學車的事情就忘記了。

一個早晨外公擦凈他的皮鞋,調整好他的領帶,上班去了。外婆則去菜場買菜,留下我和阿姨在家裡。我把自行車推了出來。我騎過正在陽台上專心拖地的胡阿姨,她腿上手術后留下的長疤總是很嚇人;我騎過坐在小凳上打盹的電梯管理員;我騎過無人把守的院門,沒遇上任何阻攔就騎到馬路上。終於自由了!我太高興了。事實上我覺的象隔壁鄰居的那個八歲女孩一樣長大了,她總是因為我小就對我不肖一顧。要是她知道我現在長成什麼樣非氣死不可。

如果不是出了件事,這次遠足是再成功不過的了:我在騎了大約20分鐘之後突然發現我搞不清到底在哪裡了。我對上海的認識僅限於從家裡到託兒所那條路,路邊有賣硬糖和蝦片的小店。而這條馬路邊則沒有硬糖或者蝦片,有的卻是穿著髒兮兮的汗衫的老頭們,他們抽著便宜的香煙,在馬路邊蕩來蕩去。

前一個晚上,外婆剛給我講過一個有關不聽話的孩子的故事:穿著汗衫的老頭把他拐走了,然後賣到鄉下農民家去。在那裡除山芋之外啥也沒有的吃。我最不愛吃的就是山芋了!為了逃避這個悲慘的命運,我丟下了漂亮的新自行車,向相反的方向逃去。

路邊都是些合法性成問題的小店。我在每家店門前都停下,猶豫再三。最後,在恐懼和尷尬之中,我決定去找那個在馬路中間的交通警。一支手插在腰上,另一支手象箭一樣的伸出指揮交通,他看上去是正義和道德的象徵。我想,這是一個可以信任的人。但當警察看到我的時候,我卻心虛的把視線避開了。

那警察很快就對他的神秘的愛慕者失去了耐心。

小孩,你爸媽在那裡?他問到。(當然講的是上海話)

我的聲音在到達舌頭之前就被卡住了。

你是聾子嗎?他看上去有點不耐煩了。

雖然我一聲不響,我心說這真是一個很傻的問題。如果我真是個聾子又怎麼能回答他的問話,那他不是白問了嗎?他彎下腰到我的高度,拉著我的手,走到路對面的交通亭。

當我慢慢緩過勁說出家裡的電話號碼的時候,胡阿姨正在翻箱倒櫃滿世界的找我。她在電話那頭的怒氣和咒詛我都沒怎麼聽清,因為腦子在想著那輛剛剛得到沒幾天的心愛的自行車。我從警察叔叔那裡把手抽出來,回過頭向馬路對面看去:那自行車不見了!

上海將它一口吞了下去。

 

 

Bicycle Ban in Shanghai

 

They』re banning bikes in Shanghai.

 Ten years ago that wouldn』t have been possible. Narrow alleyways abounded and large automobiles were scarce. Bicycles oil dotted concrete entryways like liver spots; their frames were skeletal piles on the sides of streets. Hundreds of thousands of them wove the fabric of the city』s transportation.

 But now apparently they』re too third world. Bicycles have been banned from Shanghai』s major roads by sweeping legislation in anticipation of big-shot leaders from western nations where save-the-earth movements and bicycles have actually been on the up trend.

As with many government initiatives in China, this one almost trips over itself. But for me, it』s more than global climate change, and certainly more than political satire. It』s practically personal. I spent a year and a half of my early childhood in Shanghai. And I was hell on wheels.

 My grandfather bought me my first army green bicycle, on which I careened around the miniscule living room of our 10th floor apartment, much to the annoyance of the inhabitants of the 9th floor. Our apartment was small, and divided into several even smaller cubicle kitchenettes, bedrooms, and closets. I could barely climb atop the bicycle and place my hands on the handlebars before the whitewashed walls loomed like glaciers before me. I was forced to retreat, reverse the vehicle, and try again. Naturally, it was not a satisfying way to learn. My grandfather promised to take me to the park on the weekends, but somehow between business lunches and incessant cleaning sprees, these bike-riding lessons were forgotten.

One morning after my grandfather spiffed up his shoes and tweaked his tie, and had left for work, after my grandmother had gone to the market, leaving me behind with the housekeeper, I simply rolled out the bicycle. I padded past the inattentive Ms. Hu busy mopping the balcony, whose foot long scar from surgery had always scared me, past the elevator operator on her laminated footstool. I rolled the bicycle onto the street with no obstructions, and pedaled away. Finally! What freedom! What joy! Indeed, I felt as grown up as the eight year old girl across the hallway who had always sneered at my juvenility. If only she could see me now!

All this would have been good and well except for one thing – about twenty minutes into my random pedaling, I discovered that I could no longer recognize my surroundings. My sense of direction in Shanghai was restricted to the customary pathway to and from nursery school, along the roads with stands that sold rock candy and shrimp chips. But this roadway had no rock candy or shrimp chips, only old men in soiled wifebeaters who loafed around smoking cheap cigarettes.

The last night, my grandmother had told me a cautionary tale about disobedient children abducted by old men in wifebeaters. These children were sold to families in barren countryside, where they had nothing to eat except yams. I hated yams. So in my desperation to escape this tortured fate I abandoned my beautiful new bicycle on the sidewalk, running off in the opposite direction.

The street was lined with mom-and-pop shops of dubious legality; I hesitated at the door of each one. Eventually, torn between panic and embarrassment, I approached the policeman at the intersection. One arm on a belted hip, the other outstretched like a shooting arrow, directing traffic, he seemed like the very epitome of moral uprightness. Here, I thought, was someone I could trust. But when the officer caught my eye, I turned around and fled.

The policeman soon grew tired of his intermittent secret admirer.

「Kid, where』s your parents?」 he asked (in Chinese, of course).

My voice choked before it even reached my tongue.

「You deaf?」 he was starting to look annoyed. Even in my muteness, I thought that was a stupid question. If I was deaf, he didn』t actually expect an answer, did he? He squatted down to my level, grabbed me by the hand, and strolled over to the cubicle station.

By the time I had recovered my wits enough to stutter out the phone number, Ms. Hu was tearing the house apart looking for me. But her admonishments and curses barely registered as faint scratches on the telephone line. My mind was on the bicycle I had only been able to love for such a short time. For when I slipped my hand out of the policeman』s and looked back at the curb, the bicycle was gone.

Shanghai had simply swallowed it up.   

 


高興
2

感動

同情

搞笑

難過

拍磚

支持
11

鮮花

剛表態過的朋友 (13 人)

發表評論 評論 (16 個評論)

回復 BL_518 2011-6-25 22:10
帶有諷刺意義的作文,小女的文筆了的,思考深刻啊~~~~
回復 白露為霜 2011-6-25 22:26
BL_518: 帶有諷刺意義的作文,小女的文筆了的,思考深刻啊~~~~
笑笑就好。
回復 fanlaifuqu 2011-6-25 22:38
IQ 很高!
回復 方方頭 2011-6-26 03:00
太喜歡這篇了!有生活有心情有描寫有調侃……女兒真棒!
回復 白露為霜 2011-6-26 03:05
老大想象力豐富,不是每句都是真的。
回復 tea2011 2011-6-26 05:22
喜歡!
回復 BL_518 2011-6-26 13:25
白露為霜: 笑笑就好。
好就是好,為她高興的笑~~~~
回復 Giada 2011-6-26 13:34
這個寫法是英文式的,很有趣。誰把它翻譯成中文的?
回復 白露為霜 2011-6-26 22:09
自然是老媽翻的。
她的那點中文,讀還可以,寫是一點都不行。
回復 ryu 2011-6-28 07:55
讀完了中文版
萌生了閱讀「原版」的慾望
回復 白露為霜 2011-6-28 08:49
ryu: 讀完了中文版
萌生了閱讀「原版」的慾望
sure. i added the original.
回復 ryu 2011-6-28 12:41
白露為霜: sure. i added the original.
謝謝你,白露
真高興看到原文,真厲害,小千金,
也謝謝你的好友邀請,栄幸。
回復 彩舟雲淡 2011-7-16 06:53
真有趣,孩子的天性
回復 有禾信望 2011-7-16 14:02
送花!
回復 白露為霜 2011-7-22 21:40
有禾信望: 送花!
謝謝
回復 越吃越蒙山人 2014-1-23 12:07
Amazing! I quote my daughter here:
Absolutely astonishing. The words flow so smoothly into each other i feel like i'm reading a piece from a professional writer.
By the way, how old was she when she wrote this?

facelist doodle 塗鴉板

您需要登錄后才可以評論 登錄 | 註冊

關於本站 | 隱私權政策 | 免責條款 | 版權聲明 | 聯絡我們

Copyright © 2001-2013 海外華人中文門戶:倍可親 (http://big5.backchina.com) All Rights Reserved.

程序系統基於 Discuz! X3.1 商業版 優化 Discuz! © 2001-2013 Comsenz Inc.

本站時間採用京港台時間 GMT+8, 2024-3-29 02:57

返回頂部