双语 ● 如水一般的爱　Such Is Love, Plain Like Water

■ 如水一般的爱　Such Is Love, Plain Like Water

◎ Jason

Every once in a while I will dial the familiar number.

每隔一段时间，我都要拨打一个熟悉的电话号码。

It is usually he that picks up the phone. She will come up to him asking who the caller is. Knowing it’s me, she will grab the phone, say a few greeting words, and then start talking bad of him, complaints flooding out, all about chores and minor superficial details.

每次总是他接起电话。然后她问他，这是谁打来的。知道是我的电话时，她抢过电话，说几句简单的问候，然后就开始抱怨他的坏处。接着就开始投诉，例如地板被水淹了之类鸡毛蒜皮的小事。

As always, he argues, and through the long-distance call I hear them quarreling seriously.

一如往常，通过长途电话，我能听到他们很严肃地在争吵着。

Quarreling seems to be bound with their life. He seems like a capricious[34] boy, and she a little girl who cannot bear with even a small grievance. It is common that they fight each other half a day over minor issues. Over and over again, they will quarrel—they are born to disagree with each other.

争吵似乎成了他们生活中不可缺少的一部分。他看起来像个反复无常的孩子，而她像一个不能忍受丁点委屈的小女孩。他们经常为生活中的小问题吵上半天。他们一遍又一遍地争吵——好像生来就意见不和。

Bored sometimes, I pretend to be very unhappy and yell, “Couldn’t you stop arguing and let my ears have a quiet moment?”

有时我觉得无聊了，就假装很不高兴，大喊道：“你们能不能停止争论，让我的耳朵安静一小会？”

She pauses two seconds, and mumbles, “He always bullies me.” I almost see her, pitiful as she is.

她会停顿2秒钟，然后喃喃自语：“他总是欺负我。”我几乎可以想象到她装可怜的样子。

Then I turn soft, and try to find faults in him. 然后我的语气就会变得轻柔，并想办法找到他的错误。

“Why did you bully her?” “你为什么要欺负她？”

He listens to me, irritated, “Who bullies her? It is she that bullies me!”

他听到我的质问，恼火道：“谁欺负她？这是她在欺负我！”

Just as the saying goes, a righteous[35] judge is never able to decide who is right and who is wrong in an argument between a couple. I tried to intervene, only to get them into more serious debate.

正如俗话所说，一个正直的法官也无法判决一对夫妇之间的矛盾，无法决定到底谁对谁错。我试图干预他们，但只会使他们陷入更严肃的辩论中。

Like an actor and an actress, they are indulged in acting. With me watching, they end up in more heated disagreements. So I don’t want to bother any more. I just stand by when they quarrel.

就像演员，他们沉迷于这样的剧情。我看，结局只会是更加激烈的分歧。所以，我不想打扰他们了。作为旁观者，我只是在争吵的时候看着他们。

In the end, she will find her eyes red, and wipe tears off her cheeks. He gets upset and attempts to soothe her. He looks funny—staring at her like a mad frog with two eyes open wide, he yells with determination,

最后，她的眼睛开始泛红，擦去脸颊上的泪水。他开始不安，并试图安慰她。他盯着她哭得红肿的眼睛，就像是只生气的青蛙。他妥协了。

“From now on I will wash all the dishes.” He seems to be swearing. And she weeps and smiling flowers bloom on her face.

“从现在开始，我会洗干净所有的盘子。”他信誓旦旦地说。而她也相信他，抹掉眼泪，微笑，顿时她的脸上绽放出花朵来。

One day he got bit by a snake while working in the farmland, one leg swelling furiously. He was then rushed to hospital where he went through a series of torment—he got injected to let the contaminated blood out.

有一天，他在田里劳作时被蛇咬了，一条腿肿得厉害。他立即被送往医院抢救，经过及时的救治——他被注射了一针可以让污血流出来的药剂。

Seeing the blood, she was scared to big tears, crying loud.

看到血，她吓得大哭起来，落下大滴的眼泪。

“Stop it. That’s enough. You are getting on my nerves. I am not gonna die.” He shouted, frowning.

“别哭了。够了。让我烦死了，放心好了，我不会死的。”他大叫着，皱着眉头。

She got mad at the word “die” that he had mentioned.

她生气了，不准他说“死”这个词。

“Why did you say that?” She immediately quarreled hard with him, not to stop for a long while.

“你为什么这样说？”她立即同他争辩了很长一段时间。

Doctors were watching on, amused.

医生们看他们斗嘴，笑了。

“Isn’t quarreling more effective than pain-killing pills?” The doctors teased.

“吵架不是比止痛药更有效吗？”医生们取笑道。

They looked at each other, embarrassed and laughing. That finally stopped their quarreling.

他们面面相觑，不好意思地笑了起来，终于停止了争吵。

In order to save hospital expenses, he insisted on going home despite her mad disagreements.

为了节省住院费，他坚持要回家，尽管她极力反对。

Lying in bed, he was having an intravenous[36] drip for a continuous period of 12 days. She was busy dealing with housework and everything else out of home. She was weak and thin, and too much work had made her even more skinny.

他躺在床上连续注射了12天点滴。这些天，都是她在处理家里家外的事情，本来身体单薄的她，愈发显得骨瘦如柴。

Witnessing her change, he hurt in the heart. One night he wanted to drink water. He did not wake her up, pulled himself out of the bed, and fell over because his legs were too weak.

看着她每天忙碌，他觉得心里很愧疚。有天夜里，他想要喝水。他没有叫醒她，而是打算自己去喝水。当他下床的时候，因为腿上的伤痛，从床上跌了下来。

His fall actually woke her up. She rushed to support him to stand up. She scolded him for not having waken her up. He said that he could manage. A serious quarrel was about to burst out again.

她被惊醒了，赶紧起床冲过去扶着他。她责备他：“喝水怎么不叫我来倒！”“我自己可以！”一场激烈的争吵又迸发了。

I called them from Zhuhai, the beautiful city of relaxation and exciting views. I wanted to depict to them how pretty a city Zhuhai is. He was surprised that I had travelled such a great distance, to where he and she had never been all their life. He then believed that I had accomplished a big success, and that I had significantly broadened my horizons. He went on talk in honor of me, voice trembling with pride; she was beside him, excited all the same. They did not mention anything about the family change and their suffering.

当我从珠海给他们打电话，向他们描绘这个美丽休闲且适合居住的城市时，他感到非常惊讶。我到了这么好的地方，而他和她从没有来过。他很高兴，觉得我现在非常成功，又显著地拓宽了自己的视野。然后，他用十分自豪的语气夸奖我从小大到的荣耀，她也在他身边同他一起高兴着。他们从不提及任何关于家庭的变化和他们的困难。

I had not heard about his being bit by a snake until she told me her grievance[37] .

如果她不告诉我，我还不知道他被蛇咬伤了。

“He treated me bad again. He could not get out of bed by himself, but he wanted to be strong, and so he fell. I was trying to pull him up on his feet, and I just told a few words of complaints when he got out of bed, yelling that I was clumsy.”

“你知道吗，他对我可坏了。他不能从床上下来，还非要逞强，就跌倒了。我只是想去扶他，就说了几句，他就开始骂我，对我大喊大叫。”

“No, no, no, she was not telling the truth.”

“不，不，不是，事实不是这样的。”

He was eager to tell me that she was really silly, that she did not know how to change the intravenous drip bottle. Then they started it over again quarreling. And this time I was listening to them in good patience, holding the telephone receiver.

他急切地想告诉我：“她真的很傻，也不知道拿着点滴瓶。”话音刚落，他们又开始斗嘴了。这一次，我只是拿着听筒，很耐心地听他们争吵。

Water was roaring in the sea out the window, waves climbing up and falling down, just like what I was feeling at the bottom of my heart.

看着窗外，海水在大海里翻滚，海浪连绵起伏，就像此刻我心底最深处的感受一样。

He suddenly realized that they should stop. He said that it was a long-distance call. She immediately stopped arguing.

他突然意识到，他们应该停止。他说，这是长途电话。她立即停止了争吵。

“Why didn’t you remind me earlier? How much money have we wasted her?”

“你为什么不早一点提醒我？多少钱，我们浪费了她多少钱？”

She hangs up before I had a chance to talk. I know they would have a good fight again.

其实，在她挂电话之前，我就很想说——我知道他们又将开始另一次斗争了。

They are my father and mother. He is 66, and she is 64.

他们是我的父亲和母亲。他66岁，她64岁。

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