Border Town (CHAPTER THREE) 边城 (第三章)

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CHAPTER THREE (PART 1)
For ten years and more, the local military commander at this provincial border had emphasized maintaining the peace and keeping things as they were. He handled things quite deftly, so there had been no unrest. Commerce on land and water never had to stop on account of warfare or rural banditry; good order was the rule, and people were satisfied. They felt grief at such misfortunes as the death of a cow, the capsizing of a boat, or any other fatal catastrophe, but the disasters suffered by other places in China due to the awful struggles going on there seemed never to be felt by these frontier folk.
两省接壤处，十余年来主持地方军事的，注重在安辑保守，处置还得法，并无变故发生。水陆商务既不至于受战争停顿，也不至于为土匪影响，一切莫不极有秩序，人民也莫不安分乐生。这些人，除了家中死了牛，翻了船，或发生别的死亡大变，为一种不幸所绊倒觉得十分伤心外，中国其他地方正在如何不幸挣扎中的情形，似乎就永远不会为这边城人民所感到。

The most stirring days of the year in this border town were the Dragon Boat Festival, the Mid-autumn Festival, and the lunar New Year. These three festival days excited the people here exactly as they had fifty years before. They were still the days that meant the most.
At the Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth day of the fifth lunar month, women and children put on new clothes and painted the character wang, or "king," on their foreheads using wine mixed with realgar. Everybody got to eat fish and meat this day. By eleven o'clock in the morning, all Chadong was sitting down to lunch, after which those who lived in town locked their doors and went down to the riverside to see the dragon boats race. If they knew people on River Street, they could watch from the houses on stilts overhanging the river. Otherwise, they watched from in front of the customs house or from one of the many piers. The dragon boat race began downstream at the Long Depths stretch of the river. The finish line was in front of the customs house. The local military officers, customs officials, and all people of importance gathered at the customs house this day to take in the excitement. The oarsmen had prepared for the race days in advance, with each competing team selecting its strongest and nimblest young lads to practice their maneuvers in the deep part of the river. The dragon boats were longer and narrower than ordinary wooden boats, with upturned ends and a long vermilion stripe painted on the hull. Most of the year they were stored in dry caves by the river. When it came time to use them, they were towed out into the water.
边城所在一年中最热闹的日子，是端午，中秋和过年。三个节日过去三五十年前如何兴奋了这地方人，直到现在，还毫无什么变化，仍能成为那地方居民最有意义的几个日子。
端午日，当地妇女小孩子，莫不穿了新衣，额角上用雄黄蘸酒画了个王字。任何人家到了这天必可以吃鱼吃肉。大约上午十一点钟左右，全茶峒人就吃了午饭，把饭吃过后，在城里住家的，莫不倒锁了门，全家出城到河边看划船。河街有熟人的，可到河街吊脚楼门口边看，不然就站在税关门口与各个码头上看。河中龙船以长潭某处作起点，税关前作终点。作比赛竞争。因为这一天军官税官以及当地有身分的人，莫不在税关前看热闹。划船的事各人在数天以前就早有了准备，分组分帮各自选出了若干身体结实手脚伶俐的小伙子，在潭中练习进退。船只的形式，与平常木船大不相同，形体一律又长又狭，两头高高翘起，船身绘着朱红颜色长线，平常时节多搁在河边干燥洞穴里，要用它时，拖下水去。

Each boat sat twelve to eighteen oarsmen, a helmsman, and two men to beat the drum and gong. The oarsmen's short paddles rowed the boat forward to the rhythm of the drumbeats—first unhurried, then urgent. The red-turbaned cox sat in the prow waving two little signal flags left and right, directing the motion of the boat. The men who pounded the drum and beat the gong usually sat amidships. The moment the boat launched, they started up the single-minded booming and clanging that governed the speed with which the boatmen thrust their oars into the river. The boat's speed had to follow the sound of the drum and gong, so whenever two boats got to the climax of their competition, the thunder of the percussion, added to the encouraging cheers from both banks, recalled novels and stories about Liang Hongyu beating her drum in the historic naval battle at Laoguan River, and the cacophony when Niu Gao fished the rebel Yang Yao out of the water. All who rowed their boat to victory were rewarded at the finish line in front of the customs house with red silk and a little silver badge, not just for their individual efforts but to acknowledge the boat's glorious teamwork. Soldiers used to taking things into their own hands felt compelled to congratulate the victorious boat by setting off strings of five-hundred-pop firecrackers.
每只船可坐十二个到十八个桨手，一个带头的，一个鼓手，一个锣手。桨手每人持一支短桨，随了鼓声缓促为节拍，把船向前划去。坐在船头上，头上缠裹着红布包头，手上拿两支小令旗，左右挥动，指挥船只的进退。擂鼓打锣的，多坐在船只的中部，船一划动便即刻蓬蓬镗镗把锣鼓很单纯的敲打起来，为划桨水手调理下桨节拍。一船快慢既不得不靠鼓声，故每当两船竞赛到剧烈时，鼓声如雷鸣，加上两岸人呐喊助威，便使人想起梁红玉老鹳河时水战擂鼓，牛皋水擒杨幺时也是水战擂鼓。凡把船划到前面一点的，必可在税关前领赏，一匹红，一块小银牌，不拘缠挂到船上某一个人头上去，皆显出这一船合作的光荣。好事的军人，且当每次某一只船胜利时，必在水边放些表示胜利庆祝的五百响鞭炮。

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CHAPTER THREE (PART 2)
After the race, the garrison soldiers and officers in town, to make common cause with the citizenry and increase the merriment of all concerned, released green-headed drakes out on the river with red ribbons tied around their long necks, so that the best swimmers, be they soldiers or civilians, could jump into the river and catch them. Anyone who captured a duck got to keep it. Thereupon the river at Long Depths hosted a unique spectacle: a stream simply covered with ducks—and people swimming after them.
These competitions, of boat against boat and man against duck, went on until the day was done.
赛船过后，城中的戍军长官，为了与民同乐，增加这节日的愉快起见，便把三十只绿头长颈大雄鸭，颈膊上缚了红布条子，放入河中，尽善于泅水的军民人等，下水追赶鸭子。不拘谁把鸭子捉到，谁就成为这鸭子的主人。于是长潭换了新的花样，水面各处是鸭子，各处有追赶鸭子的人。
船与船的竞赛，人与鸭子的竞赛，直到天晚方能完事。

Dragon Head Elder Brother Shunshun, now boss of the riverfront, had been an expert swimmer in his youth. When he dove into the water to catch a drake, he never went home empty-handed. But it came to be that during one festival, when his younger son, Nuosong, had turned eleven and was able to hold his breath long enough to swim to a drake under water and catch him by surprise, the father said to his son, a little defensively, "All right, it's up to you two now, no need for me to dive in anymore!" And that was the end of his jumping into the water to compete in catching ducks. Diving in to save a life, of course, was a different matter. He would jump into fire itself to save a person from calamity. You could be sure he would consider it his bounden duty even when he was eighty! Now Tianbao and Nuosong were the best rowers around, the top picks.
掌水码头的龙头大哥顺顺，年青时节便是一个泅水的高手，入水中去追逐鸭子，在任何情形下总不落空。但一到次子傩送年过十二岁时，已能入水闭铺汆着到鸭子身边，再忽然从水中冒水而出，把鸭子捉到，这作爸爸的便解嘲似的说：“好，这种事有你们来作，我不必再下水了。”于是当真就不下水与人来竞争捉鸭子。但下水救人呢，当作别论。凡帮助人远离患难，便是入火，人到八十岁，也还是成为这个人一种不可逃避的责任！天保傩送两人皆是当地泅水划船好选手。

The Dragon Boat Festival on the fifth of the month was about to come around, so a big meeting was held on River Street on the first. The neighborhood decided then to launch the boat that belonged to their street. It happened that Tianbao was on an upcountry journey that day, accompanying merchants on the land route to East Sichuan to sell festival goods in Longtan. Only Nuosong could attend the meeting. Sixteen strapping young men, strong as oxen, journeyed upriver to the mountain cave where the boats were hidden, carrying incense, candles, firecrackers, and a drum on legs, whose rawhide drumheads had the circular yin-yang symbol painted in vermilion. Ceremoniously, they lit incense and candles and pulled their boat into the river. Then they boarded it, exploding firecrackers and beating the drum. The boat swept downstream, swift as an arrow, to the Long Depths.
端午又快来了，初五划船，河街上初一开会，就决定了属于河街的那只船当天入水。天保恰好在那天应向上行，随了陆路商人过川东龙潭送节货，故参加的就只傩送。十六个结实如牛犊的小伙子，带了香烛、鞭炮、同一个用生牛皮蒙好绘有朱红太极图的高脚鼓，到了搁船的河上游山洞边，烧了香烛，把船拖入水后，各人上了船，燃着鞭炮，擂着鼓，这船便如一枝箭似的，很迅速的向下游长潭射去。

bca

CHAPTER THREE (PART 3)
That was in the morning. After noon, the dragon boat of the fisher folk on the other shore was launched, too; the two boats began to practice all sorts of competitive maneuvers. The very first drumbeats coming from the river brought joy to those who heard them, a sign that the festival was close at hand.
那时节还是上午，到了午后，对河渔人的龙船也下了水，两只龙船就开始预习种种竞赛的方法。水面上第一次听到了鼓声，许多人从这鼓声中，感到了节日临近的欢悦。

Denizens of the houses on stilts near the river began to think of their man's return, or began to hope for it, or at the very least were stimulated by the drumming to remember him. Many boats would be home for the festival, but others would have to pass the day away from home. This was a time when you could see feelings of delight and sorrow you ordinarily didn't get to see. Along the River Street of this little mountain town, some people were beaming; others were frowning.
住临河吊脚楼对远方人有所等待有所盼望的，也莫不因鼓声想到远人。在这个节日里，必然有许多船只可以赶回，也有许多船只只合在半路过节，这之间，便有些眼目所难见的人事哀乐，在这小山城河街间，让一些人铺事，也让一些人皱眉。

When the booming of the drums skimmed over the water and crossed the hills to the ferryboat, the first to hear it was the yellow dog. Startled, he ran wildly around the house in circles, yapping all the way. When someone ferried across the stream to the eastern bank, he followed and ran up the hill with them, barking toward the town.
Cuicui was sitting on the great rocky bluffs outside her door, weaving grasshoppers and centipedes from palm leaves to amuse herself, when she saw the yellow dog suddenly awaken from his sleep under the sun and run around as if possessed, then cross the stream and come back. She scolded him, "Hey there, dog! What's gotten into you? Stop it!" But soon she made out the sound herself. She, too, ran around the house, then ferried herself and the dog across the stream, where she stood with him on the hilltop and listened for the longest time, letting those entrancing drumbeats carry her away to a festival in the past.
蓬蓬鼓声掠水越山到了渡船头那里时，最先注意到的是那只黄狗。那黄狗汪汪的吠着，受了惊似的绕屋乱走，有人过渡时，便随船渡过河东岸去，且跑到那小山头向城里一方面大吠。
翠翠正坐在门外大石上用棕叶编蚱蜢蜈蚣玩，见黄狗先在太阳下睡着，忽然醒来便发疯似的乱跑，过了河又回来，就问它骂它：
“狗，狗，你做什么！不许这样子！”
可是一会儿那声音被她发现了，她于是也绕屋跑着，且同黄狗一块儿渡过了小溪，站在小山头听了许久，让那点迷人的鼓声，把自己带到一个过去的节日里去。