落花生 張培基譯文 The Peanut

The PeanutXu DishanAt the back of our house there was half a mu of unused land. “Its a pity to let it lie idle like that,” Mother said. “Since you all enjoy eating peanuts, let us open it up and make it a peanut garden.” At that my brother, sister and I were all delighted and so were the young housemaids. And then some went to buy seeds, some began to dig up the ground and others watered it and, in a couple of months, we had a harvest!“Let us have a party tonight to celebrate,” Mother suggested, “and ask Dad to join us for a taste of our fresh peanuts. What do you say?” We all agreed, of course. Mother cooked the peanuts in a variety of styles and told us to go to the thatched pavilion in the garden for the celebration.The weather was not very good that night but, to our great delight, Father came all the same.“Do you like peanuts?” Father asked.“Yes!” We all answered eagerly.“But who can tell me what the peanut is good for?”“It is very delicious to eat,” my sister took the lead.“It is good for making oil,” my brother followed.“It is inexpensive,” I said. “Almost everyone can afford it and everyone enjoys eating it. I think this is what is good for.”“Peanut is good for many things,” Father said, “but there is one thing that is particularly good about it. Unlike apples, peaches and pomegranates that display their fruits up in the air, attracting you with their beautiful colors, peanut buries its fruit in the earth. It does not show itself until you dig it out when it is ripe and, unless you dig it out, you cant tell it bears fruit or not just by its frail stem quivering above ground.”“Thats true,” we all said and Mother nodded her assent, too. “So you should try to be like the peanut,” Father went on, “because it is useful, though not great or attractive.”“Do you mean,” I asked, “we should learn to be useful but not seek to be great or attractive?”“Yes,” Father said. “This is what I expect of you.”We stayed up late that night, eating all the peanuts Mother had cooked for us. But fathers words remained vivid in my memory till this day.（劉世聰 譯）PeanutsXu DishanBehind our house there lay half a mou vacant land. Mother said: “Its a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?” That exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!Mother said, “How about giving a party this evening to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?” We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.It looked like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless.”Do you like peanuts?” asked father.“Yes, we do!”we vied in giving the answer.“Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?”“Peanuts taste good,” said my elder sister.“Peanuts produce edible oil,” said my elder sister.“Peanuts are so cheap,” said I, “that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyones favourite. Thats why we call peanuts good.”“Its true that peanuts have many uses,” said father, “but theyre most beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win peoples admiration with their brilliant colours, tiny little peanuts bury themselves underground and remain unearthed until theyre ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bears any nuts until you touch them.”“Thats true,” we said in unison. Mother also nodded. “So you must take after peanuts,” father continued, “because theyre useful though not great and nice-looking.”“Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking,” I said.“Thats