场边靠河的乌桕树叶，干巴巴的才喘过气来，几个花脚蚊子在下面哼着飞舞。
The parched leaves of the tallow trees on the bank seemed to gasp with relief, a smattering of mosquitoes dancing and droning below.
面河的农家的烟突里，逐渐减少了炊烟，女人孩子们都在自己门口的土场上泼些水，放下小桌子和矮凳；人知道，这已经是晚饭的时候了。
As the clouds of cooking smoke spiralling from chimneys along the river faded, women and children splashed water on to the ground beyond their own doors, and set out small tables and stools.
It was time for dinner.
老人男人坐在矮凳上，摇着大芭蕉扇闲谈，孩子飞也似的跑，或者蹲在乌桕树下赌玩石子。
The old folk and the men sat on the low stools, fanning themselves with plantain-leaf fans as they chatted.
The children raced about or squatted under the tallow trees playing with pebbles.
女人端出乌黑的蒸干菜和松花黄的米饭，热蓬蓬冒烟。
Women carried out raven-black dried vegetables along with rice of a rich pinecone brown.
All around the threshing ground steam rose from the piping-hot food.
河里驶过文人的酒船，文豪见了，大发诗兴，说，“无思无虑，这真是田家乐呵！”
'What a pastoral idyll!” gushed a pleasure-boatful of amateur poets and professional drinkers as it sailed past. 'Not a care in the world!”
但文豪的话有些不合事实，就因为他们没有听到九斤老太的话。
However, these literati were wide of the mark, not having heard what Old Mrs. Ninepounder was saying.
这时候，九斤老太正在大怒，拿破芭蕉扇敲着凳脚说：“我活到七十九岁了，活够了，不愿意眼见这些败家相，——还是死的好。
In high dudgeon, she rapped her fan sharply against the leg of her stool. “I've lived seventy-nine years and that's long enough, ‘cause I don't want to live to see such sure signs that the family's goin' to pot.
Be better off dead!
立刻就要吃饭了，还吃炒豆子，吃穷了一家子！”
Just one minute to supper time, yet still eating roast beans — do you want to eat us out of house and home?”
伊的曾孙女儿六斤捏着一把豆，正从对面跑来，见这情形，便直奔河边，藏在乌桕树后，伸出双丫角的小头，大声说，“这老不死的！”
Her great-granddaughter Sixpounder was just running towards her with a handful of beans, but seeing the situation she flew straight to the river bank and hid herself behind a tallow tree.
Sticking out her small head with its twin tufts, she hooted, “with the presen
九斤老太虽然高寿，耳朵却还不很聋，但也没有听到孩子的话，仍旧自己说，“这真是一代不如一代！”
Mrs Nine-Pounds's hearing was little impaired for all her seventy-eight years - but happily the girl's verdict escaped her ears. 'The youth of today,' she went on. 'It wasn't like this in my day ...”
这村庄的习惯有点特别，女人生下孩子，多喜欢用秤称了轻重，便用斤数当作小名。
A footnote about the idiosyncrasies of this particular village: when a woman had a baby, the custom was to nickname it by birthweight.
九斤老太自从庆祝了五十大寿以后，便渐渐的变了不平家，常说伊年青的时候，天气没有现在这般热，豆子也没有现在这般硬；总之现在的时世是不对了。
Since she had celebrated the great milestone of her fiftieth birthday, Mrs Nine-Pounds's general sense of grievance against the world had been steadily growing: the weather was much hotter than it had been when she'd been young, she became fond of sayiwith the present-day world.
何况六斤比伊的曾祖，少了三斤，比伊父亲七斤，又少了一斤，这真是一条颠扑不破的实例。
What further evidence was needed than the undeniable fact that Sixpounder was three pounds lighter than her great-grandfather Ninepounder, and one pound lighter than her father, Sevenpounder?
This constituted irrefutable proof of Mrs. Ninepounder's theory,
所以伊又用劲说，“这真是一代不如一代！”
and so she loudly voiced it once again: “Each generation's worse than the last! ”
伊的儿媳⑵七斤嫂子正捧着饭篮走到桌边，便将饭篮在桌上一摔，愤愤的说，“你老人家又这么说了。
Hergranddaughter-in-law,Mrs.Sevenpounder, had just brought out a basket of rice.
Plonking this down on the table, she said crossly, “There you go again, granny!
你家的秤又是私秤，加重称，十八两秤；用了准十六，我们的六斤该有七斤多哩。
Besides your family's scales are crooked to begin with.
They weigh light.
It would take eighteen ounces to make a pound on your scales!
If you used honest sixteen-ounce scales, our Sixpounder would have weighed in at over six pounds.
我想便是太公和公公，也不见得正是九斤八斤十足，用的秤也许是十四两……”
And I bet Father and Grandfather weren't eight or nine pounds - their scales probably came up heavy.”
“一代不如一代！”
“Each generation is worse than the last.”
七斤嫂还没有答话，忽然看见七斤从小巷口转出，便移了方向，对他嚷道，“你这死尸怎么这时候才回来，死到那里去了！
Before Mrs. Sevenpounder could answer, she saw her husband emerge from the top of the lane and rounded on him instead.“Why so late back, you zombie?
I thought you must be dead,
七斤虽然住在农村，却早有些飞黄腾达的意思。
Although Sevenpounder lived in a country village, his family had early on showed promise of scaling the ladder of prestige:
从他的祖父到他，三代不捏锄头柄了；他也照例的帮人撑着航船，每日一回，早晨从鲁镇进城，傍晚又回到鲁镇，因此很知道些时事：例如什么地方，雷公劈死了蜈蚣精；什么地方，闺女生了一个夜叉之类。
For three generations — grandfather, father and son — not a man in his family had handled a hoe.
Like his father before him he worked on a boat which left Luzhen every morning for the town, returning to Luzhen in the evening.
As a result he knew prewith the present-day world.
他在村人里面，的确已经是一名出场人物了。
As a matter of fact, he had already become something of a public figure among the villagers.
但夏天吃饭不点灯，却还守着农家习惯，所以回家太迟，是该骂的。
Despite this sophistication, however, in the matter of not lighting lamps at suppertime during the summer, he still observed the peasant custom.
Therefore he was in for a scolding if he got back too late.
七斤一手捏着象牙嘴白铜斗六尺多长的湘妃竹烟管，低着头，慢慢地走来，坐在矮凳上。
Head bowed, Seven-Pounds made his way slowly over to a stool and sat down, still holding his six-foot speckled bamboo pipe with its ivory mouth and pewter bowl.