星期日的早晨，我揭去一张隔夜的日历，向着新的那一张上看了又看的说：“阿，十月十日，――今天原来正是双十节⑵。
Early one Sunday morning, I tore the previous day's page off the calendar.October Tenth - Double Tenth,'I exclaimed, glancing at the new page. 'Revolution Day. 1
这里却一点没有记载！”
It's not marked!”
我的一位前辈先生Ｎ，正走到我的寓里来谈闲天，一听这话，便很不高兴的对我说：
Mr. N,2 a man of the next generation above mine, had just walked over to my place for a chat, and hearing me say this he observed in the most disgruntled of tones,
“他们对！
'Good for them!”
他们不记得，你怎样他；你记得，又怎样呢？”
They don't bother to remember-so what?
You do remember-so what?"
“我们讲革命的时候，大谈什么扬州三日，嘉定屠城⑸，其实也不过一种手段；老实说：那时中国人的反抗，何尝因为亡国，只是因为拖辫子⑹。
"Whenever we used to talk of revolting against the Manchus, we'd always make a big thing of the Ten Days at Yangzhou and the Butchering of Jiading, but that was just a little trick we used.5 To tell you the truth, the intensity of the resistance we Cwith the present-day world.
“顽民杀尽了，遗老都寿终了，辫子早留定了，洪杨⑺又闹起来了。
'But once resistance had been stamped out, and the old guard had died, the queue became a great immovable.
Until the Taiping Rebels came along, letting their pigtails loose.
我的祖母曾对我说，那时做百姓才难哩，全留着头发的被官兵杀，还是辫子的便被长毛杀！
I remember my grandmother telling me about those times - about how bad they were.
If you let your hair grow, the government soldiers killed you; if you didn't, the Taipings did. +What is hair?” Dead protein.
Ｎ两眼望着屋梁，似乎想些事，仍然说：
N stared reflectively up at a beam across the ceiling.^-1
“谁知道头发的苦轮到我了。
"Who would ever have thought that some day my turn to suffer because of hair would roll around too?
“我出去留学，便剪掉了辫子，这并没有别的奥妙，只为他不太便当罢了。
'When I went abroad to study, I cut off my queue - just because I couldn't be bothered with it.
不料有几位辫子盘在头顶上的同学们便很厌恶我；监督也大怒，说要停了我的官费，送回中国去。
But the diehards among my classmates were furious and the supervisor the government had sent to keep an eye on us.
He told me he was going to stop my grant and send me back home.
“不几天，这位监督却自己被人剪去辫子逃走了。
“A few days later, though, that supervisor fled, as his queue had been cut off by other people.
去剪的人们里面，一个便是做《革命军》的邹容⑻，这人也因此不能再留学，回到上海来，后来死在西牢里。
One of those in on the cutting was Zou Rong.8 It was because of that very incident that Zou Rong had to go back to Shanghai, where he later died in West Jail
“过了几年，我的家景大不如前了，非谋点事做便要受饿，只得也回到中国来。
“A few years later, my family had become so badly off that unless I found a job I would have starved, so I had to go back to China too.
我一到上海，便买定一条假辫子，那时是二元的市价，带着回家。
As soon as I arrived in Shanghai I bought an artificial queue.The going price at the time was two dollars.When I wore it back home,
我的母亲倒也不说什么，然而旁人一见面，便都首先研究这辫子，待到知道是假，就一声冷笑，将我拟为杀头的罪名；有一位本家，还预备去告官，但后来因为恐怕革命党的造反或者要成功，这才中止了。
My mother said nothing about it, but it was the first thing scrutinized by all the other people I met; and once they found out it was false, with a scornful laugh they adjudged me guilty of a capital offence.One of my own family planned to indict mewith the present-day world.
“我想，假的不如真的直截爽快，我便索性废了假辫子，穿着西装在街上走。
"I decided that a policy of open honesty would be preferable to all this chicanery, and so I went whole hog-threw away the artificial queue and started wearing a Western suit.
“一路走去，一路便是笑骂的声音，有的还跟在后面骂：‘这冒失鬼！’
But I got insults wherever I went - idiot,
“我于是不穿洋服了，改了大衫，他们骂得更利害。
At that point I stopped wearing my Western suit and went back to a Chinese gown.Got cursed out more than ever!9
“在这日暮途穷的时候，我的手里才添出一支手杖来，拚命的打了几回，他们渐渐的不骂了。
When I couldn't stand it any longer, I added a walking stick to the ensemble.My persecutors gradually gave up after I began paying back their sartorial advice with a few sharp raps.
“这件事很使我悲哀，至今还时时记得哩。
'But the whole thing made me miserable - still does, when I think back over it.
这位Ｎ先生本来脾气有点乖张，时常生些无谓的气，说些不通世故的话。
Now this Mr. N had a rather feisty disposition to begin with.
He would often fly off the handle for no apparent reason and say things that revealed a profound naivete about the ways of the world.
当这时候，我大抵任他自言自语，不赞一辞；他独自发完议论，也就算了。
At such times, I generally let him talk to himself, without putting in a word.After he has finished his monolog-ue, that's that.