时候既然是深冬；渐近故乡时，天气又阴晦了，冷风吹进船舱中，呜呜的响，从蓬隙向外一望，苍黄的天底下，远近横着几个萧索的荒村，没有一些活气。
It was in the depth of winter and as I drew closer to the place where I'd grown up, the sky clouded over and a cold wind whistled into the cabin of my boat.
Through a crack in the canopy, I peered out into the distance.
Scattered across the distant horizon, towns and villages came into view under the vast and graying sky: they were drab, desolate, devoid of any semblance of life.
这不是我二十年来时时记得的故乡？
This was not the countryside I had recalled time and again for more than twenty years.
我所记得的故乡全不如此。
As I remembered it, it was nothing like this;
但要我记起他的美丽，说出他的佳处来，却又没有影像，没有言辞了。
But when I tried to recall or articulate its beauty, I discovered I held no mental image of it - no words to describe it.
仿佛也就如此。
And now it seemed this was all there was to it.
于是我自己解释说：故乡本也如此，――虽然没有进步，也未必有如我所感的悲凉，这只是我自己心情的改变罢了，因为我这次回乡，本没有什么好心绪。
"This is probably what it really was like," I told myself. "To be sure, there are no signs of progress, but then again it's probably not so depressing as I seem to feel at the moment either.
Perhaps it's just that my attitude has changed, especially since I'm not coming back in a happy mood to begin with."
我这次是专为了别他而来的。
This time I had come with the sole object of saying goodbye.
我们多年聚族而居的老屋，已经公同卖给别姓了，交屋的期限，只在本年，所以必须赶在正月初一以前，永别了熟识的老屋，而且远离了熟识的故乡，搬家到我在谋食的异地去。
The old family compound1 in which members of our clan had lived for so many years had already been sold lock, stock, and barrel to people of another surname.
The transaction was to be completed by the end of the year.
In the short interim before the New Year, we would have to take our final leave of those comfortable old rooms and move away from this familiar countryside to the strange and faraway place where I now earned my keep.
第二日清早晨我到了我家的门口了。
Early the next morning I stood before the gate of our family compound.
瓦楞上许多枯草的断茎当风抖着，正在说明这老屋难免易主的原因。
In among the roof tiles, broken, withered stems of grass trembled in the wind, testimony to the old owners' inability to maintain the clan establish-ment.
几房的本家大约已经搬走了，所以很寂静。
The pervading silence suggested that several branches of the family must have already moved out.
我到了自家的房外，我的母亲早已迎着出来了，接着便飞出了八岁的侄儿宏儿。
By the time I reached the house my mother was already at the door to welcome me, and my eight-year-old nephew, Hong'er, rushed out after her.
我的母亲很高兴，但也藏着许多凄凉的神情，教我坐下，歇息，喝茶，且不谈搬家的事。
Though Mother was delighted, she was also trying to hide a ceratin feeling of sadness.
She told me to sit down and rest and have some tea, letting the removal wait for the time being.
但我们终于谈到搬家的事。
But finally we had to talk about the removal.
我说外间的寓所已经租定了，又买了几件家具，此外须将家里所有的木器卖去，再去增添。
I had rented lodgings in the other place, I told her, and bought a few items of furniture; but everything from this house would want selling, to get what we needed for the new place.
母亲也说好，而且行李也略已齐集，木器不便搬运的，也小半卖去了，只是收不起钱来。
My mother agreed, and said she had just about finished her packing and sold almost half of the things she couldn't take with her -it was just that her buyers were being slow in paying up.
“你休息一两天，去拜望亲戚本家一回，我们便可以走了。”
“You can rest for a day or two, and call on our relatives, and then we can go,”
母亲说。
said Mother.
“是的。”
"Yes, Mother."
“还有闰土，他每到我家来时，总问起你，很想见你一回面。
“Then there is Runtu.
Each time he comes here he always asks after you, and wants very much to see you again.
我已经将你到家的大约日期通知他，他也许就要来了。”
I told him when you'd be arriving, so you might be getting a visit from him, too.”
这时候，我的脑里忽然闪出一幅神异的图画来：深蓝的天空中挂着一轮金黄的圆月，下面是海边的沙地，都种着一望无际的碧绿的西瓜，其间有一个十一二岁的少年，项带银圈，手捏一柄钢叉，向一匹猹⑵尽力的刺去，那猹却将身一扭，反从他的胯下逃走了。
Instantaneously, a marvelous scene flashed before my eyes: a round moon hanging against a blue black sky, beneath it a stretch of sandy ground planted with emerald green watermelons stretching as far as the eye could see, and standing in the midst of all those melons a twelve-year-old boy, a silver ring around his neck, a pitchfork in his hand.
Suddenly and with all his might the boy stabs at a zha, but the crafty animal makes a lightning turn, runs back between his legs, and makes good its escape.2
这少年便是闰土。
This boy was Runtu.
我认识他时，也不过十多岁，离现在将有三十年了；那时我的父亲还在世，家景也好，我正是一个少爷。
When I first met him he was little more than ten ― that was thirty years ago, and at that time my father was still alive and the family well off, so I was really a spoilt child.