首善之区〔２〕的西城的一条马路上，这时候什么扰攘也没有。
In a street in the west city of the model region, nothing was stirring.
火焰焰的太阳虽然还未直照，但路上的沙土仿佛已是闪烁地生光；酷热满和在空气里面，到处发挥着盛夏的威力。
Although the sun was not yet at its zenith, already the grit on the road seemed to scintillate beneath its glare, the air burning with high summer.
许多狗都拖出舌头来，连树上的乌老鸦也张着嘴喘气，――但是，自然也有例外的。
Several dogs loll out their tongues.
Beaks hanging open, even the black crows up in the trees are panting.
But there are, of course, exceptions:
远处隐隐有两个铜盏〔３〕相击的声音，使人忆起酸梅汤，依稀感到凉意，可是那懒懒的单调的金属音的间作，却使那寂静更其深远了。
From far away came the faint clash of two copper blows, turning people's thoughts to wildplum juice and giving them a faint sensation of cool.
How-ever, the intervals between those lazy, monotonous clinks seemed to deepen the silence.
只有脚步声，车夫默默地前奔，似乎想赶紧逃出头上的烈日。
Then a scatter of footsteps - a rickshaw-puller rushed quietly forward, fleeing the scorching sun.
刚出屉的……。”
Fresh from the steamer!”36
十一二岁的胖孩子，细着眼睛，歪了嘴在路旁的店门前叫喊。
A fat boy of eleven or twelve narrows his eyes, draws his mouth to one side, and calls out before a storefront on one side of the street.
声音已经嘶嗄了，还带些睡意，如给夏天的长日催眠。
His voice is already hoarse and somewhat sleepy as well, as though hypnotized by the long summer day.
他旁边的破旧桌子上，就有二三十个馒头包子，毫无热气，冷冷地坐着。
On a battered old table next to him sat two or three dozen cold steamed rolls.
馒头包子咧，热的……。”
Get your hot mantou, get your hot baozi!”
像用力掷在墙上而反拨过来的皮球一般，他忽然飞在马路的那边了。
Then off he flew to the other side of the road, like a rubber ball rebounding off a wall.
在电杆旁，和他对面，正向着马路，其时也站定了两个人：一个是淡黄制服的挂刀的面黄肌瘦的巡警，手里牵着绳头，绳的那头就拴在别一个穿蓝布大衫上罩白背心的男人的臂膊上。
At precisely that moment two men come to a stop next to a telephone pole facing Fat Boy and the street behind him.
One is a thin, sallow-faced policeman in pale yellow uniform, a saber at his side.
In one hand he holds a rope, the other end of which is tied round the arm of a man wearing a long blue cotton gown beneath a sleeveless white vest.
这男人戴一顶新草帽，帽檐四面下垂，遮住了眼睛的一带。
the brim of a brand-new straw hat pulled down over his eyes.
但胖孩子身体矮，仰起脸来看时，却正撞见这人的眼睛了。
The fat boy was short enough to peep under the brim, and he met the man's eyes -
那眼睛也似乎正在看他的脑壳。
which seemed to be focused on his own head.
他连忙顺下眼，去看白背心，只见背心上一行一行地写着些大大小小的什么字。
He hastily lowered his eyes to look at the white jerkin, on which were lines of writing, large and small.
刹时间，也就围满了大半圈的看客。
The scene instantly gathered a generous semicircle of spectators.
待到增加了秃头的老头子之后，空缺已经不多，而立刻又被一个赤膊的红鼻子胖大汉补满了。
After they were joined by an old bald-head, the little space left was promptly occupied by a bare-chested fat fellow with a red nose.
这胖子过于横阔，占了两人的地位，所以续到的便只能屈在第二层，从前面的两个脖子之间伸进脑袋去。
who is so wide that he takes up space enough to accommodate several people, forcing the straggling latecomers to content themselves with positions in a second row, whence they are obliged to thrust their heads between the shoulders of those standing in the row in front of them.
秃头站在白背心的略略正对面，弯了腰，去研究背心上的文字，终于读起来：“嗡，都，哼，八，而，……”
Baldy, standing almost directly opposite White Jerkin, stooped to study the characters written on his jerkin.
Finally he read out: “Weng, du, heng, ba, er .. .”
胖孩子却看见那白背心正研究着这发亮的秃头，他也便跟着去研究，就只见满头光油油的，耳朵左近还有一片灰白色的头发，此外也不见得有怎样新奇。
Fat Boy, noticing that White Vest is now engaged in a close study of the shiny bald head that has presented itself before him, joins him in these researches but discovers nothing more than two patches of grey hair alongside the ears of an otherwise stark-naked head.
Apart from those patches, however, he detects nothing remarkable about the specimen.
但是后面的一个抱着孩子的老妈子却想乘机挤进来了；秃头怕失了位置，连忙站直，文字虽然还未读完，然而无可奈何，只得另看白背心的脸：草帽檐下半个鼻子，一张嘴，尖下巴。
An ageing amah just behind him, a child in her arms, tried to squeeze forward, bringing the bald man abruptly upright again, ready to fight for his place.
The text of the waistcoat lying beyond his vision, he contented himself instead with perusing with the present-day world.
又像用了力掷在墙上而反拨过来的皮球一般，一个小学生飞奔上来，一手按住了自己头上的雪白的小布帽，向人丛中直钻进去。
Like another rubber ball rebounding off a wall, a small schoolboy now plunged into the crowd, one hand securing a snow-white hat on his head.
但他钻到第三――也许是第四――层，竟遇见一件不可动摇的伟大的东西了，抬头看时，蓝裤腰上面有一座赤条条的很阔的背脊，背脊上还有汗正在流下来。
But when he had shoved past three or four rows, he came up against something immovable and massive.
Looking up he saw, above a pair of blue pants, a broad, bare back running with sweat.