那时我在Ｓ城，就时时听到人们提起他的名字，都说他很有些古怪：所学的是动物学，却到中学堂去做历史教员；对人总是爱理不理的，却常喜欢管别人的闲事；常说家庭应该破坏，一领薪水却一定立即寄给他的祖母，一日也不拖延。
When I lived in S ― I often heard him mentioned as an odd fellow: after studying zoology, he had become a history teacher in a middle school; he treated others in cavalier fashion, yet liked to concern himself with their affairs; and while maintaining that the family system should be abolished, he would remit his salary to his grandmother the same day that he drew it.
此外还有许多零碎的话柄；总之，在Ｓ城里也算是一个给人当作谈助的人。
He had many other strange ways, enough to set tongues wagging in the town.
有一年的秋天，我在寒石山的一个亲戚家里闲住；他们就姓魏，是连殳的本家。
One autumn, I happened to find myself idling a stretch of time away with some relatives who lived near Hanshi Mountain, and who, sharing the surname Wei, happened also to claim a distant relation to Wei Lianshu.
但他们却更不明白他，仿佛将他当作一个外国人看待，说是“同我们都异样的”。
However, they understood him even less, looking on him as if he were a foreigner. “He's not like us!” they said.
这也不足为奇，中国的兴学虽说已经二十年了，寒石山却连小学也没有。
And no wonder.
Twenty years after China had launched a national programme of educational reform, Hanshi Mountain still found itself without so much as a primary school.
全山村中，只有连殳是出外游学的学生，所以从村人看来，他确是一个异类；但也很妒羡，说他挣得许多钱。
Lianshu was the only villager who had left to get an education.
He was also the object of no little envy: everyone insisted he'd made a fortune in town.
到秋末，山村中痢疾流行了；我也自危，就想回到城中去。
By the close of that autumn, dysentery was rife through the village.
Fearing for my own safety, I considered heading back to town.
那时听说连殳的祖母就染了病，因为是老年，所以很沉重；山中又没有一个医生。
At that point, I heard that Lianshu's grandmother had come down with it.
Because of her age, she was unlikely to pull through, especially as there was no doctor in the village.
所谓他的家属者，其实就只有一个这祖母，雇一名女工简单地过活；他幼小失了父母，就由这祖母抚养成人的。
Wei had no other relative but this grandmother, who led a simple life with a maidservant.
As he had lost both parents in his childhood, she had brought him up.
听说她先前也曾经吃过许多苦，现在可是安乐了。
I heard that, although things had been hard for her in the past, she now lived in relative peace and comfort.
但因为他没有家小，家中究竟非常寂寞，这大概也就是大家所谓异样之一端罢。
Since he had neither wife nor children, however, his family was very quiet, and this presumably was one of the things considered freakish about him.
寒石山离城是旱道一百里，水道七十里，专使人叫连殳去，往返至少就得四天。
By land, Coldstone Mountain was a good hundred li from S-town, where Lianshu taught at the middle school; and even by water it would be seventy. 3If someone were sent to town to fetch him back, it would be at least four days before he could reasonably be expected to appear.
山村僻陋，这些事便算大家都要打听的大新闻，第二天便轰传她病势已经极重，专差也出发了；可是到四更天竟咽了气，最后的话，是：“为什么不肯给我会一会连殳的呢？……”
In this out-of-the-way village such matters were considered momentous news, eagerly canvassed by all.The next day the old woman was reported to be in a critical state, and the messenger on his way.However, before dawn she died, her last words being: “Why won't you let me see my grandson?”
族长，近房，他的祖母的母家的亲丁，闲人，聚集了一屋子，豫计连殳的到来，应该已是入殓的时候了。
Every relative that could be rustled up - together with a number of idle spectators - now assembled.
When Lianshu arrived, they calculated, it would be time to place the deceased in her coffin.
寿材寿衣早已做成，都无须筹画；他们的第一大问题是在怎样对付这“承重孙”〔２〕，因为逆料他关于一切丧葬仪式，是一定要改变新花样的。
Since the longlife box and longlife clothes had long since been prepared, there was nothing to worry about on that score. 5The first and foremost problem facing them now was how to deal with the burden-inheriting grandson, for they assumed he would be sure to try and introduce new wrinkles into both the mourning rituals and the funeral ceremonies. 6
聚议之后，大概商定了三大条件，要他必行。
After a conference, they decided on three terms which he must accept.
一是穿白，二是跪拜，三是请和尚道士做法事〔３〕。
One, that he should wear white, the conventional colour of mourning; two, that he should kneel; and three, that Daoist and Buddhist monks should be called in to perform the proper ceremonies.
总而言之：是全都照旧。
In sum: that all should be done in absolute accordance with tradition.
他们既经议妥，便约定在连殳到家的那一天，一同聚在厅前，排成阵势，互相策应，并力作一回极严厉的谈判。
This decision once reached, they decided to gather there in full force when Wei arrived home, to assist each other in this negotiation which could admit of no compromise.
村人们都咽着唾沫，新奇地听候消息；他们知道连殳是“吃洋教”的“新党”，向来就不讲什么道理，两面的争斗，大约总要开始的，或者还会酿成一种出人意外的奇观。
Licking their lips in anticipation of the coming confrontation, the rest of the villagers eagerly awaited news of Lianshu's arrival.
They all knew that he was one of those "new party" people who "ate off foreign religions" and had never talked reason in his whole life. 7 To the villagers, it seemed more than likely that a fight would break out between Lianshu and his relatives, or if they were lucky, maybe they would get to see some other completely outlandish thing that they could not even anticipate as yet.
传说连殳的到家是下午，一进门，向他祖母的灵前只是弯了一弯腰。
According to what I later heard, it was afternoon when Lianshu arrived home.
He had barely had time to walk through the door and bow toward his grandmother's coffin
族长们便立刻照豫定计画进行，将他叫到大厅上，先说过一大篇冒头，然后引入本题，而且大家此唱彼和，七嘴八舌，使他得不到辩驳的机会。
when the clan elders began setting their prearranged stratagem into motion.
They called him into the main hall and after a lot of polite chitchat, worked into the main theme.
With half a dozen mouths and as many tongues, each speaking in support of the others, they so overpowered Lianshu with the force of their voices that he was unable to say anything.
但终于话都说完了，沉默充满了全厅，人们全数悚然地紧看着他的嘴。
At last, however, they dried up, and a deep silence fell in the hall.
All eyes fastened fearfully on his lips.
只见连殳神色也不动，简单地回答道：
But without changing countenance, he answered simply: