妹妹的出生（三）

妹妹的出生（三）

课程导读

上节课我们读到，惜华见到了刚出生的妹妹很是高兴，还沾了妈妈的光喝上了鸡汤，但是奶奶在一旁一直拿他打趣。本节课，我们会读到，一个月以后惜华家举办的满月酒席宴……我们将借惜华的视角，看看上世纪初，四川普通家庭的满月酒是什么样的。

英文原文

A month later, our house was buzzing with relatives. Such a lot of them.

My mother was walking about, sweet and affable, but still white and thin, although she had not worked all that month.

She entered the sitting room with my little sister in her arms, and all the relatives, one after another, came up to her and touched the little big-eyed girl, whose small stomach was covered with a red flannel apron—a protection against the cold.

The relatives argued about whose nose the little girl was going to have, whose eyes, whose mouth.

They wished her good fortune.
“May she grow up to be as intelligent as her mother.”
“May she become a good hostess.”
“May she be the most beautiful bride in Hsien-Shih.”
“She will be a famous authoress.”
This last wish was expressed by my elder uncle.

I knew it because, being himself fond of writing, he always said the same thing to every new-born baby.

The inspection was over, the little girl was wrapped up again and carried away.

The relatives presented my mother with gifts. There were eggs in woven baskets, cackling hens, bags of sugar, selected rice—beautiful rice, which one would like to string on a thread and wear for a necklace, so beautiful it was—and sweets….

My grandmother glanced from the bag of sweets to me, and began laughing again.

The procession of relatives moved to the dining room.

At the table, the return gifts from our family were distributed, each relative receiving two red eggs.

I was sad; we did not have enough money, so I could not stick a gilt-paper hieroglyphic meaning “luck” on the eggs.