[Translation] Chapter 2(2) of Sealed with a Kiss Novel
真正跟萧山熟起来是在寒假，英国老太太给我们布置的寒假作业就是分组排一幕莎士比亚的剧。全班按座次被分成若干个小组，有的小组选了《罗密欧与朱丽叶》，有的小组选了《仲夏夜之梦》，有的小组选了《哈姆雷特》……我和萧山被分在一组，我们这组选了《威尼斯商人》。等春节过了，每个小组都要在班上公演，然后分别评分。
I only got to know Xiao Shan better during winter break. The English old lady split the class into small groups to act out a scene in a Shakespearean play as our homework assignment for winter break. Each person was assigned into a group was according to our seating arrangement. One group chose Romeo and Juliet, another chose A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and another chose Hamlet… Xiao Shan and I were assigned to the same group, and we chose Merchant of Venice. At the end of the Spring Festival [10], every group had to perform in front of the whole class and rated the performance of the other groups.
[10] Also known as Chinese Lunar New Year when everyone goes home to reunite with his/her family.
我很喜欢寒假排戏的那段日子，因为可以不用呆在舅舅家里，越临近春节我越有种无家可归的凄惶。舅妈总念叨过年要置办的东西，表妹吵着要买台新的笔记本电脑。几年前笔记本还没像现在一样烂大街，表妹已经有台联想笔记本了，但说是班上有同学用索尼新款，舅舅于是许诺她考到全班前二十名就买给她。
I fell in love with the time we used to rehearse our play during winter break. It meant that I didn’t have to stay at uncle’s house. When Spring Festival drew closer, my sense of homelessness grew even stronger. Uncle’s wife always grumbled about the different things that needed to be done for New Year and my younger cousin nagged about needing to buy a new laptop. A few years ago, laptops weren’t such a common commodity as now. My younger cousin already had a Lenovo laptop, but she said someone in her class was using the newest Sony model. So my uncle promised that if she could on her next exam make it to the top 20 of her class, he would purchase one for her.
表妹的成绩一直在三十多名上下，所以她不高兴撅起了嘴，舅舅说：“撅嘴也不行，你看你姐姐，从来不乱要东西。我说给她买个手机，她都不要。”
My younger cousin’s grades had always lingered in thirty-something ranks. Consequently, she pursed her lips in discontent. Uncle said, “Pursing your lips won’t help either. Look at your older sister, she never asks me to buy her random things. I said I wanted to buy her a cellphone but she even declined.”
当时舅妈的脸色就显得有些不好看，我连忙说：“帅帅还小呢，再说电脑学习也用得着，她也不是乱要东西。”
At that moment, uncle wife’s countenance changed in slight annoyance, so I rushed to say, “Shuai Shuai is still young. She can always use a computer for her study.”
表妹就拉着舅舅撒娇：“爸，你看表姐都说了。”
So my younger cousin pulled on my uncle’s arm and in pleading voice, “Dad, see! Even Biao Jie [11] said so.”
[11] Biao Jie is an older female cousin with a different surname
我只觉得心酸，去年春节的时候，我还拉着爸爸妈妈的手撒娇，可是现在不管我想要什么，都没有人买给我了。
[Watching my younger cousin], I could only bury deeper in my grief. Last Spring Festival, I also pulled on my mom and dad’s arms to nag at them. Now, no matter what I desired, no one would buy it for me.
那时候我对周遭的一切非常敏感，又非常脆弱，所以宁可躲出去，省得心里难过。
At that time, I became extremely sensitive to my surrounding, and also felt extremely vulnerable. I would rather go out to hide and save myself some heartache.
排练一般在萧山家里，萧山家里很宽敞，又没有大人在家，只有他姥爷姥姥。我到现在还记得两位老人家和蔼的样子。我们关在暖气充足的书房里，旁若无人的大声念对白，姥姥在厨房里给我们做了点心，拿盘子端出来。
Most of our rehearsals took place at Xiao Shan’s house. His house was quite spacious and there were no other adults at home besides his elderly grandparents.
有时候是糯米藕，有时候是桂花年糕，有时候是水晶烧卖……统统都非常好吃。萧山的姥姥是南方人，做的点心都是家乡风味，姥姥又总是最关照我这个唯一的女生，让我常常吃到很撑。
Sometimes there were lotus roots stuffed with sweet rice, other times there were Osmanthus sticky cake or Shui Jing Shao Mai (type of translucent pork dumplings)… Everything looked absolutely delicious. Xiao Shan’s grandmother was from the south, so all the appetizers had the gourmet taste of her hometown cuisine. Being the only female in the group, his grandmother was particularly attentive to me, always stuffing me to my fullest.
那时候我还不适应北方的冬天，干燥得让我常常流鼻血。有天在萧山家里对台词，背着背着就有同学叫：“哎呀童雪，你流鼻血了。”
At that time, I still had not adjusted to the harsh northern winters. The dryness caused my nose to bleed frequently. One day while we were practicing our lines, a fellow classmate screamed, “Oh gosh Tong Xue, your nose is bleeding.”
我一低头鲜红的血点就滴在襟前的毛衣上，毛衣是白的，滴上去看着格外触目惊心，我晕血，一下子整个人都软在了那里。最后还是萧山架着我去洗手间，胡乱把我头发捋起来，拼命用凉水拍我的后颈窝。姥姥在一旁帮忙，用毛巾擦着我脖子里淌下来的水，一边擦一边说：“唉哟，这孩子，看着真受罪。”
I lowered my head and drops of blood dripped onto my knitted sweater —a white sweater. The red blood drops on a white surface turned into quite a frightening sight. Being hemtophobic, my body suddenly became really weak and collapsed. In the end, it was Xiao Shan who helped me to the bathroom, messily held up my hair, and used cool water to pat on my neck. His grandmother stood on the side to assist, using a cloth towel to wipe the water dripping down from my neck. As she wiped, she said, “Oh dear, this child! It’s torture to just look at her.”
萧山微凉的掌心，拍着冷水在我的脖子里，他啪啦啪啦拍着，血仍不停地往下滴，滴到面盆里。水龙头开得很大，哗哗的声音，听得我更觉得眩晕，只看见一缕缕血丝很快被水冲走了。隔一会儿他总要问我：“怎么样？怎么还在流啊？”
Xiao Shan’s mildly cool palm used the icy water to pat my neck. As he patted, and patted, and patted, blood continued to drip downward onto the sink. The strong water flow from the faucet created a swashing sound, causing me to feel even dizzier. I just saw filaments of blood being washed away with the water. At every short interval, he would ask me, “How are you feeling? Why is it still dripping?”
姥姥嗔怪他沉不住气，然后又掐我手上的穴位，姥姥掐了一会儿，就让他掐：“你劲大，用点力气掐住了，就不流了。”
His grandmother lightly scolded him for his lack of patience, and then pressed on my hand pulse. After she pressed for some time, she asked Xiao Shao to do it. “You’re stronger. Use some force and press on the pulse tightly, then the bleeding will stop.”
他的手劲果然大，狠狠一掐，掐得我眼泪都涌出来了。看着我哭他又连忙撒了手，姥姥又怪他：“你怎么这么蛮啊，女孩子的手，嫩着呢。”
His hand pressure was quite strong, ferociously pressing on my pulse, so hard that my tears almost squirted out of my eyes. He immediately let go when he saw my tears. His grandmother then scolded him again. “How could you use such brutish force? It’s a girl’s hand, very delicate.”
我于是一边流鼻血一边流眼泪一边还要劝姥姥：“您别怪他，他也是想快点把我掐住了。”
Though I both was bleeding through the nose and crying with tears in my eyes, I had to simultaneously urge his grandmother to stop her scolding. “Don’t mind him. He just wanted to quickly “strangle” my bleeding.”
他竟然在一边笑出声来：“掐住了……这说法怎么这么怪啊？”
Xiao Shan then actually broke into laughter. “Strangle….Why does this word choice sounds so strange?”
姥姥在一旁拍他：“臭小子，还笑！”
His grandmother smacked him. “You scamp, you’re even laughing!”
那天我都忘了我的鼻血到底是怎么止住的，只记得后来我鼻子里塞着药棉，然后吃姥姥做的枣泥锅饼。姥姥一边劝我吃，一边说：“枣泥是补血的，多吃一点儿。”
I totally forgot how my nose bleed stopped that day. I just remember I had two cotton balls plugged up my nostrils and then I ate some jujube paste cakes. His grandmother urged me to eat as she said, “Jujube paste nourishes the blood, you should eat more.”
© 2011, JoleCole. All rights reserved.
