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難忘童年風筝情

Unforgettable Kites in My Childhood

紀毓鼎遺著

               Author: Chi, Yu-Ting (1915-2015)

    Translator: Crystal Tai (the author's granddaughter)

故鄉四季分明，在農曆新年過完燈節之後，地陽漸漸上升，積雪消融，草木萌芽，四處生機勃勃。這時野馬般的孩子們再也關不住了。大人也喜郊外活動。我二叔愛放風箏。他和帳房楊老通力合作，紥了八角形，六角形的風箏。八角形的八尺見方。六角形的也有四尺高。每逢天晴風勁，他們號召佃農，五六人牽拉，一面奔跑，一面放繩。要等那龐然大物升入高空，才能把繩子縛在大樹幹上。一放數日，夜間不予收回。我們這些孩子們也學紥一些八角形，六角形的小風箏，在田野間互比高下。

In my hometown, where there are four distinct seasons, the sun begins to gradually warm up the ground after the 15-day celebration of Lunar New Year. At this time of year, wild-horse-like children would not stay indoors anymore. Adults would feel like outdoor activities, too. My second uncle loved to fly kites. He worked with our family accountant Mr. Yang to make octagonal and heptagonal kites. Their octagonal kite was as big as eight square feet. The heptagonal one was four feet tall. Whenever it was sunny and windy, they asked our tenant farmers to come along. Five or six people cooperated to pull a huge kite. They ran to let the lines of the kite straighten. They waited until the gigantic thing rose up very high in the sky to tie the lines around the thick trunk of a tree. They left their kites out there for days without bringing them down at night. We the children learned to make octagonal and heptagonal kites as well. Then we competed with one another when flying our smaller kites.

有一年正月，我在曲塘鎮的洋貨店看到一隻老鷹風箏，黑灰帶褐赭的羽毛，黃綠色的眼珠，威風凜凜，真是紥得維妙維肖。我堅持要買。店家索價一元二角。那時白米不過兩元上下一擔。怎可浪費? 可是我的小腦袋哪懂這些？不達目的，吵閙不休。結果，祖母還是叫人買了。

One year in the first lunar month, I saw a hawk-shaped kite at a department store in Qutang (a small town with a poetic name which means “winding pond” in Chinese, located in Jiangsu Province). The hawk had grayish black feathers with some brown highlights, as well as yellowish green eyes. He looked magnificent, just like a real hawk! I insisted on buying the kite. The price was one Chinese dollar and 20 cents. Back then, a bucket of rice only cost two Chinese dollars. How could I waste so much money on a toy? However, I was too young to understand the value of money. I refused to take no for an answer and kept fussing. Eventually, Grandma had one of our servants buy it for me.

我滿懷歡樂，捧著風箏，坐船回到鄉下，等不及吃飯，就跟大哥到東花園放了起來。誰知傍晚風勁，一陣狂飆，猛然把引線拉斷，風箏落到大桑樹上，好像還在拼命掙扎，弄得體無完膚。幾個男傭爬上樹用鋸子把樹頭鋸下，才能把風箏取下來，可是只剩一個竹篾架子了。

I was full of joy! Holding my kite, I took a boat back to our village home. I didn't even want to eat dinner. I just went to our east garden with my elder brother to fly the kite. However, dusk winds were unexpectedly strong. A whirlwind abruptly broke the line of the kite, which fell on top of a mulberry tree. The hawk seemed to be struggling very hard for his life, but only to get himself broken into pieces. A few male servants climbed the tree and used a saw to cut down the top of the tree before they were able to bring the kite down. At this point, the kite was only a bamboo skeleton.

以一個幼童對於心愛之物如此殘破，怎不傷懷？母親看我哭得可憐，親手用極柔極薄的綿紙依樣剪裁，重新糊過，並畫上顏色，比原來的神采更為威猛美觀。也在這時我才知道，母親精於繪事，只緣結婚後忙著家務忙著兒女，就沒再執過畫筆。真是埋沒遺傳自她母親的才華！我的外婆尤王培蘊，外號倚琴老人，乃邑中名家，所寫工筆花鳥，流傳甚廣。惜以戰亂流失，未能保存一張半幅，實感恨恨！

How could a young child not be heart broken when facing the destruction of his favorite thing? My mother saw how miserably I was crying. Then she took out some extremely soft and thin cotton paper. She cut the paper in the right size for each hole of the broken kite, glued the pieces of paper to the bamboo frame in order to fill all the holes, and began to paint a colorful hawk. The hawk turned out to look even more awe-inspiring than it was! I never knew until this moment that my mother was a talented artist, but as a married woman, she put down her paintbrush to take care of family duties and her children. Regretfully, she buried her talent, which she inherited from her mother. My maternal grandmother You Wang Pei Yun, nicknamed the Elderly Lute Player, was actually a famous artist in our hometown. Her paintings of flowers and birds were widely circulated. Unfortunately, they were all lost in wartime. I was unable to keep even one of them. What a deep regret!

至於那隻老鷹風箏，雖然修復完好，但我不敢放飛，只肯掛在壁上欣賞。此事成為趣談。

As for the hawk kite, although it was completely fixed, I didn't dare to fly it. I only hung it up on the wall to appreciate it like a piece of art. This incident became an interesting story.

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【法奶日報www.lulijen.com2015.3.9.出刊，第9-1345號】