然后端起她那半碗饺子，倒进了老人碗里。我最后悔的一件事，就是跟着母亲去卖白菜，有意无意的多算了一位买白菜的老人一毛钱。算完钱我就去了学校。当我放学回家时，看到很少流泪的母亲泪流满面。母亲并没有骂我，只是轻轻的说：“儿子，你让娘丢了脸。”
mother contracted a serious lung disease when i was still in my teens. hunger, disease, and too much work made things extremely hard on our family. the road ahead looked especially bleak, and i had a bad feeling about the future, worried that mother might take her own life. every day, the first thing i did when i walked in the door after a day of hard labor was call out for mother. hearing her voice was like giving my heart a new lease on life. but not hearing her threw me into a panic. i'd go looking for her in the side building and in the mill. one day, after searching everywhere and not finding her, i sat down in the yard and cried like a baby. that is how she found me when she walked into the yard carrying a bundle of firewood on her back. she was very unhappy with me, but i could not tell her what i was afraid of. she knew anyway. \may be no joy in my life, but i won't leave you till
the god of the underworld calls me.\
我十几岁时，母亲患了严重的肺病，饥饿，病痛，劳累，使我们这个家庭陷入了困境，看不到光明和希望。我产生了一种强烈的不祥之兆，以为母亲随时都会自己寻短见。每当我劳动归来，一进大门就高喊母亲，听到她的回应，心中才感到一块石头落了地。如果一时听不到她的回应，我就心惊胆战，跑到厨房和磨坊里寻找。有一次找遍了所有的房间也没有见到母亲的身影，我便坐在了院子里大哭。这时母亲背着一捆柴草从外面走进来。她对我的哭很不满，但我又不能对她说出我的担忧。母亲看到我的心思，她说：“孩子你放心，尽管我活着没有一点乐趣，但只要阎王爷不叫我，我是不会去的。”
i was born ugly. villagers often laughed in my face, and school bullies sometimes beat me up because of it. i'd run home crying, where my mother would say, \not ugly, son. you've got a nose and two eyes, and there's nothing wrong with your arms and legs, so how could you be ugly? if you have a good heart and always do the right thing, what is considered ugly becomes beautiful.\were educated people who laughed at me behind my back, some even to my face; but when i recalled what mother
had said, i just calmly offered my apologies. 我生来相貌丑陋，村子里很多人当面嘲笑我，学校里有几个性格霸蛮的同学甚至为此打我。我回家痛苦，母亲对我说：“儿子，你不丑，你不缺鼻子不缺眼，四肢健全，丑在哪里?而且只要你心存善良，多做好事，即便是丑也能变美。”后来我进入城市，有一些很有文化的人依然在背后甚至当面嘲弄我的相貌，我想起了母亲的话，便心平气和地向他们道歉。
my illiterate mother held people who could read in high regard. we were so poor we often did not know where our next meal was coming from, yet she never denied my request to buy a book or something to write with. by nature hard working, she had no use for lazy children, yet i could skip my chores as long as i had my nose in a book.
我母亲不识字，但对识字的人十分敬重。我们家生活困难，经常吃了上顿没下顿。但只要我对她提出买书买文具的要求，她总是会满足我。她是个勤劳的人，讨厌懒惰的孩子，但只要是我因为看书耽误了干活，她从来没批评过我。 a storyteller once came to the marketplace, and i sneaked off to listen to him. she was unhappy with me for forgetting my chores. but that night, while she was
stitching padded clothes for us under the weak light of a kerosene lamp, i couldn't keep from retelling stories i'd heard that day. she listened impatiently at first, since in her eyes professional storytellers were smooth-talking men in a dubious profession. nothing good ever came out of their mouths. but slowly she was dragged into my retold stories, and from that day on, she never gave me chores on market day, unspoken permission to go to the marketplace and listen to new stories. as repayment for mother's kindness and a way to demonstrate my memory, i'd retell the stories for her in vivid detail. it did not take long to find retelling someone else's stories unsatisfying, so i began embellishing my narration. i'd say things i knew would please mother, even changed the ending once in a while. and she wasn't the only member of my audience, which later included my older sisters, my aunts, even my maternal grandmother. sometimes, after my mother had listened to one of my stories, she'd ask in a care-laden voice, almost as if to herself: \when you grow up, son? might you wind up prattling for a living one day?\
有一段时间，集市上来了一个说书人。我偷偷地跑去听书，忘记了她分配给我的活儿。为此，母亲批评了我，晚上当她就着一盏小油灯为家人赶制棉衣时，我忍不住把白天从说书人听来的故事复述给她听，起初她有些不耐烦，因为在她心目中说书人都是油嘴滑舌，不务正业的人，从他们嘴里冒不出好话来。但我复述的故事渐渐的吸引了她，以后每逢集日她便不再给我排活，默许我去集上听书。为了报答母亲的恩情，也为了向她炫耀我的记忆力，我会把白天听到的故事，绘声绘色地讲给她听。很快的，我就不满足复述说书人讲的故事了，我在复述的过程中不断的添油加醋，我会投我母亲所好，编造一些情节，有时候甚至改变故事的结局。我的听众也不仅仅是我的母亲，连我的姐姐，我的婶婶，我的奶奶都成为我的听众。我母亲在听完我的故事后，有时会忧心忡忡地，像是对我说，又像是自言自语：“儿啊，你长大后会成为一个什么人呢?难道要靠耍贫嘴吃饭吗?” i knew why she was worried. talkative kids are not well thought of in our village, for they can bring trouble to themselves and to their families. there is a bit of a young me in the talkative boy who falls afoul of villagers in my story \cautioned me not to talk so much, wanting me to be a taciturn, smooth and steady youngster. instead i was