雨巷寻香--最新20篇论坛精华-全文http://www.rainlane.comzh-cn雨巷寻香http://www.rainlane.comRss Generator By Dvbbs.Netxlkqwshr@public1.ptt.js.cnimages/rain.gif雨巷寻香《岳阳楼记》A Comparative Studyhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=22475&Page=1tx2006-9-30 22:09:04《岳阳楼记》A Comparative Study


    前幾天有人徵求《岳阳楼记》的英文翻譯﹐回應並不很理想。搜索文檔﹐得一舊練習稿﹐脫落不全。有意校訂補全﹐可惜近日公務較忙﹐完稿遙遙無期。現將完成部份﹐連同譯注﹐且修補且發表。希望能得一二週末﹐完成補釘工作。

                   -- tx (from Messaa Group International)
                   -- September 3, 2006

    今天閒來衝網﹐喜見雨巷尋春論壇的nyleda 也翻了 《岳阳楼记》(2006-9-6 3:13:26) ﹐拷貝研讀﹐獲益匪淺﹐現在把它貼出來﹐和大家共享。

                   -- tx
                   -- September 30, 2006

nyleda (雨巷尋春論壇)
http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&replyid=35558&id=22247&page=1&skin=0&Star=1

tx (旺旺英語論壇)
http://bbs.wwenglish.org/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=69&replyID=235114&id=225881&skin=0
(containing extensive translation notes)



]]>[原创 中译英]杨绛：读书苦乐: nyleda; 蔚然深秀; english2008(优秀奖);haoone (1,5,16,20 楼)http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=22446&Page=1nyleda2006-9-27 3:38:08（第18届“韩素音青年翻译奖”参赛原文汉译英部分）
 
从网上看到评委的参考译文，不过正式发表还要等到12月份“中国翻译”第六期的出版。因为网上的“参考译文”仅是初稿，而且十分难懂，所以不愿费事抄过来。有兴趣者可自去下列地址察看：http://www.rainlane.com//dispbbs.asp?boardID=8&ID=22406&page=1
 
 
第一段原文：
读书钻研学问，当然得下苦功夫。为应考试、为写论文、为求学位，大概都得苦读。陶渊明好读书。如果他生于当今之世，要去考大学，或考研究院，或考什么“托福儿”，难免会有些困难吧？我只愁他政治经济学不能及格呢，这还不是因为他“不求甚解”。
试译：
Reading to become learned necessarily involves painstaking efforts. Reading to pass exams, write papers, or get a degree can also be a painful experience. Tao Yuanming, a poet lived in ancient China, is known for his obsession with joyful reading. However, if he lived today, he would probably feel uncomfortable being asked to do things like-- prepare for college entrance exams, get admitted in a graduate program, or pass a foreign language test called "TOFEL". For no other reasons but his adoption to a "reading with no pain" philosophy, I worry that he would fail a modern political economy course.
 
 
第二段原文：
我曾挨过几下“棍子”，说我读书“追求精神享受”。我当时只好低头认罪。我也承认自己确实不是苦读。不过，“乐在其中”并不等于追求享受。这话可为知者言，不足为外人道也。
试译：
I have been criticized for "seeking obsessive pleasure" from reading, a lash for failing to stick to ideological doctrines. At the time, I admitted that I faulted. Since I did enjoy reading, the accusation was not unreasonable. However, "seeking joy from reading" is subtly different from seeking obsessive pleasure. I could share this view with my friends who also enjoyed reading but would definitely not mention it to those who opposed the idea of reading for joy.
 
 
第三段原文：
我觉得读书好比串门儿——“隐身”的串门儿。要参见钦佩的老师或拜谒有名的学者，不必事前打招呼求见，也不怕搅扰主人。翻开书面就闯进大门，翻过几页就升堂入室；而且可以经常去，时刻去，如果不得要领，还可以不辞而别，或者另找高明，和他对质。不问我们要拜见的主人住在国内国外，不问他属于现代古代，不问他什么专业，不问他讲正经大道理或聊天说笑，都可以挨近前去听个足够。我们可以恭恭敬敬旁听孔门弟子追述夫子遗言，也不妨淘气地笑问“言必称‘亦曰仁义而已矣’的孟夫子”，他如果生在我们同一个时代，会不会是一位马列主义老先生呀？我们可以在苏格拉底临刑前守在他身边，听他和一伙朋友谈话；也可以对斯多葛派伊匹克悌忒斯（Epictetus）的《金玉良言》思考怀疑。我们可以倾听前朝列代的遗闻逸事，也可以领教当代最奥妙的创新理论或有意惊人的故作高论。反正话不投机或言不入耳，不妨抽身退场，甚至砰一下推上大门——就是说，拍地合上书面——谁也不会嗔怪。这是书以外的世界里难得的自由！
试译：
Reading a book is like calling upon a neighbor-- an invisible call though. You can pay a visit on a senior writer or a renowned scholar without fear that you didn't make an appointment or you will interrupt him.  When you open up a book, you have stridden through the front door into a neighbor's house. A couple pages turned over, you are in his study room already. Of course, you can revisit as often as you like, and why not? You can leave without saying a word when you are dissatisfied, or confront him with a more satisfactory argument you have learned from visit to another house.
 
The person we are going to visit can live abroad or at home, be a contemporary or classical figure, be specialized in any field, talk seriously or lightly. None of these matters. Just take a closer seat and hear what he says. We can sit and listen respectfully to a Confucian scholar recounting details of lectures given by the great Master, or ask mischievously with a smile: Will Mencius, who liked to stress "Benevolence and righteousness would suffice," be a Mr. Marxist if he lives concurrently with us? We have the opportunity to stay with Socrates and hear his conversation with his friends just before the execution, or ponder on the validity of Epictetus' Golden Sayings, thoughts from the Stoic school. We can be a solicitous audience of anecdotes handed down from previous dynasties. We can also try to comprehend the most innovative and profound theories of our era or switch to hearing remarks made in a pretentious and exaggerating style. Our advantage as a visitor is that we can walk out anytime when we are tired of or fed up with what we have heard. It doesn't matter if we slam the door-- nobody will hear the bang as we clamp the book shut. This is a freedom rarely seen outside the world of books.
 
 
第四段原文：
壶公悬挂的一把壶里，别有天地日月。每一本书——不论小说、戏剧、传记、游记、日记，以至散文诗词，都别有天地，别有日月星辰，而且还有生存其间的人物。我们很不必巴巴地赶赴某地，花钱买门票去看些仿造的赝品或“栩栩如生”的替身，只要翻开一页书，走入真境，遇见真人，就可以亲亲切切地观赏一番。
试译：
The legendary Hugong carried a pot that could create a lively world. Similarly, a book-- be it a novel, a play, a biography, a diary, or a collection of travel notes or of poetry and prose-- can as well create a lively world with Heaven, Earth, Sun, Moon, stars, and men and women living therein. We need not go all the way to a far place, buying tickets there to see imitations or life-like substitutes. The moment we open up a book, we enter a world and meet people there that are accurate and vivid-- get a close contact with books and enjoy what you see.
 
 
第五段原文：
尽管古人把书说成“浩如烟海”，书的世界却真正的“天涯若比邻”，这话绝不是唯心的比拟。世界再大也没有阻隔。佛说“三千大千世界”，可算大极了。书的境地呢，“现在界”还加上“过去界”，也带上“未来界”，实在是包罗万象，贯通三界。而我们却可以足不出户，在这里随意阅历，随时拜师求教。谁说读书人目光短浅，不通人情，不关心世事呢！这里可得到丰富的经历，可认识各时各地、多种多样的人。经常在书里“串门儿”，至少可以脱去几分愚昧，多长几个心眼儿吧？
试译：
In the ancient times, books were compared with an open sea. It is not an idealistic analogy, but this open sea of knowledge can really shorten the distance in the physical world to as close as that of your neighbor's house to yours. The real world is boundless outward and inward. The Buddha says "it is infinitely expandable." With this said, one can verbally add to its voluminousness no more. How are the boundaries of the world of books set? With the present, the past, and the future included, the world of books is all-encompassing and timeless. With books, we can stay at home while strolling through a virtual world to have an experience and find a knowledgeable source to learn from. A person who lives in the world of books will never become shortsighted, unreasonable, or indifferent. Rather, he will enrich his experience and learn from people of various kinds at places and times to his convenience in that world. If you go there often, you can read to become more intelligent and sophisticated, not mentioning other advantages.
 
 
第六段原文：
可惜我们“串门”时“隐”而犹存的“身”，毕竟只是凡胎俗骨。我们没有如来佛的慧眼，把人世间几千年积累的智慧一览无余，只好时刻记住庄子“生也有涯而知也无涯”的名言。我们只是朝生暮死的虫豸（还不是孙大圣毫毛变成的虫儿），钻入书中世界，这边爬爬，那边停停，有时遇到心仪的人，听到惬意的话，或者对心上悬挂的问题偶有所得，就好比开了心窍，乐以忘言。这个“乐”和“追求享受”该不是一回事吧？
试译：
Although we drop around in the virtual world of books without a physical involvement, we are limited in our intellectual capacity. The Buddha has an insightful eye that can discern the truthful from faulty in no time. But we don't. It is impossible that we can find all that is useful from a repository containing thousands of years of human experience, and learn them overnight. In absence of a better solution, we turn to the famous teaching of Chuangtse, "Human life is limited but knowledge is limitless," for help. We are mere insects with a very short life-span (not even up to the ones that are reversibly transformed from the body hair of Monkey King, a legendary immortal in classic Chinese literature), that wander in the world of books, looking and thinking amusedly. Occasionally, we meet people we admire, hear words that are comforting, or come across enlightening remarks. That makes us feel like we have a new intellectual eye opened up. The joy we have is enormous. Now, it is quite clear that enjoying reading books is not seeking obsessive pleasure.

(edited 2007-03-27)
]]>[原创][C-E 练习] 《岳阳楼记》（北宋 范仲淹）http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=22247&Page=1nyleda2006-9-6 3:13:26庆历四年春，滕子京谪守巴陵郡。越明年，政通人和，百废具兴。乃重修岳阳楼，增其旧制，刻唐贤今人诗赋于其上。属予作文以记之。

予观夫巴陵胜状，在洞庭一湖。衔远山，吞长江，浩浩汤汤，横无际涯；朝晖夕阴，气象万千。此则岳阳楼之大观也。前人之述备矣。然则北通巫峡，南极潇湘，迁客骚人，多会于此，览物之情，得无异乎？

若夫霪雨霏霏，连月不开，阴风怒号，浊浪排空；日星隐耀，山岳潜形；商旅不行，樯倾楫摧；薄暮冥冥，虎啸猿啼。登斯楼也，则有去国怀乡，忧谗畏讥，满目萧然，感极而悲者矣。

至若春和景明，波澜不惊，上下天光，一碧万顷；沙鸥翔集，锦鳞游泳；岸芷汀兰，郁郁青青。而或长烟一空，皓月千里，浮光跃金，静影沉璧，渔歌互答，此乐何极！登斯楼也，则有心旷神怡，宠辱偕忘，把酒临风，其喜洋洋者矣。

嗟夫！予尝求古仁人之心，或异二者之为，何哉？不以物喜，不以己悲；居庙堂之高则忧其民；处江湖之远则忧其君。是进亦忧，退亦忧。然则何时而乐耶？其必曰“先天下之忧而忧，后天下之乐而乐”乎。噫！微斯人，吾谁与归？ 时六年九月十五日。
]]>[原创]The Pleasures of an Octogenarian (第十七届“韩素音青年翻译赛" 老来乐)http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=19464&Page=1蔚然深秀2006-2-16 12:04:02试贴拙作如下：

The Pleasures of an Octogenarian

When I was sixty years old, I saw the age of seventy as a towering mountain. Nevertheless, I reached the top of the mountain. Once there, I pictured the age of eighty as the sky, to be gazed at but never touched. To my surprise, I made it to the sky. Now I am four score and two, according to the traditional method of counting age, of course. There is this talk of reviving tradition, isn’t there?

An aged fellow is likely to be one with an insight into the Way. Confucius speaks of the Way that may prevail under Heaven. Lao Tzu begins Tao Te Ching with ‘the Way that can be told of’. The Holy Bible says, ‘In the beginning was the Word’, and Buddhism condemns ‘unorthodox ways’. As for me, old age has given rise to many ways of wild thinking and raving, with the result that I stumbled upon a truth: old age is a vast stage on which to achieve high.

Starting from the year when I turned seventy, I am entitled to receiving a pension without doing a single stroke of work, thus free of any worry about my livelihood and free to enjoy myself. When I feel like reading, I can just flip through any book I want: novels by Jin Yong, by Liang Yusheng, by Agatha Christie and by Seicho Matsumoto, none of which I had a chance to read. But now I can, and I read them almost as quickly as I forget and discard them. With nothing to trouble my mind and nobody to disturb my quiet, I have created an indoor world of my own, derving infinite pleasure from my remaining years.

When, now and then, someone drops in, be it a lady or a gentleman, an acquaintance or a stranger, that will set me gabbing away about everything under the sun, like a jukebox playing an endless CD. However, my leisurely rambling proved to be too much for my busy audience, which dwindled to none by and by, leaving me to my own devices on my ‘vast stage’ of a house.

Switching on the TV, I behold a whole new world: a ‘motionless eighty-thousand-li travel’ around the globe and through past ages; solemn indoctrination juxtaposed with clowns and wisecracks; songs followed by dances; imperial courts and ‘cowsheds’-practically everything conceivable. High-spirited comperes; fashion shows displaying millions of varieties; football and basketball players scoring goals; Chinese women runners wowing their fans with their brilliant performance and pop singers fooling hers with pre-recorded voice. Suddenly a pigtailed man in mandarin attire pops up, as if my father (who would be 140 years old if he were alive) had come back to life. He came all the way to Peking to make his kowtow to last emperor, while I, in my day, nodded a ‘how do you do’ to the very emperor, who had become simply Mr. Puyi, in public. What a progress that signified! No sooner have I begun to feel smug when the mandarin gown gives way to suits and leather shoes and elfish young girls sporting their wavy long hair, silk stockings, and dazzling bikinis. That is more than my eyes and ears could bear. So I’ll call it quits and retire to a quiet repose.

To sum it up,

Of my small house I have made a vast stage,

In my twilight years I have become a busy idler.

==

汉译英比赛用中文原文:

老来乐

六十整岁望七十岁如攀高山。不料七十岁居然过了。又想八十岁是难于上青天， 可望不可即了。岂知 八十岁又过了。老汉今年八十二矣。这是照传统算法， 务虚不务实。现在不是提倡尊重传统吗 ?

老年多半能悟道。孔子说 “天下有道”。老子说 “道可道”。《圣经》说“太初有道”。佛教说“邪魔外道”。我老了， 不免胡思乱想， 胡说八道， 自觉悟出一条真理 : 老年是广阔天地， 是可以大有作为的。

七十岁开始可以诸事不做而拿退休金， 不愁没有一碗饭吃， 自由自在， 自得其乐。要看书可以随便乱翻。 金庸、梁羽生、克里斯蒂、松本清张， 从前哪能拜读 ? 现在可以了。随看随忘， 便扔在一边。无忧无虑， 无人打扰， 不必出门而自有天地。真是无限风光在老年。

偶尔有人来， 不论男女老少认识不认识， 天南地北， 天上地下， 天文地理， 谈天说地， 百无禁忌。我的话匣子一开， 激光磁盘便响个不停， 滔滔不绝。无奈我闲人忙， 听众逐渐稀少， 终于门庭冷落， 只剩一屋子广阔天地， 任我独往独来， 随意挥洒。

打开电视， 又是一番新气象。古今中外， 赤道南极， 变幻莫测。真能坐地日行八万里。忽而庄严说教，忽而插科打浑， 忽而高歌一曲， 忽而舞步翩翩。帝王将相， 牛鬼蛇神， 无不具备， 应有尽有， 场面各有不同 。主持人个个精神焕发。服装表演件件花样翻新。足球射门中的。篮球投篮不空。马家军飒爽英姿。大歌星真人假唱。忽然出现红顶花翎，拖着辫子， 仿佛我的一百四十岁的父亲复活。他不辞辛苦跑到北京来对宣统皇帝磕头。我却曾在大庭广众中对溥仪先生点头问好。真是一代不如一代， 一代胜过一代。正在得意之间， 不料长袍马褂已变成西装革履。长发长袜， 飘来跳去， 三点泳装 耀眼生辉。眼睛耳朵实在招架不住， 那就下令暂停， 闭目养神去也。

这正是 : 小屋之中天地阔 老年无事是忙人。

]]>[转贴] Beauty 论美（节选）[美] S. R. Sanders (第17届“韩素音青年翻译赛”英译汉)http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=19259&Page=1nyleda2006-2-2 4:57:35
BEAUTY Judging from the scientists I know, including Eva and Ruth, and those whom I've read about, you can't pursue the laws of nature very long without bumping into beauty. "I don't know if it's the same beauty you see in the sunset," a friend tells me, "but it feels the same." This friend is a physicist, who has spent a long career deciphering what must be happening in the interior of stars. He recalls for me his thrill on grasping for the first time Dirac's equations describing quantum mechanics, or those of Einstein describing relativity. "They're so beautiful," he says, "you can see immediately they have to be true. Or at least on the way toward truth." I ask him what makes a theory beautiful, and he replies, "Simplicity, symmetry, elegance, and power." Why nature should conform to theories we find beautiful is far from obvious. The most incomprehensible thing about the universe, as Einstein said, is that it's comprehensible. How unlikely, that a short-lived biped on a two-bit planet should be able to gauge the speed of light, lay bare the structure of an atom, or calculate the gravitational tug of a black hole. We're a long way from understanding everything, but we do understand a great deal about how nature behaves. Generation after generation, we puzzle out formulas, test them, and find, to an astonishing degree, that nature agrees. An architect draws designs on flimsy paper, and her buildings stand up through earthquakes. We launch a satellite into orbit and use it to bounce messages from continent to continent. The machine on which I write these words embodies hundreds of insights into the workings of the material world, insights that are confirmed by every burst of letters on the screen, and I stare at that screen through lenses that obey the laws of optics first worked out in detail by Isaac Newton. By discerning patterns in the universe, Newton believed, he was tracing the hand of God. Scientists in our day have largely abandoned the notion of a Creator as an unnecessary hypothesis, or at least an untestable one. While they share Newton's faith that the universe is ruled everywhere by a coherent set of rules, they cannot say, as scientists, how these particular rules came to govern things. You can do science without believing in a divine Legislator, but not without believing in laws. I spent my teenage years scrambling up the mountain of mathematics. Midway up the slope, however, I staggered to a halt, gasping in the rarefied air, well before I reached the heights where the equations of Einstein and Dirac would have made sense. Nowadays I add, subtract, multiply, and do long division when no calculator is handy, and I can do algebra and geometry and even trigonometry in a pinch, but that is about all that I've kept from the language of numbers. Still, I remember glimpsing patterns in mathematics that seemed as bold and beautiful as a skyful of stars. I'm never more aware of the limitations of language than when I try to describe beauty. Language can create its own loveliness, of course, but it cannot deliver to us the radiance we apprehend in the world, any more than a photograph can capture the stunning swiftness of a hawk or the withering power of a supernova. Eva's wedding album holds only a faint glimmer of the wedding itself. All that pictures or words can do is gesture beyond themselves toward the fleeting glory that stirs our hearts. So I keep gesturing. "All nature is meant to make us think of paradise," Thomas Merton observed. Because the Creation puts on a nonstop show, beauty is free and inexhaustible, but we need training in order to perceive more than the most obvious kinds. Even fifteen billion years or so after the Big Bang, echoes of that event still linger in the form of background radiation, only a few degrees above absolute zero. Just so, I believe, the experience of beauty is an echo of the order and power that permeate the universe. To measure background radiation, we need subtle instruments; to measure beauty, we need alert intelligence and our five keen senses. Anyone with eyes can take delight in a face or a flower. You need training, however, to perceive the beauty in mathematics or physics or chess, in the architecture of a tree, the design of a bird's wing, or the shiver of breath through a flute. For most of human history, the training has come from elders who taught the young how to pay attention. By paying attention, we learn to savor all sorts of patterns, from quantum mechanics to patchwork quilts. This predilection brings with it a clear evolutionary advantage, for the ability to recognize patterns helped our ancestors to select mates, find food, avoid predators. But the same advantage would apply to all species, and yet we alone compose symphonies and crossword puzzles, carve stone into statues, map time and space. Have we merely carried our animal need for shrewd perceptions to an absurd extreme? Or have we stumbled onto a deep congruence between the structure of our minds and the structure of the universe? I am persuaded the latter is true. I am convinced there's more to beauty than biology, more than cultural convention. It flows around and through us in such abundance, and in such myriad forms, as to exceed by a wide margin any mere evolutionary need. Which is not to say that beauty has nothing to do with survival: I think it has everything to do with survival. Beauty feeds us from the same source that created us. It reminds us of the shaping power that reaches through the flower stem and through our own hands. It restores our faith in the generosity of nature. By giving us a taste of the kinship between our own small minds and the great Mind of the Cosmos, beauty reassures us that we are exactly and wonderfully made for life on this glorious planet, in this magnificent universe. I find in that affinity a profound source of meaning and hope. A universe so prodigal of beauty may actually need us to notice and respond, may need our sharp eyes and brimming hearts and teeming minds, in order to close the circuit of Creation.
]]>[原创]A Midnight Encounter, December 5th, 2005.+A Fatal Escapadehttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=18693&Page=1Yeti2005-12-6 7:36:42  A romantic rendezvous? No such luck. An erotic tryst? Not a chance. Besides, I don’t even know if the other party is male or female.  A frightening experience? You are close.
  

   Sometime after midnight, I decided to retire early—early from the point of a night owl. So I went about doing my pre-slumber routine. When I turned on the light to the washroom in the basement (my wife was sound asleep and I didn’t want to disturb her by using the one in the master bedroom), I was surprised—shocked is probably the right word—to see a large (shoe-size) rat standing on the rim of the toilet.  I gave out a loud shriek, which probably frightened the bugger, for it quickly jumped down and hid behind the toilet bowl. I have heard of rats coming up the toilet bowl from the sewer, and had been expecting something like this to happen for the 34 years we have been living in our house. But when it came, it was still a shocker.
  

     “Think fast.” I told myself--no time for “animal rights protection” or fear of reincarnating into a rat if you kill one. If our nocturnal intruder escaped and hid, I would have to call an exterminator. Meanwhile, you would not know what it would do. If this were a female—which I had no way of knowing at that point--I would have a litter of rats to deal with later. At this point, the image of an old board game “Those Awful Green Things from Outer Space” sprang into mind. This is a game in which space explorers accidentally picked up a nasty life form from a planet. These little “green things” grow, mutate and spread rapidly thorough the ship. The crewmembers in each quarter would have to try killing them with whatever they have on hand.
   Not having a laser-sword handy, I went for the next best things. I have a BB rifle and a BB pistol--good for shooting holes through cardboard boxes, but not good for killing a giant rat—a blow torch (for welding copper pipes) and a pair of sais ( martial arts weapon that resembles a shortened miniture trident.) Well, they would have to do.  (A BB-gun is a spring-action, or gas-driven gun, not a toy, but is not considered as a lethal weapon, that fires small round metal balls know as BBs.)

BB Rifle and copper shots

图片点击可在新窗口打开查看图片点击可在新窗口打开查看

  
   In my haste, I made a fatal mistake—a little exaggeration there. I forgot to close the two doors leading out of the bathroom (it was not really a bathroom, just a toilet and a sink in a partitioned-off part of the basement.) I took a shot at the little rascal as it sneaked a peak at me from behind the toilet. I might or might not have hit it, but it quickly ran to another corner where I shot at it again. Mind you, those BBs, though not lethal, can be rather painful. With a speed equaling that of Mighty Mouse, my brown flurry protagonist streaked passed me and ran straight out of the door into my clustered basement.

Yeti: 2005-12-6 7:36:42 http://www.rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?boardid=26&id=18693

This is one time I did not regret not having cleaned up my basement. The assortment of boxes, chairs, desk, and bookshelves formed an obstacle course for our sprinter. It ended up caught among a wastepaper basket, a plastic basket of books, an old chalkboard belonging to my son from way back, and the side of a wooden chair.

  From time to time, the inquisitive fellow would poke its head out to see if the coast was clear, and I would take a pot shot at it. This went on for three or four times, and when tired of this, the “cornered rat” decided to take an audacious move to escape. With a leap and a sprint that would set new Olympic records, it ran around the chair, under the sofa, and disappeared.
   My heart sank. Was I losing the battle between man and beast? I listen for the scrapping sound of its sharp-craw-feet, but heard nothing. I shone my flashlight at every corner, but found nothing. There was only one course of action to take: remove all the items one by one and investigate.
    A long time ago, I dismantled a turntable ( for the CD generation,  those are the “things” that plays vinyl records) and kept the frame as a base to put things on. I had also kept the cover of a dismantled Beta tape recorder (a bad investment since VHS took the market by storm and Beta machine went into the dustbin of history). This cover has an opening on top and was sitting on top of the frame. Guess where the unwelcome guest went? Yes, straight into the enclosure made from the frame and the cover. In essence, it has trapped itself.
   Quickly, I covered the opening with a small piece of wood, and put the sais on top to keep it down, then I sat back to nurse my aching heart—for the excitement has triggered my angina to act up again—and pondered what to do next.

(To be continued...)











]]>[原创] C-E: 你相信“Mr. Right”存在，还是“Mr. Rights”不存在？http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=17637&Page=1bluebird2005-9-21 22:16:18你相信“Mr. Right”存在，还是“Mr. Rights”不存在？ There is a Mr. Right for you or there is not

也就是说理想的伴侣真的就那么一个吗？还是有很多个呢？往往许 多人在抉择伴侣时，容易东想西想，不知所措，就是因为害怕一时 做错决定，看错人，造成终生的遗憾。 Is there truly but one ideal mate for you in the world, or many? Often times, whenever it comes to choosing a soul mate, many people tend to hesitate, for fear that they may make a wrong decision and end up in regrets all their life.

诺贝尔文学奖得主萧伯纳说：“此时此刻在地球上，约有两万个人 适合当你的人生伴侣，就看你先遇到哪一个，如果在第二个理想伴 侣出现之前，你已经跟前一个人发展出相知相惜、互相信赖的深层 关系，那后者就会变成你的好朋友 ，但是若你跟前一个人没有培养 出深层关系，感情就容易动摇、变心，直到你与这些理想伴侣候选 人的其中一位拥有稳固的深情，才是幸福的开始， 漂泊的结束”。 Bernard Shaw, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, once said, "Right at this moment on Earth, there are roughly 20,000 people whom you can marry. It is only a question whom you meet first. But if you have become so close with one that you two trust each other and know and care for each other very much, anyone who shows up next will become your good friend. Nevertheless, if your relationship with the former has not been deep enough, your feeling will start to be diminished, and you will change. It is the start of your happiness and end of your drifting life only until you have developed a stable relationship with one candidate of your ideal mates."

爱上一个人不需要靠努力，只需要靠"际遇"，是上天的安排，但是 “持续地爱一个人”就要靠“努力”，在爱情的经营中，顺畅运转 的要素就是沟通、体谅、包容与自制（面临诱惑有所自制）。有许 多人总是为“际遇”所迷惑与苦恼 ，意念不停、欲念不断、争逐不 散，而忘了培养经营感情的能力才是幸福的关键。 To fall in love with one is not through effort. It happens by chance, or arranged providentially by God. But you need to work hard if you want to be constantly in love with one. To run a smooth love, the critical element is communication, understanding, forgiveness and self-control (to avoid being allured). Many people are bewildered and troubled by "Chance meetings", and consequently keep day-dreaming and fighting. They, however, forget that the key to happiness is nurture the capacity of managing feelings.

所以不要去追问到底谁才是我的Mr. Right，而是要问说在眼前的伴 侣关系中， 我能努力到什么程度、成长到什么程度，若没有培养出 经营幸福的能力，就算真的Mr.Right出现在你身边，幸福依然会错 过的，而活在犹疑与遗憾当中，这不就是许多“爱情虚无症”的遭 遇与心态吗？ Therefore, We should not keep asking who on earth is my Mr. Right, but rather ask of the present relationship to what extent we can strive for, and towards what extent we will grow. Without the capacity of managing love, happiness will slip away even though the Mr. Right stands in front of you. You would be haunted by doubts and regrets. Isn't this exactly the mindset and essence of many cases of "Loveless Syndrome"?

若你此刻已有一位长久相伴的伴侣，不要再随便三心二意地犹疑了 ，我们往往不易察觉感情中的一个陷阱，就是“近亲生慢侮”，也 就是经济学中的铁律“边际效益递减法则”，跟你在一起越久的人 ，就越容易麻木与忽视，而新鲜的 “际遇”总是那么动人可爱。 If you have a mate with whom you've stayed a long time, do not hesitate any more. We tend not to see a trap in love, which is also known as "slow grudges springing up from among people close to you." It also follows the "Law of Diminishing Marginal Utility," which is very true in economics. The longer you stay with them, the more ignorant and indifferent to them you will grow. Fresh "chance meetings" are always so exciting and romantic.

在感情对待中，难免有摩擦与无心的伤害，而且论得罪自己的次数 累加起来最多的人，当然是跟我们在一起最久、最亲近的人；而新欢 呢，又还没开始有得罪你的机会，再加上他的刻意讨好，所以新欢 怎么看怎么可爱，旧爱怎么看怎么讨厌。但别忘了，新欢身上总是 有不确定的未知数，旧爱身上就是有难得的熟悉感、确定感、信赖 感。千万不要随便在偶然的“际遇”中迷失了自己，错放了幸福温 暖的手。 Conflicts and unintentional hurting always happen in love relationships. If we have to count who have insulted us the most, we will definitely look at those who are the closest with us and stay with us the longest. The new love looks so lovely at any time, any place, whereas the old one seems always irritating. But, do not ever forget, there is inevitable uncertainty with the new love, and with old love there is certainty, intimacy, and trustworthiness that are hardly seen on new one. For God's sake, never take it for granted and get lost amidst those "chance meetings". Do not entrust your happiness with the wrong one.

所以萧伯纳的话，是要提醒情人不要太钻牛角尖于寻觅那唯一，应 该把精神用在学会经营幸福的能力上，同时也提醒我们“弱水三千 只取一瓢饮”。若有幸遇到了难得的伴侣，就不要再三心二意了， 因为我们永远不知道一生何时会遇到两万个其中的几个 ，所以要知 福惜福，活在当下。 Therefore, Bernard Shaw wanted to remind lovers not to keep looking for the sole one stubbornly. They should work hard at training their skill of managing happiness. He also reminded us that, out of a river, we only need to take one cup of water to drink. If, fortunately, you have met one ideal mate, do not shilly-shally any more! We know when we can meet a few of the 20,000 people, and so we should seize the current happiness, stop daydreaming about the illusionary.

]]>我的网恋故事http://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=17590&Page=1yummy2005-9-18 1:09:53　　
　　I studied GMAT alone in a rented small flat. She was working hard to go abroad as a post-doctor. Studying for the test, writing her emails, and having long talks over the phone late at night became a habit as well as the happiest moments of my otherwise monotonous and lonely life. Before long, I found myself attached to this unmet gentle girl who has a sweet voice.
　　
　　One night, before I hung up the phone, a sadness and romance surged up in me. I told her: “I want to sing a song to you.” I used to be a big music fan in college. I listened to music as a way of spicing up the bland school life and liked to yell some tunes in the corridor or on my way back at night. Some people labeled my song “street singer style”.
　　
　　The song I sang that night is the original Japanese version of “Half Full Moon(月半弯)”. As I already said, I sang it thousands of times on street and in corridor and Karaoke Bars. But my performance had never been that good. I didn’t know what kind of person she would be in my life. Maybe an internet friend, an ordinary friend, or future girlfriend. I had absolutely no idea. She was a stranger friend, so I just saw her as a listener.
　　
　　What followed was a twist. That dark and windy night, our friendship escalated into a love caught on fire thanks to my not bad singing. On an impulse, I whispered, “Tell you the truth. All my life, I'm looking for someone. With her, I'be happy for the rest of my life.”
　　
　　On the other end of the phone, her voice choked up and she started sobbing. All of a sudden, I realized that both she and I wished to be the one for the other person.
　　
　　From my experience, I thought something needed to be done immediately. A few days later, driven by curiosity and passion, I decided to pay her a surprise visit. I indeed caught her off guard. It seemed to me she still wanted to keep a distance between us by telephone and Internet. Later she said this gave her lots of romance and fun for imagination.
　　
　　Urged by my pleading and "threatening", she showed up, a small girl with embarrassment and excitement all over her face. I'm more than one head taller than her. Blown up by wind, her hair tickled my cheek. When I tried very hard to figure out some topics, suddenly my hand was in hers.
　　
　　This could be the greatest embarrassment of my whole life. Never before had my hand been hold by a girl first. In a second, I felt like I became a girl walking on the street with hand hold. We walked and walked. A long time passed, we tried to loose each other up by talking about some funny things. She was much easy-going than I thought. But I was much shyer than I believed.
　　
　　In the following days, I almost forgot all about my job to study. Our phone talks stretched longer and longer. We felt like we’ve known each other for years. In my small place, I cooked for her and discussed with her exam questions and our future. Our happy time officially began.
　　
　　God didn’t give us good luck in love and in career at the same time. We went through a lot in 2001.
　　She experienced great delays in visa application. The university employing her lost patience and withdrew its offer. She was devastated. And I, after the exams, met great difficulties in landing a job. We lived on my meager saving. I spent a lot in exams, rent and school application. Our life seemed to hit rock bottom.
　　
　　She spent lot of time studying in my place. We went through piles of school application stuff. Everyday we went to a nearby market for vegetables. To save money, we just got bare necessities, refusing the simplest “luxuries”. She liked yogurt, but I couldn’t afford it everyday. In supermarket, I always picked up a few bottles for her. We made this “rule” that she could have one bottle each day. But she always ran out of it earlier. She was as poor as me, but she never asked me for anything. Sometimes she got a little upset over small things but soon became all right.
　　
　　Our life was simple, hard, and happy. We had small wishes like we could buy lots of yogurt when we got more money. Sounds funny, right? In fact, we needed to work hard to make even small wishes come true.
　　
　　We lived not far from the Summer Palace. A river flows behind our apartment building. In the summer, we often took a walk along the river. Occasionally, we ran into a woman living in the same neighborhood. She had a one-year-old daughter called “little Princess”. The girl hadn’t learned to talk yet but was really a smart-looking doll. Every time we met, the mom said "Hi" for her daughter in a baby talk kind of way. She was really nice and we liked her a lot.
　　
　　Taking a walk with my girlfriend, I lifted her up with my arms and came up to a sewage hole whose metal cover was gone. I threatened to drop her in if she didn’t be a good girl. Feeling her struggling in my arms, I thought I should protect and take care of her.
　　
　　One day I drew a picture when she was reading a book. It’s a cute dumb-looking cartoon cat. I thought it’s a great picture cause they have the same kind of look. She liked it too, and later I started to call her kitten. She rejected the nickname at first, but then became ok with it because she could enjoy small privileges by this name.
　　
　　She was good most of the time except when she had a craving for some snacks or when she sat on her ass doing nothing. Though she's very smart, she did many silly things. She's also proud. But as we went through more things, she started to realize this flaws. For example she liked to overestimate herself and had a habit of taking shortcut even there was none. She never admitted but I noticed she tried to change.
　　
　　We had a used computer, an old model with a very small memory. She promised to buy me a new one when we had enough money. We used it mainly for school research. Sometimes, we played computer games, the simplest kinds. Her favorite was Pac Man because the computer was slow or she didn’t have patience for difficult ones. We also played motorcycle-racing. She ran into things like cars, mailboxes, people and sheep in her way all the time. The game was simple but exciting. We took turns to play and made fun of each other.
　　
　　I didn’t know how other people spend Christmas, but we never did. School application kept my hands full. The thing is we couldn’t afford it. I promised to buy her a new sweater. She also needed a pair of new boots and a new dress to go with it. So she suggested pushing back our shopping plan. I felt very bad and promised myself to buy her new clothes for the Chinese New Year.
　　
　　In shopping malls, I always felt poor. In grad school, I used to buy expensive things, but now everything seemed to be so overpriced, way out of our reach. To make me feel better, she said the stuff wasn’t worth the money. But I knew she liked them. I swore to work hard and make her life easier. At last, she saw a Santa cap with two pigtails attached at the sides. We got it for ten yuan. She looked like an adorable baby girl, and called herself “Christmas princess”. I mocked her as “little dwarf”. My joke upset her, and I spent half an hour apologizing on the way back. She looked so lovely and everyone turned head to look at her. We stayed home on Christmas Eve and had a Huoguo dinner. It wasn’t special but we had a great time.
　　
　　I was still working on my application, but decided to apply for less competitive programs. So it won’t cost as much. Our biggest wish was to settle down for a more stable life, get married, save money to have a baby, and, of course, buy yogurt, banana, and snacks for her everyday. ]]>[原创] Three Kinds of Educationhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=17114&Page=1howard20052005-8-15 16:35:48 Three Kinds of Education

Even my opinion is not good, if I can offer a few commonplace remarks by way of introduction so that others may come up with valuable opinions, then my effort won't go to waste. A person, who is a hermit, publishes his articles without any praise or criticism from others. He won't know what others will think of or talk about his articles. So even his opinion is wrong, he need not worry that others will accept his mistakes without consideration.

We are born utterly weak, so we need strength; we are born nothing at all, so we long for help; we are born ignorant of everything, so we are in great need of judgmental ability. All things that we lack when born but we need when growing up, can be obtained through education.

We can enjoy education from nature, people or things. It's the education from nature that inwardly develops our talent and organs. It's the education from people that teaches us how to make use of this development. It's the education from things that brings us good experiences through various things affecting us.

So every one of us is cultivated by three kinds of teachers —— nature, people and things. To a student, if different educations on him from three kinds of teachers conflict, then such education is not good and can never accord with his own heart forever. To a student, if three different educations on him are agreeable and approach the same aim, then he can achieve his goal and live a meaningful life. We'd say that such a student is well educated.

Of these three different educations, the education from nature totally goes beyond our ability. Only some aspects of the education from things can be determined by us. And only education from people can be really controlled by us; but our control is just assumed, because who can control all words and behaviors around a child?

Parents will play a very important role in their children's growth, and to some extent, their educational thoughts and behaviors will determine their children's future, so it's an unshirkable responsibility for them to know how to educate their children well. It's natural that I become very interested in education because I already have my son now. How to educate him is very important in my life because he is my hope and future. I should learn more things about education in the knowledge that no preparation often results in failure. I must try my best to absorb more valuable things from books, others and my personal experiences.

]]>[原创]Learning to be Happyhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=17019&Page=1bluebird2005-8-10 0:48:43 ]]>[原创]Duo Shi Zhi Qiuhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16742&Page=1rovi2972005-7-25 13:19:35Duo Shi Zhi Qiu

Tale of an eventful age

Prelude

As a saying goes, the wheel of fortune is constantly spinning in turns, to be in honor for thirty years will turn to be in disgrace for forty years, it keeps rotating beyond your control. Nevertheless, a lot of people don’t believe it and regard it as a kind of superstition. At any rate, I strongly believe it and my gut feeling tells me that our life is controlled by our designated destiny. As Confucius says “life and death have destined times; wealth and honors rest with heaven”. When I was little, I heard the elders in my family boast my forebears were super rich for many generations. Later on when it came down to my great grandpa’s generation, although the overall circumstances were declining, he still managed to make some fortune out of speculating in trade of gold bullions. Nevertheless unfortunately my great grandpa still lost all of his fortune in the end due to his greedy speculation; so, that was the end of a good fortune and the beginning of a bad cycle.

A Chinese phrase reads --- Duo Shi Zhi Qiu – it is an eventful time, I was borne in autumn which much have destined my life for lots more pitfalls than anybody else. Before I was borne, the family had already been degraded to a slightly-better-off-status. Truly in my memory, there has never been a plain sailing in my life, Anyhow, when I finally came to this world, the old Shanghai was already gone by, and so was my better-off family. No wonder my mother told me that I didn’t even feel bothered to utter a sound when I finally pushed out of her body as if I already knew there was nothing there for me to cheer for.

The old Shanghai, once upon a time, was a magnificent place, a bright pearl of East; a worldwide recognized the paradise for Adventurers for all walks of life. The old Shanghai was a grotesque shining mosaic and a powerful melting pot nurturing and culturing generations upon generations of good and bad men and women. If Hong Kong is regarded being hatched out from a sordid fishing village to today’s thriving and prosperous international Metropolitan City, whereas Shanghai certainly has had a great leap forward from a squalid coastal enclave to a gorgeously brilliant gem of Cosmopolis in the world.

My grandpa told me the old Shanghai was an infamous “sink of iniquity”, for it had more than 600 brothels spreading across every corner of this dazzling human world with its myriad temptations. The old British Club was an eyewitness account of the decadent Shanghai. It was over there the great Taipans, once upon a time, sipped their wine with a big cigar between their fingers after sunset. It was over there the white Russian girls were twisting their curvy body on the toe-point and lustfully showing their sexy long legs on the stage. The racecourse, the numerous gambling houses, and the gaudy western-style abodes and skyscrapers with ever-lasting flashing neon-signs on the top of building made a life a sharp and striking contrast with the sweating, scrawny coolies pulling the heaviest load of carts crossing the garden bridge and the haggard-looking, flea-ridden beggars howling along the street in the blizzards. Grandpa once teased me saying that I was coming too late to enjoy the good old times they used to have, but at that time I didn’t quite understand what he really meant, as all I knew was the old Shanghai was the glorious birthplace of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921. From the founding day of this organization to the day when it finally became the founder of the People’s Republic of China, Shanghai was always playing an important role in milking the Chinese Communist Party and mothering the birth of a brand New China, despite the fact that old Shanghai was also the homes of Jiang, Kong, Song, Chen Dynasty and the hotbed of the “Green Gang” and “Red Gang”.

It is said that the “Green Gang” and “Red Gang” were the backbone of Jiang Jie Shi Nationalist Party and once they even assisted Generalissimo Jiang Jie Shi and his Nationalist Army in the 4.12 massacre killing hundreds of thousands of people, but in my eyes, the notorious “Gang of four” and their historically unprecedented Cultural Revolution was multiple folds worse than these Green and Red gangs, as they have completely ruined the life of more than three generations and tarnished millions upon millions innocent souls of people.

On my first day to kindergarten, I was told we were the luckiest generation ever in China, as we were borne in the New China and were growing up under the Red flag. However, were we the luckiest generation? No! What had actually happened to us was nothing but political campaigns after political campaigns, turmoil upon turmoil.

I was told we must listen to Chairman Mao and follow the Communist Party and become Chairman Mao’s good children, so my first song that I learnt was

“The Red is the East and it rises the Sun”.

I was told to study hard for the course of the Chinese revolution, so my first nursery rhyme I learnt by heart was

“Sparkling is the star in the sky,

Looking towards the direction of Beijing by standing on the bridge,

Keep looking until you see the TaiAnMen Square,

Our greatest Savior is Chairman Mao.”

When I went to primary school, I was told the foreign language was a powerful tool in a struggle against the Imperialism, the Revisionism, and the Reactionaries, so my first English lesson was nothing but

“Long live Chairman Mao and long long life to Chairman Mao”,

And again I was told there were about two-third of people in the world still living in the deep water and the scorching fire – an abyss of suffering and extreme miseries, so my first lecture for the revolutionary politics was

“Never forget the class struggle”.

The wheel of fortune has never stopped spinning, good to bad and bad to good, and no one is able to reverse the course of a life journey. Whatever my life is going to be like at the end of my days, despite the fact that it was relentlessly destined with a lot of pitfalls, I would always give it my best shot as I firmly believe the wheel of fortune will turn.

]]>[原创]On Public Moralhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16684&Page=1gby2005-7-20 17:09:01A friend talked of public moral during the dinner last night, a topic which immediately caused a heated discussion among us.

Disgusting and abominable habits in public places were exampled one by one: splitting, smoking in air-conditioned places, jaywalking, yelping on the mobile, jumping on queue, and so forth.

It may seem silly and ironical to criticize such ugly phenomena, as most of us may, unfortunately, form such habits, more or less, and we would, either frequently or occasionally, publicly or secretly, do something against our public moral. But how can we improve ourselves, how can our society keep advancing, if we don’t even have the courage to face our shortcomings and the confidence to defeat them?

When quality-oriented education was first put in force years ago, everyone welcomed this wise policy with applause. But what is quality-oriented education? What is the essence of quality- oriented education?

Parents and teachers always pass on an idea to us that English, computer and the skills in our majors are what we should possess of, and that we should convert what we have learnt in schools into practice. And we do make great achievements. Education plays an important role in the material development of our society. Technology promoted. Fortune accumulated.

But improvement on moral halts. Streets are still filled with all kinds of rubbish, restaurants noisy voices, air-conditioned rooms tobacco smokes, bus stops undisciplined crowds, roads jaywalkers…

What a mess!

You may remind me: maybe we still should cherish the last glimpse of hope—our children.

But Children, the future of our world, have become victims of the education by adults.

“Son, if you can get 100 in math this term, I shall buy whatever you like.” Only scores count.

“Son, this summer vacation, you're going to learn piano, painting, computer, English…” The more one learns, a more brilliant future lies before him.

But nobody tells them how to be polite, honest, respectful, sympathetic, self-disciplined, how to be a good-breeding child.

What a pity.

]]>[原创]City of Angelshttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16582&Page=1gby2005-7-15 16:31:06Angels are messengers of God, invisible, insensible. They show up and bring people to Heaven when people are dying. Seth is one of them.

Operation room. Maggie, the doctor, was having an operation for a critical patient. Seth stood beside her. He watched her trying her best to save the patient’s life, yet, she failed. The heart of the patient in her hands ceased beating in the end.

Sitting on the stairs alone, she cried, she could not understand what was going wrong, she could not bear her patient’s dying in her own hands…Seth was in front of her. He was stricken by the sorrow in her eyes that seemed to stare at him as if he were a man visible.

Confidence vanishing from her, she put off the next operation. While Seth, conquered by her eyes, decided to help her out. Making himself visible, he waited in her way. … “Are you in despair.” “I lost a patient” “You did everything u could.” “I was holding his heart in my hands when he died.” “He was not alone.” “Yes, he was.” “People die.” “Not on my table.” “People die when their bodies give up.” “It is my duty to keep their bodies from giving up, or what am I doing here?” “It wasn’t your fault.” “I wanted him to live.” “He is living, just not the way you think.” “I don’t believe in that.” “Something is true whether you believe in or not.” … The unexpected and unusual conversation with Seth refreshed Maggie. Distress disappeared, confidence retrieved. And at the same time, the strong eagerness to see the strange Seth once more began to mount upon her.

“No dying, Mr. Masinger. Not until you give me Seth’s phone number…” she said to herself during the operation for her new patient Mr. Masinger. “Those eyes, the way he looked direct right into me…” Maggie’s heart contained nothing but Seth.

As an angel, Seth knew everything in Maggie’s mind. But the fact that he had no sense, no feeling of being touched obsessed him painfully. The more he stayed around with Maggie, either visible or invisible, the more anguished he became.

While once staying in Mr. Masinger’s patient room, Seth was taken aback by Mr. Masinger’s unexpected greeting, “I can’t see you, but I know you are there.” What shocked him most was when Mr. Masinger told him his own story later, that he used to be an angel before, and that angels could choose to become a human being if he wanted, only by a simple way—to fall. That was what he had done, with his free will. Seth hesitated; he knew what it meant to him if he chose to become a human being. That was, to give up eternity.

Not long later, his identification as an angel exposed in the end. In Mr. Masinger’s recovery party, Maggie was dumbfounded not to see Seth in the picture taken with Masinger’s daughter. And everything became clear as crystal when she later cut Seth’s finger by accident: no blood came out. Hardly could she believe her eyes, but something was true whether she believed in nor not. The strike was too sudden and too tremendous for her, that Seth, the man she was so deeply in love, was not a human being! A sense of being fooled took over her.

But, in vain could she escape from the missing of Seth. Deep-rooted had been her love for Seth. “I don’t understand why God let us meet if there’s no way that we could be together.” she said to Mr. Masinger. “… He can give up the eternity and become one of us. It is all up to you.” Maggie was enlightened after Mr. Masinger told her Seth could fall to the earth and become a human being.

Library, a place where angels lived. Seth showed up in front of Maggie with her eager pleading. … “Gordon (her colleague)asked me to go away with him and get married. He knows me.” “You don’t love him.” “We are the same, and I want that, and I want somebody who can feel me when I touch him.” “But u can feel me, You felt me.” “I want to say goodbye, I don’t want to see you again.”

Up on a skyscraper under construction in a work site, there stood Seth, fighting with his mind. Suddenly, he closed his eyes, and fell, with Maggie in his heart…

Seconds later, prostrating on the ground, Seth stared at his hands and found something red; he tasted it. “Hey, you can’t be here.” A worker said to him. “You can see me? Can you see me? Is this blood?” he cried out, excitement and rapture shining in his eyes. The workers could not help bursting out in laughter at his silly doing. Then, he began to run, with heart and soul all to his beloved Maggie.

The dog was barking at the door. Maggie opened the door. Seth it was. She knew what happened at sight of the blood around Seth’s lips and what the blood meant to him and to her…

Carefully, gently, slowly, Maggie, lying beside Seth, wiped off the precious blood from his face. And then, their lips connected. …

“Can u feel that?” “Yes.” “How do u feel?” “Warm. Aching.”

The precious moment seemed to declare the beginning of their bright new life. Expectation lay in their eyes. The morning air was so fresh with the breeze in the countryside. After taking some small spices in a store. Maggie rode on her bike, stretching her hands out, closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, on her way back to Seth. Suddenly, a truck showed its presence from another road across, and it was too late when she opened her eyes…

A simple funeral was held. The sky was dark, the room gloomy, the air suffocated. Sitting in the lonely room, Seth knew that his angel friend was beside him. … “Why did they do this? Am I being punished?” he asked, desperately. “You know better than that. That is life. You are living now, and someday you will be dying…if you know this is what happens, will u still do it?” “I would rather have one breath of her hair, one kiss of her mouth, one touch of her hand, than the eternity without that. One.”

Dawn, beach. Angels gathered to enjoy the music of the dawn. Seth, no longer an angel to be able to hear the music, jumped into the sea and stretched his hands, for the wideness of the sea and the thorns and roses of his future. His angel friend smiled…

The End

]]>[原创]My Frugal Motherhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16470&Page=1malina2005-7-9 16:39:16My Frugal Mother My mother isn't the thriftiest person I've known, but she has reached the peak in her own right. On our dinning table, whenever there are leftovers, she will always say with a smile, but in an indefensible or unquestionable tone, "Finish them!".After a meal no grain of rice would be found in the bowls. If there were a few, we would feel genuinely guilty. When I was very young, she tried to teach me the ancient Chinese poem Min Nong which talked pity on the hardworking farmers.

Since I was 10, she would talk with me at least once every month. The talk usually ended up with the same topic: Don't waste. At one time, however, I was fascinated by fashionable clothes and begged her to buy me one new garment after another. This frustrated her greatly, for she thought she had successfully established the sense of prudence within me. Yet she never lost heart easily. One day she told me a true story about her and dad. Since then I stopped chasing after fashion. Look at me now, I am wearing mom's old sweater she bought 20 years ago! And here's that magic story. Mom and dad were both born and raised in poor and meager families. They got married and were penniless. A shabby tile-roofed house--our original home built over a pigsty that was bought with borrowed money--was finished on the day of the wedding. The house leaked badly on rainy days and rats could be seen all around. At that time, mom was a tailor. To meet all unsympathetic requirements of clients, she often had to burn the midnight oil until early morning. The rumbling all day long of the sewing-machine brought neighbors complaints. "I'm sorry, I'm really sorry" she would say "I don't mean to disturb you". "This is not personal, this is business. I can't stop the machine. I promise I'll try my best to keep the noise down". She continuously explained to them. My dad then worked in a medicine factory and ran a small business after duty-hours, returning home totally exhausted. Mom would say, with tears in her eyes, "Baby, we started from scratch.Everything we own today didn't come easily. I hope you are sure before you buy or dispose of anything." "I will, mom." I replied, slipping into her arms, "I promise you."

qq:250807610

email:tina_yuyu10000@yahoo.com.cn

]]>[原创]I'm Dreaming Of A Cold Winter On A Warm Winter's dayhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16186&Page=1sleet2005-6-22 23:10:11The weather is incredibly warm in the winter. Although the leaves had already lose their grips and now the branches are all bare, the sky is still clear as usual. The sunlight is rarefied and the cloud is thinner than before. Alone, I stepping on the brown fallen leaves and they crack slightly. Suddenly, a tremendous loneliness overwhelms me. I take a deep breath and inspire some cold December air into my lung. Two birds are standing on the thin branch, singing. The crystal vision is like an unreal motion picture around. I push the door of classroom open, a warm current surround me immediately.

I have once watched a TV program that is about the life near the arctic. The life style on the tundra is much too different from ours: people who live there usually raise reindeer and hunting with dogs on the snow-covered land. Maybe because I’ve read too many novels written by Jack London, I used to longing to live in such a cold savage place, to live in the real endless wilderness. But now sadly I found myself fear the cold too much. If I were offered 2 places to reside, one in the arctic and the other is on the equator, I would rather choose the tropic region to settle down. Yet deep in my mind, I still love the freezing cold of winter, with snow and ice everywhere. The white world can purify our sight, as well as our souls.

It says that in North Europe, the number of people who suffer from melancholia is much more than other territory of the world. And the main reason is the frigid weather. It sounds like reasonable, but I also have heard that the people living in the Arctic Circle, like the Indians, the Eskimos, and the Elunchuns are all strong people, both in body and in mind. None of these people are bothered by depressiveness. So it must have been the ethos, not the weather that decides the number of melancholiac. Sometimes I enjoy listening to pop music of the North Europe. They are nice and warm, a good choice when you feel melancholy.

All in all, for me, the cold winter is just like a beautiful dream. It looks like real but impossible to touch. The surrealist deems dream is the only hope, and I agree with it. Years ago, I had done an interesting test: If you have to discard these items in orders, which would you keep it until the last minute? The items include a book, a bank card, an itinerary, a camera, and an umbrella. What will you choose? I would choose the book and it stands for dreams. So I can see quite clearly why still I am keeping my icy cold winter dream.

]]>[原创]I Say No to Amwayhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16182&Page=1bluebird2005-6-22 18:44:09My mobile rang on the way from Shigatse to Lhasa. It was from an unacquainted number. The caller had got my number through one of my relatives. He had been a customer of my relative's shop, and was told something about me. The first word he said was, "Sir, I quite admire you after hearing about you. You are such a refined person that I want very much to befriend."

I was like "what's it all about? How come I suddenly got known to a stranger!" Soon I began to admire the way he was talking, educated, well-mannered. So I was soon interested and promised to call him back after this trip.

Having been home three days, I have totally forgotten this matter until he called again this afternoon. With a quick blush, I picked up the phone. "Mr. Zhang, I am sorry that I did not call you earlier. I was quite busy the last two days."

Good guy! He even said sorry when I was supposed to say so instead. Immediately he became more impressive to me as a humble guy. And very happily I accepted his invitation for a dinner together.

As I had expected, he was a well-built, neatly-dressed young man. A pair of good quality glasses, white complexion and good countenance must have left many people with excellent impressions. Everything he did was exactly like what a refined, highly educated person does. I was happy the whole course of our dinner until he suddenly deviated our topics to Amway. Before that we were talking about career, morales, reading, music.

I had to apologize secretly here that I was not well-mannered like a gentleman when I got a little excited because of the Amway topic. Before he had a chance to preach more, I started to bombard him with lots of facts I'd learned about this company.

I started with my first contact with Amway in 1997 all the way down to last year when I had to buy two bottles of Amway Nutrient Vitamin products. I only ate the mysterious meal for two days before giving it to my brother, who returned it home within one week. I did not see any improvements in my body, neither did my brother who took more than me.

It was a waste of 1,200 yuan. For the sake of friendship, I had to buy the useless products from my friend. And she, feeling too shy, does not call me any more (she is a student, and now back to school concentrating on her courses).

After dinner, this guy took me to what he called "a studio." It was actually an Amway distribution company. A middle-aged man was sitting at a round glass table in the center of the living-room. He looked witty and sharp. Before uttering a word, he stared at me, for quite some minutes. I almost felt a gasp of horror. Then he slowly greeted me and began to ask about my work and life.

For some reason I quite liked the way he was talking—good mandarin pronunciation, slow speaking, rich hand gestures, smiling face. He looked much, much better than my friend, who was still young and inexperienced. I later learned that he was 13 years older than me.

The main topics were - 1) I need to worry about my future; 2) I need to consider a change of my current life; 3) Amway business is what I should do.

If there was anything I did not like about him, it was the many numbers he listed.

Here I quote his words:

- I sold my company last year for ten million yuan, and I decided to involve myself with Amway business. - One of my friends, a doctorate student in Cambridge University started to do Amway business and within a few years he had accumulated a total asset of two billion yuan! - I fly between domestic municipalities and overseas to give talks to Amway people. I often speak to groups of 800, 1,000, 2,000 people. - I take pride in helping my partners win Amway business. Seeing them make 10,000, 100,000 yuan, I am really contented.

....

I felt impatient and soon unhappy. I disliked his numbers. And I doubted whether he was really a refined person. A refined person would not brag about his income, and bombard people with his splendid successes; a refined person learns to be humble, and tries to help people as and where necessary; a refined person is peaceful in the mind and worries much less...

He was not. Throughout our conversation he was painting me a picture of lots of money, traveling around the world free, or so-called spiritually successful life of helping or transcending souls (through helping them with Amway business and consequently winning respect and adoration).

In the end I appreciated his preaching.

"It is so nice of you to teach me so many new ideas. I believe you must have arrived at the last stage of Abraham h.Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs Model of human behavior in his book "A Theory of Human Motivation Psychological Review."—Self actualization. Maslow believes that there are five hierarchies of Needs in humanity: Physiological, Safety, Social, Esteem and Self actualization.

The last one can only be achieved with good material possessions. Many noble people are too busy to pursue self actualization, for they are still struggling at the Social and Esteem stages; poor people have to get over the stage of "Safety" and are therefore lagging way behind. You have gone through the first four stages, and are right at the last one where you are not bothered by material things and are trying to help people succeed. You choose Amway as the great cause in which you can help more people. As you said, you are happy and contented when you see people, through your successful, or in other words, get over stage three or four. I really admire you."

Haha, well, I did not say those sophisticated words as I did not know exactly the five stages and Maslow. But I expressed my idea to him. He nodded.

In the end, he suggested that I read five books, whose titles I took down—The story of pipes, Rich Dad and Poor Dad, The Way to Freedom, The Fifth Wave of Fortune, The strength of Production and Consumption.

I agreed. But I am not sure if I would have time to read them all. There are tons of books on morale lifting. Simply one is good enough.

Therefore, I don't like Amway. My arguments are the following:

1) Amway, or some of its salespersons attack other products of the same type or even the whole traditional business to uplift Amway's direct sale. If you attend their summons, you would get a concept that Amway is the most righteous, profit-making and promising business that every wise man should be engaged with.

2) Amway, by its preaching, argues that most of our traditional goods are harmful to our health. At many of its product demonstrations, activists (forgive my use of this term) bombard the audience with scientific theories and experiments to convince people that Amway products are good to our health, whereas others bad.

3) Amway, by its development/multiplication model, hurts friendship. like, in my case, my friend hurt me and she felt sorry to befriend me any more. She invested a few thousand yuan into Amway business to no avail, and wasted half a year. Amway practitioners keep nagging their own friends about joining the business or buying Amway products from them, to such an extent that many people got irritated. We have rights to choose whatever we like, and we do not want to be pushed, don't we? Amway always pushes people, in the disguise of friendship. The aftermath of such ill development is that many people are dreadful of Amway people. It was quite interesting how one of my online friends responded about Amway just a while ago. Before I talked more about my dinner with that Amway guy, she became quite indignant and shot back words like "Get away from him! Never involve yourself with Amway. I believe it is the same with Faxxgongxxx."

Well, she was a little too radical, I suppose. Amway won a total revenue of ten billion yuan last year in China, and, according to its policy, 40-50% must have been distributed to its direct sale team. Therefore, it is true that some people DO make money. But the majority loses.

There is a pyramid theory about how Amway elites multiply profit. Suppose all the salespersons stack together to make a pyramid. There are the fewest people toward the top point of the pyramid. Those are the successful ones, and all those underneath lose. I am not sure about the accuracy of this idea, but truly I have seen many people lose their investment with Amway business.

4) like with any business, it is normal that some win, others lose. However, Amway boasts to new faces that they are doomed to be millionaires, trillionairs if they work hard enough, following the development mode that has been invented by some Harvard economists and tested in the last 60 years global business. Every new Amway person is first of all brainwashed with a whole new world of life-long prosperity. They forget a wise saying "There is no pie in the sky, no quick wealth overnight, and no lazy way to riches."

In my humble opinion, Amway makes far more bankrupts than traditional businesses. The authoritative 20-80 theory does not seem to apply in Amway circle as it does in the society. Looking at the pyramid model, those who succeed in Amway account for far less than 20%. What percentage exactly I don't know.

5) Superficially Amway seems to be quite morale-lifting, preaching to people about active, aggressive life attitude. I should say many of its teachings are pretty good. Nevertheless, successful Amwayers succeed through throwing out attractive ideas, concepts to win people's heart. When people get excited, they tell them that they should worry about the future of themselves, their families.

"What if you need to change a kidney tomorrow?" Such is a common question Amwayers ask the audience. Then they begin to list many more reasons that we need to worry, followed by stunning stories of a neighbor, or a close friend who suffered a horrible disease and was pushed to the edge of despair, blah, blah, blah.

Throughout the teaching of Amway, you get a concept that you have to worry about your future, and Amway is your savior.

I am offended by such teachings. Everyone has his rights to choose the way for themselves. We should not be talked into doing things. And I do say "no" to Amway.

]]>[原创]My Childhoodhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=16132&Page=1aocke2005-6-20 13:05:25Born in Jan 1978, I am the second child in my family. My mom says I am a “Snake” because she gave birth to me at the end of Lunar year Snake, while I prefer to say I am “Tail of Snake and Head of Horse”.

We lived in the countryside of a county near to Fuzhou. Mom is a traditional peasant, and in her mind, the responsibility of her life was to get enough food for the family. She worked hard, leaving for the farmland at dawn and never returning until late. Unlike Mom, my dad never took himself as a peasant. He seldom stayed at home, and was always busy with his friends’ and neighbors’ business, and also because of this, Mom and Dad always quarreled with each other. Though I never think my dad is a good husband, he had been a good farther, and had taught me a lot. He used to take me with him when he visited his friends, take me to the cinema, and teach me how to be a well-behaved and polite boy.

In 1983, at the age of 5, I was sent to the kindergarten. Unlike my brother who was taken to the school by force, I like schooldays. The tuition was only one yuan, but we got balls of different sizes to play, and were taught many songs and games. What’s more, the school provided cakes and candies occasionally. Half a year later, our teacher gave birth to a baby, and the class was dismissed. 2 weeks later, I was happy to know that the baby became a member of my family as an adopted daughter. In the following half year, I stayed at home, helping my mom to take care of my sister.

I resumed my study the following year. In primary school, my academic record was excellent, and was awarded as “San Hao student” each year. At that time, the school got little fund, and nine out of ten the rewards were 5 or 10 notebooks, so that was the only thing I could gave away generously to friends. I remember most of our teachers were from neighboring counties, and they lived at school. There was neither gas nor micro-oven in 1980s, and we cooked by burning dried leaves or tree branches. Our school was located at the foot of a hill with a creek in between, and once a month we will collect dried branches and leaves from the hill for our teachers, and all of us were proud of being able to do something for the school and our teachers.

Each year, we grew crops and vegetables, and mom also raised many cattle and fowls. Ever since my childhood, I had been a good hand to my mom. I would prepare the meals after school, and accompanied my mom to irrigate our crops late at nights. I helped my mom with the farm work also, but luckily I had never been a good farmer. On weekends, I would herd our buffalo with my friends. Buffalo is a kind of tamed animal, and we would ride on it while herding, imaging we were on horses. And if we were rid of doing that, we would tie them to trees, and played in the creeks. My mom would not allow me to learn swim, so I was always laughed at when the other kids were swimming joyfully in the creeks and I had to take cloths for them. And I also acted as a baby-sitter. At first, I liked my little sister much; as my mom was very busy, she used to “tie” my sister on my back, and I carried her wherever I went. But each time my neighbors would joke on me, referring to my sister as my child bride. Gradually, when I found out what that means, I rejected to carry her with any more, and my poor sister had to be stay at home and enjoyed herself.

In those days, we seldom got pocket money from our parents, so most of us got money by collecting and selling some kinds of herbs. Apart from buying some socks, I spent most of my money on rubber, pencil boxes—at that time, colorful pencil boxes were the best thing to show off among my little classmates.

From mid 80s, people in my hometown started to do some business cautiously, hoping to have more “Da tuan jie—the nickname for 10 Yuan note” in their pockets. Gradually some WanYuanHu appeared, among whom was one of my uncles. He raised white rabbits for their furs, and did earn some money. A couple of years later, my jobless farther started to raise rabbits also. However, that turned out to be a complete wrong decision as by then there had been too many rabbit raisers, and several months later my brother and I were the only happy ones in our family to enjoy delicious rabbit meat each day.

After that, my farther tried some other business, but each time he ended up with failure. During those years, Mom still raised her cattle and fouls to support the family, which she thought were the right things for farmers.

In retrospect, childhood was the happiest time in my life. I had few toys, no TV, and never had a chance to travel, but I derived a lot of fun from the nature. I net fishes, caught birds, herded cattle and even stole fruits occasionally. Over 20 years has passed, but I am still nostalgia for those days.

]]>[原创]New York City Subwayhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=15792&Page=1kinki_342005-6-6 22:35:38Hi Kinki,

Thanks for coming in and posting your work. I have almost given up all hope that you will not. Many years ago, I heard on the news that there were volunteer citizen patrols going around the NYC subway system. I wonder if that is still on.

]]>[原创]A Friend's Callhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=15716&Page=1gby2005-6-1 17:27:20A Friend's Call

One night, when I was about to go to bed, the phone call rang, and there came an unfamiliar voice from the other side. What a pleasant surprise it was when I know who he was----- a former classmate in senior high school who I had lost contact for years.

The following half an hour passed with our mutual greetings and the recollection of the old days. Excitement, joy and laughters danced from one side of the phone line to the other.

"I remember you were thin at that time, and you were trying to gain weight, but failed once and again." Everything still lingered in his mind.

"Yeah, I guess all the foods didn't agree with my stomach." We both laughed.

"So, how do you look like now? Any change?"

"No, still thin as ever. The saying doesn't work on me that men will get fat after marriage. I guess I am destined to be what I am now"

"Not really. 'impossible is nothing'? See? Have you ever tried the XXX pills?..."

So eloquent he was in introducing to me the functions and usage of the pills and how the pills had proved to be the most effective compared with other brands that I couldn't help wondering if he was trying to sell the pills to me.

Bingo!.

"I have a friend who works in this company, and he can give you a 20 percent discount if you want. You know, this is a very low price..." He continued.

All in a sudden, my heart fell down in abyss.

No more could my mind contain his words, but he seemed to get more excited in his endless persuasion and was so reluctant to put an end to it even when I pretended I was wanted on the mobile.

The torture was lifted, the friendship gone.

Sigh.

]]>[原创]A Beggarhttp://rainlane.com/dispbbs.asp?BoardID=26&ID=15652&Page=1gby2005-5-28 16:30:49A Beggar It was a nice morning, sunny and cool. People on the street walked briskly, smiling at the beginning of a new day. At a work site, an old man, in shabby clothes, sat on his bed, his “home” as well, motionless, gloominess clouding on his face, sorrow in his eyes. His home, a shelter of only a simple wood board, was deprived of a moment ago—a worker came and told him that he could not stay there any longer. The day he had been worrying about now came in the end. His hands touched the bed softly, his mind lingered. Then, he rose to his feet, supported by a stick. After casting a look at his home for the last time, he waddled towards an office building nearby. “Could you do me a favor of expressing my thanks to the warm-hearted people up?” he said to the doorman, very politely. “Sure.” “Thank you.” the old man smiled.

During the past couples of days, the warm-hearted people up had been showing their sympathy and concern for him. They brought biscuits and candies and fruits to him in the morning; they said that it would be enough for him if everyone just divided a small part of lunch for him; they insisted that it showed him respect to divide the lunch before they ate; they asked the canteen to add some more spice as he might be fond of that; they told him that he might ask the guard for some water if he felt thirsty…

Tears sparkled in his eyes when he reflected all their kindness. But now, it was time for him to bit his farewell. Another new journey was now lying before him. Where was his next stop? Would he still be lucky? He was puzzled.

Turning back from the office building, he toddled away, step by step, with the support of his stick, which seemed too heavy for him to carry, and then vanished in the crowd gradually…

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