落花生 张培基译文 The Peanut

The Peanut
Xu Dishan
At the back of our house there was half a mu of unused land. “It’s a pity to let it lie idle like that,” Mother said. “Since you all enjoy eating peanuts, let us open it up and make it a peanut garden.” At that my brother, sister and I were all delighted and so were the young housemaids. And then some went to buy seeds, some began to dig up the ground and others watered it and, in a couple of months, we had a harvest! “Let us have a party tonight to celebrate,” Mother suggested, “and ask Dad to join us for a taste of our fresh peanuts. What do you say?” We all agreed, of course. Mother cooked the peanuts in a variety of styles and told us to go to the thatched pavilion in the garden for the celebration.
The weather was not very good that night but, to our great delight, Father came all the same.
“Do you like peanuts?” Father asked.
“Yes!” We all answered eagerly.
“But who can tell me what the peanut is good for?”
“It is very delicious to eat,” my sister took the lead.
“It is good for ma king oil,” my brother followed.
“It is inexpensive,” I said. “Almost everyone can afford it and everyone enjoys eating it. I think this is what is good for.”
“Peanut is good for many things,” Father said, “but there is one thing that is particularly good about it. Unlike apples, peaches and pomegranates that display their fruits up in the air, attracting you with their beautiful colors, peanut buries its fruit in the earth. It does not show itself until you dig it out when it is ripe and, unless you dig it out, you can’t tell it bears fruit or not just by its frail stem quivering above ground.”
“That’s true,” we all said and Mother nodded her assent, too. “So you should try to be like the peanut,” Father went on, “because it is useful, though not great or at tractive.”
“Do you mean,” I asked, “we should learn to be useful but not seek to be great or attractive?”
“Yes,” Father said. “This is what I expect of you.”
We stayed up late that night, eating all the peanuts Mother had cooked for us. But father’s words remained vivid in my memory till this day.
（刘世聪译）
Peanuts
Xu Dishan
Behind our house there lay half a mou vacant land. Mother said: “It’s a pity to let it lie waste. Since you all like to eat peanuts so very much, why not plant some here?” That exhilarated us children and our servant girls as well, and soon we started buying seeds, ploughing the land and watering the plants. We gathered in a good harvest just after a couple of months!
Mother said, “How about giving a party this evening to celebrate the harvest and inviting your Daddy to have a taste of our newly-harvested peanuts?” We all agreed. Mother made quite a few varieties of goodies out of the peanuts, and told us that the party would be held in the thatched pavilion on the peanut plot.
It looke d like rain that evening, yet, to our great joy, father came nevertheless.”Do you like peanuts?” asked father.
“Yes, we do!”we vied in giving the answer.
“Which of you could name the good things in peanuts?”
“Peanuts taste good,” said my elder sister.
“Peanuts produce edible oil,” said my elder sister.
“Peanuts are so cheap,” said I, “that anyone can afford to eat them. Peanuts are everyone’s favourite. That’s why we call peanuts good.”
“It’s true that peanuts have many uses,” said father, “but they’re m ost beloved in one respect. Unlike nice-looking apples, peaches, and pomegranates, which hang their fruit on branches and win people’s admiration with their brilliant colours, tiny little peanuts bury themselves underground and remain unearthed until they’re ripe. When you come upon a peanut plant lying curled up on the ground, you can never immediately tell whether or not it bears any nuts until you touch them.”
“That’s true,” we said in unison. Mother also nodded. “So you must take after peanuts,” father continued, “because they’re useful though not great and nice-looking.”
“Then you mean one should be useful rather than great and nice-looking,” I said.“That’s what I expect of you,” father concluded.
We kept chatting until the party broke up late at night. Today, though nothing is left of the goodies made of peanuts, father’s words remain engraved in my mind.
（张培基译）。