我身后的眼睛 The Eyes Behind Me [1] (Elementary)

I’ve been thinking about writing a colloquial Chinese short story on Beginner level for a while, but it turns out that it’ll be much easier to tell a complete story on Elementary level instead of Beginner’s. To check out how reading levels are rated, please click here.  My dear readers, I’ll also need your feedback to help me understand the difficulty level of my writing.

I’ve always been thinking that Chinese language could be more approachable to the world if enough reading materials on different levels could be available for learners to read, especially for adult learners. That is also the main goal I’m trying to reach in this “Learn Chinese online Short Stories” session.

Before you begin to read this 4500-character Elementary level short story, I’d suggest that you run through the vocab table first to get familiar with the new words. That way your actual reading process might be much smoother. At the end of each part, there will be a short quiz to test your comprehension.

我身后的眼睛 [1]

 

有一双眼睛, 在我的身后注视着我.

它让我感到不安.

从那天下班开始, 我就感觉到它的存在.

那晚回到家, 我把我的感觉告诉了老公.

“你没转过身看看是谁吗?”

老公问.

“看了,可路上那么多人. 我不知道它是谁.”

我不安地回答.

老公接着问:

“你的背后没有眼睛,你怎么会知道有人在盯着你?”

“不仅是盯着我, 而且还跟着我.”

我更加不安地回答.

“可是你转过身又不知道是谁?”

老公帮我把话说完.

我点点头,说,”是这样.”

这时, 女儿扑到老公的怀里, 要抱抱.

“要不要我明天送你上班?” 老公抱着女儿, 笑着问我.

“不用了, 我上下班路上都有很多人, 我尽量跟着人群走就是了… 也许, 这只是我的幻觉.”

我开始觉得自己真有点可笑.

老公摸着女儿的脑袋, 继续问道:”最近工作太累了吧?”

“是有点儿累! 幻觉都累出来了.” 我似乎为自己找到了解释.

 

[vocab table]

Simplified Chinese    Traditional Chinese    Mandarin Pinyin    English Definition
注视    注視    zhu4 shi4    to watch attentively; to gaze;
不安    不安    bu4 an1    uneasy; worried;
感觉    感覺    gan3 jue2    to feel; to become aware of;
存在    存在    cun2 zai4    to exist; existence;
老公    老公    lao3 gong1    (informal) husband;
背后    背後    bei4 hou4    behind
盯    盯    ding1    to fix attention on; to stare
更加    更加    geng4 jia1    even more
点点头    點點頭    dian3 dian3 tou2    nod
尽量    盡量    jin4 liang4    as much as possible
人群    人群    ren2 qun2    crowd
幻觉    幻覺    huan4 jue2    illusion; hallucination
可笑    可笑    ke3 xiao4    funny; ridiculous;
继续    繼續    ji4 xu4    to continue; to proceed with
累    纍    lei2    tired
解释    解釋    jie3 shi4    explanation
[pinyin]

wǒ shēnhòu de yǎnjing [1]

 

yǒu yī shuāng yǎnjing, zài wǒ de shēnhòu zhùshì zhe wǒ.

tā ràng wǒ gǎndào bù’ān.

cóng nàtiān xiàbān kāishǐ, wǒ jiù gǎnjuédào tā de cúnzài.

nà wǎn huídào jiā, wǒ bǎ wǒ de gǎnjué gàosu le lǎogong.

“ nǐ méi zhuàn guò shēn kànkan shì shéi ma?”

lǎogong wèn.

“ kàn le, kě lùshang nàme duō rén. wǒ bù zhīdào tā shì shéi.”

wǒ bù’ān de huídá.

lǎogong jiēzhe wèn:

“ nǐ de bèihòu méiyǒu yǎnjing, nǐ zěnme huì zhīdào yǒurén zài dīng zhe nǐ?”

“ bùjǐn shì dīng zhe wǒ, érqiě hái gēnzhe wǒ.”

wǒ gèngjiā bù’ān de huídá.

“ kěshì nǐ zhuàn guò shēn yòu bù zhīdào shì shéi?”

lǎogong bāng wǒ bǎ huàshuō wán.

wǒ diǎn diǎntóu, shuō,” shì zhèyàng.”

zhèshí, nǚ’ér pū dào lǎogong de huái lǐ, yào bàobào.

“ yào bu2 yào wǒ míngtiān sòng nǐ shàngbān?” lǎogong bào zhe nǚ’ér, xiào zhe wèn wǒ.

“ bu2 yòng le, wǒ shàngxiàbān lùshang dōu yǒu hěn duō rén, wǒ jìnliàng gēnzhe rénqún zǒu jiùshì le… yěxǔ, zhè zhǐshì wǒ de huànjué.”

wǒ kāishǐ juéde zìjǐ zhēn yǒudiǎn kěxiào.

lǎogong mō zhe nǚ’ér de nǎodài, jìxù wèndào:” zuìjìn gōngzuò tài lèi le ba?”

“ shì yǒudiǎnr lèi! huànjué dōu lèi chūlái le.” wǒ sìhū wéi zìjǐ zhǎodào le jiě shì.

[traditional Chinese]

我身後的眼睛[1]

 

有一雙眼睛, 在我的身後注視著我.

它讓我感到不安.

從那天下班開始, 我就感覺到它的存在.

那晚回到家, 我把我的感覺告訴了老公.

“你沒轉過身看看是誰嗎?”

老公問.

“看了,可路上那麼多人. 我不知道它是誰.”

我不安地回答.

老公接著問:

“你的背後沒有眼睛,你怎麼會知道有人在盯著你?”

“不僅是盯著我, 而且還跟著我.”

我更加不安地回答.

“可是你轉過身又不知道是誰?”

老公幫我把話說完.

我點點頭,說,”是這樣.”

這時, 女兒撲到老公的懷裏, 要抱抱.

“要不要我明天送你上班?” 老公抱著女兒, 笑著問我.

“不用了, 我上下班路上都有很多人, 我盡量跟著人群走就是了… 也許, 這只是我的幻覺.”

我開始覺得自己真有點可笑.

老公摸著女兒的腦袋, 繼續問道:”最近工作太累了吧?”

“是有點兒累! 幻覺都累出來了.” 我似乎為自己找到了解釋.

 

[English Translation]

Special thanks to John Collett for diligently proofreading my English translation!!

The Eyes Behind Me

A pair of eyes were watching me from behind.

They made me feel uneasy.

It all started when I was on my way back from work that day.

I told my husband about the feeling that evening.

“Didn’t you turn around to see who it was?”, he asked.

“I did. But there were so many people on the road, I didn’t know who it was.”, I answered uneasily.

He continued “You don’t have eyes in the back of your head. How could you know someone was watching you from behind?”

“Not just watching me, but also following me.”

I answered more uneasily.

“But once you looked back you couldn’t figure out who it was?”, my husband completed my sentence.

I nodded. “Exactly.”

At that time, our daughter ran into his arms, begging for a hug.

“Do you need my company on your way to work tomorrow?”, he asked with a smile while holding the girl.

“No thanks. There are lots of people on my way to work. I can walk with the crowd. Maybe it’s just my imagination.

I started to realize that how ridiculous I was.

He put his hand on the girl’s head and continued talking to me, “Tired of your work lately?”

“I guess so. I’ve even started seeing things.” It looks like I just found out the reason.