我身后的眼睛 The Eyes Behind Me [10] (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 [10]
 

“你怎么了?”他问。

“对不起。。我当时以为，你早就把我忘了。我的心好痛。。。 在我最痛苦的时候，他给了我温暖，让我明白，人必须面对现实。于是, 我选择了现实。” 我不争气的眼泪开始不住地流。

他靠着我坐下，把一只手伸到我的面前,“可以吗?”

我把手放进他的掌心。他的手还是那样地滚烫有力。

他握着我的手，看着我的眼睛说,“我只想让你知道，过去的都过去了，只要你现在幸福，我就很开心了。明白吗?”

我冲他点了点头。

他轻轻放开我的手，起身向湖水走去。

他的身影在湖边停了下来,“这个城市我都快认不出来了，可是这湖，还是那么美。”

我走上前，从背后轻柔地抱住他。

“让我再抱你一次，就一次, 可以吗?”

我就这样抱着他, 什么也不想, 让湖水和夜色静静地陪伴着我们.

这一晚是属于十三年前的, 是属于长青湖的记忆里的.

它不属于今天, 不属于这个时代.

 

我们挥手作了别, 两部出租车驶向了不同的方向.

他提出送我, 我说不要. 就让我们在长青湖畔告别.

我们的故事如果有一个结尾, 那就让它结束在长青湖畔.

我们很默契地都没有留下对方的联系方式.

 

[vocab table]

Simplified Chinese    Traditional Chinese    Mandarin Pinyin    English Definition
温暖    溫暖    wen1 nuan3    warm;
不争气的    不爭氣的    bu4 zheng1 qi4 de5    hopeless; to fail to live up to expectations;
眼泪    眼淚    yan3 lei4    tears
掌心    掌心    zhang3 xin1    hollow of the palm;
滚烫    滾燙    gun3 tang4    boiling; very warm
轻柔    輕柔    qing1 rou2    soft; gentle
静静地    靜靜地    jing4 jing4 di4    quiet
陪伴    陪伴    pei2 ban4    to accompany
属于    屬於    shu3 yu2    to belong to
挥手    揮手    hui1 shou3    to wave (one’s hand)
出租车    出租車    chu1 zu1 che1    taxi
湖畔    湖畔    hu2 pan4    lakeside
结尾    結尾    jie2 wei3    ending
默契    默契    mo4 qi4    to understand tacitly; secret agreement
联系    聯繫    lian2 xi4    contact; connection
 

[pinyin]

wǒ shēnhòu de yǎnjing [10]
 

” nǐ zěnmele?” tā wèn。

” duìbuqǐ。。 wǒ dāngshí yǐwéi， nǐ zǎojiù bǎ wǒ wàng le。

wǒ de xīn hǎo tòng。。。 zài wǒ zuì tòngkǔ de shíhou， tā gěi le wǒ wēnnuǎn， ràng wǒ míngbai， rén bìxū miànduì xiànshí。

yúshì, wǒ xuǎnzé le xiànshí。” wǒ bùzhēngqì de yǎnlèi kāishǐ bùzhù dì liú。

tā kào zhe wǒ zuòxia， bǎ yī zhǐ shǒu shēn dào wǒ de miànqián:” kěyǐ ma?”

wǒ bǎshǒu fàngjìn tā de zhǎngxīn。 tā de shǒu háishi nàyàng dì gǔntàng yǒulì。

tā wò zhe wǒ de shǒu， kàn zhe wǒ de yǎnjing shuō,

” wǒ zhǐ xiǎng ràng nǐ zhīdào， guòqu de dōu guòqu le， zhǐyào nǐ xiànzài xìngfú， wǒ jiù hěn kāixīn le。 míngbai ma?”

wǒ chōng tā diǎn le diǎntóu。

tā qīngqīng fàngkāi wǒ de shǒu， qǐshēn xiàng hú shuǐ zǒuqù。

tā de shēnyǐng zài húbiān tíng le xiàlai,

” zhège chéngshì wǒ dōu kuài rèn bù chūlái le， kěshì zhè hú， háishi nàme měi。”

wǒ zǒu shàngqián， cóng bèihòu qīngróu dì bào zhù tā。

” ràng wǒ zài bào nǐ yīcì， jiù yīcì, kěyǐ ma?”

wǒ jiù zhèyàng bào zhe tā, shénme yě bùxiǎng, ràng hú shuǐ hé yèsè jìng jìng dì péibàn zhe wǒmen.

zhè yī wǎn shì shǔyú shí sān niánqián de, shì shǔyú cháng qīng hú de jìyì lǐ de.

tā bù shǔyú jīntiān, bù shǔyú zhège shídài.

 

wǒmen huīshǒu zuò le bié, liǎng bù chūzūchē shǐ xiàng le bùtóng de fāngxiàng.

tā tíchū sòng wǒ, wǒ shuō bùyào. jiù ràng wǒmen zài cháng qīng húpàn gàobié.

wǒmen de gùshi rúguǒ yǒu yī gè jiéwěi, nà jiù ràng tā jiéshù zài cháng qīng húpàn.

wǒmen hěn mòqì dì dōu méiyǒu liúxià duìfāng de lián xì fāngshì.

[traditional Chinese]

我身後的眼睛[10]
 

“你怎麼了?”他問。

“對不起。。我當時以為，你早就把我忘了。我的心好痛。。。 在我最痛苦的時候，他給了我溫暖，讓我明白，人必須面對現實。於是, 我選擇了現實。” 我不爭氣的眼淚開始不住地流。

他靠著我坐下，把一只手伸到我的面前,“可以嗎?”

我把手放進他的掌心。他的手還是那樣地滾燙有力。

他握著我的手，看著我的眼睛說,“我只想讓你知道，過去的都過去了，只要你現在幸福，我就很開心了。明白嗎?”

我沖他點了點頭。

他輕輕放開我的手，起身向湖水走去。

他的身影在湖邊停了下來,“這個城市我都快認不出來了，可是這湖，還是那麼美。”

我走上前，從背後輕柔地抱住他。

“讓我再抱你一次，就一次, 可以嗎?”

我就這樣抱著他, 什麼也不想, 讓湖水和夜色靜靜地陪伴著我們.

這一晚是屬於十叁年前的, 是屬於長青湖的記憶裏的.

它不屬於今天, 不屬於這個時代.

 

我們揮手作了別, 兩部出租車駛向了不同的方向.

他提出送我, 我說不要. 就讓我們在長青湖畔告別.

我們的故事如果有一個結尾, 那就讓它結束在長青湖畔.

我們很默契地都沒有留下對方的聯系方式.

 

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

The Eyes Behind Me [10]

 

“Are you OK?”, he asked.

“I’m sorry … I thought you had already forgot about me.

I was heartbroken … When I suffered, he (my current husband) comforted me, he helped me to understand that I had to face the reality.

So I accepted the reality.” I couldn’t stop my hopeless tears.

He sit down beside me, opened one hand in front of me and asked, “May I?”

I placed my hand in his palm. He still had the warm and strong grip as before.

He held my hand, looked into my eyes and said,

“I only want you to know that, all that happened in the past has passed . As long as you are happy now, I am happy. Understand?”

I nodded at him.

He gently let go of my hand, stood up and walked down to the river.

His stopped at the riverside, “I hardly can recognize this city today, but this river is just as beautiful as it used to be.”

I walked towards him and hugged him gently from behind.

“Please, let me hug you again, just once, may I?”

I ceased all my thoughts, and hugged him just like that. The quiet river and the quiet night were our company.

That night belongs to thirteen years ago, to the memories of Chang Qing river.

It doesn’t belong to today, to this life.

 

At last we waved goodbye to each other. Two taxis drove to opposite directions.

He offered to send me home, I said, “No. Let’s  say goodbye right beside Chang Qing river.”

If there were an ending in our story, please let it end at Chang Qing river.

None of us asked for the other’s contact information.