A Foolish Affair from my childhood

Chinese Title: 童年傻事
This essay about a kid who takes his father’s advice a little too literally (with amusing results) is almost as beginner as a five-paragraph read can get. You’ll find very few intermediate-level words, and extremely basic sentence structure.
Beginner Simplified Chinese Essays: Learn to Read Mandarinonly thing intermediate about this read is the very first sentence, which we’ll talk about here. After this it’s pretty easy going. The essay starts out 童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。 Let’s break this one down word by word:
童年 – tóng nián – Childhood
仿佛 – fǎng fú – seems like
是 – shì – [it] is
一条 – yī tiáo – a (literally: the word “one” plus the classifier for boats, which is 条)
小船, – xiǎo chuán – boat,
里面 – lǐ miàn – inside
装满了 – zhuāng mǎn le – is full (of)
甜蜜的 – tián mì de – sweet
糖果, – táng guǒ – candy,
也 – yě – also
装满了 – zhuāng mǎn le – is full (of)
许多 – xǔ duō – much
忧伤 – yōu shāng – distress.
Pretty straightforward when you look at it that way. A quick note on that: though the word 糖果 (which appears a lot in this text) means “candy”, it does not mean “candy fruit” or “sweet fruit”, as you might guess from the character 果. This is just a general word for candy, though the Chinese don’t consider chocolate a “candy” – it’s in its own category.

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烈日 – liè rì – Scorching sun
炎炎 – yán yán – Scorching
抱上 – bào shàng – Pick up (the way one picks up a child, encircling them with both arms)
糖果 – táng guǒ – Candy
种 – zhòng – To plant (eg. vegetable seeds)
种子 – zhǒng zi – A seed
心想 – xīn xiǎng – Think to oneself
刨 – páo – To dig
坑 – kēng – Hole
埋 – mái – To bury
默默 – mò mò – Without speaking
宝贝 – bǎo bèi – “Baby”, “Darling” – term of endearment
如今 – rú jīn – Nowadays
童年仿佛是一条小船，里面装满了甜蜜的糖果，也装满了许多忧伤。
我出生在一个幸福的六口之家。有爸爸、妈妈、爷爷、奶奶、姐姐，还有我。
我四岁时，一个烈日炎炎的中午。爷爷、奶奶、妈妈和姐姐都忙着自己手中的活。爸爸抱上我去商店、给我买了很多糖果。回到家中，爸爸放下我，就去我们家的后院种苹果树去了。我也跟了过去，我问爸爸你在干什么？爸爸说：“我在种苹果树，到了秋天你就有苹果吃了。”爸爸还说：“你种什么种子就会长什么。”爸爸说完就回家喝茶去了。当时我心想如果把刚刚买的糖果种到土中，秋天不就有很多糖果了吗！
我说做就做，我刨了个坑，把刚才剩下的糖果都放在坑里，用土埋了。我默默的许下愿说：“糖果快长！糖果快长！长成大树，长出很多很多糖果。”我把这个愿望告诉了爸爸，爸爸听了。大笑起来说：“糖果不会长出大树，也更不会长出糖果。”我听了爸爸话坐在地上大哭起来，我的糖果，我的糖果。爸爸赶快跑到我面前，抱起我说：“哦，不哭了小宝贝，爸爸给你买很多很多糖果。我听了就不哭了。
如今我已经长大了，种糖果的傻事也不会再做了。
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Childhood seems like a boat that is full of sweet candy, but is also laden with grief.
I was born into a happy six-person family. There’s father, mother, grandpa, grandma, my elder sister and myself.
[The story begins] when I was four, on a scorching afternoon. Grandpa, grandma, mother and my elder sister were all busy doing their own thing. Dad picked me up and carried me to the store, and bought me lots of candy. On the way back to the house, dad put me down, and went to our house’s back garden to plant apple trees. I went with him, and asked him ‘what are you doing’? Father said: “I’m planting apple trees, when autumn arrives you’ll have apples to eat.” Father continued: “Whatever seeds you plant will grow.” Father finished speaking and went back into the house to drink tea. Then I thought to myself if I take the candy I just bought and plant it in the earth, in autumn I should have lots of candy!
I did just that, I dug a hole, took my left over candy and put it all in the hole, using dirt to bury it. In silence I fervently hoped: “Candy, grow quickly! Candy, grow quickly! Grow into a big tree, and sprout lots and lots of candy.” I told this wish to my father, and he listened. Laughing heartily he said: “Candy can’t grow into a big tree, and it definitely can’t sprout more candy.” I heard my father’s words and I sat down on the grass and started sobbing, my candy, my candy. Father quickly ran up to me, embraced me and said: “Oh, don’t cry little darling, daddy will buy you lots and lots of candy.” I listened to him and stopped crying.
Nowadays I’ve already grown up, and I won’t try foolishly planting candy again.