放生故事:四十六的下場

　　46's END

　　四十六的下場

　　We have seen that some Chinese have numbers for names. Some of these are nicknames， but some are their real names. Earlier， we read about the stubborn hog butcher， Hsuan 4. Probably he was the fourth son in his family.

　　我們曾經看到過一些中國人用數字做名字。其中有的名字是綽號，但是也有一些是真的名字。此前我們讀過關于那個固執的殺豬人宣四的故事。也許他是家里第四個兒子。

　　Now we are going to tell you about a gardener called Qiao 46. What！？ Theforty-sixth son？ Maybe. Or maybe his father just liked numbers.

　　現在我們要告訴你關于園丁喬四十六的事情。什么？第四十六個兒子？也許，不過也許只是因為他的父親喜歡數字而已。

　　Be that as it may， 46 was a very careful， very skilled gardener. He wasn't very highly educated， but he had a lot of experience gardening. Everybody praised his skill， but he had a problem. He wasn't very kind. Of course no gardener can help killing some insects now and then， but 46 seemed to enjoy doing in bugs， whether or not they were threatening his plants.

　　不管怎樣，四十六是一個細心的、手藝高明的園丁。他沒有受過很好的教育，但是他有很多園藝的經驗。每個人都夸贊他的手藝，不過他有一個毛病。他不太善良。當然，園丁都難以避免殺死一些昆蟲，但是四十六好像特別喜歡弄死小蟲子，不論它們是否對他的花草構成威脅。

　　Once when he was working on his flowers， he saw an ant hole. It looked pretty deep. It was crawling with ants， running back and forth on their ant-errands.

　　有一天，當他正在修剪花木時，他看到了一個螞蟻洞。那個洞看上去很深。洞口爬滿了螞蟻，它們來來回回地忙碌著。

　　"Just the right moment！" said 46. He had a big pot of water boiling in the kitchen. He had been going to make tea， but he thought this was better. He rushed into the kitchen and got a bucket and poured all the boiling water down the hole. Almost all the ants were scalded to death. 46 thought that was great fun！

　　"來得正好！"四十六說道。他在廚房里正燒著一鍋開水。本來他是要沏茶用的，但是他想用在螞蟻上更好。他跑進了廚房，拎了一桶開水出來，然后把滾開的水都倒進了螞蟻洞。幾乎所有的螞蟻都被燙死了。四十六感到開心極了。

　　All that running back and forth with the boiling water was hot work， especially on such a fine summer's day. 46 took off his shirt and went back to work，humming a happy tune.

　　在用開水燙死螞蟻之后，就是忙碌的工作，這活干起來讓人感到很熱，特別是在這樣一個晴朗的夏日。四十六脫下了襯衫，又回去干活了，嘴里哼著快樂的小調。

　　What a fine day！ The weather was perfect， and he had just finished off a whole nest of ants. His garden was doing well， so he would have lots of vegetables and flowers to sell in the market. He had saved up enough money by now to get married， and it was about time， too！ He was over 30 already， and most of his buddies had troops of kids.

　　多好的一天啊！天氣是這樣好，而他又剛剛弄死一整窩螞蟻。他把花園侍弄得很好，這樣他就可以有很多蔬菜和鮮花去市場賣。為了結婚他已經攢了足夠多的錢，現在正是時候。他已經30多歲了，而他的很多朋友都已經兒女成群了。

　　"Miss Zhang 2 is the gal for me. She's got a charming face， and the sweetest， softest pair of little white hands I ever did see. If I marry her， we can have a bunch of kids. Wouldn't that be wonderful？

　　"張二小姐就是個理想人選。她長著迷人的臉蛋兒，她的白白的小手是我所見過的最可愛、最柔軟的。如果我能娶了她，我們可以生一大群孩子。那可真是太好了。

　　"Her dad's a great friend of Pa's. I have enough money now to support a family， so I'll ask Pa to have a matchmaker arrange things."

　　"她的父親是爹爹的好朋友，我現在的錢已經足夠養家了，所以我要讓爹爹找個媒人去提親。"

　　The more 46 thought about it， the happier he was. Everything was perfect ――the only flaw on this perfect day was that he had an itchy little red dot on his shoulder. He scratched it， but it got itchier.

　　四十六越想越高興。一切都是那樣完美――今天唯一的美中不足就是他的肩膀上有一個發癢的小紅點。他用手去撓，但是那里變得更癢了。

　　He kept working， but it still got itchier， and it seemed to be spreading. In a while， he had little red dots all over his upper body， and they itched so much he had to put down his tools and concentrate on his scratching.

　　他繼續工作著，卻感到更癢，而且這種感覺似乎正在擴散。不一會兒，他的上身全都是小紅點了，那些小紅點讓他瘙癢難耐，他不得不放下手里的家什，專心地撓癢。

　　The more he scratched， the itchier he got， and the more red dots he had. He rubbed his back against a tree while he scratched his chest and arms with his hands， and his legs with his feet.

　　可是他越撓就覺得越癢，而且身上的小紅點也越多。他用手撓著前胸和胳膊，用腳撓著兩腿，還靠在樹上蹭著后背。

　　They itched so much he scratched open his skin， and from every dot， out crawled an ant！

　　身上越來越癢，皮都撓破了，每一處破的地方都爬出一只螞蟻！

　　By the time this happened， 46 was half insane from the itching， and he died in torment a few days later.

　　到了這個時候，四十六已經被瘙癢弄得神志不清了，幾天以后他在極度痛苦中死去了。

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