Mandarin language learning HK – Childhood

Mandarin Lesson

When I read a book from my mother’s shelves, it’s not unusual to come across a gap in the text. A paragraph, or maybe just a sentence, has been sliced out, leaving a window in its place, with words from the next page peeping through. The chopped up page looks like a nearly complete jigsaw puzzle waiting for its missing piece. But the piece isn’t lost, and I always know where to find it. Dozens of quotations, clipped from newspapers, magazines—and books—plaster one wall of my mother’s kitchen. What means the most to my mother in her books she excises and displays.

當我翻看媽媽書架上的書時,常常會發現其中的文字缺了一部分。其中的一個段落,或可能只是一個句子,被剪了下來,在原來的位置上留下了一扇窗戶,讓後一頁上的文字探頭探腦地露了出來。被挖掉一塊的那一頁看上去就像是一幅幾乎就要完成的拼圖作品,等待著缺失的那一塊拼圖。但那一塊拼圖並沒有丟,而且我總是知道在哪兒能找到它。在我媽媽的廚房裡,從報紙上、雜誌上——還有書上——剪下的紙片貼滿了一面牆。在她的書裡,那些她最喜歡的句子和段落都被她剪了下來,貼在牆上。

Dāng wǒ fān kàn māmā shūjià shàng de shū shí, chángcháng huì fāxiàn qízhōng de wénzì quēle yībùfèn. Qízhōng de yīgè duànluò, huò kěnéng zhǐshì yīgè jùzi, bèi jiǎnle xiàlái, zài yuánlái de wèizhì shàng liú xiàle yī shàn chuānghù, ràng hòu yī yè shàng de wénzì tàntóutànnǎo de lùle chūlái. Bèi wā diào yīkuài dì nà yī yè kàn shàngqù jiù xiàng shì yī fú jīhū jiù yào wánchéng de pīntú zuòpǐn, děngdàizhuó quēshī dì nà yīkuài pīntú. Dàn nà yīkuài pīntú bìng méiyǒu diū, érqiě wǒ zǒng shì zhīdào zài nǎ’er néng zhǎodào tā. Zài wǒ māmā de chúfáng lǐ, cóng bàozhǐ shàng, zázhì shàng——hái yǒu shū shàng——jiǎn xià de zhǐ piàn tiē mǎnle yīmiàn qiáng. Zài tā de shū lǐ, nàxiē tā zuì xǐhuan de jùzi hé duànluò dōu bèi tā jiǎnle xiàlái, tiē zài qiáng shàng.