Out in the alley water ran like a river,
巷外水流不息,
and the straw roof of the ricksha man's house dripped rain from every corner
黄包车夫家的草棚四处滴落着雨水
and all along each side like a very big umbrella.
每边都搭上草就像一把大伞。
While Mother and Ting Fang were looking out at the wetness and shaking their heads about it,
母亲和方廷望着外面湿漉漉的雨水,摇着头,
Father came home, pulling his yellow ricksha behind him.
父亲拉着黄包车回家,
He looked like a boatman, walking in water up to his knees;
看起来像个船夫,漫步在水中,水深没过膝盖
the ricksha looked like a boat sailing along on wheels. It sailed right up to Ting Fang's door;
黄包车看起来像一艘带轮航行的船只,径直驶向方廷的门口;
he and his mother stood back while his father pulled the ricksha into the little one-room house and set it in a corner.
方廷和母亲站在后面,而父亲拉着黄包车走进一个单独的小房间,在一个角落里将其放下。
Then Father took off his straw cape and shook it outside the door,
父亲脱下草帽,在门外甩了甩水,
just as a dog shakes himself to get dry.
就像狗摇动身体弄干一样。
Mother started to cook supper in one corner of the room.
母亲在房间的一角开始做晚饭。
She had a mud stove in which she burned old straw sandals and bits of grass to cook her supper.
她在泥砌成的炉子里烧着旧草鞋和草屑做着晚餐。
Father said to Ting Fang, "Never since I was a very little boy has there been such a rain as this.
父亲告诉方廷:“我小时候从来没有下过这么大的雨,
Why, along the street the water is up to my knees, and in nearly all the houses it is right on the floor."
哎,街上的水都有我的膝盖那么高,几乎所有房子的地板上都积满了水。”
"Do you think it will ever stop?" asked Ting Fang,
“你认为雨会停吗?”方廷问道,
as he listened to the rain patter on the roof and rattle on an old tin pail by the door.
他听着雨水拍打着屋顶,滴落在门边的旧锡桶上嘎嘎作响。