第1章 相见欢（1）

仪征新城途中，1947

桨声篙影波纹，

石桥礅，

蚕豆花开一路水乡春。

长跳板，

小河岸，

洗衣人。

绿裤红衫都道是新婚。

注：

江苏仪征是作者的故乡。新城当时是仪征的一个小镇，距仪征东门约5公里。1947年4月，作者当时是金陵中学高中二年级学生，放春假期间，特地由南京回到故乡仪征，住在小姑母家中。

Tune: Meeting in Delight

—During a journey to Xincheng, Yizheng, 1947

Paddling sound, pole shadow, water waves,

Stone bridge piers,

The springtime watertown is aglow with broad bean fl owers.

Long is the board,

Small the riverside,

Where a girl launders,

In trousers green and a coat red, said to be newlywed.

Note:

Yizheng in Jiangsu province is the author's hometown. At the time Xincheng was a small town about five kilometers to the East Gate of Yizheng. The author was then a second-year senior-high-school student at Jinling Middle School, Nanjing. During his spring vacation, he went his way from Nanjing to Yizheng for a short stay with his younger aunt.