苏绍连·《兽》英译

我在暗绿的黑板上写了一只字“兽”，加上注音“ㄕㄡ”，转身面向全班的小学生，开始教这个字。教了一整个上午，费尽心血，他们仍然不懂，只是一直瞪着我，我苦恼极了。背后的黑板是暗绿色的丛林，白白的粉笔字“兽”蹲伏在黑皮上，向我咆哮，我拿起板擦，欲将它擦掉，它却奔入丛林里，我追进去，四处奔寻，一直到白白的粉笔屑落满了讲台上。

我从黑板里奔出来，站在讲台上，衣服被兽爪撕破，指甲里有血迹，耳朵里有虫声，低头一看，令我不能置信，我竟变成四只脚而全身生毛的脊椎动物，我吼着：“这就是兽！这就是兽！”小学生们都吓哭了。

Beast

Su Shaolian

On the dark-green blackboard I write the character “兽” and its phonetic transcription shou. Then I turn to face a whole class of primary school students and begin explaining to them what it means. After a morning of painstaking effort, they still haven’t gotten my drift, staring at me blankly and driving me up the wall. The dark-green blackboard behind me is a jungle, and there—written on it in white chalk—crouches the character “beast” yowling at me. I pick up a duster and am just about to rub it out when it dashes off into the jungle. I head off in pursuit, chasing after it everywhere until the platform is covered in chalk dust.

I come running out of the blackboard and stand there, my clothes ripped to shreds by the beast’s claws, traces of blood on my fingernails, the buzz of insects in my ears. As I look at myself, I can’t believe what I see: I have turned into a four-legged vertebrate covered in fur. I snarl at the class: “This is what a beast is! This is what a beast is!” The students all burst into tears, terrified.