加天山·《仰望父亲》（节选）英译

My Father (Excerpt)

Jia Tianshan

Till Today, I still remember clearly what I learned from Father’s instructing me to practice calligraphy, to be reasonable and to be aspirational, and his sending me to school. It was Father’s instruction and deeds that gave me a happy childhood and healthy growth and equipped me with self-confidence, self-support, and self-determination.

What Father did was worth looking up to with respect. Father was an honest, tolerant and industrious man and was counted upon as the backbone of our family. In the 1950s my grandfather’s health collapse and my eldest uncle’s early demise resulted in our financial hardship. Our family had an unprecedented hart time. Father had to support a family of ten, including my old grandparents, my youngest bachelor uncle, my eldest uncle’s daughter, and my brothers and sister. In those days when serious natural disasters prevailed, insufficiency of food was the biggest problem to us. Father had to look after the whole family, and give attention to several things at a time. Whenever there was food and clothing available, Father would think of my uncle’s underage daughter first before his own children. In spite of great difficulties, Father managed to have my youngest uncle married. Father was always ready to give a hand to whoever was in need in our family.

Father was a man who never failed to should his responsibilities and keep faith. My elder brother told him that my eldest uncle had borrowed 300 yuan from someone else in the neighboring village before he died. Later, the owner came to our home for the money, and Father promised to pay him back in ten days. But nine days passed before father could get the money. Then he had no choice but to make up his mind to sell our own bullock which we used for farm work and milling, and paid off the debt. For a long time afterwards, Father did the milling all by himself manually. He often said to us, “When you make a promise, you should keep it. If you cannot keep faith, nobody dares to deal with you.”

Father was a man who suffered many misfortunes and remained firm and tenacious. At the age of twenty, he was press-ganged and experienced a hail of bullets in many battles. After liberation, he was once criticized and denounced for that unjustly. Father got married twice, and his ex-wife died early and left him a son, which was a heavy blow to him. In his 30s, he initiated with others the construction of the state-run coal mines at Huangtupo, Laohugou and Mapiwa of our county, and worked as the general manager. He made great achievements in his work but also received the utmost ill-treatment. However, all these sufferings didn’t result in depression but gave him greater toughness and tenacity. He shouldered the burden and pressure silently, and no smile was ever seen on his face. What impressed us most was his industriousness.

（刘连章 & Norman A. Pritchard 译）