京华烟云英汉对照.doc

3. 京华烟云 Moment in Peking ——Written by 林语堂, Translated by 张振玉 范例欣赏：Moment in Peking（1）—— Mannia’s Wedding Day Lin Yutang The next day, May the twenty-fifth, was Mannia’s wedding day. While her mother was getting things ready with the assistance of Coral and Mulan, and they were waiting for the sedan chairs to come at the proper hour, the Tseng house was in a great turmoil. There were a thousand things to prepare for the bride, and red sashes and colored festoons of silk and big lanterns to be hung up, and the bridegroom’s rooms to be decorated. Everything had to be new, tables, candle stands, wash basins, spittoons, commodes, even the curtains and bedding on Pingya’s bed—practically everything except the bed itself on which he was sleeping. The leeks and mint herbs hung above the door by every family on the Dragon-Boat Festival at the onset of summer, had to be taken down, and red festoons hung in their place above the door and along the door jambs. A disinfection, to drive away evil air, was usually done by burning mint herbs in the house on the Dragon-Boat Festival and children carried beautiful colored silk pendants on their breasts, containing fragrant powder from herbs to ward off disease for the summer, which was the usual season for epidemics. In this way Pingya’s room had been fumigated before he was moved in. T he idea now however, was to make as great a change of atmosphere in the sickroom as possible, showing every where the red color of happiness to drive away any lurking evil air. On top of all these preparations, Pingya had taken a turn for the worse. He complained that he could not see clearly, and his bowels would not function. His tongue showed a thick coating, and his limbs were cold while he felt hot inside. His pulse was weak and sluggish. The doctor had to press all three fingers on his wrist to feel the pulse beat, and this was a sign the volume of blood was decreasing. Upon the varied nuances of the pulse beats and their undertones, the yun