Guddu

Gargi Pant

楊舟選譯

The sun shone through Gayatri's winclow. Itteasedl her eyelids open. She yawned2， stretchedand got out of bed-things she had done athousand times before. For Gayatri， today beganlike any other day.

Gayatri Verma was a bright， 12-year-old girlwith sparkling3 eyes and dimpled4 smile. She wasan eighth grade student in a local school. foreverpraying5 to God for a new bicycle. She hatedtravelling in a school bus. After all she was bigenough to ride the bike on busy streets. But whowould make her mother understand？

She had just finished tying her striped 6 tieover her blue and white uniform when hermother called. "Guddu！

Guddu Verma. clon ' tforget to keep your shorts. Remember， you havegymnastics7 after school."

Gayatri hated it when her mother called herthat！ Guddu was such an awful name.

陽光透過加亞特里的窗戶照進(jìn)來，撩開了她的眼皮。她打了個哈欠，伸了個懶腰，然后從床上爬起來——這是她以前做過無數(shù)次的事情。對加亞特里來說，今天和其他任何一天沒什么兩樣。

加亞特里·維爾瑪是一個聰明的12歲女孩，她的眼睛閃閃發(fā)光，笑容帶著酒窩。她是當(dāng)?shù)匾凰鶎W(xué)校八年級的學(xué)生，一直在向上帝祈禱能有一輛新的自行車。她討厭坐校車，畢竟她到了可以在繁忙的街道上騎自行車的年齡。但誰能讓她媽媽明白這一點呢？

她剛把條紋領(lǐng)帶系在藍(lán)白相間的校服上，媽媽就叫道：“古杜！古杜·維爾瑪，別忘了帶上你的短褲。記住，放學(xué)后你有體操課。”

加亞特里討厭她媽媽那樣叫她！古杜真是個討厭的名字。

As she ate breakfast， Gayatri's thoughtsturned to her two best friends， Nitya and Mitu.They both loved to call her CJudu. Her parentstoo liked the sound of Guddu. The Verma couplethought the name very affectionate 8 andcharming. It was beyond Gayatri's understandinghow anyone could find the name Guddu charming.

Gathering her school bag and lunch. shekissed her mother and left for school. On her wayout， Gayatri looked down and found a small pinkenvelope lying on the porch 9. There was no nameon it. She picked it up， admiring the design on theenvelope. Thinking she would like to copy thedesign in her art class， Gayatri put the envelope inher pocket.

At lunch time Gayatri hurried to meet herfriends in the canteen. Mitu was there. She hadwild curly hair and an equally wild sense ofhumour！ She could always make Gayatri laugh.They had known each other since kindergarten.

Nitya was new to the school. She was new intown. Gayatri and Mitu had met her on the firstday of school. Most kids thought Nitya was verysnobbishm， but they both knew it was shyness onNitya's part that made her keep away from mostof her classmates.

"Hey， Gayatri！ " caalled Mitu. "I have eggparatha today. Wanna trade？"

吃早餐時，加亞特里的思緒轉(zhuǎn)向了她的兩個最好的朋友，尼蒂婭和米圖。她們都喜歡叫她古杜。她的父母也喜歡古杜的發(fā)音。維爾瑪夫婦覺得這個名字非常親切迷人。加亞特里無法理解為什么有人會覺得古杜這個名字很迷人。

收拾好書包和午飯，吻了吻媽媽，她就去上學(xué)了。在出去的途中，加亞特里低頭發(fā)現(xiàn)門廊上放著一個粉紅色的小信封，上面沒有名字。她拿起信封，欣賞著信封上的圖案?？紤]到想在美術(shù)課上模仿這個圖案，加亞特里就把信封放進(jìn)了口袋。

午飯時間，加亞特里急匆匆去食堂見她的朋友。米圖在那里。她有一頭狂野的卷發(fā)和同樣狂野的幽默感！她總能讓加亞特里發(fā)笑。他們從幼兒園的時候就認(rèn)識了。

尼蒂婭是學(xué)校里新來的。她剛搬到這個鎮(zhèn)上。加亞特里和米圖是在開學(xué)的第一天認(rèn)識她的。大多數(shù)孩子都認(rèn)為尼蒂婭很勢利，但他們都知道，是尼蒂婭的羞怯讓她遠(yuǎn)離了大多數(shù)同學(xué)。

“嘿，加亞特里！”米圖叫道，“我今天有雞蛋餅。想換換嗎？”

"Sorry Mitu，" Gayatri answered. "Mommade me my favourite sandwich today."

"I have chocolate pudding too， teasedMitu.

Gayatri thought about the pink envelopeshe had found on her way to school. Theenvelope with a design that she wanted to drawout in her art class. But she did not really needthe envelope. She coulcl remember the designand. besides. she really loved chocolate pudding！

"Mitu. I found this envelope on the porchthis morning. Do you want to trade it for yourpudding？" Gayatri asked.

Mitu studied the little pink envelope. LikeGayatri， she thought it might be fun to draw thedesign.

"Sure Gayatri， I am too full for the puddinganyway， ' said Mitu.

The bell rang and it was time to get back toclass.

When Mitu went back to her class， a girlcalled Lovely walked in with a fistful 11 of newpencils. Mitu's pencil had shrunk12 to nearlyhalf its size. because she had sharpened'3 it sooften. She offered to trade the pink envelope forone of Lovely' s pencils.

“抱歉，米圖?！奔觼喬乩锘卮鹫f，“媽媽今天給我做了我最喜歡的三明治?！?/p>

“我還有巧克力布丁?！泵讏D不依不饒道。

加亞特里想起了她在上學(xué)路上發(fā)現(xiàn)的那個粉紅色信封。她想在美術(shù)課上畫信封上的圖案。但她其實并不需要信封。她能記起那個設(shè)計，而且，她真的很喜歡巧克力布?。?/p>

“米圖，我今天早上在門廊上發(fā)現(xiàn)了這個信封。你想用布丁換它嗎？”加亞特里問道。

米圖仔細(xì)端詳著那個粉紅色的小信封。和加亞特里一樣，她也認(rèn)為信封上面的圖案畫起來會很有趣。

“當(dāng)然可以，加亞特里，反正我太飽了吃不下布丁?！泵讏D說。

鈴響了，該上課了。

當(dāng)米圖回到教室時，一個叫拉芙莉的女孩拿著一把新鉛筆走了進(jìn)來。因為米圖經(jīng)常削鉛筆，她的鉛筆已經(jīng)削去了差不多一半了。她提出用粉紅色的信封換拉芙莉的一支鉛筆。

Lovely looked at the paper. Underneath thedesign were several numbers written in a line.Among them were the numbers 10 and 13. Tenwas the month of October in whic：h Lovely wasborn and 13 was her birth date.

"Sure，" Lovely agreed， "I'll trade." She wasthinking， it just might be lucky！

Later， during the maths class， Lovely foundshe was out of paper. She turned to her friendRimjhim seated behind her.

"I have this lucky paper. I'll trade it withyou for some paper， okay？" Lovely told Rimjhim.

Rimjhim loved anything "lucky". Shestudied the small pink envelope and decided itwould make a bookmark for the book she wasreading！ She agreed and placed the luckyenvelope in her book.

After school， Gayatri， Nitya and Mitu walkedtowards Gayatri's mother's car. She was going todrop them to their gymnastic'4 class. Just thenRimjhim came running up to the car. Her motherhad called the school saying she wouldn' t be ableto pick her up and Rimjhim didn't want to takethe bus to the gymnastic class.

Rimjhim told Gayatri， "I'll give you mylucky bookmark if you let me come with you."

Gayatri stared at Rimjhim's bookmark. Itwas the same pink envelope she had found on theporch this morning！ It was crumpled'5 now， andone of the corners was bent. but there at the topwas the design she wanted to draw.

拉芙莉看著信封。在圖案的下面是寫成一行的幾個數(shù)字。其中有數(shù)字10和13。10月是拉芙莉出生的月份，13是她的出生日期。

“當(dāng)然?！崩嚼蛲饬?，“我要交換?！彼谙?，這也許就是幸運(yùn)！

后來，在數(shù)學(xué)課上，拉芙莉發(fā)現(xiàn)她沒紙了。她向坐在她后面的朋友林吉姆求助。

“我有這張幸運(yùn)紙。我跟你換些紙可以嗎？”拉芙莉跟林吉姆說。

林吉姆喜歡任何“幸運(yùn)”的東西。她仔細(xì)端詳了一下那個粉紅色的小信封，覺得可以把它用作她正在讀的書的書簽！她同意了，并把那個幸運(yùn)的信封夾進(jìn)了她的書里。

放學(xué)后，加亞特里、尼蒂婭和米圖走向加亞特里媽媽的車。她會帶她們?nèi)ド象w操課。就在這時，林吉姆跑到車邊。她媽媽打電話到學(xué)校說她不能接她，而林吉姆不想坐公共汽車去上體操課。

林吉姆跟加亞特里說：“如果你讓我和你們一起去，我會把我的幸運(yùn)書簽給你?！?/p>

加亞特里盯著林吉姆的書簽。那正是她早上在門廊發(fā)現(xiàn)的同一個粉紅色信封！它現(xiàn)在被弄皺了，其中一個角折了，但上面有她想畫的圖案。

How did Rimjhim end up with it？

Gayatri smiled and said， "Hop in." Then shetucked the envelope back into the same pocketwhere it had first rested.

Later that evening， while Gayatri was gettinginto her pyjamas'6， she heard her father shoutingdownstairs. Her father rarely shouted！ Somethingwas wrong！

She ran downstairs and into the living room.Her parents were sitting on the sofa in front ofthe television.

"Dad. what ' s wrong？" Gayatri asked.

Her mother said. "Honey， everything ' s okay.He's just disappointed. He bought a lottery'7ticket last night and somehow lost it. He's beenplaying the same number for years and tonight，and his number finally came up！ We're bothjust disappointed."

Gayatri's father said in a shaky 18 tone， "Idon 't understand how I could have lost it. I put itin my shirt pocket， then I drove home. I stoppedat the porch to pick up the evening newspaper，then came into the house. I didn't know it wasgone until just now， when I looked for it."

"Dad. what did the ticket look like？"Gayatri asked. thinking about the small pinkenvelope.

Her mother smiled. "Cuddu. it looked...well. like a lottery ticket. Don't worry about it. Itisn't like we lost something we already had. We 'reno worse off than we were before."

它最后是怎么到林吉姆手上的？

加亞特里微笑著說：“上車吧?！比缓笏研欧馊卦人b信封的口袋里。

那天晚上的晚些時候，當(dāng)加亞特里正要換上睡衣時，她聽到她爸爸在樓下喊叫。她爸爸很少那樣喊叫！出什么事了！

她跑下樓，走進(jìn)客廳。她的父母正坐在電視機(jī)前的沙發(fā)上。

“爸爸，怎么了？”加亞特里問道。

她媽媽說：“親愛的，一切都好。他只是很失望。他昨晚買了一張彩票，不知怎么弄丟了。多年來他一直在買同一個號碼，今晚，他的號碼終于中獎了！我們都很失望?！?/p>

加亞特里的爸爸用顫抖的語調(diào)說，“我不明白我怎么會弄丟它的。我把它放在襯衫口袋里，然后開車回家。我在門廊停下來拿了晚報，然后進(jìn)了屋。直到剛剛，當(dāng)我來找它的時候，才發(fā)現(xiàn)它不見了?！?/p>

“爸爸，那張彩票是什么樣子的？”加亞特里問道，她想起了那個粉紅色的小信封。

她的媽媽笑著說：“古杜，它看起來……嗯，就像一張彩票。別擔(dān)心，我們又不是失去了已經(jīng)擁有的東西。我們的情況并沒有比以前更糟。”

Gayatri ran upstairs and pulled the envelopefrom the pocket of her uniform. Then she took itdownstairs to the two people she loved most in theworld.

"Did it look like this？" she asked hopefully.

They stared at the paper， then at each other.Suddenly， as one single excited voice， they bothscreamed 19， "Gayatri！ "

"Tomorrow we shall go to the market to buyyou a bicycle，" her mother exclaimed happily. "Ithink you are responsible enough now.

Guddu Verma smiled. Her parents had calledher Gayatri！

Then she smiled again， imagining how herfriends would react20 0n seeing her with her newbicycle. Today indeed had been a very lucky day！

加亞特里跑上樓，從校服口袋里掏出那個信封。然后她把它拿下樓交給了世界上她最愛的兩個人。

“是這樣的嗎？”她滿懷希望地問道。

他們盯著那張紙，然后相互看了一眼。突然，他們兩個都發(fā)出了激動的聲音，尖叫道：“加亞特里！”

“明天我們?nèi)ナ袌鼋o你買輛自行車?！彼龐寢尭吲d地叫道，“我認(rèn)為你現(xiàn)在已經(jīng)足夠可靠了?！?/p>

古杜·維爾瑪笑了。她父母叫她加亞特里！

想到她的朋友們看到她騎著新自行車的反應(yīng)，她又笑了。今天真是幸運(yùn)的一天！

（英語原文選自：pitara.com）

[Notes]

1.tease [ti?z]v.取笑;戲弄;強(qiáng)求

2.yawn [j??n]v.打哈欠

3.sparkling [?spɑ?kl??] adj.閃閃發(fā)光的 4.dimpled[?d?mpld] adj.帶酒窩的

5.pray [pre?] v.祈禱;央求

6.striped [stra?pt]adj.有條紋的

7.gymnastics [d??m?n?st?ks] n.體操

8.affectionate [??fek??n?t] adj，深情的;充滿愛的

9.porch [p??t?]n.門廊

10. snobbish [?sn?b??] adj.勢利的

II. fistful[?f?stf?l]n.一把

12. shrink [?r??k] v-縮小，收縮

13. sharpen [??ɑ?pn]y.削尖;磨快

14. gymnastic [d??m?n?st?k] adj.體操的

15. crumple[?kr?mpl] v.弄皺

16. pyjamas [p??d?ɑ?m?z] n.睡衣

17. lottery[?l?t?r?] n.彩票

18. shaky[??e?k?]adj.顫抖的

19. scream [skri?m]v.尖叫

20. react [r???kt] v.反應(yīng)，作出反應(yīng)