Listen to this article记旧历除夕
How I Celebrated New Year’s Eve
林语堂
Lin Yutang
中国阴历新年，是中国人一年中最大的佳节，其他节日，似乎均少节期的意味。五日内全国均穿好的衣服，停止营业，闲逛，赌钱，打锣，放鞭炮，拜客，看戏。那是个黄道吉日，每人都盼望有一个更好更荣华富贵的新年，每人都乐于增多一岁，而且还准备了许多吉利话向他邻居祝贺。
The Old Chinese New Year, of the lunar calendar, was the greatest festival of the year for the Chinese people, compared with which every other festival seemed lacking in completeness of the holiday spirit. For five days, the entire nation dressed in its best clothes, shut up shops, loafed, gambled, beat gongs, let off firecrackers, paid calls, and attended theatrical performance. It was the great day of good luck, when everybody looked forward to a better and more prosperous new year, when everybody had the pleasure of adding one year to his age and was ready with an auspicious luck-bringing word for his neighbours.
不能在元旦责骂女佣，最奇怪的是中国劳苦女人也清闲了，嚼着瓜子，不洗衣，不烧饭，甚至拿一把菜刀都不肯。这种懒惰的辩论是元旦切肉就会切掉运气，洗什么东西就会洗掉运气，把水倒掉就会倒掉运气。红色春联贴满在每家门上，写着：好运、快乐、和平、富贵、青春。因为这是个大地回春，生命、发达、富贵复归的节日。
The humblest maid had the right not to be scolded on New Year’s Day, and strangest of all, even the hard-working women of China loafed and cracked melon seeds and refused to wash or cook a regular meal or even handle the kitchen knife. The justification for this idleness was that to chop meat on New Year’s Day was to chop off good luck, and to pour water down the sink was to pour away good luck, and to wash anything was to wash away good luck. Red scrolls were pasted on every door containing the words: Luck, Happiness, Peace, Prosperity, Spring. For it was the festival of the return of spring, of life and growth and prosperity.
街头屋前，到处是爆竹声，充塞着硫磺味。父亲失了他们的威严，祖父更比以前和蔼，孩子们吹口笛，带假面具，玩泥娃娃。乡下姑娘穿红戴绿，跑三四里路到邻村去看草台戏。村上的纨绔少年，恣意的卖弄他们的风情。那天是女人的解放日，洗衣烧饭的苦工解放日，有人饿了，就煎年糕来吃，或用现成的材料下一碗面，或到厨房里偷两块冷鸡肉。
And all around, in the home courtyards and in the streets, there was the sound of firecrackers, and the smell of sulfur was in the air. Fathers lost their dignity, grandfathers were more amiable than ever, and children blew whistles and wore masks and played with clay dolls. Country women, dressed in their best, would go three or four miles to a neighboring village to watch a theatrical show, and village dandies indulged in what flirtations they dared. It was the day of emancipation for women, emancipation from the drudgery of cooking and washing, and if the men were hungry, they could fry nienkao [hard New Year pudding], or make a bowl of noodles with prepared sauce, or go to the kitchen and steal cold cuts of chicken.
我是个极端摩登的人。没有人可以说我守旧。我不懂遵守旧历，而且还喜欢倡行十三个月的年历，每月只有四个星期或二十八天。换句话说，我的观点很科学化，很逻辑化。就是这点科学的骄傲，使我在过新年时大失所望。每人都假装着庆祝，一点没有真感情。
I am ultramodern. No one can accuse me of being conservative. I am not only for the Gregorian calendar, but am even for the thirteen-month calendar, in which all months have exactly four weeks or twenty-eight days. In other words, I am very scientific in my viewpoint and very logical in my reasoning. It was this scientific pride which was badly wounded when I found my celebration of the official New Year a great failure, as anyone who pretended to celebrate it with any real feeling must have found out for himself.
我并不要旧历新年，但旧历新年自己来了。那天是阳历二月四号。
I didn’t want Old New Year. But the Old New Year came. It came on February 4.
科学的理智教我不要遵守旧历，我也答应照办。旧历新年来到的声音在一月初已经听到了，有一天我早餐吃的是腊八粥，使我立刻记起那是阴历十二月初八。一星期后，我的佣人来借额外的月薪，那是他旧历除夕所应得的。他下午息工出去的时候，还给我看他送给妻子的一包新衣料。二月一号、二号，我得送小费给邮差、运货车夫、书店信差等等。我常觉得有什么东西快来了。
My big Scientific Mind told me not to keep the Old New Year, and I promised him I wouldn’t. “I’m not going to let you down,” I said, with more good will than self-confidence. For I heard rumblings of the Old New Year’s coming as far back as the beginning of January, when one morning I was given for breakfast a bowl of lapacho, or congee with lotus seeds and dragon-eyes, which sharply reminded me it was the eighth day of the twelfth moon. A week after that, my servant came to borrow his extra month’s pay, which was his due on the New Year’s Eve. He got an afternoon’s leave and showed me the package of new blue cloth which he was going to send to his wife. On February 1 and February 2, I had to give tips to the postman, the milkman, the expressman, the errand boys of book companies, etc. I felt all along what was coming.
到二月三号，我还对自己说：“我不过旧历新年。”那天早晨，我太太要我换衬衣，“为什么？”
February 3 came. Still I said to myself, “I’m not going to keep the Old New Year.” That morning, my wife told me to change my underwear. I asked, “What for?”
“周妈今天洗你的衬衣。明天不洗，后天不洗，大后天也不洗。”要近乎人情，我当然不能拒绝。
“Chouma is going to wash your underwear today. She is not going to wash tomorrow, nor the day after tomorrow, nor the day after the day after tomorrow.” Being human, I could not refuse.
这是我屈服的开始。早餐后，我家人要到银行去，因为虽然政府命令废除旧历新年，银行在年底照样有一种微小的提款恐慌。“语堂”，我的太太说，“我们要叫部汽车。你也可以顺便去理一理头发。”理发我可不在意，汽车倒是个很大的诱惑。我素来不喜欢在银行进进出出，但我喜欢乘汽车。我想沾光到城隍庙去一趟，看看我可以给孩子们买些什么。我想这时总有灯笼可买，我要让我最小的孩子看看走马灯是什么样的。
That was the beginning of my downfall. After breakfast, my family was going to the bank, for there was a mild sort of bank panic, which came in spite of the fact that by ministerial orders the Old New Year didn’t exist. “Y.T.,” my wife said, “we are going to hire a car. You might come along and have a haircut.” I didn’t care for the haircut, but the car was a great temptation. I never liked monkeying about in a bank, but I liked a car. I thought I could profitably go to the City Gods’ Temple and see what I could get for the children. I knew there must be lanterns at this season, and I did want my youngest child to see what a rotating lantern was like.
其实我不该到城隍庙去的。在这个时候一去，你知道，当然会有什么结果。在归途中带了一大堆东西，走马灯，兔子灯，几包中国的玩具，还有几枝梅花。回到家里，同乡送来了一盆家乡著名的水仙花，我记得儿时新年，水仙盛开，发着幽香。儿时情景不自禁地出现在我眼前。我一闻到水仙的芬芳，就联想到春联、年夜饭、鞭炮、红蜡烛、福建桔子、清晨拜年，还有我那件一年只能穿一次的黑缎袍。
I should not have gone to the City Gods’ Temple in the first place. Once there at this time of the year, you know what would happen. I found on my way home that I had not only rotating lanterns and rabbit lanterns and several packages of Chinese toys with me, but some twigs of plum blossom, besides. After coming home I found that someone from my native place had presented me with a pot of narcissus, the narcissus which made my native place nationally famous, and which reminded me of New Year’s Day in my childhood. I could not shut my eyes without the entire picture of my childhood coming back to me. Whenever I smelled the narcissus, my thoughts went back to the red scrolls, the New Year’s Eve feast, the firecrackers, the red candles, and the Fukien oranges and the early morning calls and that black satin gown which I was allowed to wear once every year.
中饭时，由水仙的芳香，想到吾乡的“萝卜粿”（萝卜做的年糕）。
At lunch, the smell of the narcissus made me think of one kind of Fukien nienkao, rice-pudding made with turnips, which I used to have for the New Year in my childhood.
“今年没人送‘萝卜粿’来。”我慨叹地说。
“This year, no one has sent us any turnip pudding,” I said sadly.
“因为厦门没人来，不然他们一定会带来。”我太太说。
“It’s because no one came from Amoy. Otherwise, they would have sent it,” said my wife.
“武昌路广东店不是有吗？我记得曾经买过，我想仍然能找到那家店。”
“I remember once I bought exactly the same kind of pudding in a Cantonese shop on Wuchang Road. I think I can still find it.”
“不见得吧？”太太挑衅的说。
“No, you can’t”, challenged my wife.
“我当然能够。”我回驳她。
“Of course I can,” I took up the challenge.
下午三时，我已手里提一篓两磅半的年糕从北四川路乘公共汽车回来。
By three o’clock in the afternoon I was already in a bus on my way home from North Szechuen Road with a big basket of nienkao weighing two pounds and a half.
五时炒年糕吃，满房是水仙的芳香，我很激烈地感到我像一个罪人。“我不准备过新年”，我下了决心说，“晚上我要出去看电影。”
At five, we ate the fried nienkao, and with the room filled with the subtle fragrance of narcissus, I felt terribly like a sinner. “I’m not going to celebrate New Year’s Eve,” I said resolutely; “I’m going to the movies tonight.”
“你怎么能？”我太太说。“我们已经请了X君今晚来家里吃饭。”那真糟透了。
“How can you?” asked my wife. “We have invited Mr. Ts – to dinner this evening.” It looked pretty bad.
五时半，最小的女儿穿了一身新做的红衣服。
At half past five, my youngest child, Meimei, appeared in her new red dress.
“谁给她穿的新衣服？”我责问，心旌显得有点动摇，但还能坚持。
“Who put on the new dress for her?” I rebuked, visibly shaken, but still gallant.
“黄妈穿的。”那是回答。
“Huangma did,” was the reply.
六时发现蜡烛台上点起一对大红蜡烛，烛光闪闪，似在嘲笑我的科学理智。那时我的科学理智已很模糊，微弱，虚空了。
By six o’clock, I found red candles burning brightly on the mantelpiece, their lapping flames casting a satirical glow of triumph at my Scientific Consciousness. My Scientific Consciousness was, by the way, already very vague and low and unreal.
“谁点的蜡烛？”我又挑战。
“Who lighted the candles?” again I challenged.
“周妈点的。”
“Chouma did,” was the reply.
“是谁买的？”我质问。
“Who bought the candles?” I demanded.
“还不是早上你自己买的吗？”
“Why, you bought them yourself this morning.”
“真有这回事吗？”那不是我的科学意识，一定是另外一个意识。
“Oh, did I?” It cannot have been my Scientific Consciousness that did it. It must have been the Other Consciousness.
我想有点可笑，但记起我早晨做的事，那也就不觉得什么了。一时鞭炮声音四起，一阵阵的乒乓声，像向我的意识深处进攻。
I thought I must have looked a little ridiculous, the ridiculousness coming less from the recollection of what I did in the morning than from the conflict of my head and my heart at that moment. I was soon startled out of this mental conflict by the boom-bah! of firecrackers in my neighborhood. One by one, those sounds sunk into my deep consciousness.
我不能不抵抗，掏出一块洋钱给我的仆人说：
I was not going to be beaten by them. Pulling out a dollar bill, I said to my boy:
“阿秦，你拿一块钱去买几门天地炮，几串鞭炮。越大越响越好。”
“Ah-ching, take this and buy me some heaven-and-earth firecrackers and some whip firecrackers, as loud as possible and as big as possible. Remember, the bigger and the louder the better.”
在一片乒乓声中，我坐下来吃年夜饭，我不自觉地感觉到很愉快。
So amidst the boom-bah of firecrackers, I sat down to the New Year’s Eve dinner. And I felt very happy in spite of myself.
