Love in a Fallen City 倾城之恋 英文版.pdfVIP

【倾城之恋】 LOVE IN A FALLEN CITY Translated by Karen S. Kingsbury SHANGHAIS clocks were set an hour ahead so the city could save daylight, but the Bai family said: We go by the old clock. Ten oclock to them was eleven to everyone else. Their singing was behind the beat; they couldnt keep up with the huqin of life. When the huqin wails on a night of ten thousand lamps, the bow slides back and forth, drawing forth a tale too desolate for words—oh! why go into it? The tale of the huqin should be performed by a radiant entertainer, two long streaks of rouge pointing to her exquisite nose as she sings, as she smiles, cover-ing her mouth with her sleeve ... but here it was just Fourth Master Bai sunk in darkness, sitting alone on a ramshackle balcony and playing the huqin. As he was playing, the doorbell rang downstairs. For the Bai household, this was most unusual; people didnt pay social calls after dark, not in the old etiquette. If a visitor came at night or a telegram arrived without warning, either it meant that some event of huge import had transpired or, most probably, some-one had died. Fourth Master sat still and listened, but since Third Master, Third Mistress, and Fourth Mistress were shouting all at once as they came up the stairs, he couldnt understand what they were saying. Sitting in the room behind the balcony were Sixth Young Lady, Seventh Young Lady, and Eighth Young Lady, along with the Third and Fourth Masters children, all growing increas-ingly anxious. From where Fourth Master sat on the darkened alcony, he could see everything in the well-lit 10om. So when the door opened, there was Third Master in his undershirt and shorts, standing on the raised doorsill with his legs stuck out wide, reaching behind his thighs to slap at the mosquitoes, and call