在橄榄园
Olive-picking is great fun, and the poor women, who otherwise never see the fields or the trees, look forward to it all the year. When the time comes in the late autumn, there is great hurrying and scurrying, preparing of food, and packing up. For often, if the orchard is rather far away, the women sleep there for days together, without going home. It is understood at this season that the men shall not go near the orchards.
摘橄榄是一件很有趣的事,而那些可怜的妇女,如果不是摘橄榄,她们就永远看不到田野和树木,她们一年到头都盼望着摘橄榄。当深秋时节来临的时候,人们总是匆匆忙忙,准备食物,收拾行装。因为通常情况下,如果果园相当远,妇女们就一起在那里睡上几天,不回家。在这个季节,人们的理解是不能走近果园。
The year that Abdul Aziz was nine Sadoc came home one evening in early December and said to Kadijah:
阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹九岁那年,12月初的一个晚上,撒多克回到家,对卡迪亚说:
“The olives in the far orchard are ripe. On Saturday you will go with my two sisters to pick them. You will take Abdul Aziz with you, and the little M’na.” M’na was Abdul Aziz’s cousin, and he was very fond of her.
“远处果园里的橄榄熟了。星期六你将和我的两个姐姐一起去摘。你带着阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹和小姆娜。”玛娜是阿卜杜勒·阿齐兹的表妹,他很喜欢她。
Kadijah answered, as a proper Arab wife should answer, “As you command, my husband.” But she smiled as she spoke, and they all knew that she was very happy.
卡迪亚回答说,作为一个正统的阿拉伯妻子,“如你所愿,我的丈夫。”但她说话时面带微笑,大家都知道她很高兴。