芒果街上的小屋第13篇

　　My name （1）

　　In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.

　　It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of horse—which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female—but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.

　　My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.

　　在英语里，我的名字的意思是希望。在西班牙语里，它意味着太多的字母。它意味着哀伤，意味着等待。它就像数字九。一种泥泞的色彩。它是没到星期天早晨，爸爸刮胡子是播放的墨西哥唱片，呜咽的歌。

　　它过去是我曾祖母的名字，现在是我的。她也是一个属马的女人，和我一样，生在中国的马年——如果你生为女人，这会被认为是霉运——可是我想，这是个中国谎，因为，中国人和墨西哥人一样，不喜欢他们的女人强大。

　　我的曾祖母。要是我见过她多好，女人中的野马，野得不想嫁人。直到我的曾祖父用麻袋套住她的头把她扛走。就那样扛着，好像她是一盏华贵的枝型吊灯。那就是他的办法。

　　*英文单词“letter”既可以是作“字母”解，也可以作“信”接。太多的信，意味着等待。通过这次隐义，句子前后意义得以贯通。

　　*作者说，9是10之前的那个数字，是变化之前的数字。她选用这个数字来传达一种等待的意味，因为“我”，是一个即将成年的孩子，在等待改变，等待成熟和绽放。