Chinese Literature

saw it was Chun Pao, who had just fallen asleep. The boy was breathing faintly, his face pressed against his mother’s breast. She hugged him tightly.

The still and chilly night seemed to drag on endlessly... .

Translated by Chang Pei-chi —

Harvest

YEH TZU I

It was nearly Ching Ming Festival. The rain had been coming down for days, and the sky remained overcast without the slightest sign of clearing up.

Uncle Yun-pu, still in the shabby padded gown that had seen him through the winter, sat near the entrance of the Tsao Ancestral Temple. He was shaking with a slight tremor, as if his body found it hard to withstand the chill that was penetrating to his bones. Looking up to survey the sky, he muttered incoherently under his breath and looked down again.

“Oh, Heaven! Is it going to be like last year?’ he whispered.

Then turning towards his wife who was sitting at the foot of the stage in front of the temple, he said hesitatingly: “Ma, they say after the first thunder shower in spring you should be able to take off your padded clothes. Now it’s nearly Ching Ming and it’s still too cold to go without them. Could it be that this year will be like last?”

She made no reply. She was busy nursing little Sze-hsi at her breast.

The weather was really dreadful enough to worry anyone to death. The rain had been pattering for more than a month, ever since the lunar calendar marked the beginning of spring. People felt terribly afraid. In the past, it had always been like this: a bitter cold spell around the beginning of spring meant that it would certainly be a flood year again.

“Heaven above, if it’s going to be the same... .’’ Uncle Yun-pu once more gazed up at the sky, while with one hand he kept tapping his pipe on the stone steps.

“It couldn’t be!” said Mrs. Yun-pu after a pause, in a rather offhand manner, her face still turned towards the child in her arms.

“Why couldn’t it be? Didn’t we have a cold spell like this at the beginning of spring in 1924 and 1926? — Besides, this year Heaven is going to make people really suffer.”

Uncle Yun-pu was irritated by his wife’s casual answer. He felt as

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