Soon after the blind Russian poet Ero Xianke (2) brought his six-stringed instrument to Beijing, he complained to me: "Lonely, lonely, lonely in the desert!" ”

It should be true, but I don't feel it; I've lived there for a long time, and I "went into Zhilan's room and didn't smell its fragrance for a long time" (3), and I just thought it was just shouting. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info but my so-called yelling, or his so-called loneliness.

I feel as if there is no spring and autumn in Beijing. People who are old in Beijing say that the earth has turned north, and it was not so warm here at first. It's just that I always thought that there was no spring and autumn; The end of winter and the beginning of summer converge, summer goes, and winter begins again.

One day was the end of winter and the beginning of summer, and it was night, and I occasionally had the leisure to visit Ara-senke-kun. He had always lived in Zhong Mijun's house; At this time, everyone in the family slept, and the world was very quiet. He leaned back on his couch alone, his high eyebrows frowning slightly between his long golden hair, thinking of Burma, where he had traveled, a summer night in Burma. "Nights like this," he said, "are all over the place in Myanmar with music." In the house, in the grass, and on the trees, there are insects chirping, and all kinds of sounds become ensembles, which is very magical. From time to time, there was a snake chirping: 'Hiss! But it is also in harmony with the sound of insects...... "He pondered, as if he wanted to recall the scene.

I can't open my mouth. I have never heard such wonderful music in Beijing, so no matter how patriotic he is, he cannot defend it, because although he has no eyes to see, his ears are not deaf.

"Beijing doesn't even ...... frogs," he sighed.

"There are frog croakings!" This sigh made me courageous, so I protested, "In the summer, after the heavy rains, you can hear many shrimp and toads chirping, and they are all in the ditch, because there are ditches everywhere in Beijing." ”

"Oh......"

After a few days, my words were confirmed, because Ai Luo Xiankejun had already bought more than a dozen Kedouzi. He bought it and put it in a small pool in the middle of the courtyard outside his window. The pool was three feet long. It is two feet wide, and it is a lotus pond dug by Zhongmi to plant lotus flowers. From this lotus pond, although I have never seen half a lotus flower raised. However, shrimp and toad farming is really a very suitable place. Kedou swims in the water in groups; He also visited them often. Sometimes, the children told him, "Mr. Ero Sonke, they have a foot." He smiled happily and said, "Oh! ”

However, raising a musician in Ikenuma is only one thing for Ara-kun. He has always advocated self-reliance. It is often said that women can raise livestock and men should farm. So when he met a friend he knew very well, he would persuade him to plant cabbage in the yard; He also repeatedly advised Mrs. Zhongmi, advising Yi to keep bees, chickens, pigs, cattle, and camels. Later, Zhongmi's family really had many chickens, and they ran all over the courtyard and pecked at the young leaves of the brocade on the ground. Perhaps this is the result of this counsel.

Since then, the countrymen who sell chickens have often come to buy a few chickens, because chickens are easy to accumulate food, sha, and it is difficult to live a long life; And one of them has become the protagonist of the only novel written by Ero Xianke Jun in Beijing, "The Tragedy of the Chicken" (4). One morning, the countryman unexpectedly brought a duckling, and he was screaming; But Mrs. Zhongmi said no. Elo Xiankejun also ran out, and they put one in his two hands, and the duckling groaned in both of his hands. He thought it was cute, too, so he had to buy it again. I bought a total of four, eighty wen each.

The ducklings are also admittedly cute, covered in pine and yellow, and placed on the ground. They staggered along, greeted each other, and were always in one place. Everyone said yes, let's go buy loaches tomorrow and feed them. Ai Luo Xianke Jun said, "This money can also go to me." ”

So he went to teach; Everyone also dispersed. After a while, Mrs. Zhongmi brought cold rice to feed them. , I could hear the sound of splashing water in the distance, and when I ran to see it, it turned out that the four ducklings were bathing in the lotus pond, and they were also somersaulting and eating. When they came ashore, the whole pond was already muddy, and after a long time, it was clarified, and I saw a few fine lotus roots exposed in the mud; And I can't find a Kedou who has already given birth to a leg.

"Yi and Xi Kexian, no, son of the shrimp toad." In the evening, when the children saw him return, the youngest of them hastened to speak.

"Hmm, shrimp toad?"

Mrs. Zhongmi also came out and reported the story of the duckling who finished eating Kedou.

"Alas, alas! ......," he said.

When the ducklings had lost their yellow feathers, Ero Secek-kun suddenly longed for his "Russian Mother" (5) and hurried to Chita.

By the time the frogs chirped everywhere, the ducklings had already grown, two white, two flowery, and no longer croaked, they were all "duck ducks". The lotus pond has long been unable to accommodate them, fortunately, the terrain of Zhongmi's house is very low, as soon as the summer rain falls, the yard is full of water, they are glad, swimming, drilling, flapping wings, "duck duck" called.

Now it's from the end of summer to the beginning of winter, and there is still no news from Ai Luo Xiankejun, so I don't know where it is.

There are only four ducks, but they are still "duck ducks" in the desert.

October 1922.

□ note

(1) This article was originally published in the Shanghai Women's Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 12, December 1922.

(2) Erosenko (1889-1952): Russian poet and fairy tale writer. As a child, he was blind due to illness. He has been to Japan, Thailand, Myanmar and India. In 1921, he was deported from Japan for participating in the "May Day" parade, and then came to China. He came to Beijing from Shanghai in 1922 and taught at Peking University and Beijing Esperanto College. Returned to China in 1923. He writes in Esperanto and Japanese, and Lu Xun has translated his works "Peach-colored Clouds" and "Fairy Tales of Ailuo Xianke".

(3) "Enter the room of Zhilan, and do not smell its fragrance for a long time": see "Confucius's Family Language. Six copies.

(4) "The Tragedy of the Chick": Fairy tale. Lu Xun translated it in July 1922 and published it in the Shanghai Women's Magazine, Vol. 8, No. 9 in September of the same year, and was later included in the Fairy Tales of Ai Luo Xianke.

(5) "Mother Russia": the affectionate name of the Russian people for the Motherland. [The Scream] (To be continued.) (To be continued.) )