Chapter 15

Major typo alert and certain reduction of your puzzlement

阿栗做一日和尚撞一天钟 0015 闯出门去

should be

阿栗 便 闯出门去。 Must be the ghost of Wang Er...

0009 哄着拍着孩子 Playing with the child

0014 做一日和尚撞一天钟 According to http://www.chengyu.org/Html/Z/20060406110459896.htm this is a 俗语。比喻遇事敷衍，得过且过。也有无可奈何，勉強从事的意思。

Can you explain to me how the suyu can mean this?..::)

(I wrote that before your typo alert. I'm happy that no one can understand your remark about Wang Er...)

0016 罗愁绮恨= ?

0033 把头磕在门洞子 0034 里的水泥墙上 First, who is doing this? Liuyuan? He does this because he is tired I suppose.. but it also suggests an old fashioned Chinese greeting.

0035 浅水湾 This is Repulse bay, on southern Hong Kong island. Our friend Wiki says "In 1841, the bay was used as a base by pirates and caused serious concern to foreign merchant ships trading with China. The pirates were subsequently repulsed by the British Fleet; hence the name. Another theory holds that the bay was named after the HMS Repulse which was stationed at the bay at one point."

0039 好容易今天设法弄到了这部卡车。 Indeed, it must have been difficult!

0057 海湾里的军舰 Japanese warships, the British men-of-war had been sent away to Singapore.

0059 把背贴在大厅的墙上。What is the purpose of 背 ?

0060 毯子被挂在竹竿上，迎着风扑打上面的灰尘，啪啪打 0061 着，下劲打，打得上面的人走投无路。"The carpet was hung on bamboo poles, and the wind beat ferociously against it. The people picured on the carpet could not get away." - strange picture, but I can't find a better interpretation..:)

0014 做一日和尚撞一天钟 I have not been able to find an explanation.

0016 罗愁绮恨= ?

罗绮 愁恨
two kinds of fabric /two words for pain – the metaphor of a huge storing box--- I can make poetic sense of this but I do not know where the four word expression comes from。

0033 把头磕在门洞子 0034 里的水泥墙上 First, who is doing this? Liuyuan? He does this because he is tired I suppose.. but it also suggests an old fashioned Chinese greeting.

Ｉunderstand:

见是柳原，(When)she saw it was FLY 她捉住他 0033 的手 she grabbed his hand ，紧紧搂住他的手臂 tightly clutched his wrist ，像阿栗搂住孩子似的 the way A Li had done clutching her child ，人 she 向前一扑 sunk forward ，把头磕在门洞子 0034 里的水泥墙上 bumping her head against the concrete wall of the main entrance 。柳原用另外的一只手托住她的头 LY, using his free hand to lift/hold/steady her head ，急促地道 hastily said ：

0035 浅水湾 This is Repulse bay, on southern Hong Kong island. 0057 海湾里的军舰 Japanese warships, the British men-of-war had been sent away to Singapore.

Thank you – good to know.

0059 What is the purpose of 背 ?

I see this as:

their backs 把背 pressed 贴 在大厅的墙上 against the wall of the dining room (pressing their backs ...)

0060 毯子被挂在竹竿上，迎着风扑打上面的灰尘，啪啪打 0061 着，下劲打，打得上面的人走投无路。"The carpet was hung on bamboo poles, and the wind beat ferociously against it. The people picured on the carpet could not get away." - strange picture, but I can't find a better interpretation..:)

迎着风 can also simply mean facing the wind – into the wind—and then the (very forceful and insistent) beating might also be done by someone else –i.e. it might still depend on the passive marker 被 in the first part of the sentence. Otherwise I would have to understand it as the frantic flapping of a lighter, i.e. woven fabric – but it does say Persian rug --- yes, strange, but impressive.

做一日和尚撞一天钟 I found a German translation : as long as you are a monk, you ring the bell, meaning: to do one's job without a sense of commitment and responsibility. I cannot vouch for this being the primary meaning (it does not sound very respectful of religious orders). Maybe we will come across the saying in a context where we can get a proper feeling for it. Here it is, after all, just a strange insertion.

I'm a litte slow these days, my mathematics is going too well...:)

Just one question.. why do you translate "人 she 向前一扑 sunk forward" - I don't know that 人 can be used as personal pronoun , and I am not sure why it means "her" = Liusu, except possibly from context?