Appreciation of George seldon Thompson's Cricket Adventure (Excerpt), a foreign fairy tale.

Appreciation of George seldon Thompson's Cricket Adventure (Excerpt), a foreign fairy tale.

George seldon Thompson (USA)

Fourteen Orpheus

Chester didn't wait long. A few minutes later, Tucker the mouse jumped into the newsstand, onto the stool and onto the shelf. Harry followed, running quietly and easily as usual.

Now Tucker Mouse has become the manager of a famous concert performer, and his every move is serious. "Good evening, Chester," he said. "Please forgive my suggestion. However, I don't think the speed of your "Long Live the Stars and Stripes" tonight is right. You know, you can't be careless just because you have achieved results. Ok, let's start practicing. "

Chester climbed out of the matchbox. "Can't I even ask Harry?" He asked.

"Say hello!" Tucker the mouse said, "Hello, Harry-Hello, Chester. Ok, after greeting, let's start practicing. "

Chester looked at Harry and shook his head. The cat smiled and blinked.

Tucker turned the knob of the radio. Chester flapped his wings weakly, ready to play. Irish dance music is playing on the radio. Cricket was about to play the first crazy melody of this piece, when suddenly it put down its wings and said, "I don't want to play tonight."

"What's the matter?" Tucker asked him.

"I don't want to play." Chester said.

"You don't want to play!" The mouse cried, "that's equivalent to the sun saying,' I don't want to shine.' "

"Well, sometimes it's cloudy," said the cricket. "Can't I rest?"

"Well, well, well-"Tucker the mouse looked embarrassed.

"Give him a day off," said Harry the cat. "What's the matter with you, Chester? Is honor starting to get you down? "

"I think I got homesick in September," Chester sighed. "Autumn is coming. Autumn in Connecticut is so beautiful. The leaves have changed color, the weather is fine and bright, and a wisp of light smoke from the leaves rises on the horizon, and the pumpkin begins to mature. "

"We can go to Central Park." Tucker said, "The leaves there have also changed color."

"That's different," Chester said. "I want to see the corn piles in the field." He stopped and looked very upset. "I didn't want to tell you at first, but it is good that you know. I'm going-I'm going to retire. "

"Retired!" Tucker the mouse screamed.

"Yes, retirement," Chester said softly. "I love new york. I like having so many people listen to me, but I love Connecticut more. I want to go home. "

"But-but-but-"Tucker said helplessly.

"I'm sorry, Tucker, but I've made up my mind." Chester said.

"Where's Mario?" Said the mouse.

"He wants me to be happy," Chester replied. "He said that if I felt unhappy, he just wanted me not to come to new york at all."

"But those people are here!" Tucker waved his front legs and said, "all those thousands of people who have suffered, your playing has brought them happiness." What should they do? "

"My playing can also bring happiness to many people in Connecticut." Chester said.

"who?" Tucker the mouse asked contemptuously.

"Oh, prairie dogs, pheasants, ducks, rabbits, all those animals that live in grass or streams. Once, a bullfrog told me that apart from the sound of raindrops dripping on the pond where he lives, his favorite music is my music. Another time, by the stump where I live, a fox was chasing a rabbit. When I played, they all stopped to listen. "

"What's the matter?" Tucker asked.

"The rabbit has escaped to his hole," said Chester. "The fox is going to chase the rabbit again. When I started playing the fox's favorite song, it stopped to listen. Now, I can't play that song for anyone in the subway station. "

"I don't believe it." Tucker the mouse said. He turned to the cat and said, "Harry, tell me!" " Persuade him to stay! "

"By the way, Harry," Chester said, "what do you think?"

Harry the cat sat quietly for a while. His beard kept shaking, which was a sign that he was thinking hard.

"My opinion," he finally said, "is that this is Chester's own life, and he can do whatever he wants. What's the use of fame if it can only make people unhappy? Some people retire at the peak of their careers. However, to be honest, I have to say that I will be extremely sad to see him leave here. "

Tucker the mouse scratched his left ear-it's always a good sign. When Harry the cat just said "the pinnacle of his career", what was in it caught the imagination of the mouse. "I think it will be a great honor," he said. "Just reaching the top, but giving up everything, what a high gesture!" The idea occupied his little mouse's heart. "I fully understand now. The pinnacle of success-that's the same thing as the pinnacle of career, right? "

"It's one thing." Harry the cat laughed at Chester and said.

"At the peak of success, he suddenly disappeared!" Tucker ran up and down the shelf and said, "The newspaper will go crazy! Where is he? Where did he go? Nobody knows. All he left was good memories. How touching! How cute! " He crackled.

"The only thing that worries me," Chester said, "is what will happen to the newsstand after I leave?"

"Don't worry," said Harry the cat. "This newsstand was touched by the golden finger of fate! They may want to turn it into a national park. "

"Do you really think so?" Chester said.

"Well, even if they don't," Harry replied, "I believe the Bei Lini family will be very successful. They are famous now. "

"So, when are you going to give your last performance?" Tucker asked.

Chester thought for a moment. "Today is Thursday," he said. "How about tomorrow night?"

"Friday is the best retirement day," said the mouse. "If I retire from collecting garbage, it will be Friday."

Chester Cricket let out a deep sigh. "Oh, I feel better," he said. "If you want me to learn new music and prepare to play it tomorrow, learn it now."

"Why bother?" Harry the Cat said, "Tonight is your last complete night in new york. You might as well have a good time. "

"Fast forward to the sewer!" Tucker the mouse said, "We will hold a party to celebrate your retirement. I have a lot of food. There are no matches and there will be no fire. "

So the three friends skipped all the way to Tucker's house and held a farewell banquet. All three of them had a good time.

The next day, at five minutes to six, Chester's last public performance in new york was about to begin. It was Friday night, the busiest time. Except for the passengers coming home from work, the station was crowded with men and women who left the city for the weekend. They hitchhiked from here to grand central station. But they all stopped to listen to Chester. There were so many people gathered around the newsstand that the police had to rope the passage to get on and off.

The cricket finished his most wonderful concert. In order to thank the audience for asking him to repeat it for the last time, he will play a sextet in the opera mumbling Lucy. The sextet is written for six people to play, and even if cricket is very skilled, he can only play one of them. Therefore, he chose to play alto music, because most of the main themes are in it.

They didn't know that Chester played the sextet to pay tribute to the Belligny family. This sextet is my father's favorite music, and Mario and my mother also like it. Chester wants them to remember this song he played forever. Hardly had he finished playing the first note when Bei Lini's father let out a happy sigh, leaned back on the stool and closed his eyes. Mother leaned against the side wall of the newsstand, holding her head in one hand. Hearing the familiar melody, she was all smiles, completely unaware of it. Mario leaned over the cricket cage, and Chester was fascinated by the sight of moving his wings while playing. He is particularly proud, because Chester is his baby, and everyone is listening to his baby playing music.

Tucker and Harry are sitting side by side at the outlet of the drain pipe. Only they know that this is Chester's farewell performance. This makes them feel serious and slightly sad, but the music is so beautiful that they can't help being happy.

"This is the sextet in the opera Complaining about Lucy," announced Tucker Mouse. In the past week, he became an expert in music.

"It's a pity that there are no other five crickets like Chester," whispered Harry the cat. "Otherwise, we can play all sextets."

Then, they also fell silent. In Chester's performance, no one touched a hair or beard. Very quiet.

Chester's music spread all over the radio station. Just like a stone falling into still water, it caused ripples, and the circle of silence spread outward from this newsstand. When people listened, their faces changed. The thoughtful eyes became gentle and calm, the tongue stopped nagging, and the ears full of city noise got a rest in the wonderful music of crickets.

People at other newsstands stopped selling their newspapers and magazines after hearing Chester's performance. Mickey, the assistant at the lunch counter, heard the performance and stopped stirring Coca-Cola. Three girls came to the door of Loft candy store. Passengers coming from the subway below stopped when they asked the police for directions. No one dared to break the silence that enveloped the whole station.

On the top of the cricket cage, the music played by crickets spread to the street through the grille on the sidewalk. A pedestrian on Broadway stopped to listen. Then another person stopped to listen. A minute later, a small group of people had gathered, and everyone's eyes were fixed on the grille.

"What is it?"

"Has there been an accident?"

"What's the matter?"

There was a low whisper in the crowd. However, as long as it is quiet, everyone can hear Chester's music.

People who can't stand on the sidewalk stand on the street. In order not to hurt people, the police had to cut off the traffic. Then, the people sitting in the stopped car also heard Chester's performance. You may think that the cricket's song is too weak to travel that far, but when everything is quiet, the refreshing music can be heard for miles.

The traffic stopped. Buses, cars, men and women on foot, everything stopped. The strangest thing is: no one has an opinion. This time, in the busiest center of new york, everyone was satisfied. Without moving forward, I almost stopped breathing. In the few minutes when the songs floated, Times Square was as quiet as the grass at dusk. Sunlight flows in and shines on people. The breeze blows them, as if blowing deep and dense grass.

(translated by Yang)

"Nature, the greatest teacher in the world, taught him. Nature gave him wings that rubbed against each other and gave him the ability to make such a beautiful sound. " This "he" is a talented musician cricket. The American fairy tale The Adventures of the Cricket named him Chester.

Chester, who lives in rural Connecticut, USA, climbed into the picnic food basket because of his gluttony, and was taken on the train by tourists, brought to the metropolis of new york, USA, and taken to the underground railway station in Times Square in the city center. The noise of cars and the hum of people talking in this city make crickets who lived in a quiet and leisurely world under willow trees not long ago very unaccustomed, and their heads feel like they are going to explode. He was later adopted by Mario, a poor boy who looked after the newsstand. That night, he became good friends with Tucker the mouse and Harry the cat who lived in the abandoned drainage ditch. When three animals get along, they will play some jokes and cause some trouble. Once, Chester ate a two-dollar bill as a leaf in his sleep. For poor Mario's parents, this hard-earned money was hard-won, and Chester was held in solitary confinement. In the evening, mice and cats come to visit crickets in cages. After a long discussion, Tucker Mouse decided to give up his savings for many years and take out all his coins to make up for the loss. Tucker and Harry spent the whole night trying to move coins from the drain where mice live to the cricket cage. Soon, they met another disaster: three animal friends celebrated Chester's two-week banquet in new york. After eating and drinking enough, the cricket began his wonderful performance, and the mouse couldn't help jumping on the table and dancing to the cricket's music. But in the process of rotation, the mouse accidentally touched the match on the ground. Matches rubbed on the ground, burned the newspaper, caused a fire, and the newsstand suffered serious losses, which threatened Mario's parents with bankruptcy. Later, Chester brought the newsstand back to life with his genius performance: first, he comforted Mario's mother and her relatives with Italian songs she liked, and then he conquered all the people who came to Times Square with wonderful performances of various music, including Mozart's serenade and Strauss's blue Danube. Chester is well-known in new york, and the business of newsstand has become extremely prosperous, so Mario's parents have avoided bankruptcy and their lives have improved. However, when autumn comes, crickets miss the free life in the country. With the help of Tucker and Harry, he boarded the train back to Connecticut. Tucker and Harry plan to go to the country to reunite with their good friends in the future.

This fairy tale adopts a dual-track structure, that is, the virtual fantasy realm and the real life reality are introduced at the same time, and the anthropomorphic fairy tale "characters" and the description of real people's thoughts and feelings are integrated but not directly communicated by language. The plots of both parts move forward and set off each other. Readers will feel that the works are both fantasy fairy tales and realistic novels when they read them in order. But the focus of fairy tale description is to portray Chester's gentle and kind character and praise the sincere friendship between three animal friends. The whole fairy tale is easy and lively to read, with many smiles, and the artistic conception is warm, beautiful and fresh. The book Oedipus (a famous singer in Greek mythology) describes Chester's irresistible homesickness, and the deep homesickness is rendered very touching by the author. He misses prairie dogs, pheasants, ducks, rabbits and all those people who live on the grass and by the stream. He said: "once, a bullfrog told me that apart from the sound of raindrops dripping on the pond where he lives, his favorite thing to listen to is my music." Another time, by the stump where I live, a fox was chasing a rabbit. They all stopped to listen when I played. "This delicate and soft description convinced us that Chester wanted to bid farewell to his good friends Tucker and Harry and went back to the country, which was nothing melodramatic. Fairy tales about crickets are wonderful and refreshing, and basically do not need positive description, but use a lot of side contrast: "people listen and listen, and their expressions on their faces have changed." The thoughtful eyes became gentle and calm, the tongue stopped nagging, and the ears full of city noise got a rest in the wonderful music of crickets. "Shop assistants stopped business, pedestrians stopped walking and traffic was cut off, but men and women" had no opinion ","everyone was satisfied "and" didn't move forward and almost stopped breathing. In the few minutes when the songs floated, Times Square was as quiet as the grass at dusk. Sunlight flows in and shines on people. The breeze blows them, as if blowing deep and dense grass. "This description is touching and pushes the charm of nature and music to the extreme. In the bustling downtown of new york, in Times Square, a very materialistic international metropolis far away from nature, the cricket's heavenly performance "Clear water produces hibiscus" is like a fairy song floating from the sky, and its significance has gone far beyond the musical enjoyment provided by nature. For people who have been troubled by business for a day, playing cricket can bring them into a peaceful and beautiful realm and smooth their inner wrinkles. In fairy tales, the author expresses the inner yearning of many people living in big cities: the frankness and tranquility of nature. This is the reason why cricket insisted on going back to the countryside: "In retrospect, on the grass in his hometown, if the sun was pleasant, or there was a bright full moon, or he wanted to talk to his friend lark in music, he would naturally play music because he had this requirement in his heart." "Cricket's return to the countryside and the oasis of art, and the maintenance of freedom and sincerity as the premise of art is tantamount to a reversal of the realistic concept of fame and wealth and values. 196 1 year, the United States awarded the annual Newbery Award to The Adventures of the Cricket, which was actually a recognition of the author's value.

(Wei Wei)