Guddu

Gargi Pant

杨舟选译

The sun shone through Gayatri's winclow. Itteasedl her eyelids open. She yawned2， stretchedand got out of bed-things she had done athousand times before. For Gayatri， today beganlike any other day.

Gayatri Verma was a bright， 12-year-old girlwith sparkling3 eyes and dimpled4 smile. She wasan eighth grade student in a local school. foreverpraying5 to God for a new bicycle. She hatedtravelling in a school bus. After all she was bigenough to ride the bike on busy streets. But whowould make her mother understand？

She had just finished tying her striped 6 tieover her blue and white uniform when hermother called. "Guddu！

Guddu Verma. clon ' tforget to keep your shorts. Remember， you havegymnastics7 after school."

Gayatri hated it when her mother called herthat！ Guddu was such an awful name.

陽光透过加亚特里的窗户照进来，撩开了她的眼皮。她打了个哈欠，伸了个懒腰，然后从床上爬起来——这是她以前做过无数次的事情。对加亚特里来说，今天和其他任何一天没什么两样。

加亚特里·维尔玛是一个聪明的12岁女孩，她的眼睛闪闪发光，笑容带着酒窝。她是当地一所学校八年级的学生，一直在向上帝祈祷能有一辆新的自行车。她讨厌坐校车，毕竟她到了可以在繁忙的街道上骑自行车的年龄。但谁能让她妈妈明白这一点呢？

她刚把条纹领带系在蓝白相间的校服上，妈妈就叫道：“古杜！古杜·维尔玛，别忘了带上你的短裤。记住，放学后你有体操课。”

加亚特里讨厌她妈妈那样叫她！古杜真是个讨厌的名字。

As she ate breakfast， Gayatri's thoughtsturned to her two best friends， Nitya and Mitu.They both loved to call her CJudu. Her parentstoo liked the sound of Guddu. The Verma couplethought the name very affectionate 8 andcharming. It was beyond Gayatri's understandinghow anyone could find the name Guddu charming.

Gathering her school bag and lunch. shekissed her mother and left for school. On her wayout， Gayatri looked down and found a small pinkenvelope lying on the porch 9. There was no nameon it. She picked it up， admiring the design on theenvelope. Thinking she would like to copy thedesign in her art class， Gayatri put the envelope inher pocket.

At lunch time Gayatri hurried to meet herfriends in the canteen. Mitu was there. She hadwild curly hair and an equally wild sense ofhumour！ She could always make Gayatri laugh.They had known each other since kindergarten.

Nitya was new to the school. She was new intown. Gayatri and Mitu had met her on the firstday of school. Most kids thought Nitya was verysnobbishm， but they both knew it was shyness onNitya's part that made her keep away from mostof her classmates.

"Hey， Gayatri！ " caalled Mitu. "I have eggparatha today. Wanna trade？"

吃早餐时，加亚特里的思绪转向了她的两个最好的朋友，尼蒂娅和米图。她们都喜欢叫她古杜。她的父母也喜欢古杜的发音。维尔玛夫妇觉得这个名字非常亲切迷人。加亚特里无法理解为什么有人会觉得古杜这个名字很迷人。

收拾好書包和午饭，吻了吻妈妈，她就去上学了。在出去的途中，加亚特里低头发现门廊上放着一个粉红色的小信封，上面没有名字。她拿起信封，欣赏着信封上的图案。考虑到想在美术课上模仿这个图案，加亚特里就把信封放进了口袋。

午饭时间，加亚特里急匆匆去食堂见她的朋友。米图在那里。她有一头狂野的卷发和同样狂野的幽默感！她总能让加亚特里发笑。他们从幼儿园的时候就认识了。

尼蒂娅是学校里新来的。她刚搬到这个镇上。加亚特里和米图是在开学的第一天认识她的。大多数孩子都认为尼蒂娅很势利，但他们都知道，是尼蒂娅的羞怯让她远离了大多数同学。

“嘿，加亚特里！”米图叫道，“我今天有鸡蛋饼。想换换吗？”

"Sorry Mitu，" Gayatri answered. "Mommade me my favourite sandwich today."

"I have chocolate pudding too， teasedMitu.

Gayatri thought about the pink envelopeshe had found on her way to school. Theenvelope with a design that she wanted to drawout in her art class. But she did not really needthe envelope. She coulcl remember the designand. besides. she really loved chocolate pudding！

"Mitu. I found this envelope on the porchthis morning. Do you want to trade it for yourpudding？" Gayatri asked.

Mitu studied the little pink envelope. LikeGayatri， she thought it might be fun to draw thedesign.

"Sure Gayatri， I am too full for the puddinganyway， ' said Mitu.

The bell rang and it was time to get back toclass.

When Mitu went back to her class， a girlcalled Lovely walked in with a fistful 11 of newpencils. Mitu's pencil had shrunk12 to nearlyhalf its size. because she had sharpened'3 it sooften. She offered to trade the pink envelope forone of Lovely' s pencils.

“抱歉，米图。”加亚特里回答说，“妈妈今天给我做了我最喜欢的三明治。”

“我还有巧克力布丁。”米图不依不饶道。

加亚特里想起了她在上学路上发现的那个粉红色信封。她想在美术课上画信封上的图案。但她其实并不需要信封。她能记起那个设计，而且，她真的很喜欢巧克力布丁！

“米图，我今天早上在门廊上发现了这个信封。你想用布丁换它吗？”加亚特里问道。

米图仔细端详着那个粉红色的小信封。和加亚特里一样，她也认为信封上面的图案画起来会很有趣。

“当然可以，加亚特里，反正我太饱了吃不下布丁。”米图说。

铃响了，该上课了。

当米图回到教室时，一个叫拉芙莉的女孩拿着一把新铅笔走了进来。因为米图经常削铅笔，她的铅笔已经削去了差不多一半了。她提出用粉红色的信封换拉芙莉的一支铅笔。

Lovely looked at the paper. Underneath thedesign were several numbers written in a line.Among them were the numbers 10 and 13. Tenwas the month of October in whic：h Lovely wasborn and 13 was her birth date.

"Sure，" Lovely agreed， "I'll trade." She wasthinking， it just might be lucky！

Later， during the maths class， Lovely foundshe was out of paper. She turned to her friendRimjhim seated behind her.

"I have this lucky paper. I'll trade it withyou for some paper， okay？" Lovely told Rimjhim.

Rimjhim loved anything "lucky". Shestudied the small pink envelope and decided itwould make a bookmark for the book she wasreading！ She agreed and placed the luckyenvelope in her book.

After school， Gayatri， Nitya and Mitu walkedtowards Gayatri's mother's car. She was going todrop them to their gymnastic'4 class. Just thenRimjhim came running up to the car. Her motherhad called the school saying she wouldn' t be ableto pick her up and Rimjhim didn't want to takethe bus to the gymnastic class.

Rimjhim told Gayatri， "I'll give you mylucky bookmark if you let me come with you."

Gayatri stared at Rimjhim's bookmark. Itwas the same pink envelope she had found on theporch this morning！ It was crumpled'5 now， andone of the corners was bent. but there at the topwas the design she wanted to draw.

拉芙莉看著信封。在图案的下面是写成一行的几个数字。其中有数字10和13。10月是拉芙莉出生的月份，13是她的出生日期。

“当然。”拉芙莉同意了，“我要交换。”她在想，这也许就是幸运！

后来，在数学课上，拉芙莉发现她没纸了。她向坐在她后面的朋友林吉姆求助。

“我有这张幸运纸。我跟你换些纸可以吗？”拉芙莉跟林吉姆说。

林吉姆喜欢任何“幸运”的东西。她仔细端详了一下那个粉红色的小信封，觉得可以把它用作她正在读的书的书签！她同意了，并把那个幸运的信封夹进了她的书里。

放学后，加亚特里、尼蒂娅和米图走向加亚特里妈妈的车。她会带她们去上体操课。就在这时，林吉姆跑到车边。她妈妈打电话到学校说她不能接她，而林吉姆不想坐公共汽车去上体操课。

林吉姆跟加亚特里说：“如果你让我和你们一起去，我会把我的幸运书签给你。”

加亚特里盯着林吉姆的书签。那正是她早上在门廊发现的同一个粉红色信封！它现在被弄皱了，其中一个角折了，但上面有她想画的图案。

How did Rimjhim end up with it？

Gayatri smiled and said， "Hop in." Then shetucked the envelope back into the same pocketwhere it had first rested.

Later that evening， while Gayatri was gettinginto her pyjamas'6， she heard her father shoutingdownstairs. Her father rarely shouted！ Somethingwas wrong！

She ran downstairs and into the living room.Her parents were sitting on the sofa in front ofthe television.

"Dad. what ' s wrong？" Gayatri asked.

Her mother said. "Honey， everything ' s okay.He's just disappointed. He bought a lottery'7ticket last night and somehow lost it. He's beenplaying the same number for years and tonight，and his number finally came up！ We're bothjust disappointed."

Gayatri's father said in a shaky 18 tone， "Idon 't understand how I could have lost it. I put itin my shirt pocket， then I drove home. I stoppedat the porch to pick up the evening newspaper，then came into the house. I didn't know it wasgone until just now， when I looked for it."

"Dad. what did the ticket look like？"Gayatri asked. thinking about the small pinkenvelope.

Her mother smiled. "Cuddu. it looked...well. like a lottery ticket. Don't worry about it. Itisn't like we lost something we already had. We 'reno worse off than we were before."

它最后是怎么到林吉姆手上的？

加亚特里微笑着说：“上车吧。”然后她把信封塞回原先她装信封的口袋里。

那天晚上的晚些时候，当加亚特里正要换上睡衣时，她听到她爸爸在楼下喊叫。她爸爸很少那样喊叫！出什么事了！

她跑下楼，走进客厅。她的父母正坐在电视机前的沙发上。

“爸爸，怎么了？”加亚特里问道。

她妈妈说：“亲爱的，一切都好。他只是很失望。他昨晚买了一张彩票，不知怎么弄丢了。多年来他一直在买同一个号码，今晚，他的号码终于中奖了！我们都很失望。”

加亚特里的爸爸用颤抖的语调说，“我不明白我怎么会弄丢它的。我把它放在衬衫口袋里，然后开车回家。我在门廊停下来拿了晚报，然后进了屋。直到刚刚，当我来找它的时候，才发现它不见了。”

“爸爸，那张彩票是什么样子的？”加亚特里问道，她想起了那个粉红色的小信封。

她的妈妈笑着说：“古杜，它看起来……嗯，就像一张彩票。别担心，我们又不是失去了已经拥有的东西。我们的情况并没有比以前更糟。”

Gayatri ran upstairs and pulled the envelopefrom the pocket of her uniform. Then she took itdownstairs to the two people she loved most in theworld.

"Did it look like this？" she asked hopefully.

They stared at the paper， then at each other.Suddenly， as one single excited voice， they bothscreamed 19， "Gayatri！ "

"Tomorrow we shall go to the market to buyyou a bicycle，" her mother exclaimed happily. "Ithink you are responsible enough now.

Guddu Verma smiled. Her parents had calledher Gayatri！

Then she smiled again， imagining how herfriends would react20 0n seeing her with her newbicycle. Today indeed had been a very lucky day！

加亚特里跑上楼，从校服口袋里掏出那个信封。然后她把它拿下楼交给了世界上她最爱的两个人。

“是这样的吗？”她满怀希望地问道。

他们盯着那张纸，然后相互看了一眼。突然，他们两个都发出了激动的声音，尖叫道：“加亚特里！”

“明天我们去市场给你买辆自行车。”她妈妈高兴地叫道，“我认为你现在已经足够可靠了。”

古杜·维尔玛笑了。她父母叫她加亚特里！

想到她的朋友们看到她骑着新自行车的反应，她又笑了。今天真是幸运的一天！

（英语原文选自：pitara.com）

[Notes]

1.tease [ti?z]v.取笑;戏弄;强求

2.yawn [j??n]v.打哈欠

3.sparkling [?spɑ?kl??] adj.闪闪发光的 4.dimpled[?d?mpld] adj.带酒窝的

5.pray [pre?] v.祈祷;央求

6.striped [stra?pt]adj.有条纹的

7.gymnastics [d??m?n?st?ks] n.體操

8.affectionate [??fek??n?t] adj，深情的;充满爱的

9.porch [p??t?]n.门廊

10. snobbish [?sn?b??] adj.势利的

II. fistful[?f?stf?l]n.一把

12. shrink [?r??k] v-缩小，收缩

13. sharpen [??ɑ?pn]y.削尖;磨快

14. gymnastic [d??m?n?st?k] adj.体操的

15. crumple[?kr?mpl] v.弄皱

16. pyjamas [p??d?ɑ?m?z] n.睡衣

17. lottery[?l?t?r?] n.彩票

18. shaky[??e?k?]adj.颤抖的

19. scream [skri?m]v.尖叫

20. react [r???kt] v.反应，作出反应