13. There Was an Old Woman She Had So Many Children She Didn't Know What to Do

There Was an Old Woman 有一个老女人 She had so many children. 她有很多孩子。 She didn't know what to do. 她不知道怎么办。 Rosa Vargas' kids are too many and too much. 罗莎·法加斯的孩子太多太过分了。 It's not her fault you know, except she is their mother and only one against so many. 那不是她的错你知道，只因为她是他们的妈妈，一个要应付这么多个。 They are bad those Vargases, and how can they help it with only one mother who is tired all the time from buttoning and bottling and babying, and who cries every day for the man who left without even leaving a dollar for bologna or a note explaining how come. 法加斯的孩子不乖，可是只有一个妈妈，并且她总是为穿衣吃饭育儿操劳，还要成天为那个没有留一文钱买大红肠没丢一个字条做解释就走掉的男人哭泣，他们怎么能不变坏呢？ The kids bend trees and bounce between cars and dangle upside down from knees and almost break like fancy museum vases you can't replace. 那些孩子们弄折树木，在汽车中间蹦跳穿梭，膝盖一勾把身体倒挂起来，差点就像博物馆里华美的花瓶一样摔碎了，碎了你就放不回去。 They think it's funny. 他们觉得那很好玩。 They are without respect for all things living, including themselves. 他们不尊重任何有生命的事物，包括他们自己。 But after a while you get tired of being worried about kids who aren't even yours. 可是不久你就懒得担心了，他们又不是你的孩子。 One day they are playing chicken on Mr. Benny's roof. Mr. Benny says, Hey ain't you kids know better than to be swinging up there? 有一天他们在宾尼先生的房顶上玩小鸡。宾尼先生说：“嘿，你们这些小孩不知道在那里晃悠很危险吗？” Come down, you come down right now, and then they just spit. See. That's what I mean. 下来，马上下来。可他们只是啐他。明白了吧。我说的就是这个。 No wonder everybody gave up. 怪不得大家都不管了。 Just stopped looking out when little Efren chipped his buck tooth on a parking meter and didn't even stop Refugia from getting her head stuck between two slats in the back gate and nobody looked up not once the day Angel Vargas learned to fly and dropped from the sky like a sugar donut, just like a falling star, and exploded down to earth without even an "Oh." 小埃弗伦用他的虎牙咬停车计时器的时候，你只要不往外看就可以了；蕾弗佳把头伸进后门上两块板条中间的时候，没人阻止她。那天安琪·法加斯学飞的时候，也没人抬头看一下，她像甜麦圈一样从天上掉下来，就像一颗坠落的流星，砸在地上哦都没哦出一声来。