Chapter 1 Hairs
　　Everybody in our family has different hair. My Papa's hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. Carlos' hair is thick and straight. He doesn't need to comb it. Nenny's hair is slippery——slides out of your hand. And Kiki, who is the youngest, has hair like fur.
　　But my mother's hair, my mother's hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty because she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it, is the smell when she makes room for you on her side of the bed still warm with her skin, and you sleep near her, the rain outside falling and Papa snoring. The snoring, the rain, and Mama's hair that smells like bread.
　　我们家里每个人的头发都不一样。爸爸的头发像扫把，根根直立往上插。而我，我的头发挺懒惰。它从来不听发夹和发带的话。卡洛斯的头发又直又厚。他不用梳头。蕾妮的头发滑滑的——会从你手里溜走。还有奇奇，他最小，茸茸的头发像毛皮。
　　只有妈妈的头发，妈妈的头发，好像一朵朵小小的玫瑰花结，一枚枚小小的糖果圈儿，全都那么拳曲，那么漂亮，因为她成天给它们上发卷。把鼻子伸进去闻一闻吧，当她搂着你时。当她搂着你时，你觉得那么安全，闻到的气味又那么香甜。是那种待烤的面包暖暖的香味，是那种她给你让出一角被窝时，和着体温散发的芬芳。你睡在她身旁，外面下着雨，爸爸打着鼾。哦，鼾声、雨声，还有妈妈那闻起来像面包的头发。
Chapter 2 Darius & The Clouds
　　You can never have too much sky. You can fall asleep and wake up drunk on sky, and sky can keep you safe when you are sad. Here there is too much sadness and not enough sky. Butterflies too are few and so are flowers and most things that are beautiful. Still, we take what we can get and make the best of it.
　　Darius, who doesn't like school, who is sometimes stupid and mostly a fool, said something wise today, though most days he says nothing. Darius, who chases girls with firecrackers or a stick that touched a rat and thinks he's tough, today pointed up because the world was full of clouds, the kind like pillows.
　　You all see that cloud, that fat one there? Darius said, See that? Where? That one next to the one that look like popcorn. That one there. See that. That's God, Darius said.God? somebody little asked. God, he said, and made it simple.
　　你永远不能拥有太多的天空。你可以在天空下睡去，醒来又沉醉。在你忧伤的时候，天空会给你安慰。可是忧伤太多，天空不够。蝴蝶也不够，花儿也不够。大多数美的东西都不够。于是，我们取我们所能取，好好地享用。
　　大流士 ，不喜欢上学的他，有时很傻，几乎是个笨人，今天却说了一句聪明的话，虽然大多数日子他什么都不说。大流士，喜欢用爆竹，用碰过老鼠的小棍子去追逐女孩，还以为自己很了不起的他，今天却指着天空，因为那里有满天的云朵，像枕头样的云朵。
　　你们都看到那朵云了，那朵胖乎乎的云了？大流士说，看到了？哪里？那朵看起来像爆米花的旁边的那朵。那边那朵。看，那是上帝。大流士说。上帝？有个小点的问道。上帝。他说，简洁地说。
Chapter 3 Four Skinny Trees
　　They are the only ones who understand me. I am the only one who understands them. Four skinny trees with skinny necks and pointy elbows like mine. Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city. From our room we can hear them, but Nenny just sleeps and doesn't appreciate these things.
　　Their strength is secret. They send ferocious roots beneath the ground. They grow up and they grow down and grab the earth between their hairy toes and bite the sky with violent teeth and never quit their anger. This is how they keep. Let one forget his reason for being, they'd all droop like tulips in a glass, each with their arms around the other. Keep, keep, keep, trees say when I sleep. They teach.
　　When I am too sad and too skinny to keep keeping, when I am a tiny thing against so many bricks, then it is I look at trees. When there is nothing left to look at on this street. Four who grew despite concrete. Four who reach and do not forget to reach. Four whose only reason is to be and be.
　　他们是唯一懂得我的。我是唯一懂得它们的。四棵细瘦的树儿长着细细的脖颈和尖尖的肘骨，像我的一样。不属于这里但到了这里的四个。市政栽下充数的四棵残次品。从我的房间里我们可以听到它们的声音，可蕾妮只是睡觉，不能领略这些。
　　他们的力量是个秘密。他们在地下展开凶猛的根系。他们向上生长也向下生长，用它们须发样的脚趾攥紧泥土，用它们猛烈的牙齿噬咬天空，怒气从不懈怠。这就是它们坚持的方式。
　　假如有一棵忘记了他存在的理由，他们就全都会像玻璃瓶里的郁金香一样耷拉下来，手挽着手。坚持，坚持，坚持。树儿在我睡着的时候说。他们教会人。
　　当我太悲伤太瘦弱无法坚持再坚持的时候，当我如此渺小却要对抗这么多砖块的时候，我就会看着树儿。当街上没有别的东西可看的时候。不畏水泥仍在生长的四棵。伸展伸展从不忘记伸展的四棵。唯一的理由是存在存在的四棵。
Chapter 4 Cathy Queen of Cats
　　Cathy who is queen of cats has cats and cats and cats. Baby cats, big cats, skinny cats, sick cats. Cats asleep like little donuts. Cats on top of the refrigerator. Cats taking a walk on the dinner table. Her house is like cat heaven.
　　You want a friend, she says. Okay, I'll be your friend. But only till next Tuesday. That's when we move away. Got to. Then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad.
　　Cathy's father will have to fly to France one day and find her great great distant grand cousin on her father's side and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so. In the meantime they'll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in.
　　她说，我是法兰西皇后的远远远房表亲。她住在楼上，那边，那个“捉小孩的人”乔的隔壁。离他远点，她告诉我说，他很危险。街角那家小店是宾尼和布兰卡的。他们还蛮好，可只是靠在糖果柜台上时才对你好。两个像老鼠一样邋遢的女孩住在街对面。你不会想去认识她们的。埃德娜是你家隔壁房子的主人。她过去有幢大得像鲸鱼的房子，可她弟弟把它卖了。他们的妈妈说，别，别呀，千万别卖。我不会的。可后来她一闭眼，他就卖了它。阿莉西娅自从上了大学就傲气起来了。她过去挺喜欢我，可现在不了。
　　猫皇后凯茜养了好多好多好多猫。猫宝宝、大个猫、瘦猫、病猫。睡姿像个面包圈的猫。爬到冰箱顶上的猫。在餐桌上散步的猫。她的房子就像个猫天堂。
　　你想要个朋友。她说，好的，我会做你的朋友，可只能做到下星期二，那时我们就得搬走了，不得不搬了。然后，她似乎忘了我才搬进来，说，这个社区的人越来越杂了。
　　凯茜的父亲有一天会要飞到法国去，找到远方的、她父亲那边的远远远房表亲，去继承家宅。我是怎么知道这些的呢？是她告诉我的。同时，他们要从芒果街向北面搬迁，离开这里一点路，在每次像我们这样的人家不断搬进来的时候。
Chapter 5 A house of my own
　　Not a flat. Not an apartment in back. Not a man's house. Not a daddy's. A house all my own. With my porch and my pillow, my pretty purple petunias. My books and my stories. My two shoes waiting beside the bed. Nobody to shake a stick at. Nobody's garbage to pick up after.　　Only a house quiet as snow, a space for myself to go, clean as paper before the poem.
　　不是小公寓.也不是阴面的大公寓.也不是哪个男人的房子.也不是爸爸的房子.是完完全全属于我自己的.那里有我的前廊我的枕头,我漂亮的紫色矮牵牛.我的书和我的故事.我的两只等在床边的鞋.不用和谁去作对.没有别人扔下的垃圾要拾起.　　只是一所寂静如雪的房子,一个自己归去的空间,洁净如同诗笔未落的纸.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　有时候,在非常牵强的情况下flat是指一整套公寓,然后将这些公寓分成一间间或者一套套的,分租出去的那种.apartment是指一整套公寓。
Chapter 7 The House on Mango Street 1
　　We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, and before that I can't remember. But what I remember most is moving a lot. Each time it seemed there'd be one more of us. By the time we got to Mango Street we were six —— Mama, Papa, Carlos, Kiki, my sister Nenny and me.　　The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don't have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people down stairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn't a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it's not the house we'd thought we'd get.　　We had to leave the flat on Loomis quick. The water pipes broke and the landlord wouldn't fix them because the house was too old. We had to leave fast. We were using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons. That's why Mama and Papa looked for a house, and that's why we moved into the house on Mango Street, far away, on the other side of town.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我们先前不住芒果街。先前我们住Loomis的三楼。再先前我们住Keeler.Keeler 再往前是Paulina，再前面，我就不记得了。我记得最清楚的是，搬了好多次家。似乎每搬一次，我们就多出一个人。搬到芒果街是，我们有了六个——妈妈、爸爸、卡洛斯、奇奇，妹妹蕾妮和我。　　芒果街上的小屋是我们的，我们不用交房租给任何人，或者和楼下的人合用一个院子，或者小心翼翼别弄出太多的声响，这里也没有拿扫帚猛敲天花板的房东。可就算这样，它也不是我们原来以为自己可以得到的那样的房子。　　我们得赶紧搬出Loomis的公寓。水管破了，房东不愿意修理，因为房子太老。我们得快快离开。我们借用着邻居的卫生间，用空的牛奶壶把水装过来。这就是为什么爸妈要找房子，这就是为什么我们搬进了芒果街上的小屋，远远的，从城市的那一边。
Chapter 8 The House on Mango Street 2
　　They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real that would be ours for always so we wouldn't have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked. And inside it would have real stairs, not hallway stairs, but stairs inside like the house on T.V.And we'd have a basement and at least three washrooms so when we took a bath we wouldn't have to tell everybody. Our house would be white with trees around it, a great big yard and grass growing without a fence. This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　他们一直对我们说，有一天，我们会搬进一所房子，一所真正的大屋，永远属于我们，那样我们就不用每年搬家了。我们的房子会有自来水和好用的水管。里面还有真正的楼梯，不是门厅台阶，而是像电视上的房子里那样的楼梯。我们会有一个地下室和至少三个卫生间，那样洗澡的时间就不用告诉每个人。我们的房子会是白色的，四周是树木，还有一个很大的原子，草儿生长着，没有篱笆吧他们圈起来。这是爸爸手握彩票时提到的房子，这是妈妈在给我们讲睡前故事里幻想着的房子。
Chapter 9 The House on Mango Street 3
　　But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It's small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you'd think they were holding their breath. Bricks are crumbling in places, and the front door is so swollen you have to push hard to get in. There is no front yard, only four little elms the city planted by the curb. Our back is a small garage for the car we don't own yet and a small yard that looks smaller between the two buildings on either side. There are stairs in our house, but they're ordinary hallway stairs, and the house has only one washroom. Everybody has to share a bedroom—Mama and Papa, Carlos and Kiki, me and Nenny.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　可是芒果街上的小屋全然不是他們講的那樣。它很小，是紅色的，門前一方窄臺階，窗戶小得讓你覺得它們像是在屏著呼吸。幾處墻磚蝕成了粉。前門那么鼓，你要用力推才進得來。這里沒有前院，只有四棵市政栽在路邊的小榆樹。屋后有個小車庫，是用來裝我們還沒買的小汽車的，還有個小院子，夾在兩邊的樓中間，越發顯得小了。我們的房子里有樓梯，可那只是普通的門廳臺階，而且房子里只有一個衛生間.每個人都要和別人合用一間臥室——媽媽和爸爸、卡洛斯和奇奇、我和蕾妮。
Chapter 10 The House on Mango Street 4
　　Once when we were living on Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The Laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE'RE OPEN so as not lose business.
　　Where do you live? She asked.　　　There, I said pointing up to the third floor.　　　You live there?
　　There. I had to look to where she pointed –—— the third floor, the paint peeling, wooden bars Papa had nailed on the windows so we wouldn't fall out. You live there? The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.
　　I knew then I had to have to house. A real house. One I could point to .but this isn't it. The house on Mango Street isn't it. For the time being, Mama says. Temporary, says Papa. But I know how those things go.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我们住在Loomis时，有一回学校的嬷嬷经过那里，看到我在房前玩。楼下的自助洗衣店被用木板封了起来，因为两天前刚被洗劫过。为了不走掉生意，主人在木头上涂抹了几个字：“是的，我们在营业。”
　　“你住哪里呀？”她问。　　　那里。我说，指了指三楼。　　　你住在那里？
　　那里。我不得不朝他指的地方看去——三层楼上，那里墙皮斑驳，窗上横着几根木条，是爸爸钉上去的，那样我们就不会掉出来。你住在那里？她说话的样子让我觉得自己什么都不是。那里，我住在那里。我点头。
　　于是，我明白，我得有一所房子。一所真正的大屋。一所可以指给别人看的房子。可这里不是。芒果街上的小屋不是。目前就这样，妈妈说。这是暂时的，爸爸说。可恶知道事情是怎样的。
Chapter 11 The boys and girls 1
　　The boys and the girls live in separate world. The boys in their universe and we in ours. My brothers for example. They've got plenty to say to me and Nenny inside the house. But outside they can't be seen talking to girls. Carlos and Kiki are each other's best friend…not ours.
　　Nenny is too young to be my friend. She's just my sister and that was not my fault. You don't pick your sisters, you just get them and sometimes they come like Nenny.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　男孩和女孩生活在不同的世界。男孩在他们的天地里，我们在我们的天地里。比如我的弟弟们。在家里，他们有很多话跟我和蕾妮说。可是到了外面，他们就不能被人家看见和女孩说话。卡洛斯和奇奇是彼此最要好的朋友…… 不是我们的。
　　蕾妮还很小，做不了我的朋友。她只是我的妹妹，这不是我的错。你不能挑选妹妹，你只是就那么得到了她们，某些时候他们就像蕾妮一样到来。
Chapter 12 The boys and girls 2
　　She can't play with those Vargas kids or she'll turn our just like them. And since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility.
　　Someday I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them. Until then I am a red balloon, a balloon tied to an anchor.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　她不能去和法加斯家的孩子们玩，要不然，她会变得和他们一样。既然她跟在我后面来了，她就是我的责任。
　　有一天，我会有一个我自己的、最要好的朋友。一个我可以向她吐露秘密的朋友。一个不用我解释就能听懂我的笑话的朋友。在那之前，我将一直是一个红色气球，一个被泊住的气球。
Chapter 13 My name 1
　　In English my name means hope. In Spanish it means too many letters. It means sadness, it means waiting. It is like the number nine. A muddy color. It is the Mexican records my father plays on Sunday mornings when he is shaving, songs like sobbing.
　　It was my great-grandmother's name and now it is mine. She was a horse woman too, born like me in the Chinese year of horse—which is supposed to be bad luck if you're born female—but I think this is a Chinese lie because the Chinese, like the Mexicans, don't like their women strong.
　　My great-grandmother. I would've liked to have known her, a wild horse of a woman, so wild she wouldn't marry. Until my great-grandfather threw a sack over her head and carried her off. Just that, as if she were a fancy chandelier. That's the way he did it.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　在英语里，我的名字的意思是希望。在西班牙语里，它意味着太多的字母。它意味着哀伤，意味着等待。它就像数字九。一种泥泞的色彩。它是没到星期天早晨，爸爸刮胡子是播放的墨西哥唱片，呜咽的歌。
　　它过去是我曾祖母的名字，现在是我的。她也是一个属马的女人，和我一样，生在中国的马年——如果你生为女人，这会被认为是霉运——可是我想，这是个中国谎，因为，中国人和墨西哥人一样，不喜欢他们的女人强大。
　　我的曾祖母。要是我见过她多好，女人中的野马，野得不想嫁人。直到我的曾祖父用麻袋套住她的头把她扛走。就那样扛着，好像她是一盏华贵的枝型吊灯。那就是他的办法。
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　*英文单词“letter”既可以是作“字母”解，也可以作“信”接。太多的信，意味着等待。通过这次隐义，句子前后意义得以贯通。
　　*作者说，9是10之前的那个数字，是变化之前的数字。她选用这个数字来传达一种等待的意味，因为“我”，是一个即将成年的孩子，在等待改变，等待成熟和绽放。
Chapter 14 My name 2
　　And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow. I wonder if she made the best with what she got or was she dory because she couldn`t be all the things she wanted to be. Esperanza. I have inherited her name, but I don't want to inherit her place by the window.
　　At school they say my name funny as if the syllables were made out of tin and hurt the roof of your mouth. But in Spanish my name is made out of a softer something, like silver, not quite as thick as sister`s name—Magdalena—— which is uglier than mine. Magdalena who at least can come home and become Nenny. But I am always Esperanza.
　　I would like to baptize myself under a new name, a name more like the real me, the one nobody see. Esperanza as Lasiandra or Maritza or Zeze the X.Yes. something like Zeze the X will do.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　后来，她永远没有原谅他。她用一生向窗外凝望，像许多女人那样凝望，胳膊肘之前忧伤。我想知道她是否随遇而安；是否会为做不成她想做的人而伤怀。埃斯佩朗莎。我继承了她的名字，可我不想继承她在窗边的位置。
　　在学校里，他们说我的名字很滑稽，音节好像是铁皮做的，会碰痛嘴巴里的上颚。可是在西班牙语里，我的名字是更柔和的东西做的，像银子，没有的妹妹的名字那么浑厚。他叫玛格达蕾娜，这名字没我的美。玛格达蕾娜回到家里可以叫蕾妮。可我总是埃斯佩朗莎。
Chapter 15 Cathy Queen of Cats 1
　　She says, I am the great great grand cousin of the queen of France. She lives upstairs, over there, next door to Joe the baby-grabber. Keep away from him, she says. He is full of danger. Benny and Blanca own the corner store. They're okay except don't lean on the candy counter. Two girls raggedy as rats live across the street. You don't want to know them. Edna is the lady who owns the building next to you. She used to own a building big as a whale, but her brother sold it. Their mother said no, no, don't ever sell it. I won't. And then she closed her eyes and he sold it. Alicia is stuck-up ever since she went to college. She used to like me but now she doesn't.
　　Cathy who is queen of cats has cats and cats and cats. Baby cats, big cats, skinny cats, sick cats. Cats asleep like little donuts. Cats on top of the refrigerator. Cats taking a walk on the dinner table. Her house is like cat heaven.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　她说，我是法兰西皇后的远远远房表亲。她住在楼上，那边，那个“捉小孩的人”乔的隔壁。离他远点，她告诉我说，他很危险。街角那家小店是宾尼和布兰卡的。他们还蛮好，可只是靠在糖果柜台上时才对你好。两个像老鼠一样邋遢的女孩住在街对面。你不会想去认识她们的。埃德娜是你家隔壁房子的主人。她过去有幢大得像鲸鱼的房子，可她弟弟把它卖了。他们的妈妈说，别，别呀，千万别卖。我不会的。可后来她一闭眼，他就卖了它。阿莉西娅自从上了大学就傲气起来了。她过去挺喜欢我，可现在不了。
　　猫皇后凯茜养了好多好多好多猫。猫宝宝、大个猫、瘦猫、病猫。睡姿像个面包圈的猫。爬到冰箱顶上的猫。在餐桌上散步的猫。她的房子就像个猫天堂。
Chapter 16 Cathy Queen of Cats 2
　　You want a friend, she says. Okay, I'll be your friend. But only till next Tuesday. That's when we move away. Got to. Then as if she forgot I just moved in, she says the neighborhood is getting bad.
　　Cathy's father will have to fly to France one day and find her great great distant grand cousin on her father's side and inherit the family house. How do I know this is so? She told me so. In the meantime they'll just have to move a little farther north from Mango Street, a little farther away every time people like us keep moving in.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　你想要个朋友。她说，好的，我会做你的朋友，可只能做到下星期二，那时我们就得搬走了，不得不搬了。然后，她似乎忘了我才搬进来，说，这个社区的人越来越杂了。
　　凯茜的父亲有一天会要飞到法国去，找到远方的、她父亲那边的远远远房表亲，去继承家宅。我是怎么知道这些的呢？是她告诉我的。同时，他们要从芒果街向北面搬迁，离开这里一点路，在每次像我们这样的人家不断搬进来的时候。
Chapter 17 Our good days 1
　　If you give me five dollars I will be your friend forever. That's what the little one tells me.
　　Five dollars is cheap since I don't have any friends except Cathy who is only my friend till Tuesday.
　　Five dollars, five dollars.
　　She is trying to get some body to chip in so they can buy a bicycle form this kid named Tito. They already have ten dollars and all they need is five more.
　　Don't talk to them, says Cathy. Can't you see they smell like a broom.
　　But I like them. Their clothes are crooked and old. They are wearing shiny Sunday shoes without socks. It makes their bald ankles all red, but I like them. Especially the big one who laughs with all her teeth. I like her even though she lets the little one do all the talking.
　　Five dollars, the little one says, only five.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　如果你给我五块钱，我会永远做你的朋友。那个小的这么对我说
　　五块钱很便宜，因为我没有任何朋友，除了凯茜，她是我星期二之前的朋友。
　　五块钱啊，五块钱。
　　她想找人凑钱，那样，他们可以从那个叫提陀的小孩哪里买一辆自行车。她们已经十块了，他们再添五块钱就够了。
　　只要五块。她说。
　　别喝他们说话。凯茜说，你难道看不出来他们闻起来像扫把？
　　可是我喜欢她们。她们的衣服又皱又旧。她们穿的锃亮的礼拜天的鞋子，却没穿短袜。鞋子把她们的光脚踝擦得红红的。我喜欢她们。尤其是那个大的，小的时候露出一口牙齿。我喜欢她，尽管她让小的出来说话。
　　五块，小的说，只要五块。
Chapter 18 Our good days 2
　　Cathy is tugging my arm and I know whatever I do next will make her mad forever.
　　Wait a minute, I say, and run inside to get the five dollars I have three dollars saved and I take two of Nenny's. She's not home, but I'm sure she'll be glad when she finds out we own a bike. When I get back, Cathy is gone like I knew she would be , but I don't care. I have two new friends and a bike too.
　　My name is Lucy, the big one says. This here is Rachel my sister.
　　I'm her sister, says Rachel. Who are you?
　　And I wish my name was Cassandra or Alexis or Maritza—anything but Esperanza—but when I tell them my name they don't laugh.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　凯茜在拽我的胳膊，我知道，接下来我不管做什么，都会让她永远生我的气的。
　　等等。我说着跑到屋里拿了5块钱。我自己存有三块，又拿了蕾妮2块。她不在家，可我肯定，她发现我们有辆自行车会很高兴的。我回来的时候，凯茜走了，我知道她会这么做，可我不在乎。我有了两个新朋友和一辆自行车。
　　我叫露西，大的说。这是我妹妹瑞秋。
　　我是她妹妹。瑞秋说。你是谁？
　　我希望我的名字是卡桑德拉，或者阿勒克西斯，或者玛芮查——只要不是埃斯佩朗莎，什么名字都可以。可我告诉她们我的名字的时候，她们没有笑。
Chapter 19 Our good days 3
　　We come from Texas, Lucy says and grins. Her was born here, but me I'm Texas.
　　You mean she, I says.
　　No, I'm from Texas, and doesn't get it.
　　This bike is three ways ours, says Rachel who is thinking ahead already. Mine today, Lucy's tomorrow and yours day after.
　　But everybody wants to ride it today because the bike is new, so we decide to take turns after tomorrow. Today is belongs to all of us.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我从得克萨斯来，露西说着咧嘴一笑。她是在这里出生的，而我在得克萨斯。
　　你是说她吧。我说。
　　不，我是从得克萨斯来。她没听明白我的意思。
　　这辆车我们三个这么分配吧，拉切尔已经想在前面了。今天是我的，明天是露西的，后天是你的。
Chapter 20 Our good days 4
　　But everybody wants to ride it today because the bike is new, so we decide to take turns after tomorrow. Today it belongs to all of us.
　　I don't tell them about Nenny just yet. It's too complicated. Especially since Rachel almost put out Lucy's eye about who was going to get to ride it first. But finally we agree to ride it together. Why not?
　　Because Lucy has long legs she pedals. I sit on the back seat and Rachel is skinny enough to get up on the handlebars which makes the bike all wobble as if the wheels are spaghetti, but after a bit you get used to it.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　可每个人都想今天骑，因为车是新的。于是我们决定从明天开始轮流。今天它属于我们大家。
　　我还没有告诉他们蕾妮的事。事情太复杂了。尤其是，为了谁第一个骑的问题，瑞秋差点把露西的眼睛挖出来。最后我们同意一块骑，为什么不呢?
　　露西腿长，她来踩踏板。我坐在后座上，瑞秋足够苗条，她坐到了前杠上，弄得车子一个劲摇晃，好像轮子是实心意粉做的。不过一会儿我们就习惯了。
Chapter 21 Our good days 5
　　We ride fast and faster. Past my house, sad and red and crumbly in places, past Mr. Benny's grocery on the corner, and down the avenue which is dangerous. Laundoromat, junk store, drugstore, windows and cars and more cars , and around the block back to Mango.
　　People on the bus wave. A very fat lady crossing the street says. You sure got quite a load there.
　　Rachel shouts. You got quite a load there too. She is very sassy.
　　Down, down Mango Street we go. Rachel, Lucy, me. Our new bicycle. Laughing the crooked ride back.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我们越骑越快，骑过了我的家，那破落又悲哀、砖墙碎裂的红色小屋，骑过了街角宾尼显示的小卖铺，骑在了危险的大道上。自助洗衣店、旧货店、药店、一个个窗子、一辆辆汽车，越来越多的汽车，都经过了。我们围着街区绕一圈，骑回芒果街。
　　巴士上的人向我们挥手。一个很胖很胖的女人边过街边说，你们的装载量很大呀。
　　瑞秋喊道，你的装载量也很大呀。她说话好冒失。
　　我们沿着芒果街前行。瑞秋、露西、我，还有我们的新自行车。歪歪扭扭的回程，我们一直笑呀笑。
Chapter 22 Laughter
　　Nenny and I don't look like sisters…not right away. Not the way you can tell with Rachel and Lucy who have the same fat popsicle lips everybody else in their family. But me and Nenny, we are more alike than you would know. Our laughter for example. Not the shy ice cream bells' giggle of Rachel and Lucy's' family, but all of a sudden and surprise like a pile of dishes breaking. And other things I can't explain.
　　One day we were passing a house that looked, in my mind, like house I had seen in Mexico. I don't know why. There was nothing about the house that looked exactly like the house I remembered. I'm not even sure why I thought it, but it seemed to feel right.
　　Look at the house, I said, it looks like Mexico.
　　Rachel and Lucy look at me like I'm crazy, but before they can let out a laugh, Nenny says: Yes, that's Mexico all right. That's what I was thinking exactly.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　蕾妮和我看起来不像姐妹……不是一眼就能看出来的那种。人们可以看出瑞秋和露西是，因为她们有一模一样的雪糕似的厚嘴唇，她们家所有人的嘴唇都是那样的。可我们不是那种像法。我和蕾妮，我们相像的地方比你能看到的多。比如我们的笑声。不是瑞秋和露西一家人那样羞涩的傻笑，像冰淇淋铃声一样，而是突然的、吃惊的笑，像一叠盘子打碎了的感觉。还有其他一些我没法说清楚的地方。
　　一天我们经过一座房子，我心想，它看起来像我过去在墨西哥见过的房子。我不知道为什么。这房子和我记忆中的房子没什么地方是一模一样的。我甚至不知道为什么我这么想。他它就是给我那种感觉。
　　看那房子，我说，它看着像是墨西哥的。
　　瑞秋和露西看中我，好像我在发傻一样。可还没等她们笑出来，蕾妮就说：没错，那就是墨西哥式的。而那恰恰是我当时的想法。
Chapter 24 Meme Ortiz
　　Around the back is a yard, mostly dirt,and a greasy bunch of boards that used to be a garage. but what you families of squirrels in the higher branches. All around, the nighborhood of roofs, black-tarred and A-framed, and in their gutters, the balls that never came back down to earth. Down at the base of the tree, the dog with two names barks into the empty air, and there at the end of the block, looking smaller still, our house with its feet tucked under like a cat.
　　This is the tree we chose for the First Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest. Meme won. And borke both arms.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
么么·奥迪兹
　　屋后面是个院子，大部分地方是泥土地面，还有一扎油腻腻的模板，是过去的车库。不过，你记得最清的应该是那棵树，巨大，枝干肥硕，高高的枝桠上栖息着繁盛的松鼠家族。从上面张望，周围都是邻里的屋顶，A字形，浇了黑色的沥青。上面的天沟里，躺着一些永远不再着地的皮球。树底下，那条有两个名字的狗在冲着空气狂吠。街区的尽头是我的家，看上去更小了，像只猫儿缩起脚爪窝在那里。
　　这棵树被我们挑来举行第一届年度人猿泰山跳跃比赛。么么赢了。可是2条胳膊都摔破了。
Chapter 25 Louie,His Cousin&His Other Cousin
　　Louie's girl cousin is older than us. She lives with Louie's family because her own family is in Puerto Rico. Her name is Marin or Maris or something like that, and she wears dark nylons all the time and lots of makeup she gets free from selling Avon. She can't come out _gotta baby-sit with Louie's sisters- but she stands in the doorway a lot, all the time singing, clicking her fingers, the same song:
　　Apples, peaches, pumpkin pah-ay
　　You're in love and so am ah-ay
　　Louie's has another cousin. We only saw him once, but it was important. We were playing volleyball in the alley when he drove up in this great big yellow Cadillac whitewalls and a yellow scarf tied around the mirror. Louie's cousin has his arm out the window. He honked a couple of times and a lot of faces looked out from Louie's back window and then a lot of people came out—Louie, Marin and all the little sisters.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　路易加的小表姐比我们大。她住在路易家里，因为她自己家在波多黎各。她好像是叫玛琳或者玛芮斯，或者跟这差不多的名字。她总是穿暗色的尼龙丝袜，化很多妆，那是她推销雅芳的时候不花钱得来的。她没法出门——得照看路易的小姐妹们，可她常常站在门道里，一直唱着歌，打着响指。她只唱一首歌：
　　苹果桃儿南瓜派哟，
　　你在恋爱我也在哟。
　　路易还有一个表兄。我们只见过他一次，可那次很轰动。我们在巷子里玩排球，他开着一辆又大又气派的黄色卡迪拉克过来了，白璧轮胎，镜子上系着一条黄绶带。路易的表兄把胳膊伸在车窗外面。他摁了几下喇叭，许多张脸从路易加的后窗出来，接着，出来很多人——路易、玛琳和所有的小妹妹们。
Chapter 26 Marin
　　We never see Marin until her aunt comes home from work, and even then she can only stay out in front. She is there every night with the radio. When the light in her aunt's room goes out, Marin lights a cigarette and it doesn't matter if it's cold out or if the radio doesn't work or if we've got nothing to say to each other. What matters, Marin says, is for the boys to see us and for us to see them. And since Marin's skirts are shorter and since her eyes are pretty, and since Marin is already older than us in many ways, the boys who do pass by say stupid things like I am in love with those two green apples you call eyes, give them to me why don't you. And Marin just looks at them without even blinking and is no afraid.
　　Marin, under the streetlight, dancing by herself, is singing the same song somewhere. I know. Is waiting for a car to stop, a star to fall, someone to change her life.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　在玛琳在婶婶下班回家前，我们从来都看不到玛琳。在那以后，她也只能出到房子前面。她每晚都拿个收音机在那里。等她婶婶房间里的灯熄灭后，玛琳就会点一支烟，如果那会儿外面冷，或者收音机不响，或者我们互相没话说，这些都不要紧；要紧的是，玛琳说，要让男孩子看到我们，我们看到男孩子。因为玛琳的裙子更短，因为她的眼睛很漂亮，因为她在很多方面已经比我们成熟，男孩子跑过来说一些蠢话，比如我爱上你说是眼睛的那两个青苹果，把它们给我吧为什么不？玛琳只是看着它们，眼睛都不眨一下，也不害怕。
　　玛琳，街灯下独自起舞的人，在某个地方唱着同一首歌，我知道。她在等一辆小汽车停下来，等着一颗星星坠落，等一个人改变她的生活。
Chapter 27 There was an old woman she had so many
　　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. They think it's funny. They are without respect for all things living, including themselves.
　　But after a wile you get tired of being worried about kids who aren't even yours. 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? Come down, you come down right now, and then they just spit.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　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，差点就像博物馆李华美的花瓶一样摔破了，碎了你就放不回去。他们觉得那很好玩。他们不尊重任何有生命的事物，包括他们自己。
　　可是不就你就懒得担心了，他们又不是你的孩子。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？下来，马上下来。可他们只是啐他。
Chapter 28 Alicia who sees mice
　　Alicia, whose mama died, is sorry there is no one older to rise and make the lunchbox tortillas. Alicia, who inherited her mama's rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university. Two trains and a bus, because she doesn't want to spend her whole life in factory or behind a rolling pin. Is a good girl, my friend, studies all night and sees the mice, the ones her father says do not exist. Is afraid of nothing except four-legged fur. And fathers.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　阿莉西娅，没了妈妈的她，很难过家里没有一个打过她的人爬起来做午餐盒的玉米饼。阿莉西娅，继承妈妈的擀面杖和渴睡的她，年轻聪明，头一次去大学上学，两趟火车和一趟巴士，因为她不想在工厂里，在一根擀面杖后过她的一生。她是个好姑娘，我的朋友，整夜的学习，瞧见老鼠，那些她父亲说不存在的老鼠。她什么都不怕，除了四条腿毛茸茸的东西，还有父亲们。
　　*据作者自述，她的父亲和六个兄弟都想限制她，企望她成为一个传统的家庭妇女。她说有时候感觉自己好像有7个父亲。因此，这里的“父亲们”应该也是指家中的男性。
Chapter 29 And some more……
　　The Eskimos got thirty different names for snow, I say. I read it in a book.
　　I got a cousin, Rachel says. She got three different names.
　　There ain't thirty different kinds of snow, Lucy says. There are two kinds. The clean kind and the dirty kind, clean and dirty. Only two.
　　There are a million zillion kinds, says Nenny. No two exactly alike. Only how do you remember which one is which?
　　She got three last names and, let me see, two first names. One in English and one in Spanish…
　　And clouds got at least ten different names. I say.
　　Names for clouds? Nenny asks. Names just like you and me?
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　爱斯基摩人给雪取了三十个不同的名字。我说。我在一本书里读到的。
　　我有个表妹，拉切尔说，她有三个不同的名字。
　　世界上没有三十种不同的雪，露西说，只有两种。干净的和脏的，净雪和脏雪。只有两种。
　　世界上有亿万种雪，蕾妮说，没有两种看上去一模一样。可你怎么记得哪种是哪种？
　　她有三个名字，让我想想，还有两个姓。一个英语的，一个西班牙语的……
　　云至少有十个不同的名字。我说。
　　云的名字？蕾妮问。像你我一样的名字？
Chapter 30 The Family of Little Feet
　　There was a family.All were little.Their arms were little,and their hands were little,and their height was not tall,and their feet very small.
　　The grandpa slept on the living room couch and snored through his teeth.His feet were fat and doughy like thick tamales,and these he powdered and stuffed into white socks and brown leather shoes.
　　The grandma's feet were lovely as pink pearls and dressed in velvety high heels that made her walk with a wobble,but she wore them anyway because they were pretty.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
小脚之家
　　有一家人。都是小个。他们的胳膊很小，他们的手也很小，他们的个头也不高，他们的叫非常非常小。
　　爷爷睡在客厅的沙发上，牙缝里漏出鼾声。他的脚又白又胖，像厚厚的玉米肉粽，他把它们扑上粉，套上白袜子，塞进棕色皮靴里。
　　奶奶的脚像粉红珍珠一样好看，穿着天鹅绒的高跟鞋，走起路来一歪一扭。可她还是穿着它们，因为鞋子漂亮。
Chapter 31 And some more……
　　The special kids, the ones who wear keys around their necks, get to eat in the canteen. The canteen! Even the name sounds important. And these kids at lunch time go there because their mothers aren't home or home is too far away to get to.
　　My home isn't far but it's not close either, and somehow I got it in my head one day to ask my mother to make me a sandwich and write a note to the principal so I could eat in the canteen too.
　　Oh no, she says pointing the butter knife at me as if I'm starting trouble, no sir. Next thing you know everybody will be wanting a bag lunch—I'll be up all night cutting bread into little triangles, this one with mayonnaise, this one with mustard, no pickles on mine, but mustard on one side please. You kids just like to invent more work for me.'
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　那些特殊的孩子，那些脖子上套着钥匙的孩子，他们在餐厅吃饭。餐厅！名字听起来就不一样。那些孩子啊在午餐时间去那里，因为他们的妈妈不在家，或者家太远了不好回。
　　我的家不远，也不近。有一天我不知怎么想起来要妈妈帮我做一个三明治，并写上一张纸条给校长，那样我就也可以在餐厅吃饭了。
　　哦，不，她用切黄油的小刀指着我，好像我正在挑起事端一样。不行，长官。你知道接下来的事情就是每个人都会想带盒饭——我夜里就得忙着把面包切成三角丁，这个抹上蛋黄酱，那个撒上胡椒，我的不要泡菜，每面都要胡椒末。你们这些孩子就喜欢给我找事儿。
Chapter 32 Chanclas
　　It`s me——Mama,Mama said.I open up and she`s there with bags and big boxes,the new clothes and ,yes,she`s got the socks and a new slip with a little rose on it and a pink-and-white striped dress.What about the shoes? I forgot.Too late now.I`m tired.Whew!
　　Six-thirty already and my little cousin`s baptism is over.All day waiting,the door locked,don`t open up for nobody,and I don`t till Mama gets back and buys everything except the shoes.
　　Now Uncle Nacho is coming in his car,and we have to hurry to get to Precious Blood Church quick because that`s where the baptism party is,in the basement rented for today for dancing and tamales and everyone`s kids running all over the place.
　　PS: chanclas,西班牙语，意为“塌跟的旧鞋”　   　　Precious Blood Church:圣血教堂
　　　　　　　　　　　　
塌跟的旧鞋
　　是我——妈妈。妈妈说。我开了门，她站在那里拎着大盒小包，是新衣服，是的，她买了袜子、一件上面有朵玫瑰花的背带裙里和一件粉红条间白条的裙子。鞋子呢？我忘了。现在太晚了，我好累哟。唉。
　　已经六点半了。我小表弟的洗礼式已经过了。一天都在等待，门锁着。没人来别开门。我没开，直到妈妈回来，什么都买回来了，就忘了鞋子。
　　现在拿乔叔叔开着车来了。我们得赶去圣血教堂，因为洗礼晚会在那里举行。他们今天租了那里的地下室用来跳舞和吃玉米肉粽。家家户户的孩子满地乱跑。
Chapter 33 And some more……
　　I like coffee, I like tea.
　　I like the boys and the boys like me.
　　Yes, no, maybe so. Yes, no, maybe so…
　　One day you wake up and they are there. Ready and waiting like a new Buick with the keys in the ignition. Ready to take you where?
　　They're good for holding a baby when you're cooking, Rachel says, turning the jump rope a little quicker. She has no imagination.
　　You need them to dance, says Lucy.
　　If you don't get them you may turn into a man. Nenny says this and she believes it. She is this way because of her age.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我喜欢咖啡，我喜欢茶。
　　我喜欢男孩呀男孩也喜欢我。
　　是也不是也许是。是也不是也许是……
　　某一天，你醒过来，他们就在那里了。一切就绪，等在那里，像一辆崭新的别克，钥匙插在点火器上。一切就绪带你去哪里呢？
　　瑞秋说，你做饭的时候，他们可以帮你托住孩子，说着变把跳绳晃的更快了。她一点想象力都没有。
　　你需要用他们来跳舞。露西说。
　　如果你没有他们，就会变成男人。蕾妮这么说，她也是这么以为的。她这样是因为她的年龄。
Chapter 34 The First Job
　　In my job I had to wear white gloves.I was supposed to match negatives with their prints,just look at the picture and look for the same one on the negative strip, put it in the envelope, and do the next one.That`s all. I didn`t know where these envelopes were coming from or where they were going.I just did what I was told.
　　It was real easy, and Iguess I wouldn`t have minded it except that you got tired after a while and I didn`t know if I could sit down or not,and then I started sitting down only when the two ladies next to me did. After a while they started to laugh and came up to me and said I could sit when I wanted to ,and I said I knew.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　   我做事时要戴上白手套。他们让我做的是把底片和相片配好，就是对着相片在底片的条上找到那张的底片，把它放进信封里，然后再配下一张。就这些。我不知道那些信封从哪里来，要到哪里去。我只是按吩咐的去做。
　　真的好容易。我想我本来不会介意的，可干了一会我有点累，不知道是否可以坐，于是就看着旁边的两位女士，她们坐下来的时候我才坐。过了一会她们笑起来，走过来跟我说可以想坐就坐的，我说我知道。
Chapter 35 Papa who wakes up tired in the dark
　　You abuelito（1） is dead, Papa says early one morning in my room. Esta muerto（2） , and then as if he just heard the news himself, crumples like a coat and cries, my brave Papa cries. I have never seen my Papa cry and don't know what to do.
　　I know he will have to go away, that he will take a plane to Mexico, all the uncles and aunts will be there, and they will have a black-and-white photo taken in front of the tomb with flowers shaped like spears in a white vase because this is how they send the dead away in that country.
　　And I think if my own Papa died what would I do. I hold my Papa in my arms. I hold and hold and hold him.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　你爷爷去世了。有天清晨很早的时候，爸爸到我房里来说。他不在了（1），说完，他好像自己才听到这个消息一样，人像件外套一样皱缩起来，哭了。我勇敢的爸爸哭了。我从来没看过爸爸哭，不知道该怎么办。
　　我知道他要走了，他会坐飞机去墨西哥，所以的叔叔婶婶都会去那里。他们会拍上一张黑白照片，在摆个白色花瓶的墓地边，花瓶里插着长矛状的花束。在那个国家李，人们就那样送别死者。
　　我想要是我自己的爸爸死去了我会做什么。于是我把爸爸抱在怀里，我要抱啊抱啊抱住他。
Chapter 36 Born Bad
　　Most likely I will go to hell and most likely I deserve to be there.My brother says I was born on an evil day and pray for me.Lucy and Rachel pray too.For ourselves and for each other……because of what we did to Aunt Lupe.
　　Her name was Guadalupe and she was pretty like my mother.Dark.Good to look at.In her Joan Crawford dress and swimmer`s legs.Aunt Lupe of the photographs.
　　But I knew her sick fromthe disease that would not go,her legs bunched under the yellow sheets,the bones gone limp as worms.The yellow pillow,the yellow smell,the bottles and spoonsl.Her head thrown back like a thirsty lady.My aunt,the swimmer.
　　Hard to imagine her legs once strong, the bones hard and parting water, clean sharp strokes, not bent and wrinkled like a baby, not drowning under the sticky yellow light. Second-floor rear apartment. The naked light bulb. The high ceilings. The light bulb always burning.
　　I don't know who decides who deserves to go bad. There was no evil in her birth. No wicked curse. One day I believe she was swimming, and the next day she was sick. It might have been the day that gray photograph was taken. It might have been the day she was holding cousin Totchy and baby Frank. It might have been the moment she pointed to the camera for the kids to look and they
　　wouldn't.
　　Maybe the sky didn't look the day she fell down. Maybe God was busy. It could be true she didn't dive right one day and hurt her spine. Or maybe the story that she fell very hard from a high step stool, like Totchy said, is true.
　　But I think diseases have no eyes. They pick with a dizzy finger anyone, just anyone. Like my aunt who happened to be walking down the street one day in her Joan Crawford dress, in her funny felt hat with the black feather, cousin Totchy in one hand, baby Frank in the other.
　　Sometimes you get used to the sick and sometimes the sickness, if it is there too long, gets to seem normal. This is how it was with her, and maybe this is why we chose her.
　　It was a game, that's all. It was the game we played every afternoon ever since that day one of us invented it. I can't remember who. I think it was me. You had to pick somebody.
　　You had to think of someone everybody knew. Someone you could imitate and everyone else would have to guess who it was. It started out with famous people: Wonder Woman, the Beatles, Marilyn Monroe... But then somebody thought it'd be better if we changed the game a little, if we pretended we were Mr. Benny, or his wife Blanca, or Ruthie, or anybody we knew.
　　I don't know why we picked her. Maybe we were bored that day. Maybe we got tired. We liked my aunt. She listened to our stories. She always asked us to come back. Lucy, me, Rachel. I hated to go there alone. The six blocks to the dark apartment, second-floor rear building where sunlight never came, and what did it matter? My aunt was blind by then. She never saw the dirty dishes in the sink. She couldn't see the ceilings dusty with flies, the ugly maroon walls, the bottles and sticky spoons. I can't forget the smell. Like sticky capsules filled with jelly. My aunt, a little oyster, a little piece of meat on an open shell for us to look at. Hello, hello. As if she had fallen into a well.
　　I took my library books to her house. I read her stories. I liked the book The Water Babies. She liked it too. I never knew how sick she was until that day I tried to show her one of the pictures in the book, a beautiful color picture of the water babies swimming in the sea. I held the book up to her face. I can't see it, she said, I'm blind. And then I was ashamed.
　　She listened to every book, every poem I read her. one day I read her one of my own. I came very close. I whispered it into the pillow:
　I want to be
　　like the waves on the sea,
　　like the clouds in the wind,
 　　but I'm me.
　　One day I'll jump
　　out of my skin.
　　I'll shake the sky
　　like a hundred violins.
　　That's nice. That's very good, she said in her tired voice. You just remember to keep writing, Esperanza. You must keep writing. It will keep you free, and I said yes, but at that time I didn't know what she meant.
　　The day we played the game, we didn't know she was going to die. We pretended with our heads thrown back, our arms limp and useless, dangling like the dead. We laughed the way she did. We talked the way she talked, the way blind people talk without moving their head. We imitated the way you had to lift her head a little so she could drink water, she sucked it up slow out of a green tin cup. The water was warm and tasted like metal. Lucy laughed. Rachel too. We took turns being her. We screamed in the weak voice of a parrot for Totchy to come and wash those dishes. It was easy.
　　We didn't know. She had been dying such a long time, we forgot. Maybe she was ashamed. Maybe she was embarrassed it took so many years. The kids who wanted to be kids instead of washing dishes and ironing their papa's shirts, and the husband who wanted a wife again.
　　And then she died, my aunt who listened to my poems.
　　And then we began to dream the dreams.　　　　　　　　　　　　
生辰不吉
　　很可能我会去地狱，很可能我该去那里。妈妈说我出生不的日子不吉利，并为我祈祷。露西和拉切尔也祈祷。为我们自己也为相互之间……为我们对卢佩婶婶做的事情。
　　她的全名叫瓜达卢佩。她像我妈妈一样漂亮。暗色皮肤。十分耐看。穿着琼·克劳馥式的裙子，长着游泳者的腿。那是照片上的卢佩婶婶。
　　可我知道她生病了，疾病缠绵不去。她的腿绑束在黄色的床单下面，骨头变得和蠕虫一样软弱。黄山的枕头，黄色的气味，饼子勺子。她像一个口渴的女人一样向后仰着头。我的婶婶，那个游泳者。
　　很难想象她的腿曾经强健。坚韧的骨，劈波分浪，动作干净爽利，没有像婴儿的腿那样蜷曲皱缩，也没有淹滞在黏浊的黄光灯下。二层楼背面的公寓。光秃的电灯泡。高高的天花板，灯泡一直在燃烧。
　　我不知道是谁来决定谁该遭受厄运。她出生的日子没有不吉利。没有邪恶的诅咒。头一天我想她还在游泳，第二天她就病了。可能是拍下那张灰色照片的那天。也可能是她抱着表弟托奇和宝宝弗兰克的那天。也可能是她指着照相机让小孩们看可他们不看的那一刻。
　　也许天空在她摔倒的那天没有看向人间。也许上帝很忙。也许那天她入水没入好伤了脊椎是真的，也许托奇说的是真的，她从高高的梯凳上重重地摔了下来。
　　我想疾病没有眼睛。它们昏乱的指头会挑到任何人，任何人。比如我的婶婶，那天正好走在街上的婶婶，穿着琼?克劳馥式裙子，戴着缀有黑羽毛的、滑稽的毡帽，一只手里是表弟托奇，一只手里是宝宝弗兰克。
　　有时你会习惯病人，有时你会习惯疾病，如果病得太久，也就习以为常了。她的情况就是这样。或者这就是我们选择她的原因。
　　那是一个游戏。仅此而已。我们每天下午都玩的游戏，自从某天我们中的一个发明了它。我不记得是谁，我想那是我。
　　你得挑选一个人。你得想出大家都知道的一个人，一个你可以模仿，而别人都能猜出来的人。先是那些名人：神奇女侠 、披头士、玛丽莲?梦露……后来有人认为我们稍稍改变一下，如果我们假装自己是宾尼先生、或者他的妻子布兰卡，或者鹭鸶儿，或者别的我们认识的人，游戏会好玩点。
　　我不知道我们为什么挑选了她。也许那天我们很无聊。也许我们累了。我们喜欢我们的婶婶。她会听我们讲故事。她经常求我们再来。露西、我和拉切尔。我讨厌一个人去那里。走六个街区才到那昏暗的公寓，阳光从不会照射到的二层楼背面的房子，可那有什么关系？我婶婶那时已经瞎了。她从来看不见水池里的脏碗碟。她看不到落满灰尘和苍蝇的天花板。难看的酱色墙壁，瓶瓶罐罐和黏腻的茶勺。我无法忘记那里的气味。就像黏黏的胶囊注满了冻糊糊。我婶婶，一瓣小牡蛎，一团小肉，躺在打开的壳上，供我们观看。喂，喂。她好像掉在一口深井里。
　　我把图书馆借的书带到她家里。我给她读故事。我喜欢《水孩子》 这本书。她也喜欢。我从来不知道她病得有多重，直到那天我想要指给她看书里的一幅画，美丽的画，水孩子在大海中游泳。我把书举到她眼前。我看不到。她说。我瞎了。我心里便很愧疚。
　　她会听我念给她听的每一本书，每一首诗。一天我读了一首自己写的给她听。我凑得很近。我对着枕头轻轻耳语：
　　我想成为
　　海里的浪，风中的云，
　　但我还只是小小的我。
　　有一天我要
　　跳出自己的身躯
　　我要摇晃天空
　　像一百把小提琴。
　　很好。非常好。她用有气无力的声音说。记住你要写下去，埃斯佩朗莎。你一定要写下去。那会让你自由，我说好的，只是那时我还不懂她的意思。
　　那天我们玩了同样的游戏。我们不知道她要死了。我们装作头往后仰，四肢软弱无力，像死人的一样垂挂着。我们学她的样子笑。学她的样子说话，那种盲人说话的时候不转动头部的样子。我们模仿她必须被人托起头颈才能喝水的样子。她从一个绿色的锡杯里把水慢慢地吮出来喝掉。水是热的，味道像金属。露西笑起来，拉切尔也笑了。我们轮流扮演她。我们像鹦鹉学舌一样，用微弱的声音呼喊托奇过来洗碗。那很容易做到。
　　可我们不懂。她等待死亡很长时间了。我们忘了。也许她很愧疚。也许她很窘迫：死亡花了这么多年时间。孩子们想要做成孩子，而不是在那里洗碗涮碟，给爸爸熨衬衫。丈夫也想再要一个妻子。
　　于是她死了。听我念诗的婶婶。
　　于是我们开始做起了那些梦。
Chapter 37 Elenita, cards, plam, water
　　She makes the sign of the cross over the water three times and then begins to cut the cards.
　　They're not like ordinary playing cards, these cards. They're strange, with blond men on horses and crazy baseball bats with thorns. Golden goblets, sad-looking women dressed in old-fashioned dresses, and roses that cry.
　　There is a good Bugs Bunny cartoon on T.V. I know, I saw it before and recognize the music and wish I could go sit on the plastic couch with Ernie and the baby, but now my fortune begins. My whole life on that kitchen table : past, present, future. Then she takes my hand and looks into my plam. Closes it. Closes her eyes too.
　　Do you feel it, feel it cold?
　　Yes , I lie, but only a little.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　她用手在水面上画了三次十字，开始抽牌。
　　这可不是平常玩的牌。这些牌，它们有点奇怪，上面有骑在马上的金发白肤的男人，吓人滴长了刺的棒球棒、金色圣杯、穿着旧式服装的悲伤的女人，还有哭泣玫瑰。
　　我知道电视上在演一部好玩的《兔八哥》卡通片。我以前看过，听出了它的音乐，我希望可以走过去和埃尼、包包一起坐在塑料沙发上，可我的命运开始显现了。我的一生都在这厨桌子上：过去、现在和将来。接着她拿起我的手看手掌。合上它。同时合上的还有她的眼睛。
　　你感觉到了吗？感觉到冷了吗？
　　是的，我撒谎说，有一点冷。
Chapter 39 The Earl of Tennessee
　　Earl lives next door in Edna`s basement,behind the flower boxes Edna paints green each year,behind the dusty geraniums.We used to sit on the flower boxes until the day Tito saw a cockroach with a spot of green paint on its head.Now we sit on the steps that swing around the basement apatrment where Earl lives.
　　Earl works nights.His blinds are always closed during the day. Sometimes he comes out and tells us to keep quiet.The little wooden door that has wedged shut the dark for so long opens with a sigh and lets out a breath of mold and dampness,like books that have been left out in the rain.This is the only time we see Earl except for when he comes and goes to work. He has weo little black dogs that go everywhere with him. They don`t walk like ordinary dogs,but leap and somersault like an apostrophe and comma.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　埃尔住在隔壁埃德娜家的地下室里，在埃德娜每年都要漆成绿色的花箱后面，在那些灰蒙蒙的天竺葵后面。我们以前常坐在花箱上，直到有一天，提陀看到一只脑袋上有一点绿漆的蟑螂。现在我们坐在拐向埃尔住的地下室的楼梯步上。
　　埃尔上夜班。他的百叶窗在白天总是合上的。有时他会出来叫我们保持安静。已经开裂的小木门把黑暗关在里面那么久，现在它打开了，呀的一声叹息，吐出一口潮湿的霉气，就像放在外面淋过雨的书，这是惟一一次我们不是在他回来和去上班的时候看到他。他有两条与他形影不离的小黑犬。它们不是像平常的狗那么走路，而是一蹦一跳，翻着筋斗前进，像一个撇号和一个逗号。。
Chapter 40 Sire
　　I don't remember when I first noticed him looking at me—Sire. But I knew he was looking. Every time. All the time I walked past his house. Him and his friends sitting on their bikes in front of the house, pitching pennies. They didn't scare me. They did, but I wouldn't let them know. I don't cross the street like other girls. Straight ahead, straight eyes. I walked past. I knew he was looking. I had to prove to me I wasn't scared of nobody's eyes, not even his. I had to look back hard, just once, like he was glass. And I did. I did once. But I looked too long when he rode his bike past me. I looked because I wanted to be brave, straight into he dusty cat fur of his eyes and the bike stopped and he bumped into a parked car, bumped, and I walked fast. It made your blood freeze to have somebody look at you like that. Somebody looked at me. Somebody looked. But his kind, his ways. He is a punk, Papa says, and Mama says not to talk to him.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　我不记得什么时候期，发觉他在看我，塞尔。可我知道他在看。每次。我从他家房前走过时，他一直在看。他和他的朋友在房子前，坐在自行车上抛硬币。他们没吓我。他们吓着我了，可我不会让他们知道。我不像别的女孩那样过街。我走了过去，笔直向前，笔直的视线。我知道他在看。我要想自己证明，我不害怕任何人的眼睛，即便是他的。我要回头用力看，就一眼，当他是块玻璃。于是我那么做了。我看了一眼，可我看的太久，在他骑过身边的时候，我看是因为我想勇敢些，一直看到他看见上灰蒙蒙的毛毛里去。自行车停下来，撞在一辆停着的小汽车上，撞到了，我于是飞快的走开。有人那样看你会让你的血结冰。有人看我，有人看。可是他是那样的人，他那样看。他是个小混混。爸爸说。别和他说话，妈妈说。
Chapter 42 Rafaela Who Drinks Coconut @ Papaya Juice on Tuesdays
　　On Tuesdays Rafaela`s husband comes home late because that`s the night he plays dominoes.And then Rafaela,who is still young but getting old from leaning out the window so much,gets locked indoors because her husband is afraid Rafaela will run away since she is too beautiful to look at.
　　Fafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel`s.On the corner there is music from the bar,and Rafaela wishes she could go there and dance before she gets old.
　　A long time passes and we forget she is up there watching until she says:Kids,If I give you a dollar wiill you go to the store and buy me something? She throws a crumpled dollar down and always asks for coconut or sometimes papaya juice, and we send it up to her in a paper shopping bag she lets down with clothesline.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
在星期二喝可可和木瓜汁的拉菲娜拉菲娜
　　每逢星期二，拉菲娜的丈夫回家就晚，因为这一晚他要玩多米诺骨牌。于是拉菲娜，年纪轻轻就因为倚在窗口太久太久而变老的她，被锁在了屋里，因为她的丈夫害怕拉菲娜会逃跑，因为她长得太美了，不能被人看到。
　　拉菲娜倚在窗口，倚着她的胳膊肘，梦想她的头发能像拉潘索公主的一样。酒吧的乐声从街角传来，拉菲娜希望能在变老以前去那里，去跳舞。
　　时间过去很久了，我们忘了她在那上面张望，直到她说：孩子们，我给你们一元钱，你们去店里帮我买点东西好吗？她扔下一张皱巴巴的票子来。她总是要可可汁，有时要木瓜汁。我们把它放进一个她用晾衣绳放下来的纸手袋里，给她递上去。
Chapter 43 Sally
　　Sally is a girl with eyes like Egypt and nylons the color of smoke.The boys at school think she`s beautiful because her hair is shiny black like raven feathers and when she laughs,she flicks her hair back like a satin shawl over her shoulders and laughs.
　　Her father says to be this beautiful is trouble.They are very strict in his religion.They are not supposed to dance.He remembers his sisters and is sad.Then she can`t go out.Sally I mean.
　　Sally,who taught you to paint your eyes like Cleopatra 【1】?And if I roll the little brush with my tongue and chew it to a point and dip it in the muddy cake,the one in the little red box,will you teach me?
　　　　　　　　　　　　
萨莉
　　萨莉是一个描着埃及的眼圈，穿烟灰色尼龙丝袜的女孩。学校的男生认为她很美，因为她的头发像渡乌鸦毛一样乌黑闪亮，她笑的时候，把头发往后一甩，像一面滑缎方巾披在肩膀上，然后大笑起来。
　　她爸爸说长这么美是麻烦事。他们非常严格地遵从他的信仰。他们不能去跳舞。他想起他的姐妹们，很伤心。于是她就不能出来。我说的是萨莉。
　　萨莉，是谁教会你把眼睛涂得像克莉奥帕特拉？如果我把这个小刷子用舌头卷一下，舔成尖尖的，蘸到小泥饼里去，那个小红盒子里的，你会教我吗？
Chapter 44 Minerva writes poems
　　Minerva is only a little bit older than me but already she has two kids and a husband who left. Her mother raised her kids alone and it looks like her daughters will go that way too. Minerva cries because her luck is unlucky. Every night and every day. And prays. But when the kids are asleep after she's fed them their pancake dinner, she writes poems on little pieces of paper that she folds over and over and holds in her hands a long time, little pieces of paper that smell like a dime.
　　She lets me read her poems. I let her read mine. She is always sad like a house on fire——always something wrong. She has many troubles, but the big one is her husband who left and keeps leaving.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　密涅瓦只比我大一点点，可她已经有两个孩子和一个出走的丈夫。她妈妈肚子抚养孩子们，看来她的女儿也要走她的老路了。因为她运气这样糟，密涅瓦哭呀哭。每个夜晚每个白天。并且祈祷。不过，在喂完孩子们煎饼晚餐后，他们就睡着了，她会在小纸片上写诗。那纸片他折了又折，捏在手里很长时间了，闻起来像一角硬币的小纸片。
　　她让我读她的诗，我让她读我的。她总是悲伤得像一所着了火的房子——总是有什么出了问题。他麻烦太多了，最大的麻烦就是丈夫会出走，而且不停地出走。
Chapter 45 Bums in the Attic
　　I want a house on a hill like the ones with the gardens where Papa works. We go on Sundays,Papa`s day off. I used to go.I don`t anymore. You don`t like to go out with us,Papa says. Getting too old? Getting too stuck-up,says Nenny. I don`t tell them I am ashamed——all of us staring out the window like the hungry. I am tired of looking at what we can`t have. When we win the lottery……Mama begins,and the I stop listening.
　　People who live on hills sleep so close to the stars the forget those of us who live too much on earth. They don`t look down at all except to be content to live on hills. They have nothing to do with last week`s garbage or fear of rats. Night comes. Nothing wakes them but the wind.
　　One day I`ll own my own house,but I won`t forget who I am or where I came from. Passing bums will ask,Can I come in? I`ll offer them the attic,ask them to stay,because I know how it is to be without a house.
　　Some days after dinner, guests and I will sit in front of a fire. Floorboards will squeak upstairs. The attic grumble.
　　Rats? they'll ask.
　　Bums, I'll say, and I'll be happy.　　　　　　　　　　　　
阁楼上的流浪者
　　我想要一所山上的房子，像爸爸工作的地方那样的花园房。星期日，爸爸的休息日，我们会去那里。我过去常去。现在不去了。你长大了，就不喜欢和我们一起出去吗？爸爸说。你傲起来了。蕾妮说。我没告诉他们我很羞愧——我们一帮人全都盯着那里的窗户，像饥饿的人。我厌倦了盯着我不能拥有的东西。如果我们赢了彩票……妈妈才开口，我就不要听了。
　　那些住在山上，睡得靠星星如此近的人，他们忘记了我们这些住在地面上的人。他们根本不朝下看，除非为了体会住在山上的心满意足。上星期的垃圾，对老鼠的恐惧，这些与他们无关。夜晚来临，没什么惊扰他们的梦，除了风。
　　有一天我要拥有自己的房子，可我不会忘记我是谁我从哪里来。路过的流浪者会问，我可以进来吗？我会把他们领上阁楼，请他们住下来，因为我知道没有房子的滋味。
　　有些日子里，晚饭后，我和朋友们坐在火旁。楼上的地板吱呀吱呀响。阁楼上有咕咕哝哝的声音。
　　是老鼠吗？他们会问。
　　是流浪者。我会回答说。我很开心。
Chapter 46 A Smart Cookie
　　I could`ve been somebody,you know？ My mother says and sighs. She has lived in this city her whole life. She can speak two languages. She can sing an opera. She knows how to fix a T.V. But she doesn`t know which subway train to take to get downtown. I hold her hand very tight while we wait for the right train to arrive.
　　She used to draw when she had time. Now she draws with a needle and thread, little knotted rosebuds,tulips made of silk thread. Someday she would like to go to the ballet. Someday she would like to see a play. She borrows opera reconds from the public library and sings with velvety lungs powerful as morning glories.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
一个聪明人
　　我本来可以出人头地的，你知道么？妈妈说着叹了口气。她一辈子都住在这个城市里。她会说两种语言。她会唱歌剧。她知道怎么修理电视机。可她不知道坐哪条地铁线去市中心。在等对的那趟车来的时候，我紧紧攥着她的手。
　　她过去有时间就常画画。现在她用针和线画画，编织的玫瑰花苞，丝绣的郁金香。有一天她想去看芭蕾。又一天她想去看戏。她从公共图书馆里借来了歌剧唱片，用醇厚的嗓音唱起来，歌声像朝阳一样蓬勃。
Chapter 47 What sally said
　　Sally was going to get permission to stay with us a little and one Thursday she came finally with a sack full of clothes and a paper bag of sweetbread her mama sent. And would 've stayed too except when the dark came her father, whose eyes were little from crying, knocked on the door and said please come back, this is the last time. And she said Daddy and went home.
　　Then we didn't need to worry. Until one day Sally's father catches her talking to a boy and the next day she doesn't come to school. And the next. Until the way Sally tells it, he just went crazy, he just forget he was her father between the buckle and the belt.
　　　　　　　　　　　　
　　萨莉得到了允许讲和我们住一阵子，星期四她终于来了，带着一布袋衣服和一纸袋她妈妈拿的甜面包。本来他可以住住下来的，可天黑的时候她爸爸来了，眼睛哭肿了，变得很小，他敲打着门说请回来吧。这是最后一次。她应了一声爸爸，就回家了。
　　然后我们就不用担心了。直到有一天，萨莉的爸爸抓到她和一个男孩说话，第二天她没有来上学。第三天也没有。直到后来萨莉说起来，他简直就是疯了，解开了皮带的他，忘记了他是她的父亲。
Chapter 48 Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes
　　I like to tell stories. I tell them inside my head. I tell them after the mailman says, Here's your mail. Here's your mail he said.
　　I make a story for my life, for each step my brown shoe takes. I say, "And so she trudged up the wooden stairs, her sad brown shoes taking her to the house she never
　　liked."
　　I like to tell stories. I am going to tell you a story about a girl who didn't want to belong.
　　We didn't always live on Mango Street. Before that we lived on Loomis on the third floor, and before that we lived on Keeler. Before Keeler it was Paulina, but what I remember most is Mango Street, sad red house, the house I belong but do not belong to.
　　I put it down on paper and then the ghost does not ache so much. I write it down and Mango says goodbye sometimes. She does not hold me with both arms. She sets me free.
　　One day I will pack my bags of books and paper. One day I will say goodbye to Mango. I am too strong for her to keep me here forever. One day I will go away.
　　Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to that Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away?
　　They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.
 
芒果有时说再见
　　我喜欢讲故事。我在心里讲述。在邮递员说过这是你的邮件之后。这是你的邮件。他说。然后我开始讲述。
　　我编了一个故事，为我的生活，为我棕色鞋子走过的每一步。我说，“她步履沉重地登上木楼梯，她悲哀的棕色鞋子带着她走进了她从来不喜欢的房子。”
 　　我喜欢讲故事。我将向你们讲述一个不想归属的女孩的故事。
　　我们先前不住芒果街。先前我们住鲁米斯的三楼，再先前我们住吉勒。吉勒前面是波琳娜。可我记得最清楚的是芒果街，悲哀的红色小屋。我住在那里却不属于那里的房子。
　　我把它写在纸上，然后心里的幽灵就不那么疼了。我把它写下来，芒果有时说再见。她不再用双臂抱住我。她放开了我。
　　有一天我会把一袋袋的书和纸打进包里。有一天我会对芒果说再见。我强大得她没法永远留住我。有一天我会离开。
　　朋友和邻居们会说，埃斯佩朗莎怎么了？她带着这么多书和纸去哪里？为什么她要走得那么远？
　　他们不会知道，我离开是为了回来。为了那些我留在身后的人。为了那些无法出去的人。