Translation of Text in Boya Chinese-Advanced Hover Vol 1: LESSON 1 Dad’s Riddles

SUNDAY 29 JULY, 2012 | RSS Feed

When I was little, dad liked teaching me to guess riddles most.

Dad had so many riddles. In the summer night, sitting in the yard enveloped by the star light, I liked guessing dad's riddles so much. Dad read his riddles leisurely with his long smiling eyes looking at me. I blinked my eyes and looked for the answers by looking at the stars all over the sky while wandering where the answer of the riddle was. And then I stared at dad's eyes which were as deep and mysterious as the sky at night. When I was thinking till my head bloated, dad would give me a clever hint. He would smile until I shouted complacently with the answer.

Gradually, dad's riddles seemed not hard for me. However, there was still one that I could not find out the answer.

"Anchor Close the box at night. Open the box in the morning. There is a mirror inside the box. There is a slim girl inside the mirror."

I thought for a while and asked dad, "How can a slim girl be in the mirror?"

Dad smiled and said, "You listen it again…" He closed his eyes and said, "Close the box at night." He opened his eyes and said, "Open the box in the morning." Dad moved his eyes close to me and said, "There is a mirror inside the box. You look carefully. Is there a slim girl in the mirror?"

I screamed, "It is eye. Eyes."

Dad said, "Right. This is dad's eye."

"Then how to describe my eyes?" I asked.

"Close the box at night. Open the box in the morning. There is a mirror inside the box. There is … inside the mirror" Dad touched his early-white hair and said, "There is an old man."

I used this riddle to test my friends and changed the last sentence, "There is a tiny dog( a name) in the mirror." I enlightened them by closing and opening eyes just like dad.

Whenever I sticked up my lips, whenever I knit my brows, whenever I seemed in trouble and sorrow, dad would start to read the riddle, "Close the box. Open the box." And then asked me with his smiling eyes, "What is in the mirror?" I didn't answer. He would start to guess, "A chocolate? A big apple? A doll? A knot? A pencil sharpener with a deer…" My small heart would always feel excited by one of them. When dad “showed" them to me, I asked him, "How can you find out what is in the mirror?" Dad's mysterious eyes seemed that they could bring me a lot of happiness and lightness.

However, there was once that dad couldn't guess the answer. Because I grew up. There was a small door opened in my heart. There was a shadow came into my heart through my eyes, which couldn't wipe away. However, the shadow knew nothing about it at all. Suddenly dad's lightness turned to be dark for me. I said to the person in my heart, "Without you, I am dark." Dad's dishes were not delicious that I even couldn't swallow. Dad asked, "Who bullies our girl?" I suddenly felt so wronged with my tears down. Dad tried to tease me, "Thousands of lines, tens of thousands of lines, it disappears when it falls down on the ground. Our girl's eyes are raining." However, my heart was filled with troubles which couldn't relief. I run to my room. Dad came and touched my head, "What's wrong?" I shouted, “I want to die!" Dad smiled and said, "You want to die with such a young age. Dad is so old. But I still want to live up to 100 years old. Oh, there must be something you like very much. However, you don't want to tell dad. Right? OK. Let me guess."

Dad guessed many things which were not what I want. How could I tell dad that I have someone in my heart? Because dad couldn't changed the man's heart into my palm. Dad continued guessing. However, he couldn't get the answer. I felt so far away from dad. It turned out that dad's power was limited. I said to dad, "You can't find the answer. You also can't bring it to me. I need rely on myself this time." Dad's smiling eyes turned so melancholy suddenly.

One day, I told dad that I would leave home with a man to a far place. I was dad's only daughter. Dad's old. I should keep company with him. I didn't want to leave dad, neither. However, I had no choice. Dad listened to me carefully. There was no expression in his muddy eyes. After a while, he said, "I know that you will leave one day. We can't keep the girls when they grow up." Before I left, he said again, "If he is not good to you. You just come back home."

However, he was so good to me. I felt so happy to be with him that I felt there were only he and I in the world. I wrote to dad to tell him that I was so happy. Once I remembered dad's birthday. I wanted to filial him. I wrote to ask what he wanted. No matter what he wanted, I would try to get it. After I put the letter into the postbox, I suddenly came out with an absurd idea, "If dad asks for sun or moon, can I still get it for him?" Of course dad wouldn't ask for these. I started to laugh at my own filial sentiments. What would dad ask for?

Dad's letter came. I hurried to open it. There were only four lines,

Close the box at night.
Open the box in the morning.
There is a mirror inside the box.
There is a slim girl inside the mirror.

That is dad's eyes. How can't I guess it out?



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