Chapter 5 4.Lonely

The next day was a gloomy and rainy day.Drops of rain fell on the barn and slid down the eaves in drops.The raindrops fell on the ground by the barn and splashed all the way down the path where the spiny and gray weeds grew.Raindrops tapped lightly on Mrs. Zuckerman's kitchen window and gurgled down the glass.Raindrops also fell on the backs of the sheep grazing in the meadow.When the sheep got tired of eating in the rain, they slowly returned to the sheepfold along the path. The rain disrupted all Wilbur's plans.Today Wilbur was going to go for a walk and dig a new hole in his yard.And he has other plans.All of his plans for today are roughly as follows:

Have breakfast at half past six.Breakfast consisted of skim milk, bread crumbs, couscous, a small donut, cereal cakes with maple syrup on top, potato skins, small puddings with raisins, and bits of cereal. Breakfast will end at seven o'clock. From seven to eight Wilbur intended to talk to Templeton the mouse who lived under his trough.While talking to Templeton wasn't the most fun thing in the world, it was better than doing nothing. From eight to nine, Wilbur wanted to take a nap in the sun outside. From nine to eleven, he planned to dig a hole, or a small ditch, and maybe dig out something delicious from the dirt.

From eleven o'clock to twelve o'clock, he just wanted to stand silently and look at the flies that settled on the planks, the bees among the clover flowers, and the swallows in the sky. Twelve o'clock—time for lunch.For lunch there was couscous, warm water, apple peels, gravy, carrots pointed, minced meat, stale corn kernels, and rind cheese.Meals will end at one o'clock in the afternoon. From one to two, Wilbur intended to sleep. From two to three, he was going to scratch the itch on the fence. From three to four he was going to stand silently and perfectly on the ground, thinking what the joy of life was all about, and waiting for Fern to come to see him.

Dinner at four o'clock.Skimmed milk for dinner, leftovers, leftover sandwiches from Rubi's lunchbox, prunes, a little piece of this, a little piece of that, and crisps, runny jam, a little dried apple, a piece of cake Wait for these and other things. Wilbur had been thinking about these plans last night when he went to bed.But when he opened his eyes at six o'clock this morning, he saw that it was raining outside, which really made him unbearable. "I made such a perfect plan and it's raining," he said. He stood for a moment gloomily in the room.Then he went to the door and looked out.Raindrops hit his face.It was cold and wet in his yard.There was an inch of rainwater in his trough.It is not known where Templeton hid.

"Are you there, Templeton?" Wilbur called.No one answered him.Suddenly, Wilbur felt so alone and helpless. "Today is as dull as yesterday," he sighed. "I'm young, and I have no real friends in the barn, and it'll rain all morning and all afternoon, and Fern probably won't come out in such bad weather. Oh, she won't come!" Wilbur was sad again He had to cry. In the past two days, he had cried twice. At half past six, Wilbur heard the sound of the bucket shaking.Lu Wei is preparing breakfast for himself in the rain outside. "Come and eat, piggy!" Lurvy said.

Wilbur didn't even bother to move.Lurvy poured the feed into the trough, scraped the sides of the bucket, and walked away.He noticed that there seemed to be something wrong with the little pig. What Wilbur wants is not food, but love.He wanted a friend - someone with whom he could play.He told this thought to the goose sitting quietly in the corner of the sheepfold. "Would you like to come and play with me?" he asked. "I'm sorry, dear, I'm sorry," said the goose. "I was hatching my eggs. There were eight of them, and they had to be dry-dry-dry and warm all the time. So I had to stay here and not go-go-go. I couldn't play while I was hatching. I'm looking forward to the goslings hatching soon."

"Of course, I suppose you don't want to hatch a flock of woodpeckers," said Wilbur sourly. Wilbur tried again to ask the lamb. "Can you come and play with me?" he begged. "Of course not," said a lamb. "First, I can't get into your yard because I'm too young to jump over the fence. And second, I'm not at all interested in pigs. Pigs are worse than nothing, as far as I'm concerned." "What's more than nothing?" replied Wilbur. "I don't think there is anything that is less than nothing. Nothing is not the top, it is definitely the top of the world, the end of the world. How can there be anything that is less than nothing? ?If you're right, then nothing should be something, even if only a little bit. But if nothing is nothing, then you can't find anything that's less than nothing. "①

"Oh, what a noise!" said the Lamb. "Go play by yourself! I just don't play with pigs." Wilbur lay down sadly and listened to the rain.Presently he saw the rats descending the planks of what he called a staircase, which lay at a slant. "Would you like to play with me, Templeton?" pleaded Wilbur. "Playing?" said Templeton, twirling his beard. "Playing? I don't even know what that word means." "Oh," said Wilbur, "to play is to play, to play, to run, to have fun." "I never want to waste time on these things." The mouse replied coldly. "I'd rather spend my time eating, biting, stealing, hiding. I'm a gluttonous rat, not a gamer. I'm going to eat your breakfast in the trough, and you don't want to eat it now anyway ’ said Templeton the Mouse, and crawled along the crack in the wall into the secret passage he had dug through the door and the trough.Templeton was a very cunning mouse, and quite clever.This passage is but a testament to his cunning and burrowing skills.This passage would allow him to go back and forth between the barn and his hiding place under the hog trough without having to show up in the barn.He dug a lot of tunnels on Mr. Zuckerman's farm so that he could come and go without being noticed.Usually he sleeps during the day and only comes out late at night.

Wilbur watched him climb into the passage.In an instant, he saw the pointed nose of the mouse sticking out from under the wooden trough.Templeton crawled carefully along the side of the trough and into it.Wilbur could hardly take it anymore: who wants to see someone else eat his breakfast on a sad rainy day?He knew that the rain was pouring on Templeton, who was munching there, but that didn't comfort him either.Helpless, frustrated, hungry... He lay down on the cow dung pile and sobbed. In the evening, Rubi went to see Mr. Zuckerman. "I think there's something wrong with your pig. He's not eating."

"Give him two spoonfuls of sulfur with some sugar water in it," said Mr. Zuckerman. Wilbur couldn't believe what was happening to him when Lurvy grabbed Wilbur and forced the potion down his throat.It was the worst day of his life.He wondered if he could bear this dreadful loneliness any longer. Darkness obscures everything.Soon there was nothing to feel but shadows and the sound of the sheep chewing, and the rattling of the chains on the chains of the cows overhead.So you can imagine Wilbur's surprise when a thin, never-before-heard voice came out of the night.It was a rather weak voice, but it was so pleasant to hear. "Do you want a friend, Wilbur?" said the voice. "I'm going to be your friend. I've been watching you for days and I like you."

"But I can't see you," said Wilbur, tiptoing to look for it. "Where are you, who are you?" "Here I am," said the voice. "Go to bed first. You'll see me tomorrow morning." Note ①: Wilbur's explanation of the lamb made me smoke when I translated it--it was definitely not because the cigarettes I was smoking were too strong.But the reason is that at my level, no matter how you look at it, it is confusing.Their original texts are as follows: "What do you mean, less than nothiong?" replied Wilbur. "I dont think there is any such thing as less than nothing. nothing is absolutely the limit of nothingness. Its the lowest you can go. Its the end of the line. How can so mgthing be less than nothing? If there were something that was less than nothing, then nothing would not be nothing, it would be songthing--even though its just a very little bit of something. But if nothing is nothing, then nothing has nothing that is less than it is." Maybe others think it's easy, but I don't.So I asked the experts of New Threads for help, so I got wonderful translations from Le Ping, Brant, Mu Zi, Hu Zi, etc., as well as pointers from friends such as Yi Ge, thank you very much!Below are three translations. (Of course, the last one is hilarious, but it's also funny, isn't it?) "I think pigs are worse than nothing. What do you mean? Worse than nothing? I don't think there's anything worse than nothing. It's the end of nothing. It's the most worthless thing. How come?" There are things that are worthless than worthless. If there are things that are worthless than worthless, then the original worthless is not worthless, but worth a penny. Even Just worth a write up.But worthless is really worthless, and you won't find anything worth less than that"--Brant "It's not more than nothing." Wilbur replied, "Since nothing is nothing, how can there be anything worse than it? Nothing is absolutely absolute or it has reached the top, which is the bottom of the world. The end of the world. How can there be anything more than nothing? If you are right, nothing should be something, if only a little bit. If nothing is nothing, then you It's not right."--Le Ping "Who do you think you are? The king of beasts? The zookeeper? In my opinion, you are nothing, worse than nothing! You better do your promising job as a pig." Bar." "Xiao Yang, you are scaring me again! What is it that is worse than nothing? Since there is nothing, how can it be worse than nothing? Originally nothing means nothing at all, but now there is something To be nothing is to be nothing, and to be nothing is a little bit more than to be nothing. How can there be nothing, and to be nothing? If there is nothing, it is better than nothing. Not yet, how can nothing be nothing? Let’s be reasonable. Now you think about it clearly, I’ll count one, two, three, and you tell me that something is worse than nothing.” "I KAO! You see, this guy whimpers all day long, like a pig... No, no, a large group of pigs are humming there, help... Now everyone knows why I don't like to play with him Alright."