浮生六記（99）

slept怎麼讀

選自林語堂譯本。

辛丑秋八月吾父病瘧返里，寒索火，熱索冰，餘諫不聽，竟轉傷寒，病勢日重。餘侍奉湯藥，晝夜不交睫者幾一月。吾婦芸娘亦大病，懨懨在床。心境惡劣，莫可名狀。吾父呼餘囑之曰：“我病恐不起，汝守數本書，終非餬口計，我託汝於盟弟蔣思齋，仍繼吾業可耳。”越日思齋來，即於榻前命拜為師。未幾，得名醫徐觀蓮先生診治，父病漸痊。芸亦得徐力起床。而餘則從此習幕矣。此非快事，何記於此？曰：此拋書浪遊之始，故記之。

In the eighty moon of 1781， my father returned home， laid up with malaria。 He would ask for fire when in a cold spell and ask for ice when in high fever， despite my repeated advice to the contrary， and in this way， it turned into

typhoid

， which grew from bad to worse every day。 I

attended on him

day and night and never slept a wink for almost a month。 My wife，Yunniang， also fell seriously ill at this time and was confined to bed；everything was in a muddle and I felt very miserable。 “I am afraid I shall never get well， ” said my father to me one day， calling me to his bedside for final instructions。 “I don’t think you can make a living with the knowledge derived from a few books， and I am going to place you in charge of a sworn brother of mine， Chiang Ssutsai， who will bring you up to follow my profession。”Ssutsai turned up next day and I was made to kowtow to him as pupil to tutor by my father’s bedside。 Soon afterwards， however， my father was attended to by a famous doctor， Mr Hsu Kuanlien， and gradually got well； Yun， too， was cured by the same doctor and was able to leave her bed。 Thus I began my training as a yamen clerk。 I mention this unpleasant episode here in my record of the joys of travel because， through this change of profession， I was enable to leave my studies and travel a great deal。