Kangaroo Day

栏中有四只袋鼠：一只公两只母，另一只是刚出生不久的小袋鼠。

袋鼠栏前只有我和她两人。原本就是不怎么有人来的动物园，加上又是星期一早上，较之进园的游客，动物数量倒多得多。

我们的目标当然是袋鼠宝宝，此外想不起有什么可看。

我们是一个月前从报纸地方版上得知袋鼠宝宝降生的。一个月时间里我们一直在静等适于看袋鼠宝宝的早晨的到来，然而那样的早晨偏偏不肯来临。这个早晨下雨，下个早晨还下雨，再下个早晨地面全是泥巴，而接下去的两天又在吹讨厌的风。一天早晨她虫牙作痛，又一天早晨我必须去区政府。

如此这般，一个月过去了。

一个月嘛，简直眨眼之间。这一个月时间究竟干什么来着，我压根儿想不起来。既好像干了许多事，又似乎什么也没干。在月底收订报费的人上门之前，甚至一个月已然过去都浑然未觉。

但不管怎样，适于看袋鼠的早晨还是来了。我们早上六点醒来，拉开窗帘，一瞬间便看出这是个袋鼠佳日。我们洗脸，吃饭，喂猫，洗衣服，之后戴上太阳帽出门。

“我说，袋鼠宝宝可还活着？”电车中她问我。

“我想活着，毕竟没有报道说已经死了。”

“没准有病去哪里住院了。”

“即使那样也会报道的。”

“也可能得了神经官能症缩在里头不肯出来。”

“宝宝？”

“何止于！妈妈嘛，说不定带着宝宝一直躲在里面的黑屋子里。”

我不由感叹：女孩子想到的可能性真个千奇百怪。

“总觉得要是错过这个机会就再也看不到袋鼠宝宝了。”

“不至于吧。”

“还不是，这以前你可看过袋鼠宝宝？”

“啊，那是没有。”

“往后可有看到的自信？”

“有没有呢，说不准。”

“所以我担心么。”

“不过，”我抗议道，“或许情况如你所说，但我既没看过麒麟生崽，又没见过鲸鱼游动，干嘛单单袋鼠宝宝现在成了问题呢？”

“因为是袋鼠宝宝嘛！”她说。

我休战看报。和女孩子争论，以前从未胜过。

袋鼠宝宝当然活着。他（或她）比报纸照片上的大得多，神气活现地在地上跑来跑去。与其说是袋鼠宝宝，不如说是小型袋鼠更合适。这一事实多少让她有些失望。

“好像都不是宝宝了。”

像是宝宝的嘛，我安慰道。

“早点儿来就好了。”

我走去小卖店，买了两支巧克力冰淇淋，回来时她仍靠在围栏上目不转睛地注视着袋鼠。

“已经不是宝宝了！”她重复了一句。

“真不是了？”我把一支冰淇淋递给她。

“还不是，宝宝应该钻进妈妈口袋里的嘛！”

我点点头，舔了一下冰淇淋。

“可是没有进去。”

我们开始找袋鼠妈妈。袋鼠爸爸倒是一眼就认出了——个头最大、最文静的是袋鼠爸爸。他以才华枯竭的作曲家般的神情定定地看着食料箱里的绿叶。剩下的两只是母的，一样的体态，一样的毛色，一样的脸形，哪只说是妈妈都不奇怪。

“可哪个是妈妈，哪个不是妈妈呢？”我问。

“唔。”

“那么，不是妈妈的袋鼠到底算怎么回事呢？”

不知道，她说。

袋鼠宝宝却不理会这些，只管在地上绕圈撒欢儿，不住地拿前爪到处刨坑，刨不知干什么用的坑。看样子他（她）不懂什么叫无聊，在爸爸身前身后跑了几圈，嚼了一点点绿草，刨地，抓了一把两只母袋鼠，“骨碌”一声躺在地上，又爬起开始跑。

“袋鼠怎么跑得那么快呢？”她问。

“逃避敌人。”

“敌人？什么敌人？”

“人啊。”我说，“人用回飞镖杀袋鼠吃肉。”

“为什么袋鼠宝宝要钻进妈妈肚子上的口袋？”

“为了一起逃命。小家伙跑不了那么快的。”

“要受保护？”

“嗯。”我说，“孩子都受到保护。”

“保护多长时间？”

我应该在动物图鉴上把关于袋鼠的所有知识都查清楚，因为这种情况我早有预料。

“一个月或两个月，也就一两个月吧。”

“那么，那孩子才一个月，”她指着袋鼠宝宝说，“理应钻在妈妈的口袋里。”

“呃，”我应道，“有可能。”

“嗳，你不认为钻到那口袋里很妙？”

“妙的吧。”

“是母体回归情结吧，就是所谓机器猫的口袋？”

“是不是呢？”

“肯定是。”

太阳已升到天顶。附近游泳池传来儿童们的欢声笑语。空中飘浮着夏日轮廓清晰的云。

“吃点什么？”我问她。

“热狗。”她说，“加可乐。”

卖热狗的是个年轻的打工学生，他把一个大大的收录机放在呈流动服务车形状的带篷售货床上。烤热狗的时间里，史蒂维·旺德和比利·乔一直在唱着。

我一折回袋鼠栏，她便指着一只母袋鼠道：

“喏，喏，快看，钻到口袋里去了！”

果然，宝宝钻到了母亲口袋里。育儿袋胀鼓鼓的，唯见尖尖的小耳朵和尾巴尖儿一抖一抖地竖在上面。

“不重？”

“袋鼠是大力士。”

“真的？”

“所以才一代代活到今天。”

母亲在强烈的阳光下一滴汗也没出。那个样子，就好像偏午时分在青山大街超市里买完东西，正在咖啡馆里小憩。

“受着保护喽？”

“嗯。”

“睡过去了？”

“想必。”

我们吃热狗，喝咖啡，然后离开袋鼠栏。

我们离开时，袋鼠爸爸仍在搜寻丢失在食料箱里的音符。袋鼠妈妈和袋鼠宝宝合二为一地在时间长河里休息，难以确定身份的母袋鼠在围栏里不停地跳跃，仿佛在测试尾巴的性能。

看来将是一个久违的大热天。

“嗳，不喝点啤酒什么的？”

“好啊。”我应道。

There were four kangaroos in the pen: one male and two females, and the other was a newborn Joey. It was just me and her in front of the kangaroo stall. It was a quiet zoo, and on a Monday morning there were far more animals than there were visitors. Our goal, of course, is the baby kangaroo, and I can't think of anything else to see. We learned about the birth of the baby kangaroo from the local newspaper a month ago. For a month we had been waiting for a morning fit for a baby kangaroo, but that morning would not come. One morning it was raining, the next morning it was raining, the next morning the ground was covered in mud, and the next two days there was a nasty wind. One morning she had a toothache and the next morning I had to go to the district office. And so on, and so on, and so on, and so on, and so on. A month. Blink of an eye. I can't remember what I've been doing for a month. Seems to have done a lot of things, but also seems to have done nothing. Even a month had passed before the end of the month's subscription man showed up. But in any case, kangaroo-watching mornings have arrived. We woke up at six in the morning, pulled back the curtains, and in a flash we saw it was a kangaroo day. We wash our faces, eat, feed our cats, wash our clothes, then put on our Sun Hats and go out. "I said, is the baby kangaroo still alive?" She asked me in the tram. "I want to live, after all, there's no report that I'm dead.""maybe I'm sick and I'm in the hospital somewhere.""even if I was, I'd report it.""maybe I got neurosis effects and wouldn't come out.""Baby?""more than that!"! Mother, perhaps, and Darling had been hiding in the dark room," I could not help exclaiming: What a strange possibility a girl has in mind. "I thought if I missed this opportunity I would never see a baby kangaroo again.""No, have you ever seen a baby kangaroo before?""No, I haven't.""have you ever seen a baby kangaroo before?""I don't know," I protested, "maybe it's like you say, but I've never seen a unicorn give birth, and I've never seen a whale swim, so why should darling the kangaroo be the only problem now?""because it's a baby kangaroo!" She said. I'll read the paper after a truce. It's never been better to argue with a girl. Of course the baby kangaroo is alive. He or she was much larger than the picture in the newspaper, running Mannequin across the floor. Not so much baby kangaroos as baby kangaroos. She was somewhat disappointed by this fact. "It's not even darling anymore," I soothed. "It's like a baby.". "I wish I had come earlier," I went to the store and bought two chocolate ice creams. When I came back, she was still leaning against the fence and staring at the kangaroo. "It's not Darling Anymore!" She repeated. "really?" I handed her an ice cream. "No, Darling was supposed to be in mom's Pocket!" I nodded and licked the ice cream. "but we didn't go in." We started looking for the mother kangaroo. The kangaroo father is one eye to recognize-the biggest, most quiet is the kangaroo father. He fixed his eyes on the green leaves in the feeder with the air of an exhausted composer. The remaining two are female, the same posture, the same hair color, the same face shape, which said is not strange mother. "but which is the mother and which is not the mother?" I asked. "well, what's the matter with a kangaroo that's not mom?""I don't know," she said. The baby kangaroos ignored this and kept digging holes in the ground with their front paws, not knowing what to do. It seems that he (she) do not know what is boring, in front and behind his father ran a few laps, chewing a little bit of green grass, digging the ground, caught a pair of mother kangaroo, "Gulu" a lie on the ground, and began to run. "Why do Kangaroos run so fast?" She asked. "flee from the enemy.""enemy? What Enemy?""man," I said, "Why would a baby kangaroo go into its mother's stomach pocket?""to run away together.". Little Guy can't run that fast.""protected?""HMM," I said, "children are protected."

< p > < p > "for how long?"

< p > I should have all the knowledge about kangaroos in the animal guide, because I knew this would happen. "a month or two, maybe a month or two," she said, pointing to Darling the kangaroo. "well," I replied, "it's only a month or two." "It's possible.""well, don't you think it would be nice to get into that pocket?""isn't it wonderful?""is it a matrix regression complex?""Is it a robot cat pocket?""is it?""it must be.""the sun is at the zenith.". The children's laughter came from the nearby swimming pool. The clear-cut summer clouds floated in the air. "what would you like to eat?" I asked her. "hot dogs," she said, "and Coke." The hot dog vendor, a young migrant student, placed a large cassette player on a canopy bed shaped like a service truck. Stevie Wunder and Billy sang the whole time they were cooking hot dogs. As soon as I turned back to the kangaroo stall, she pointed to a female and said, "here, look, it's in the pocket!" and sure enough, the baby was in the pocket. The pouch was bulging, except for the sharp little ears and the tip of the tail, which stood upright with a shake. "Not Heavy?""the kangaroo is a mighty man.""really?""that's why generations have lived to this day." Mother didn't break a sweat in the strong Sun. It was like taking a nap in a cafe in the middle of the day after shopping at the Castle Peak Street supermarket. "are you protected?""HMM.""Did you fall asleep?""I bet.""We ate hot dogs, drank coffee, and left the kangaroo cage.". As we left, Papa Kangaroo was still searching for the missing notes in the bin. Mother Kangaroo and baby kangaroo together in the long river rest, hard to identify the mother kangaroo kept jumping in the fence, as if testing the performance of the tail. It looks like it's gonna be a hot one. "Hey, don't you want a beer or something?""sure," I said.

标题: 袋鼠佳日
作者: 村上春树
字数: 1951
简介: 栏中有四只袋鼠：一只公两只母，另一只是刚出生不久的小袋鼠。袋鼠栏前只有我和她两人。原本就是不怎么有人来的动物园，加上又是星期一早上，较之进园