Different Chapters

这本书里有太多写得美丽极致的篇章。

挑几个我最喜欢的以及一些片段。

1.Boys&Girls:
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.

2.Laughter:
One day we were passing a house that looked, in my mind, like houses I had seen in Mexico.  I don't know why.  There was nothing about the house that looked exactly like the houses I remembered.  I'm not even sure why I thought it, but it seemed to feel right.

3.Marin:
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.

4.Chanclas:
And all I hear is the clapping when the music stops.  My uncle and me bow and he walks me back in my thick shoes to my mother who is proud to be my mother.  All night the boy who is a man watches me dance.  He watched me dance.

5.Papa Who Wakes Up Tired in the Dark:
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.

6.Born Bad（这章实在是有太多太多我喜欢的部分了。随便挑一个，结尾吧。）:
And then she died, my aunt who listened to my poems.  And then we began to dream the dreams.

7.Geraldo No Last Name:
She met him at a dance.  Pretty too, and young.  Said he worked in a restaurant, but she can't remember which one.  Geraldo.  That's all.  Green pants and Saturday shirt.  Geraldo.  That's what he told her.

But what difference does it make?  He wasn't anything to her.  He wasn't her boyfriend or anything like that.  Just another brazer who didn't speak English.  Just another wetback.  You know the kind.  The ones who always look ashamed.  Ane what was she doing out at three a.m. anyway?  Marin who was sent home with her coat and some aspirin.  How does she explain?

She met him at a dance.  Geraldo in his shiny shirt and green pants.  Geraldo going to a dance.

What does it matter?

8.Edna's Ruthie（上面那章真是有的可打，这章喜欢的也很多。）:
Ruthie, tall skinny lady with red lipstick and blue babushka, one blue sock and one green because she forgot, is the only grown-up we know who likes to play.  She takes her dog Bobo for a walk and laughs all by herself, that Ruthie.  She doesn't need anybody to laugh with, she just laughs.

Books are wonderful, Ruthie says, and then she runs her hand over them as if she could read them in braille.  They're wonderful, wonderful, but I can't read anymore.  I get headaches.  I need to go to the eye doctor next week.  I used to write children's books once, did I tell you?

One day I memorized all of "The Walrus and the Carpenter" because I wanted Ruthie to hear me.  "The sun was shining on the sea, shining with all his might..." Ruthie looked at the sky and her eyes got watery at times.  Finally I came to the last lines: "But answer came there none-and this was scarcely odd, because they'd eaten every one..." She took a long time looking at me before she opened her mouth, and then she said, You  have the most beautiful teeth I have ever seen, and went inside.

9.Sire:
A boy held me once so hard, I swear, I felt the grip and weight of his arms, but it was a dream.
Sire.  How did you hold her?  Was it?  Like this?  And when you kissed her?  Like this?

10.No Speak English:
No speak English, she says to the child who is singing in the language that sounds like tin.  No speak English, no speak English, and bubbles into tears.  No, no, no, as if she can't believe her ears.

11.Beautiful&Cruel:
In the movies there is always one with red red lips who is beautiful and cruel.  She is the one who drives the men crazy and laughs them all away.  Her power is her own.  She will not give it away.

12.A Smart Cookie:
Shame is a bad thing, you know.  It keeps you down.  You want to know why I quit school?  Because I didn't have nice clothes.  No clothes, but I had brains.

13.Red Clowns:
Sally, you lied, you lied.  He wouldn't let me go.  He said I love you, I love you, Spanish girl.

14.The Three Sisters:
When you leave you must remember to come back for the others.  A circle, understand?  You will always be Esperanza.  You will always be Mango Street.  You can't erase what you know.  You can't forget who you are.

15.Mango says Goodbye Sometimes:
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.