故事第一章就讲述了小主人公居住的房子，也算是开篇扣书名。因为总是搬家，她真的很希望自己有一个真正的房子。不用太大，但最起码是一个体面的房子。有不会破的水管，好用的自来水，有真正的院子和真正的楼梯，像电视里面的一样。
写到这里，我能说其实豹豹也想有个这样带院子和车库的房子吗？_(- – )
The House on Mango Street
But what I remember most is moving a lot. Each time it seemed there’d be one more of us.
小主人公不记得搬了几次家了，只记得家一直是流动的。而搬一次家家里就多了一个人。
The house on Mango Street is ours, and we don’t have to pay rent to anybody, or share the yard with the people downstairs, or be careful not to make too much noise, and there isn’t a landlord banging on the ceiling with a broom. But even so, it’s not the house we’d thought we’d get.
搬家似乎到了芒果街就停了下来(书也是对这一住处生活的描写)，不用再付房租，不用再和别的租户分享院子，不用担心小心翼翼不发出太吵的动静，更不用担心楼上的房主把扫帚敲得邦邦响。但是，这个房子，依旧不是想象中的房子。
We had to leave fast. We were using the washroom next door and carrying water over in empty milk gallons.
之前居住的地方水管破了，房东懒得修理(老房子)，我们不得借用隔壁的洗手间，拿空奶牛瓶子接水，生活实在不便，于是爸爸妈妈只能赶紧找房子。
gallon在词典中查到的仅表示液量单位。(英国，加拿大及其他国家=4.5升，美国=3.8升，一加仑=4夸脱QUARTS)
They always told us that one day we would move into a house, a real house that would be ours for always so we wouldn’t have to move each year. And our house would have running water and pipes that worked.
译林版本翻译得很生动，有自来水和好用的水管
This was the house Papa talked about when he held a lottery ticket and this was the house Mama dreamed up in the stories she told us before we went to bed.
好像买彩票幻想中奖不分中外，不分古今。
But the house on Mango Street is not the way they told it at all. It’s small and red with tight steps in front and windows so small you’d think they were holding their breath.
最终房子不是爸爸妈妈所描述的那样。房子很小也不是白色的，最后一句很有意思，窗户挤挤压压得像是透不过气一样。(屏住呼吸)
Once when we were living on Loomis, a nun from my school passed by and saw me playing out front. The laundromat downstairs had been boarded up because it had been robbed two days before and the owner had painted on the wood YES WE’RE OPEN so as not to lose business.
我们还在Loomis住的时候，学校一个嬷嬷(nun修女)路过，之后发生的谈话让小主人公很受伤。
楼下的洗衣房被抢了，所以房东就将店面用板子封了起来，为了不耽误生意，在一块大板子上刷上:我们还营业，别走开！laundromat(美)自动洗衣店
在哈利波特中，哈利的姨夫成天拿木板钉子把哈利的门窗封住，怕他跑了。The windows were all boarded up.
The way she said it made me feel like nothing. There. I lived there. I nodded.
I knew then I had to have a house. A real house. One I could point to.
看这一段的时候真的很为小姑娘难过。 也真心希望她能在小时候有个像样的住所。想起来之前一篇新闻，一个被众多高校录取的18岁男孩，也曾因为居住在慈善住所而羞于承认。生活的艰辛对于孩子来讲更为敏感和压抑。
Hairs
这一篇算是很多人都知晓并多次引用的一篇，主要写出了儿时妈妈的味道。
My Papa’s hair is like a broom, all up in the air. And me, my hair is lazy. It never obeys barrettes or bands. 家里每个人都有头发，爸爸的头发属于质地很硬的那种，像扫帚，一根根炸起来。(想起了bristling这个词)，我的头发不听话，懒洋洋得发夹头带都没办法。
But my mother’s hair, my mother’s hair, like little rosettes, like little candy circles all curly and pretty beccause she pinned it in pincurls all day, sweet to put your nose into when she is holding you, holding you and you feel safe, is the warm smell of bread before you bake it,...
妈妈的头发，像玫瑰花结(玫瑰花状的圆形花饰--解释出自译本)，像待烤的面包，像阳光的味道。妈妈意味着安全，意味着放松，温暖和家。
pincurl是发型的一种，卷发。文中指妈妈天天给她的头发上卷。pincurl clip就是卷发器。
前两章读完了，文很简单，所以豹豹只大概写一下读书感受。但是作者的感受在字里行间中很有韵味。是值得去读的一本书。
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