至于水，我的故乡小村却大大地有。几个大苇坑占了小村面积一多半。在我这个小孩子眼中，虽不能像洞庭湖“八月湖水平”那样有气派，但也颇有一点烟波浩渺之势。
As for water, there was plenty of it in my small village. Several reed-filled ponds made up most of the village. In the eyes of a kid such as me, those ponds were not as magnificent as Lake Dongting whose "waters in August are placid," but they did seem to extend far and wide.
到了夏天，黄昏以后，我在坑边的场院里躺在地上，数天上的星星。有时候站在古柳下面点起篝火。然后上树一摇，成群的知了飞落下来。比白天用嚼烂的麦粒去粘要容易得多。我天天晚上乐此不彼，天天盼望黄昏早早来临。
On a summer evening, I would lie on the ground near a pond and try to count the stars in the sky. Occasionally a bonfire would be set under an old willow. Someone would climb onto the tree and shake it. And lo and behold, many cicadas would drop down. That was a much easier way of catching cicada than trying to get them glued to chewed wheat grains. Every evening I took great pleasure in doing that, and everybody I looked forward to the early arrival of dusk.
到了更晚的时候，我走到坑边，抬头看到晴空一轮明月，清光四溢，与水里的那个月亮相映成趣。我当时虽然还不懂什么叫诗兴，但也顾而乐之，心中油然有什么东西在萌动。
Later in the evening, I would walk to a pond, where I looked up at the moon in the sky, bright and clear, and down at the moon reflected, just as bright and clear, on the surface of the pond. Too young to know what a poem was, I was nonetheless so impressed by what I had seen that there seemed to be something stirring in my heart. On some days, I would play by the pond late into the night.
有时候在坑边玩很久，才回家睡觉。在梦中见到两个月亮叠在一起，清光更加晶莹澄澈。第二天一早起来，到坑边苇子丛里去捡鸭子下的蛋，白白地一闪光，手伸向水中，一摸就是一个蛋。此时更是乐不可支了。