Person wearing gray glasses:'s prose collection

Author: Liu Jixing (Translation)
Publisher:
Publish Date: 1998-12-01
Features: Excerpt: On February 24th a few days ago①, I went to Belgium and heard the news of France's constitutional change in Brussels. I remember that day no letters or newspapers came from Paris, and the residents gathered on the streets and squares, anxiously waiting, not daring to breathe. On the morning of February 26th, at 6 a.m., I was already awake. Lying in bed in the hotel room, suddenly the outer door burst open, and someone shouted loudly, "France has become a republic!" I couldn’t believe my ears and jumped out of bed, running outside. A waiter from the hotel strode down the corridor, opening each room door on both sides and shouting his astonishing news. Half an hour later, I dressed and packed my luggage, and took the train to Paris that very day. The railway tracks at the border had been removed, and I hired several carriages with some fellow travelers, struggling to reach Douai, and arrived in Pontoise② in the evening. …,· The railway tracks near Paris were also removed. I won’t describe my feelings and experiences during the journey here. I remember at one station, a locomotive with only one first-class carriage roared past us, rumbling and whizzing by. In that temporary special carriage sat the Republic’s "provisional committee member" Anthony Toure③, along with others waving the tricolor flag and shouting loudly. The station staff remained silent, watching in astonishment as the committee member’s robust figure half stuck out of the window, one hand raised high··－… 1793, 1794 those years reappeared in my memory. I remember that before arriving in Pontoise, our train collided head-on with another one, and people were injured, but no one paid attention to the accident. Everyone instinctively asked immediately: "Can the train still continue forward?" And when our train restarted, everyone resumed their excited chatter, except for one elderly man with white hair.