李家同：我在此給讀者一個建議：你不妨先看看中文文章，先不看英文的翻譯，然後試著將中文翻成英文，我相信你一定會覺得中翻英好困難。翻完以後，再去看英文翻譯，相信可以學到不少，也可以寫出越來越像外國人的句子。
透過李家同簡潔而寓意深遠的文章，領略用英文表達中文故事的妙趣
本冊收錄〈週五的夢魘〉〈三個孩子的故事〉〈山谷裡的丁香花〉〈我愛烏秋〉〈副作用〉〈我只有八歲〉〈鑰匙〉
〈我只有八歲I’m Only Eight Years Old〉
我是盧安達的一個小孩，我只有八歲。
有一天，爸爸在吃晚飯的時候，告訴我和媽媽，國家隨時可能有內亂，萬一如此，我們要趕快逃離盧安達，到薩伊去。
就在那天晚上，一群不知道哪兒來的士兵進入了我們的村子。我睡著了，什麼都不知道，第二天早上才知道，村子裡所有的男人都被打死了，爸爸也不例外。
就在逃亡的第二天，壞人來了，媽媽叫我趕快逃，她自己反而不走。我找到了一棵大樹，躲在樹後面，可是我看到了那些壞人殺人的整個過程。媽媽當然也死了，這批士兵沒有留一個人，不像上次，上次他們只殺男人，這次沒有一個人能逃過。
士兵走了以後，我才回去看我的媽媽。看到媽媽死了，我大哭了起來，因為天快暗了，我怎麼辦？我只有八歲！
I’m a Rwandan boy, and I’m only eight years old.
One day while Dad was eating dinner, he told me and Mom that the country might be thrown into turmoil at any moment. If that were to happen, he said, we should hurry and flee Rwanda for Zaire.
That night, a bunch of soldiers from who knows where came into our village. I was asleep when they came, so it wasn’t until the morning that I found out they had beaten every man in the village to death, including my dad.
On our second day as refugees, the bad men came. Mom told me to run away fast, but she herself didn’t run. I found a big tree to hide behind, but I could still see the bad men as they killed the group of people I had been with. Mom died too, of course—these soldiers left no one alive. It wasn’t like the last time, when they only killed the men—this time, no one escaped.
After the soldiers left, I went back to see my mom. When I saw her lying there dead, I started crying hard—it was almost dark, and I didn’t know what to do. I’m only eight years old!
許多台灣人學英文，用的方法是死記硬背，今天背文法、明天背單字。我並不否認背是很重要的技巧，可是那絕不是閱讀這本書的理想方式。
當你閱讀本書時，我建議你注意以下幾個重點：
1. 你不需要看得懂每個字或徹底了解每個句子的文法。
2. 要注意動詞的時態。
3. 請注意冠詞的用法。
4. 留意中文的慣用說法，以英文怎麼表達。
5. 如何用文法和標點符號來創造戲劇效果。
Nick Hawkins（郝凱揚）〈閱讀本書的理想方式〉
目次
〈週五的夢魘The Friday Nightmares〉
每一個週五，我必定會做惡夢，夢裡我永遠是窩囊到極點。
The problem was that I had the nightmares every single Friday, and in every one of them I was totally incompetent.
〈三個孩子的故事The Stories of Three Children〉
我看到一位警察用繩子牽著一個小孩子在街上走，孩子大概不到十歲，沒有穿上衣，又瘦又黑，雙手被綁在身後，另外一條繩子將他五花大綁，繩子一端由警察拉住，將他像牽狗一樣地在街上牽著。
I saw a policeman dragging a boy down the street with a rope. Shirtless, skinny and swarthy, he probably wasn’t yet ten years old. His hands were bound behind his back, and another rope looped through his legs and around his neck held his hands in place. Holding one end of the rope, the policeman pulled him along the street like a dog.
〈山谷裡的丁香花The Lilacs in the Valley〉
想不到，死亡使我們都一樣了…
Never realized how death makes us all the same.
〈我愛烏秋I Love Black Drongos〉
在所有的鳥類中，我現在最愛烏秋。
Of all the birds in the world, I now love black drongos the best..
〈副作用Side Effects〉
人是有自由意志的，我們也許不能控制自己的命運，可是只要下定決心，是可以控制自己的行為的。我們都應該為我們的所作所為負責。
No man is bereft of free will. Perhaps we cannot control our destinies, but as long as we firmly determine to do so, we can control our behavior. We should all take responsibility for our own actions.
