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Mr. Chong, whom I secretly nicknamed Old Chong, was very strange, always tapping his fingers to the silent music of an invisible orchestra. He looked ancient in my eyes. He had lost most of the hair on top of his head and he wore thick glasses and had eyes that always looked tired and sleepy. But he must have been younger than I thought, since he lived with his mother and was not yet married.
鐘先生非常古怪，我暗地里叫他老鐘頭。他常常用手指隨著一支無形樂團的無聲音樂打著拍子。我看他就是個老古董。他禿頂，戴眼鏡，長著一雙整日昏昏欲睡的眼睛。可他一定沒我想得那么老，因為他和他母親住在一起，沒結婚。
I soon found out why Old Chong had retired from teaching piano. He was deaf. "Like Beethoven!" he shouted to me "We're both listening only in our head!" And he would start to conduct his frantic silent sonatas.
我很快明白老鐘頭為何不再教琴了。他是個聾子。“像貝多芬那樣！”他扯大嗓門說，“咱倆只能用心來聽! ”然后，他會開始指揮無章狂亂的無聲奏鳴曲。
Our lessons went like this. He would open the book and point to different things, explaining their purpose: "Key! Treble! Bass! No sharps or flats! So this is C major! Listen now and play after me!"
我們的鋼琴課是這樣進行的——他會打開譜子，指著各種記號，講解功能:“琴盤！高音部！低音部！沒有升音或降音，這是C大調！現在先聽我彈，然后跟我彈！”
And then he would play the C scale a few times, a simple cord, and then, as if inspired by an old, unreachable itch, he gradually added more notes and running trills and a pounding bass until the music was really something quite grand.
隨后他彈幾次C音節，一組簡單的和弦。然后，好像有了一種心底里原有的無法抑制的激情，他彈奏得越來越多,又加上連續的顫音和重重的低音，匯成一首磅礴的樂曲。
I would play after him, the simple scale, the simple chord, and then I just played some nonsense that sounded like a cat running up and down on top of garbage cans. Old Chong smiled and applauded and then say "Very good! Bt now you must learn to keep time!"
我會按照他的方式彈奏：簡單的音階、簡單的和弦，可后來我就胡亂彈些音節，好像一只貓在垃圾箱上上躥下跳。老鐘微笑，鼓掌，然后說:“很好！但要學會掌握彈奏速度。”
So that's how I discovered that Old Chong's eyes were too slow to keep up with the wrong notes I was playing. He went through the motions in half-time. To help me keep rhythm, he stood behind me, pushing down on my right shoulder for every beat. He balanced pennies on top of my wrists so that I would keep them still as I slowly played scales and arpeggios. He had me curve my hand around an apple and keep that shape when playing chords. He marched stiffly to show me how to make each finger dance up and down, staccato like an obedient little soldier.
我這才發現老鐘的眼神跟不上我錯誤的音節，比我彈奏的速度慢半拍。為了幫我保持節奏準確，他站在我身后，每一節拍按一下我的右肩。他把幾枚硬幣放在我的手腕上，以保證我為了保持硬幣平隱而慢慢彈奏音階和琶音。他把我的手放在一個蘋果上，要我以同樣的手形彈奏和弦。他會昂首正步，以演示在彈奏斷奏時每個手指要像順從的小戰士那樣上下跳動。
