黑狮粉墨登场
Enter Leonoir

说完南美遇犬记，再折回来说说本书的主角：黑狮和小黄。After straying to a Montevideo stray, let me return to Leonoir and Gingerlet, protagonists of this book.

我母亲给黑狮起了个外号——“黑衣绅士”。因为他全身乌黑透亮，唯独胸口镶一朵白色，正面看很像穿黑西装、打白领结的潇洒绅士！My mother nicknamed Leonoir ‘Dark-Suited Gentleman’, because he was jet-black all over, save for a white patch on his chest resembling a white bow tie matching a sleek dark suit. 整体而言，这位“黑衣绅士”文质彬彬，颇具绅士风范，只是对陌生人有点凶，对小黄也时不时欺负一番，兄弟阋墙谈不上，充其量是无聊或妒忌。This dark-suited gentleman was well-mannered, by and large, not unlike a respectable squire. But strangers would have preferred a little less hostility from him and a little less bullying would have made Gingerlet's life more agreeable（albeit less stimulating perhaps）. The bullying part was motivated not so much by sibling rivalry turning nasty as by boredom or plain jealousy.

黑狮。Leonoir.

有一次，我爸的一位外地同事到我家做客。My father had a work associate who lived in another town. He came to visit one day. 黑狮一反常态，他老远看到那人，低吼了一声，呼地冲出去，一口咬住他的脚踝不放。The guest was still quite far from our house when Leonoir saw him. Then something unusual happened. With a guttural growl, Leonoir whizzed towards the guest like a flash and held one of his ankles between his teeth. 客人大叫，我立即出去喝止，但黑狮没有马上松口，他四脚用力撑住，死死拽住那人，不让这个疑似入侵者挣脱，同时口中恶狠狠的呜噜声不绝。The poor guy cried for help. I went to his rescue and yelled at Leonoir. But Leonoir did not let go of his ankle right away. He secured his bite while firmly pushing against the ground with all four legs, digging his heels in, so to speak, so the suspected intruder could not get away. The threatening growl continued. 他抬眼看着我，意思是：你真的信任此人吗？In the meantime, he looked up at me, seeking confirmation: ‘Are you sure this person can be trusted?’我用语言和眼神告诉他：“赶紧松开！”他这才松开。I said to him, both with words and with the glower in my eyes, ‘Yes, let go of him, now!’He complied. 我骂他，让他快滚，他二话不说，低眉顺眼灰溜溜地走开了。As I was berating him and telling him to make himself scarce, he slunk off in silence, ears flopping down, eyes looking down, his tail between his legs. 送走客人后，我爸说：“这个人我的确不大喜欢，但黑狮怎么知道的呢？”Later, when the visitor had left, my father remarked, ‘I don't really like this guy, but how could Leonoir possibly know that?’他又说：“不过黑狮也不应该一见着主人不喜欢的人就上去咬啊，这实在说不通，也太尴尬了。”He continued, ‘But just because I don't like someone doesn't mean our dog should bite them. That was so embarrassing.’

对陌生人目如鹰隼的黑狮，此刻眼神热切，他似乎知道我们正在说他，也察觉出是不带好气的。对此我们确信无疑。他使劲摇着尾巴，盯着我们，仿佛在说：“嗯，我听话，不捣蛋。我看家护院全力以赴，因为我疼你们。”难道他真的听懂了我们褒扬他的具体内容吗？这个问题我们也无从解答。Leonoir, the eagle-eyed blitzing watchdog, was now eager-eyed as he listened attentively to my father's comment. He knew we were discussing him and was aware of the mood of the conversation. That much we knew for sure. He stared at us while wagging his tail with abandon, as if saying, ‘Yes, I'm a good boy. Yes, I do try, because I love you.’ Did he understand exactly what was said about him? The question defies a definitive answer.?

但不管怎么说，每次一提起黑狮的名字，只要他在场，他马上就有反应。In fact, Leonoir was so sensitive to the sound of his name that whenever it came up in our conversation, he knew right away as long as he was within earshot.

那段日子，我们虽然住在兴化县城，但一家三口交谈时，用的却是一种以吴方言为主料、兴化县城和三泰方言为辅料的自创混合型家庭语体。Although we were living in the county town of Xinghua at the time, the language we spoke at home was a hybrid familial vernacular, combining elements of my parents' own dialects from their respective hometowns in Greater Shanghai, crossed with accents and usages of Xinghua and the Three Tai region. 且慢，何谓“三泰”？三泰是指泰州、泰兴、泰县（姜堰）。我们曾在兴化下属的戴南公社生活过五年，而戴南临近泰州，戴南人的口音更接近泰州方言，跟兴化县城的口音，有很大的差异。Hang on, Three Tai? What Three Tai? It refers to the region of Taizhou, Taixing and Taixian（aka Jiangyan）. Within the administrative hierarchy, there was a commune（now called a ‘township’）subordinate to Xinghua, but located quite far from Xinghua's county seat. This commune, Dainan, borders the city of Taizhou. People in Dainan and Taizhou speak more or less the same dialect, quite distinct from that of Xinghua proper. We had once lived in Dainan for five years. 无论是兴化话还是以吴语系为主的季家方言，都没有卷舌音，“狮”的发音与“丝”无异。In both Xinghua dialect and the vernacular of the Ji's, retroflexed（or cacuminal, i.e. with the tip of the tongue curled up towards the hard palate）consonants are absent, so zh, ch and sh are pronounced as alveolar affricates（dz and ts）and the lingua-alveolar fricative（s）. I think I need to expand on this a little en passant, for the benefit of learners like my son: In Putonghua（Mandarin Chinese）, retroflexed consonants, zh, ch and sh, sound like dj, ch and sh in English, except that they are ‘drier’. This dryness is achieved by placing the tip of the tongue in a slightly different place on the hard palate. For example, in English, ch is pronounced with the upper side of the tongue's front part pressed against the mid part of the hard palate. Air is then pushed through a relatively large area of contact between the tongue and the hard palate. But in Putonghua, the ch sound is created by making the very tip of the tongue touch the borderline between the hard palate and the soft palate. Air passes through a much smaller area of contact between the tip of the tongue and the ceiling of the oral cavity. That explains why some native speakers of Putonghua pronounce the ‘ch’ in ‘China’ much too ‘dry’. As I said earlier, my parents and I, when speaking at home, replaced ‘zh’, ‘ch’ and ‘sh’ with ‘dz’, ‘ts’ and ‘s’. 因此，我每回喊黑狮，只需微启双唇发出“咝”音即可，哪怕相隔几十米，他也会立即跑过来，用眼神试探性地问：“主人，您找我？”That means when I wanted to have Leonoir's attention, all I needed to do was make an ‘s’ sound（corresponding to the ‘sh’ in his name Heishi, Black Lion）. He would come running up to me from dozens of yards away and enquire with his eyes: ‘Master, anything I can do for you?’