东西无论大小，失而复得都是件很开心的事。
I am always pleased, and sometimes overjoyed, when getting back something lost, no matter how trivial that very item is.
昨天周六 (10.31 ) 晚上约了饭局, 定好5:40在交大 “拖鞋” 门口集合，一行共五人。之前和其中的小武同学一人还有点事，和他约好了提前4:40见面，作个小调查。因白天在学校上一天中级口译培训班的课（听译），下午四点结束后稍作停息就直奔校门口。
Such a thing happened yesterday, Saturday Oct. 31. I had a dinner appointment in the evening. There were five of us, scheduled to meet at 5:40pm at the so-called “slipper” gate of SJTU. (The gate is thus nick-named on account of the shape of a sculpture at its entrance.) I taught on campus from 9:00am till 4:00pm. With something to do a student, also one in the dinner party, in advance at 4:30pm, I headed for the school gate immediately after class.
虽然天气预报说今天夜里要降温，但是白天看不出任何迹象：从早上起就烈日当头，最高温度达27 度。上海今年夏天迟迟不愿消退。我今天一身夏装，尤其是还穿着凉鞋。校园内外我都没有看见第二个穿凉鞋的。(不过我对穿衣多少厚薄向来跟着感觉走，从来不考虑是否和季节搭配。当然，有时会犯错。）
Although the weather forecast issued an alert for a sharp temperature drop in the night, there was no single sign of any imminent cold spell during the daytime. In fact, it was quite hot, with a high of 27°C. Summer has been reluctant to retreat in Shanghai this year. I was still wearing summer skirts and sandals, and I seem to be the only one doing so. (I am a person who tends to go with intuition on clothes issues and seldom considers whether I am dressed appropriately for the season or not. Of course, sometimes intuitions can be wrong.)
和小武接头后，就顺便决定在校门口西侧、校门河北岸的小树林里找个河边地方坐下来。小武着牛仔裤，很豪爽地席地而坐。但是我珍惜自己的新裙子，想找点纸啊什么的垫着，孰料翻遍了书包，也没找到。无奈之下，把我指导的硕士生的论文稿抽出一叠，垫上了。问卷做完后已是五点半左右，差不多到了和其他几人约定的时间。起身就往校门口走，被垫坐的学生论文被我忘得一干二净。
After finding the student, we went to the river-side woods to the west of the school gate. We decided to talk by the river. He was in jeans and sat on the ground right away, not worried at all that his clothes might get dirty. I, however, cared about my new skirt and wanted to find something to sit on. Failing to locate anything in bag, I took out a few pages of the draft of an MA thesis that I advise. After we finished our talk, it was almost the time to meet others. We stood up and hurried to the school gate, and I totally forgot the materials on the ground.
在东川路的 “新疆人特色菜” 聚会后，回家已是八点多。收拾停妥早早睡了。夜里真的如天气预报所说，北风呼啸，狂风夹带着雨滴打得窗户砰砰响。半夜一点多还起来关了窗户。
We had dinner at Xinjiang Restaurant on Dongchuan Rd. It was already past eight when I went back home. Tired and sleepy, I went to bed early. But in the midnight, I was woken up by heavy pounding noises on the window: raindrops in rough wind were hitting the window pane. It did turn cold, with an abrupt temperature drop of over 10°C. I get up to make sure all windows are shut secure and then went back to sleep.
今天早上七点多起床后，突然想起来好像不记得昨天离开河边是否把学生的论文放回了书包。于是翻出所有的书和纸张，发现担心的事的确发生了。犹豫着是让学生再给我打印一份，还是我去校园找。再打印一份吧，觉得是初稿，看过修改后也就不用了，重新打印很浪费纸张，尽管只有20多张。去找吧，想想一夜狂风，再加上冷雨滴打，清洁工人的起早工作，不知能否找回；即使找到的话，还能否读也是个问题。权衡之后，还是决定以保护树木、节约资源为重，先去学校找找看。
This morning when I got up at about seven, it suddenly occurred to me that I might have left those pages of my student’s thesis at the river side yesterday! This made me panic. I took out everything from my bag, only to find what I was worried about was true. I could ask my student to print another copy for me, but it would cause waste of paper. That was only a draft, which would be of little use once it was read and corrected. Alternatively I could go to campus to see whether it could be found or not. But there were due reasons for giving up this latter option, considering the wind and rain in the night, not to mention that it might have been got rid of in the early morning routine cleaning work of the dustmen. Even if it were found back, there remained a question of whether it would be intelligible or not. After weighing the two options, I thought that conservation of natural resources should be given higher priority and that I’d better try my luck on campus first.
这样决定了之后，7:40匆匆出门，顺路在小区对面小摊买了葱油饼，东川路好德超市买了牛奶， 边吃早餐边赶路，心里忐忑不安。进了校门口处的小树林，直奔昨天坐过的河岸。远远看到离坐过的地方大约二、三十米处的草丛里似乎有一团白乎乎的纸，快步过去，果然是我忘掉的论文！因为下雨，纸张很湿潮，雨滴溅得泥斑星星点点。更令我惊讶的是：还有几滴鸟粪和一只爬得欢蹦乱跳的蜗牛！这蜗牛真不客气—把这叠论文当家了！
Having thus decided, I headed for campus at 7:40am. On the way to campus, I bought for breakfast green onion pancake at a food stand near where I live and milk at Haode convenience store. While eating and drinking, I tried to recall what happened last night. After entering the school gate, I rushed to woods and looked around at the riverside. What caught my sight immediately was a lump of whitish paper-like stuff lying about 20 or 30 meters from where I sat. I picked it up and checked. To my surprise, it was indeed the paper I lost! It was wet and muddy, and more surprisingly, dotted with bird’s dropping and a snail happily swinging its antenna.
我掏出了纸巾，试着擦掉泥巴、鸟粪和蜗牛。功夫不负有心人，十多分钟后，原本又脏又潮的一叠纸恢复到了整洁，回家后晾干，继续阅读应该不成问题。尽管折腾了大半个早上，想到东西失而复得，而且节省了纸张和自然资源，还是蛮有成就感。
Eager to save the draft, I embarked on an innovative task of cleaning everything – the mud, the bird’s dropping, and the snail. Hard work paid off. After ten minutes’ grooming and cleaning, those once miserable-looking pages turned tidy again. I should have no difficulty reading it once it got dry. What a relief! Although I had a busy morning, I was quite pleased that resources were conserved and a lost item was found.
后记：今天接小武报告，昨天一同吃饭的美女也丢了东西，把手机忘在了吃饭的餐厅。小武自告奋勇，英雄救美，骑山寨版“哈雷”自行车回到餐厅找，很幸运，手机也失而复得。看来 “物以类聚，人以群分。” 我们都是运气不错的人。
PS: The student I met in the woods told me this morning that a girl in our dinner party had the same experience of regaining a lost item. After they returned to school, she realized she might have forgotten her cell phone at the restaurant. He, in an admirable gentleman manner, offered generously to bicycle back to look for it. Luckily, the cell phone was found too. “Birds of a feather flock together.” We “flocked” together because we are all lucky birds.
