Gift is music to her ears
It may have taken him two decades, and the income saved from tons of recycled trash, but Wu Zheng finally fulfilled his wish to buy his wife a piano.尽管老人吴政花了近20年时间，倾尽靠回收垃圾攒下的积蓄，但他终于圆了妻子的钢琴梦。
"It was not just an instrument, but a witness of the love from my husband," said his wife, Xie Guizhi, who has made the piano the centerpiece of her narrow and crowded guestroom.
“这不仅仅是一件乐器，也见证了老伴对我的爱。”他的妻子谢桂枝说。钢琴已成为了拥挤狭小的客厅中最重要的物件。
"I clean the piano every day and don`t allow other people to touch it," said Xie, 58, a retired worker in Luoyang, Henan province.
“我每天都会把钢琴擦得干干净净的，不许别人碰它。”58岁的谢桂枝说，她是河南洛阳的一名退休工人。
Wu, 68, said he made up of his mind to buy his wife a piano long ago, even though their life was poor.
68岁的吴政说，尽管家境并不富裕，但他很久以前就下定决心要为老伴买架钢琴。
"My wife enjoys music and loves piano very much," Wu said. "I dreamed of buying her a piano as early as 38 years ago when we fell in love with each other."
“我老伴特别热爱音乐，喜欢钢琴。”吴政说。“早在38年前我们谈恋爱的时候，我就梦想着给她买一架钢琴。”
Yet the cost of the piano - at 22,550 yuan ($3,500) - was a big sum for the family. His wife suffered from backbone problems for years and Wu`s salary at the rural credit cooperative could only cover the basic expenses of food and medicine for the whole family.
然而一架22550元的钢琴对这个家庭来讲是笔不小的支出。吴政的妻子常年饱受脊椎病的折磨，而吴政在城关信用社的收入仅仅能够支撑整个家庭食品和药品的基本支出。
To make more money to support the family, Wu decided to pick up recyclable waste after work in the early 1990s."It was a hard decision because there were lots of prejudices toward waste recyclers at that time," he said. "Most people thought that collecting recyclable stuff from the dustbins was shameful."
为了多挣些钱养家，吴政从上世纪90年代初就决定利用业余时间捡破烂。“这是个艰难的决定，因为当时人们对拾荒者持有偏见。”他说，“大多数人觉得从垃圾桶里捡破烂是件丢脸的事。”
To avoid being identified by his acquaintances, Wu wore a mask and a pair of dark glasses at first. "It felt like I was committing some wrongdoings when I started to search for recyclable waste in the street," he said. "The most worrying thing for me was being identified by my colleagues."
为了避免被熟人认出来，起初吴政会带上口罩和墨镜。“刚开始在街上收废品时，我觉得自己就像做坏事一样。”他说，“最怕被同事认出来。”
By collecting all kinds of wastes including rubber shoes, plastic bottles, glasses and newspapers, Wu could earn about 4,000 yuan per year and save about 1,000 of that.
通过回收胶鞋、塑料瓶、玻璃和报纸等各种废品，吴政每年能有4000元的收入，从中能存下1000元。
The realization of his dream was accompanied by lots of sad memories - he described as feeling "like a beggar" when he would wait for customers at a roadside barbecue to drop their empty beer bottles.
在实现梦想的过程中，也有许多伤心的经历——他说自己在路边烧烤摊边等待人们丢下空啤酒瓶时，感觉自己像个乞丐。
"Sometimes I had to wait for more than half an hour until they finished their drinking and left the bottles for me," he said.
“有时为了等他们喝完酒留给我空瓶子，我要等半个多小时。”他说。
"Some young men would rather break the glass bottles in front of me on purpose, and it felt like breaking my heart," he said.
“有的年轻人甚至故意当着我的面把玻璃瓶摔破，当时我特别痛心。”他说。
He was also moved sometimes when the others gave him some plastic bottles "in a respectful manner".
而有时人们会“礼貌地”把塑料瓶递给他，他也备受感动。
He had to travel around the city twice every day for more than 10 kilometers to find as much stuff as possible.
为了尽可能多地回收废品，他每天要在城里走上两圈，能走10多公里的路。
Since Wu has fulfilled the dream of buying his wife a piano, he does not go out to pick up waste any more, though he still keeps the habit of saving his family`s recyclable waste.
如今吴政已经实现了给老伴买钢琴的梦想，不用再出门拾荒了。但他仍旧保留着收集家中废品的习惯。
"There are no differences between so-called noble or humble jobs," said Wu Yuanhong, the couple`s 36-year-old daughter, adding that she felt proud of her parents.
“工作没有所谓的高贵、低贱之分。”两位老人36岁的女儿吴艳红（音译）说，她为自己的父母感到自豪。
"People deserve to be respected if they are dedicated to their dreams and don`t rely on others." For Xie, the piano was a surprising gift - she had never played the piano before and she is trying hard to study how to play.
“不依赖别人，为自己的梦想而奋斗的人，理应得到尊重。”对谢桂枝来说，这架钢琴是一份令人惊喜的礼物。之前从未弹过钢琴的她目前正在努力学习。
"People could hardly connect the piano - a symbol of elegance and nobility - with waste recyclers, who are always thought of as dirty and messy," she said.
“人们很难将象征高贵优雅的钢琴与拾荒者联系起来。人们总是认为拾荒者脏兮兮的。”她说。
"I really appreciate that my husband has done so much for me." The biggest joy for Wu is to sing songs to the accompaniment of the piano, and his favorite song is The Most Romantic Thing.
“我真的很感谢老伴为我做了这么多事。”吴政生活中最大的乐趣就是在钢琴的伴奏下唱歌，而他最喜欢的歌就是《最浪漫的事》。
"The most romantic thing I can imagine is to get older slowly with you," Wu sang to the melody of the piano.
吴政老人随着钢琴的美妙旋律唱道：“我能想到最浪漫的事，就是和你一起慢慢变老。”
The most romantic thing I can imagine is to get older slowly with you...
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