哈金 (Ha Jin)，原名金雪飞，美籍华人作家，出生在辽宁，二十九岁移居美国，现任波士顿大学英语文学写作教授。他中年才开始自己的写作之路，并且是用异国他乡的语言来讲述发生在中国的悲欢离合，但他的作品得到了广泛的认可。其中《等待》(Waiting) 作为哈金的代表作获得了美国“国家图书奖” (National Book Award for Fiction) 和“笔会/福克纳文学奖” (PEN/ Faulkner Award for Fiction) 两项大奖。这本小说在西方世界广受好评，哈金的语言功底让英语国家读者赞叹不已，烙印着深刻、鲜明的中国本土印记的故事则是让他们大开眼见。
《等待》讲述了一个地地道道的中国故事，余华称其让人感到了“切肤之痛”。故事发生在二十世纪六七十年代的中国，军医孔林 (Lin Kong) 爱上了同单位的护士吴曼娜 (Manna Wu)。为了追逐*的爱情，孔林决定和住在乡下的结发妻子刘淑玉 (Shuyu) 离婚。每年夏天休假，孔林都回家和妻子商量离婚事宜。性格温和，任劳任怨的淑玉每次都是顺从地答应着，但到了法院，离婚官司却因为她的沉默不语而不了了之。一年又一年，婚始终没离成。
当时社会风气尚不开明，离婚是件新鲜又不光彩的事。虽然被指责为现代陈世美，孔林为了和心爱的吴曼娜终成眷属，开展了一场身心疲惫的马拉松。因为根据党章，夫妻分居十八年便自动解除婚姻关系，无需双方的同意。而且期间，孔林不允许和相爱的吴曼娜发生任何不正当的男女关系。他们的日常接触受到了所有人的监视。经历了漫长的等待后，两人终于如愿以偿，步入了婚姻的殿堂。但此时他们的激情已消失殆尽，当初的悸动和情愫已被岁月一点一点地啃食干净。
步入晚年的孔林，面对着新的婚姻生活的柴米油盐和罹患绝症的吴曼娜的暴躁脾气，开始回头审视自己的抉择是否正确。他悔意顿生，不断地问自己用十八年的青春换来的到底是如意的爱情还是折磨的晚年。故事的最后，他又开始了另一场等待，等待吴曼娜死去，自己和淑玉重归于好。
接下来就让我们通过一些句子对这本小说有更全面的了解吧~
Every summer, Lin Kong returned to Goose Village to divorce his wife, Shuyu.
每年夏季，孔林都会回到鹅庄，去找妻子淑玉离婚。
Together they has appeared at the courthouse in Wujia Town many times, but she had always changed her mind at the last moment when the judge asked if she would accept a divorce.
他们一起跑了好多趟吴家镇的法院，但当法官问淑玉是否愿意离婚时，她总是在最后一秒改变主意。
Year after year, they went to Wujia Town and came back with the same marriage license issued to them by the county's registry office twenty years before.
年复一年，他们去吴家镇办理离婚，每次都拿着同一张结婚证回来，那是二十年前县结婚登记处给发的结婚证。
（以上句子为小说的开篇，言简意赅地交代了孔林想离婚但离不成的现状。）
Lin vaguely remembered the driver, but couldn't tell what family the girl belonged to. He was aware that they didn't greet him the way the villagers would do one another.
林依稀记得驾驶牛车的村民，但不知道坐在上面的女孩是哪家的。他注意到他们没有按照平时村民间互相打招呼的方式来向他问好。
Again her gaze disturbed him. He was unsure whether her petulance had been caused by his attempt to divorce her mother.
再次，她的眼神让他觉得心里不好受。他不确定是不是因为他想跟她的母亲离婚，所以她对他爱理不理。
He was unhappy that his daughter seemed somewhat estranged from him now.
现在，女儿的疏远让他觉得很不开心。
（孔林常年在外，和村民关系疏远。此外，因为他意图和妻子离婚，他和女儿之间生出了隔阂。）
But when he returned home in the winter and saw his fiancée in person, he was dismayed—she looked so old, as if in her forties, her face wrinkled and her hands leathery.
但是当他放寒假回到家里，亲眼看到了自己的未婚妻，他很沮丧，因为她看起来很老，就像四十岁的妇女，满脸皱纹，双手粗糙。
He tried reasoning with his parents to get out of the engagement, but they were adamant and said he was silly.
他试图说服父母解除婚约，但两老态度坚决，认为自己的儿子在犯傻。
How could they break the engagement without proving that Shuyu couldn't be a suitable wife? Had they done that, the whole village would have turned against them.
如果不能证明淑玉不是一个合格的妻子，他们怎么能够解除婚约呢？如果他们这样做，整个鹅庄的村民都会反对的。
He was in his late forties, but he did not seem like a middle-aged man.
虽然他年近五十，但他看起来并不像人在中年。
By contrast, his wife Shuyu was a small, withered woman and looked much older than her age.
相反，他的妻子淑玉，个头矮小，老态毕现，看起来比实际年龄大很多。
（孔林和淑玉的婚姻是父母一手包办的，他们两人外表并不相配。孔林对自己的结发妻子甚是不满，但迫于父母和社会的压力，他只能和不相爱的妻子一起生活。）
By now she was almost twenty-six, on the verge of becoming an old maid, whose standard age was twenty-seven to most people's minds.
现在她快要二十六岁了，就要成为老处女了。绝大多数人都认为二十七岁还嫁不出去就是老处女了。
In normal circumstances she wouldn't have had difficulty in finding a boyfriend, but the hospital always kept over a hundred women nurses, most of whom were around twenty, healthy and normal, so young officers could easily find girlfriends among them.
在正常情况下，找到男朋友对她而言不是件难事，但是医院里女护士一百多号，她们大多数二十出头，身心健康，因此年轻军官很轻易地便在她们当中找到女友。
The hospital's regulations prohibited a man and a woman on the staff from walking together outside the compound, unless they were married or engaged.
按照规定，医院的工作人员（一男一女）禁止在大院范围外同行，除非他们已经结婚或订婚。
Because Lin was a married man and Manna couldn't become his fiancée, they were not allowed to walk together outside the hospital grounds. By now, after so many years of restriction, they had grown accustomed to it.
林既已是有妻之夫，曼娜便不能和他订婚，因此他们不被允许在医院外同行。现在，这么多年过去了，他们都已经习惯了。
（吴曼娜惨遭初恋男友抛弃，青春年华即将逝去的她惊恐不已，在别无选择的情况下等着孔林和妻子离婚。虽然医院里的人都知道他们的关系，但严格的纪律压制着他们的激情。）
——“Tell her not to wait for me. I'm a useless man, not worth waiting for.”
——“Don't be so hard on yourself, Dad. We'll always wait for you.”
“告诉她不要等我。我是个窝囊废，不值得被等待。”
“爸爸，不要对自己那么严格。我们会永远等你的。”
He felt a clutching in his chest and turned away to sweep the kitchen ceiling, trying hard to hold back his tears. He was upset and touched at the same time.
感觉到自己的胸口闷闷的，他转身去扫厨房的天花板，试图用力止住泪水。他既难过又感动。
Outside, Manna was cheerfully wishing "Happy Spring Festival" to someone passing by. She sounded so pleasant that Lin noticed her voice was still resonant with life.
厨房外，曼娜在和路过的某个人说“新年快乐”。她听起来那么开心，林注意到她的声音洋溢着活力。
（小说结尾，孔林和曼娜还有前妻以及女儿一起度过新年。淑玉还有女儿的一句“我等你”让孔林心生悔意。听到曼娜充满活力的声音，他不禁想到也许又要经过一场等待他才能够和前妻还有女儿重聚。）