叶尔克西·胡尔曼别克著James Yongue、季宇绮译的《永生羊(英文版)/阅读中国五彩丛书》以一个孩童的视角，梦幻般呈现了童年家乡：四季迁移的哈萨克毡房里不为人知的生活秘密，人的悲欢离合和羊的生离死别发生在同一个小山冈，铺展的青草年年将人畜引向远方又回到老地方。

叶尔克西·胡尔曼别克著James Yongue、季宇绮译的《永生羊(英文版)/阅读中国五彩丛书》讲述了作者童年时期与一只小羔羊萨尔巴斯之间深厚友谊的故事。虽然她们语言不通但她们之间的友谊没有受到任何阻碍。出乎意料的是她们可以用眼神来对彼此表达自己的内心世界 在一次洪水来临之际小羊羔预知了洪水的降临，把小叶尔克两从危险地带带到安全的地方。时间慢慢流逝，她们的友谊也越来越深了。然而把羊养壮最重要的一个目的就是为了吃掉它。最终，小羔羊成为小叶尔克西一家人的食物。小羔羊被宰对小姑娘幼小的心灵里影响极大，这时父亲让她明白了：丰被宰是为了我们的生存，这是自然界的需求。

叶尔克西生动而深刻的叙述为我们展示了一种生活，一种朴素而奇异的生活。这种生活的特点是：相信命运，接纳它，接纳它给予的一切，不论是痛苦还是欢乐；顺从它，在允许的范围内追求生命的自由和价值。

The Old Graveyard

The Bullet

Far From Severe Cold

The Cloud That Floated by Many Years Ago

Both Sides of the Curtain

The Meteor

Umbilical Mother

The Young Boy

My Father's Cousin

The Bride

The Horse on the Stone

The Strong Wind

A Pair of Pinching Shoes (I)

A Pair of Pinching Shoes (II)

A Pair of Pinching Shoes (III)

An Eternal Lamb

Intelligential Goat

The Cat That Wouldn't Die

A Blind Chicken

Dog Love

The Father Who Always Came Back Late

The Summer Pasture

An Old Yurt

Daughter's Water

My heart was filled with a fit of anxiety again and Istomped on my shadow. How I wished I could be tallerto make the bucket farther from the ground.

There were about fifty to sixty tombs in the oldgraveyard. With no gravestones, no one knew for surewho was buried there. Peering out of our window, wecould see the tombs pressed by the riprap, which lookedlike a stone hill. Among them, only a few tombs weresurrounded by a dry earth wall, which lent an air ofmystery to those buried underneath. There was a windowon the west wall, a door on the south wall, whichdecayed with time and fell onto the ground as if desertedby an owner who had left long ago. Nobody knew howmany years the tombs had been here or who on earthwas buried underneath. According to what the adultssaid, several people buried inside the area surroundedby the earth wall might have been very prestigious orhave belonged to one big family. In a word, anyway, theywere different. However, whether of humble origin oran honorable family, all the people were lying under theripraps in the graveyard. They became earth and nobodyshowed any interest. For as long as I can remember, noone held any ceremony there to express their grief overthe dead. Never had a new tomb since been set up thereto shorten the distance between their age and ours. Itseemed that they had been completely cleared out of ourlives and sealed up by time forever, kept separate fromthe world. As time went by, some tombs on the edge of the graveyard were gradually razed to the ground from frequent trampling of people and horses, like a sand hill carried away by the wind. One year, an ox stepped intothe graveyard and trampled a tomb with the result thathalf of its body was stuck inside. Being stupid, the ox justcouldn't manage to climb up by itself. Therefore, it tooka lot of hard work for people to get it out by pulling anddragging. It felt almost like dragging an ox out of mud.What was different was that if we had been working inmud, we might have gotten stained with muddy water,but working in the graveyard, we were left covered with alayer of dust so that those working looked as if they hadfallen into the tombs instead of the ox. It was funny. Afterthe ox was pulled out, there was a hole left in the tomb,which was covered by snow in the winter and remaineduncovered in the summer when it was pitch-dark andfrightening. Still, it stayed there with nobody takingcare of it. How I wished that someone could mind andcomfort my little life with a sense of security. But at thattime, who would ever imagine a little girl of just over tenyears old would have a terrible struggle along the road ofcourage that led to the spring through the graveyard.

Too much thinking made me unsure about whether Iwas outside the graveyard or inside it.

One evening, I climbed onto the roof and helped mymother air the slices of tomatoes on it. At this time everysummer, my father would go to Qitai to buy tomatoes andthen we would air and dry them on the roof to get themready for the winter. It had been my sister's business inprevious years and it was my turn this year. We aired thetomatoes from the afternoon until sunset. By the time itwas getting dark, my eyes had been already dyed red bythe tomatoes. I saw red roof, red sky, red land, red peopleand even a red star emerging earliest in the sky. Thismade me panic. I guessed that there must be somethingwrong with me. So I stood on the roof and rubbed myeyes, just to find my hand had turned red too. I stretchedmy hands over my head and tried to find out in the glowof sunset what had happened. At that moment, there aflock of red bird suddenly flew over my head like a lowcloud together with hollow thunder. I turned my headand found, not far away behind my back, the pile ofriprap was covered in a layer of red dust where somepeople as opaque as cicada's wings were fighting closelyagainst each other, some were falling off and standingup again among a pool of blood, one was holding aspear in his hand and a man with no legs was creepingforward towards Cobbler Tang's spring... While at thesame time, Tang was doing what he usually did besidethe spring, together with his young and beautiful wife,not caring even a little about what was happening in thegraveyard. Birds were flying above in an uproar, and thenresting on the high wall.., a beam of light was shiningthrough the window in the wall lighting up the sky. Iheard the loud horrible cry, "Water, water, water... "

In a minute, my body sank into endless red dust.

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