Breakfast

I read "Breakfast " written by John Steinbeck this week..
It is really short story but when I finished reading,, I was filled up with pleasure.
The main character, I, meet a family(it does not say it is a family but most likely so) on the way in the really cold morning and have breakfast together. They are not acquaintance or friends, they are just strangers each other.
But still, their conversation starts very naturally.
They say "Morning" each other and through the story, their talk is very friendly.
It is so natural that attracts the readers.
Also, description of  breakfast works very well to characterize this story.
I'll show that part below.
"The girl set out the platter of bacon, the brown high biscuits, a bowl of bacon gravy and pot of coffee..."
This sentence helps readers draw a picture of the story and also makes us hungry.
One of the important things here is that the situation is very cold morning.
I think we all love old morning and warm but simple breakfast.
I also noticed that there are three descriptions of the scenery and it changes as story goes.
First one is "The eastern mountains were black-blue, but behind them the light stood up faintly colored at the mountain rims with a washed res, growing colder, greyer and darker as it went up and overhead until, at a place the west, it merged with pure night." 
Second one is "There was color in the light now, reddish gleam that made the air seem colder." and the last one is "The air was blazing with light at the eastern skyline."
These sentences show the lapse of time and shows the man and changing of  "I" feeling.
As he meet this family, his heart becomes warm same as the atmosphere around.

Actually this story is about three pages only and I was surprised story can be made with such few words and sentences, make changes in the story and still can give readers impression.
 
 

Translation

In last class, we compared 3 types of "Moomintroll" story written in Finnish, English and Japanese, and I thought English and  Finnish are sometimes similar. It seems that their word order are the same and the sounds are very close too. Of course I cant understand Finnish but when I compare those two, English and Finnish, I can follow the meaning.
 
When I was a kid, I always thought something is strange in sentences when I read translated books. It still happens. I read Japanese version of "Moomintroll" and thought, some part are strange. Of course there should be a lot of great translation too but something strange is always noticeable. If we find out something unusual when we are reading , it tends to just stick to our mind and don't get out. 
One of the examples is here. "(All Moomintrolls go to sleep about November. This is a good idea, too, if  you don't like the cold and the long winter darkness)." This part with round brackets each sides, basically shows author's opinion. In Japanese children's books, personal words from the authors does not appear very much. It is rather rare maybe. Not only the words but translator have to translate the way of writing.. I thought the skill to chose the best words which fit into readers' minds is really important to translator.