Sunday 16 April 2023

雨後 / After a Rain

雨後

查慎行 (1650-1727)

After a Rain

By Zha Shenxing

便從一雨望豐年,
大抵人情慰目前;
我比老農還計短,
只貪今夜夜涼眠。

 

A single rain’s given hopes of an abundant year;
It’s largely human to take comfort in now and here.
Yet I’ve e’en shorter
plans than the elderly farmer,
Wishing for nothing tonight but a cool night’s slumber.

Tr. Allen Zhuang

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Saturday 18 March 2023

不着地族/A Lift-Off People

 

不着地族

金雨田

A Lift-Off People

Jin Yu Tian

友人家住布萊德嶺地鐵站旁,雨蓋連接,下樓即走入地道,辦公室在華聯中心,出了地道即可搭電梯上樓,再也沒有這麼方便的上班族了。其實也有很多人跟他差不多,家住高樓,駕車上班,上了電梯以後,再也不見天日了,下了班也是同樣的返家公式

 

GOING to work couldn’t be more convenient for an office worker like my friend.  Leaving his flat in a block next to Braddell MRT station, he goes downstairs, walks through a roofed passage, and is right underground for the train; then he gets off at another station, takes a lift up the OUB Centre close by, and arrives in his office.

In fact, there are many others like him, who live in a high-rise building, drive to work, take a lift to get to the office, and then go home by reversing the route, without staying in the open air. 

 

雖說頂不着天立不着地的形容有點過火,但我常喜歡自嘲為不着地族

 

While “levitating” would be too hyperbolic a description, I take delight in dubbing my folks “a lift-off people”.

 

一位台灣朋友批評新加坡人鄉土觀念薄弱,因為都住不着地,我從都不以為然,人來人往,本就是都市的特質,不管是不是歷史的意外,五星伴月,紅白飄揚,這就是一個都市國家,何必生造那土地鄉愁自我煽情

 

A friend from Taiwan often comments that Singaporeans lack a sense of attachment to their homeland because they all live off the ground.  I don’t think he is right.  To me, moving around is simply natural for an urban population and, by accident or by design, ours has evolved into a city-state over history under the flying red-and-white flag of moon and stars.  Why create a land-linked nostalgia out of nowhere and wax sentimental over it?

 

自從組屋底層不建居間後,不着地族的人口更是迅速膨脹,有百分之九十了吧。

 

Since the ground floor of flat-blocks became the “void deck”, our lift-off residents have increased rapidly, now accounting for maybe 90% of the population, I guess.

 

居於空中,漂浮若夢,打開窗,萬家燈火照人眼,不也是一番景致。

For those who live in lofty flats that seem to float mid-air in a dreamland, the window view of myriads of brightly-lit homes under the night sky does make a real spectacle.

不着地族何懼之有,要擔心的倒是骨質鬆脫症呢!

 

注:
雨盖:可遮阳遮雨的有盖走廊。

五星伴月,红白飘扬:指新加坡国旗,颜色上红下白,图案为一弯新月加五颗星星。
组屋底层:新加坡公共住宅的底层一楼,不建居室,用作公众的活动空间。

There is nothing our lift-off folks should be wary of –– except osteoporosis, a bone weakness from lack of exercise.


(Tr. Allen Zhuang)


原載新加坡《聯合早報》(2000);後收入《不著地族 / A L O P(潘正鐳著Allen Zhuang 英譯;Singapore: All Publishing House, 2002);曾貼於譯者早前的網誌 坡港英華 / SingaKong Chinese & English (2008-11-23),今重貼於此。

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