跳Q/Jumping the Queue

 

跳Q 金雨田	Jumping the Queue Jin Yu Tian
寫了篇帶女兒看牙醫，讀者問怎麽你碰上的都不是東西？孰知當今行醫如賣雜果，生意好，少你個人又怎樣？	AFTER publishing an essay about taking my daughter to see a dentist, I got responses from readers wondering how it was that I had always come across mean doctors.  They don’t know that many practitioners nowadays are like those fruiterers who, complacent about their good business, just don’t care about losing a customer.
年前駕車，胸口悶，才發覺自己對心呀肝呀肺呀的位置都摸不清，生命誠可貴，下句還是生命誠可貴。立即停車奔進診療所，櫃枱小姐竟擋駕，推說醫生準備出診，不看！不看！我說，好，我只要等醫生出來告訴我心臟在左在右呢，還是在中間？	Late last year, when driving, I suddenly felt suffocated somewhere in the chest.  This reminded me how I had neglected myself, ignorant even about the position of my heart, liver, or lungs.  “Oh, verily, precious is life;” –– the oft-quoted line flashed across my mind, followed by my impromptu version –– “Nothing more precious can I find!” At once I stopped my car and dashed into the nearest clinic, only to be stopped by the receptionist.  “No, no,” said the girl, telling me the doctor was just leaving for a house call. Well, I replied, I would just like the doctor to tell me where exactly my heart was –– in the left, right, or middle of the chest.
才隔一天，牙根來折磨，年除夕大早，急下樓看牙醫，櫃枱小姐也推說不看不看，因爲我沒預約。“小姐，這是牙痛啊啊！”連續兩個啊，她都懶得睬你呢。	Two days later, a decayed tooth root came to torture me.  Incidentally, it was the New Year’s Eve, so I hurried to the community dentist’s downstairs early in the morning.  The receptionist turned me away because I had no appointment. “Oh, my young lady,” I pleaded, “but this is TOOTHACHE.  Ouch!  Ouch!”  Yet the girl granted me no attention, despite my double exclamations of agony.
歲末得跟時間賽跑，只好急奔公司牙醫。嘩，少說也二十多人在輪候，都是友族病人；但沒幾個人，我便被傳召了。雖然麻醉藥還在擴散，醫生已把那“傢伙”幹掉了。“Happy New Year!”老醫生奧利佛說。	The year approaching its very end, I had to race against time.  I rushed into my company’s dentist clinic and found –– oh no! –– at least 20 patients in the waiting queue, all of them Malays and Indians.  But very soon I was attended to and, under anaesthesia, the troublemaker in my mouth was removed.  “Happy New Year!” said Oliver, the old doctor.
一面捧著腫脹的面頰一面感覺“如沐春風”，尤其對著候診室裏讓我跳Q的友族同胞 —— 新年快樂！好兆頭！	Even with my cheeks still swollen, I felt a soothing breeze caressing me.  “Happy New Year to you, too!” I replied, particularly to all my Malay and Indian colleagues in the waiting room, who had kindly allowed me to jump the queue.  What a good omen for the New Year! (Tr. by Allen Zhuang)
原載新加坡《聯合早報》(2000)；收入《不著地族/A Lift-Off People》（潘正鐳著，Allen Zhuang 英譯；Singapore: All Publishing House, 2002）；2009年1月31日譯者貼於博客網頁坡港英華/SingaKong Chinese & English，今重貼於此。

 【允許轉貼；請注明取自本網頁，並保留源文作者及譯者姓名。】

佳節善翁 / Charity on Festivals

 

佳節善翁 金雨田	Charity on Festivals By Jin Yu Tian
人們總喜歡在佳節時分，做做善事，啡友不以為然：“行善嘛！不必等禮拜天。”	PEOPLE are more likely to practise charity in festive seasons, but a coffee-buddy of mine doesn’t like that way.  “Good deeds don’t have to wait till Sunday,” he would say.
所謂日行一善——日行一善，固是善舉，畢竟屬於個人修為日積一德的自我期許。忙盲忙盲，芸芸眾生，多少人能在一天的奮戰後，低頭冥思一番呢？	Certainly he has a point:  “A good deed a day” has become a popular motto.  Yet, nice as it sounds, I find that exhortation more suitable for one’s own moral perfection than for everybody’s practice.  How many among the broad masses can afford the leisure of reflecting upon themselves after a dizzy-busy day’s struggle for livelihood?
人類創造佳節，因為人類具有親情人倫，有親情人倫之心，人就會思及周圍的人群，就會起了惻隱之心。人類創造佳節，是要人類有個喘息的機會：“生活尚好”之餘，起了分享之心。	Festivals are created by mankind.  Human beings naturally care for their families and relatives and then, by extension, their neighbours and others around; hence compassion and charity.  Festivals are created to grant people a breathing spell, during which they can share if they fare well enough.
熱鬧的如籲捐禮物、分發紅包，悄悄的如把一份禮物包好投進大箱，或貼枚小郵票寄出一份心意。	Some share on a grand scale, calling for donations from the public or handing out money in red packets to the needy.  Others prefer to do it quietly, slipping a wrapped gift into the collection box or mailing out a token of their kindness with a small stamp on it.
世上最早的一張聖誕卡，出自英國畫家霍斯萊之手，畫的中央為一家人團圓聚餐，舉杯互祝，兩旁則是畫著濟貧救苦之圖，喻意明顯不過。	The world’s earliest Christmas card, designed by English artist J. C. Horsley, depicts a family dinner party with people toasting one another, flanked by pictures of the poor and the ill being helped.  The message couldn’t be clearer.
朋友群中，就有這類佳節善翁，每逢佳節，靜一靜，該簽的簽，該寄的寄，不作聲，不張揚。明天太陽東升，又投身滾滾紅塵人流中，佳節再來。	Among my friends are those who practise charity on festivals.  Amid the celebrations, they would find a quiet moment to sign some cheques or post out some mail, without fuss or fanfare.  When the sun rises the next morning, they would plunge back into the hustle and bustle of their worldly pursuits –– until the festival returns. (Tr. by Allen Zhuang)
原載新加坡《聯合早報》(2000)；收入《不著地族/A Lift-Off People》（潘正鐳著，Allen Zhuang 英譯；Singapore: All Publishing House, 2002）；2008年1月1日初貼於譯者原先的網誌 坡港英華/SingaKong Chinese & English，今重貼於此。
點擊看這裡：世上最早的一張聖誕卡，1843年出自英國畫家霍斯萊之手 Click here: The world's first Christmas card, designed by John Callcott Horsley in 1843   【允許轉貼；請注明取自本網頁，並保留源文作者及譯者姓名。】