The first Hengchun person I met was our landlord. She told us many stories about The Evil Hengchun Farmer's Association and their predatory lending practices. She also told us about farmers who'd ruined their lungs with pesticides, and about the aches and pains that farmers feel as they grow older. Some might dismiss her as grasping and materialistic, but in this area it's easy to focus on the cost of houses, the price of land and ways of making money. 我認識的第一位恆春人是我們的房東。她告訴我們多個恆春農會做的"好事"，和他們如何從貸款給農民中得到利益。也告訴我們農夫們為了收成，在噴灑農藥的過程中傷了肺部，年老時身體出現許多的病痛。有些人可能會認為她貪婪和唯物主義，但是在恆春很容易感受到房價、地價及如何賺錢的氛圍。
I haven't had a conversation with anyone in my village yet. This isn't anyone's fault. Between Monday and Friday I'm either in my living room, recovering from a day of junior high, or else in another place, exploring parts of Hengchun, Checheng or Manzhou. So far I've been away most weekends, so I haven't had many opportunities to talk to anyone.我還沒跟我們村子的村民聊過，但這也是沒辦法的事。星期一至星期五，我不是在自家客廳裡恢復白天在國中消耗的體力，就是四處發現恆春、車城或滿州的各個角落。大部分的周末我們都不在恆春，所以我沒有什麼機會和村子裡的人聊天。
West of my house is a tiny "store" where many local people play mahjong. A few houses east there's a house where people gather to drink or talk toward the end of the day. Across from my house there's a man who raises strange, stocky dogs that resemble both rottweilers and pit bulls. He seems nice enough, but his insistence on our turning off our headlights as we back into our porch can be annoying.我們住的房子的西邊有一間小"商店"，有些人在那裏打麻將。往東隔了幾間房的一間房子，常有人在一天的工作後就聚在那裏談天或小酌。我們對面的鄰居養了幾隻奇怪壯實的狗，看起來像是羅威納犬和比特犬的混種。他看起來是個好人，只是他要求我們在倒車停車時關掉頭燈，感覺有點麻煩。
Very few of my coworkers at the junior high are Hengchun people. Most of them are from places further north in Pingtung County, places as far apart as Pingtung City, Xinyuan and Fangliao. One of the teachers there is almost a Hengchun person, in that her husband has worked at the nuclear power plant for 30+ years. She's both lived and worked in this area over a comparable period of time.我國中學校的同事只有少數是恆春人，大部分的人都來自屏東縣北部，例如:屏東市、新園和枋寮。其中一位同事幾乎是恆春人了，因為她的先生在核三廠工作超過30年，她也在這區域居住和工作多年。
One of the English teachers at my elementary school is a Hengchun person. She's a little more than half my age, and she has many strident political opinions. "If China comes here I will scream at them that I am Taiwanese!" and so forth. Her aunt works as a nurse in a local hospital, and this same aunt is married to another foreign teacher in Hengchun. 在我工作的小學的其中一位英文老師是恆春人，她的歲數是我的一半多一點，她有許多強烈的政治看法，例如: "如果中國侵略臺灣，我會對他們疾呼我是臺灣人。"之類的。她的阿姨在恆春的一家醫院當護士，嫁給了恆春的一位外籍教師。
Other Hengchun people are, for now at least, little more than bits of conversations in my memory. There was the guy renting umbrellas at Nanwan, who explained to us how things work there. There were the people in the seafood restaurant in Baisha, discussing tourists and their over-ambitious itineraries. There's the crazy scooter lady who bothers me on my way to work, asking me if I want breakfast even though I've already asked her to leave me alone several times. There are my students in both schools, who I often see around town.我印象中，我和當地人談話的時間都很短暫。在南灣有一位出租洋傘的先生跟我們解釋他的工作情況。在白紗的海鮮餐廳裡，工作人員談論著遊客和遊客的緊湊行程。也有一個奇怪的騎著摩托車的女人，在我去工作的路上問我要不要吃早餐，就算我已經多次要求她不要煩我。還有的是我在二個學校的學生，我常在鎮上遇見他們。
Will I ever be a Hengchun person? At this point in time I really have no idea, but the thought has occurred to me. There are times when I could see myself settling down here, just as there are times when I can see myself living somewhere else. The years go by, and who knows where most of us end up? Maybe one day I'll discover that I too have become a Hengchun person, or maybe one day I'll be living in another place, remembering the Hengchun people I knew.我會成為恆春人嗎?我目前不知道，但我有想過。有些時候我可以預見自己在這裡住下來，但有的時候我也看到自己在別的地方的可能性。時間的流逝下，沒有人能夠預知明天。也許有天我會突然發現自己成了恆春人，也可能在某個地方想起我認識的恆春朋友。
Related Entries 相關的文章:
沒有留言:
張貼留言