赖声川·《六十亿个世界》英译

记得某个下午，我坐在尼泊尔寺庙的楼梯上。雨水把整个寺庙广场弄得泥泞不堪，我们在地上铺砖块做走道。

一位朋友边抱怨边踏着砖块走来。她走到我面前，以一种极为不耐烦的态度环顾四周，然后说：“真恶心！如果我掉进这些脏水里怎么办？”

因为十分了解她，所以我谨慎地点点头，希望通过这些无言的同情，令她舒服些。

几分钟后，另一个朋友拉斐尔也来到这个泥泞的广场，她一面在砖块上跳着，一面唱着：“跳，跳，跳！”最后踩到干地上时，还大呼：“真好玩！”她的双眼闪烁着喜悦的光芒，然后说：“雨季最棒的就是没有灰尘。”

两个人，两种不同看世界的方式；60亿人，60亿个世界。

Six Billion Words

I can still recall the day when I sat on the stairs of a temple in Nepal. The square before the temple became very muddy as a result of the rain. We had to walk on a path made by a line of bricks on the muddy ground.

A friend of mine complained all the way while she stepped on the bricks walking towards me. Looking around she said very impatiently, “disgusting indeed! What if I fall into the dirty water?”

Since I knew her very well, I nodded cautiously, hoping to comfort her by my silent sympathy.

A few minutes later another friend of mine came to the same scene. She stepped on the brick path dancing briskly and singing, “Jump, jump, jump!” until she reached the dry ground. She couldn’t help shouting, “What a fun it is!” Eyes beaming with joy, she made the remarks, “The most pleasant thing of the rainy season is that one can entirely be free from dust.”

In the eyes of the two there were two different worlds. As the world has a population of 6 billion, it follows that there should be 6 billion worlds.