猪与粪便 Pigs and shit 中英文

猪与粪便

曹先生 (Wayne) 抽出他的iPad.

"你看一下嘛。"

那是愤怒的小鸟（目前一种十分流行的iPad/iPhone游戏）的等级页面。

你可知道，过去的几个月里，我们一直疯狂地沉迷于这个用投石器把小鸟弹出去打猪的游戏。打通关已经不够了，我们到最后，每一关都必须搜集三颗星。这才能看出一个人杀猪技术的登峰造极。

我静静地浏览了每一页。每一关都是三颗星。

“你太疯狂了。”我宣布说，

他慢慢地转过脸，有几分得意，他确信我其实是在说“哇！”

我不得不承认，他曾下定决心去攻克所有的难关。我想，换句话说，这也算一种成就。在某种程度上。他这种行为只差一点点就不能定义成就这个词了。

我努力想身边的人和他们的成就。伟大的或卑微的。

我的父亲为了攒自己的学费去刷盘子，我的母亲每月用300新币养育了三个女儿很多年。我的姐姐燕佳尽管从事着高职的工作，却还保持着个性和真诚。还有我的妹妹燕美。

一天，燕美午饭时间从医院回家。她看起来像是熬了一整夜，只是中间眯了一小会而已似的。她扑通一声坐在餐桌前，告诉我她帮一个肾衰竭的病人把粪便全部清理出来。当时我正在喝汤。我放下碗。
“再说一遍？”
“我必须要这么做，他无法排泄，要是我不这么做，他就会中毒身亡。”
“哦。”
“今晚就会！”
“OK我知道了！”

我重新喝我的汤，突然又有了疑问。
“你用你的手做的吗？”

她翻了白眼说：
“当然要带手套了，笨蛋。”

我想我没有对你说过，但是亲爱的，这是你的成就。

此时此刻，所有这些琐事也许目前感觉没什么大不了的吧。

有的时候我们会思考，为什么要做我们做的事情。不管是不屈不挠地挑战如何炸猪，还是从一个人的肠子里挖出粪便。有些事情是意义非凡的，而有的感觉一点意义都没有。

但我相信，用俗不可耐却很酷的话说，凡事皆事出有因。比如斯蒂芬·乔布斯（苹果的CEO）在大学期间学了排版印刷。比如冬天在一家餐馆的后门洗刷盘子。比如清理粪便。又或者也许在 iPad玩杀猪游戏也算在内。我们现在可能没有找出答案，也许最终，我们只是意识到我们这样做只是因为：我们做得到。

来吧大家。飞吧飞吧。 Wayne pulled out his iPad.

"Just look at it. Flip through it."

It was the levels pages of Angry birds.

You see, for past months, we had been furiously addicted to this game of crushing pigs with flying birds shot from a sling. It wasn't enough to just get past all the stages, it became paramount that we collected three stars for each stage, a mark of excellence of our mastery in pigs slaughter.

I flipped through the pages in silence. Every level was marked with three stars.  

"You are crazy." I announced.
He turned away slowly and smugly, knowing full well I actually meant, "Wow."

I had to hand it to him, he was determined to make the difficult possible. It was, I suppose in other words, an accomplishment. Of sorts. He was this close to not making the definition.

I try to remember the people closest to me and some of their accomplishments. Big or small. My dad washed dishes to pay for his school fees, my mother raised 3 daughters on $300 a month for years. My sister Kia remained kooky and genuine despite of her high flying job, and there is the other sister Jeanette. 

One day Jeanette came home from the hospital at lunch time. She looked exactly like someone who had been up all night with snatches of sleep in between. She plopped down by the dinner table and told me she managed to dig all the shit out of this man who had renal failure while I was having soup. I put my bowl down. 

"I beg your pardon?"
"I had to, he couldn't pass shit, if I didn't he would die of toxicity."
"Oh."
"Tonight!"
"Ohkay! I get it!"

I resumed drinking my soup, then it suddenly struck me,
"You did it with your hands?"

She rolled her eyes and said, 
"With gloves on of course silly."

I don't think I told you, but that my dear, is an accomplishment.
I supposed all these little things may not amount to much at this point. 
And sometimes we wonder why we do the things we do, be it soldiering on with bombing pigs or digging fecal waste from someone's intestines. Some of it makes complete sense, and some do not. 

But i believe in the cool cliche that everything happens for a reason. Just like Steve Jobs and his course in typography in college. Just like washing dishes behind a restaurant in winter. Just like plowing for shit. And what the hell, maybe, just like slaughtering pigs on your iPad. We may not have the answers now, and maybe at the end of it, we realised we do it only just because, WE CAN .

Hell yeah everybody. Let's roll.  


Translation courtesy of joyapple:

来自孙燕姿的博客