草餐 / Dining on the Grass

草餐	Dining on the Grass
● 金雨田 xxxx	Jin Yu Tian xxx
野火烧不尽，春风吹又生 —— 草。年少时从文字里领略到的，是生命的韧力。	“E’EN a prairie fire it survives; At a zephyr’s breath it revives.” – such is the resilience of life in grass that I came to appreciate when reading poetry in my youth.
黄昏时看孩子们在草场上追逐、翻滚，草，平整，像是一大张毛毯，包容着活泼的躯体。跌倒，草，承担着，免他们受伤。草的柔柔、软软、暖暖——而嬉耍其上的孩童的确属于嫩草世代。	Now, I enjoy a scene of little children chasing one another and romping around in the twilight on a neat and smooth lawn like a super-size carpet. Soft, supple and genial, it supports the kids’ lively movements and cushions their falls. Our happy children do belong to an era of tender grass.
只不过推前一步，他们老爸，却属于杂草环抱的前代。钻进，穿出，草野得似火团，把身体炙得痒痒；爬爬，草还会在手脚甚至脸上留痕。那什么都不算一回事的年月，锄草、种木薯、拔草；而茅草根还能成为家中锅里的凉水呢。	Just one generation ago, their fathers had to live amid weeds and thistles. Those wild, scorching prickly bushes they moved across made them itch all over, and the sharp blades of the undergrowth would leave scars on their hands and feet and even face after they crawled through. Yet nothing mattered in those days when weeding was done with a hoe or by bare hand, as was the planting of cassava. Incidentally, some of the unwanted grass roots went to the kitchen to make drinks in the hot weather.
真正地享受草地上夕阳下野餐，月照下看戏，是某次在美国的农村剧场。爱正襟危坐的，可买座位券，喜徜徉随观的，则购草坡票。	It was on a “farm theatre” in the United States later that I enjoyed for the first time a meal on the grass in the setting sun and then a concert in the moonlight. Some of the audience – lovers of propriety – had booked regular seats. Others who preferred to move about during the performance had paid for places on the grassy slope. We dined on the grass.
在草上进餐，快吃吧！有一天，草会在你上面进餐。远远舞台上的音乐剧，不甚了了，但处在满山坡或躺或坐或蹲的三三两两的观众群中，我念着雅克·卜列维的诗。	Dine while you can, I told myself, for the grass would be dining on you some day instead! The musical on the stage was too far-off for my sight or hearing. Among the people all over the slope, either reclining, sitting, or squatting on the grass in twos and threes, I intoned lines by Jacques Prevert the French poet.
我想，处在这个地少人多的国度，恐怕我们都难有机会对草回报，让草在我们身上进餐了吧！	This brought to mind my homeland. Given the land-scarce island, I doubt whether we can ever possibly repay Nature’s kindness by allowing the grass to dine on us buried beneath. (Translated by Allen Zhuang)
[ 原载新加坡《联合早报》(11/13/2000)；收入《不着地族/A Lift-Off People》(潘正镭著、Allen Zhuang 英译；Singapore: All Publishing House, 2002) ]