問人 / Humans First

問人 金雨田	Humans First Jin Yu Tian
車禍 —— 同桌朋友即刻反應：“人怎樣？”“還好，沒事。”我放下電話，鬆了一口氣。	CAR accident! “The people – are they OK?” responded my fellow diner immediately. “Luckily, they’re fine!” I replied, feeling greatly relieved as I hung up the phone.
人，就擺在一切事物的前面。當年孔子某次回家時，知道馬廄失火，即問有人受傷否，根本不提馬的事。馬有生命，應當珍惜，畢竟是當“財物”看待，但不把人當人看待的事，在出孔子的古國，常有聽聞。工廠、工地意外連連，報道只見有人估計財物損失多少又多少，鮮有人提及死傷員工療傷、善後、賠償的事。	Human beings precede anything else. Millenniums ago, upon learning that there had been a fire in the stable, Confucius asked whether anybody was injured, making no mention of the horses. The latter, though also living creatures worth treasuring, were viewed as men’s property after all. Now, from Confucius’ homeland reports come frequently revealing how men are not treasured as humans. Time and again, when accidents happen in factories and on construction sites, you read news stories that include detailed estimates of the material losses, yet with little reference to what treatment the injured are given or how the bereaved are helped and compensated.
人都被擺在物的後面：安全門堆滿物品，易燃料隨處擱置，機器沒安全罩，都是草菅人命的惡行。建築物上層尚在建造，下層已讓工人開工，慘禍於是起焉。	There, humans are preceded by other things. One can find stacks of wares blocking the fire exits, flammables occupying whatever space convenient, and machines running without any safety equipment – common practices that callously disregard human life like dirt. In some cases, workers are even told to start production in a factory building still under construction. Not surprisingly, disasters ensue.
如果火患，一隻貓及一幅畫，我寧可救貓 —— 雕塑家賈可 梅提，一切以生靈為重的名言。	Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti once said that, if a cat and a painting were trapped in a fire together, he would rather rescue the animal because life should come before anything else.
那天，是我們的車子“吻”了別人的車屁股，雨落得天昏地暗，車上有小孩，對方下了車，開口問人而不是車子，這不是孔子和賈可梅提嗎？	That day, it was our car that “kissed” another vehicle on the rear in an exceptionally heavy rain. A child was among the passengers. Getting out, the other motorist began to ask about those in the cars, not the cars. Isn’t that the way of Confucius and Giacometti? (Translated 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)]