不着地族 / A Lift-off People

不着地族 金雨田	A Lift-off People Jin Yu Tian
友人家住布萊德嶺地鐵站旁，雨蓋連接，下樓即走入地道，辦公室在華聯中心，出了地道即可搭電梯上樓，再也沒有這麼方便的上班族了。	GOING to work couldn’t be more convenient for an office worker like my friend. Leaving his flat in a block next to Braddell MRT station, he goes downstairs, walks through a roofed passage, and is right underground for the train; then he gets off at another station, takes a lift up the OUB Centre close by, and arrives in his office.
其實也有很多人跟他差不多，家住高樓，駕車上班，上了電梯以後，再也不見天日了，下了班也是同樣的返家公式。	In fact, there are many others like him, who live in a high-rise building, drive to work, take a lift to get to the office, and then go home by reversing the route, without staying in the open air.
雖說頂不着天立不着地的形容有點過火，但我常喜歡自嘲為“不着地族”。	While “levitating” would be too hyperbolic a description, I take delight in dubbing my folks “a lift-off people”.
一位台灣朋友批評新加坡人鄉土觀念薄弱，因為都住不着地，我從都不以為然，人來人往，本就是都市的特質，不管是不是歷史的意外，五星伴月，紅白飄揚，這就是一個都市國家，何必生造那土地鄉愁，自我煽情。	A friend from Taiwan often comments that Singaporeans lack a sense of attachment for their homeland because they all live off the ground. I don’t think he is right. To me, moving around is simply natural for an urban population and, by accident or by design, ours has evolved into a city-state over history under the flying red-and-white flag of moon and stars. Why create a land-linked nostalgia out of nowhere and wax sentimental over it?
自從組屋底層不建居間後，“不着地族”的人口更是迅速膨脹，有百分之九十了吧。	Since the ground floor of flat-blocks became the “void deck”, our lift-off residents have increased rapidly, now accounting for about 90% of the population.
居於空中，漂浮若夢，打開窗，萬家燈火照人眼，不也是一番景致。	For those who live in lofty flats that seem to float mid-air in a dreamland, the window view of myriads of brightly lit homes under the night sky does make a real spectacle.
不着地族何懼之有，要擔心的倒是骨質鬆脫症呢！ xxx [注：組屋類似香港的屋邨，是多數新加坡人的居所。]	There is nothing we lift-off folks should be wary of – except osteoporosis, a bone weakness from lack of exercise. (Translated by Allen Zhuang)
[原載新加坡《聯合早報》(2000)；收入《不着地族 / A Lift-Off People》(潘正鐳著、Allen Zhuang 英譯；Singapore: All Publishing House, 2002)]