一把米 / A Handful of Rice

一把米 金雨田	A Handful of Rice Jin Yu Tian
一把米，握在手心，往包裝袋內一擲，別小看這簡單的動作，它蘊藏着的人情可不簡單。	SCOOPING up a handful of rice in the palm, and dropping it into the shopping-bag: the action seems simple, yet it speaks volumes about human kindness.
我童時住的甘榜，隔條街的洋屋是家吉埃，我與店夥計阿福私交好，每次隨腳車尾送貨，借機參觀大戶人家的大房子，滿足好奇心。裝滿白米的麻袋阿福肩上一托往顧客家裏送。	Across a street from the kampung where I lived as a young boy, there stood a bungalow that housed a grocer’s, or “keat-ai” as they called it in Hokkien. Ah Hock, the shop assistant, was my good friend, so I would accompany him whenever he ran a delivery errand, riding on a bike. This way I got a peep into big houses of the rich, which satisfied my curiosity. Ah Hock would grab the sack of rice, lift it up onto his shoulder and carry it into the customer’s home.
店裏也作論斤計兩的零售。阿福有一個慣性動作，就是凡來零買的顧客，稱好後他總抓把米附送。有天好奇問他，他就是笑而不答。	The shop also sold rice by the pound. Habitually, after weighing out the right amount, Ah Hock would scoop up an additional handful as a gift to the buyer. Why? I wondered, and asked him one day. He smiled, but gave no answer.
前天在錦茂組屋區的一家雜貨店，驚訝地看到今天還有人來零買白米這回事。	The day before yesterday, in a grocer’s in Kim Moh housing estate, I was surprised to find rice still being sold in small quantities the old way.
只見一對夫婦帶著一對小孩來買米，老店主掄起米鏟，往膠袋裏裝米，稱好一公斤的米，臨打結封口時，我看到了一個早已模糊的動作：又是外加一把米。看着那一家四口，我才恍然大悟：爲什麽是一把米！	I saw a couple with two children come for some rice. The elderly shopkeeper took up his scoop and filled a plastic bag. When he had weighed out a kilogram and was going to tie up the bag, I saw once again the action, long faded out in my memory: adding a handful of rice. Looking at the family of four, suddenly I realised why. (Translated by Allen Zhuang)
[註：甘榜，馬來語 kampung，村莊；吉埃，閩台語，雜貨店。]
[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)]