碎畫 / Broken Paintings

碎畫 金雨田	Broken Paintings Jin Yu Tian
鷹，淩空，腳爪抓滿勁力，俯瞰，浩浩山河。徐徐開卷，悲鴻大師的墨魂，展翅而飛。	THE EAGLE hovered above the clouds, its mighty talons clenched and its eyes sweeping across the vast expanse of mountains and rivers below.  On its wings, the soul of the painting came to life as we gently unfolded the scroll by Xu Bei Hong, the late Chinese master artist.
啊！觀者都不禁發出同一個音調。紙，碎裂著，像葉子離開枝椏；木屑，灑脫脫，象塊塊沉淪的田畦。鷹眼如炬，硝煙年代睥睨大地的悲情。	“Ah!” – a gasp escaped all those present in one voice as the paper broke into bits – like leaves torn off twigs – while the wooden roller crumbled into scraps like ridges in the fields sinking asunder.  Yet the bird’s eyes shone like torches, casting sad compassion over a land enshrouded in gunpowder smoke.
這已是我們打開的第三張畫了，另兩幅，一匹仰天嘯馬，一幅壯士悲懷。開到第四卷時，才露出兩對翅膀的尖角，我們的手指再也挪不動了，時間靜止了。	This was the third scroll that we had opened.  The first depicted a horse neighing towards the sky, its head held high; the second showed a group of desperate warriors ready for the last battle.  But the fourth painting stopped short of displaying its full charm. When the tips of a pair of wings appeared, our fingers could not move any further.  Time seemed frozen then and there.
怕到底多少只鷹會羽毛散落在我們的無知好奇中。這些水墨畫，紙張因久燥而變得如斯脆弱不堪。叫我們怎麼忍得再畫幅打開呢！	Still more eagles, we feared, might shed their feathers or break their wings because of our ignorant curiosity.  After long years of dryness, the paper of those ink-and-wash paintings had become extremely brittle.  How could we have the heart to risk damaging more of them?
檀木箱裡，還睡著十多幅畫卷，睡，想是它們多少年沒見光了。而子孫，談起老祖母生前視鑲金花邊的黑褐箱子如珍寶不許人動的感情，就有如那蝴蝶鎖般，鎖住一幅幅都是徐大師的畫的謎一般。	Another dozen of scrolls were still slumbering in the ebony box – in dream, oblivious to light for untold years.  Their current owners recalled how their late grandmother had jealously guarded that dark brown, gold-laced box, forbidding anybody to touch it.  To them, her keen attachment for whatever kept inside was as mysterious as the butterfly-shaped padlock that had been securing Master Xu’s priceless works all the time.
	(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)]