又中又英｜Gnaw at your emotions

While riding the MTR recently, I saw something happy and something sad. I was standing at one side of a door. A girl of about seven years old and her domestic helper, who had a bag of bananas, were at the other side of the door. A boy of about ten years old and a woman were standing near me. The woman was either his mother or a relative. The little girl was playing with the helper. The helper laughingly took out a banana for the girl to eat. But it was just the peel of an eaten banana.

The girl was annoyed, but then laughed. It was so funny that I stifled a laugh. To stifle your laugh means to stop yourself from laughing. When the boy and the woman reached their stop, the boy covered his eyes with both hands. It was as though he wanted to shut out the world. To shut out the world used this way means to stop yourself from thinking about unpleasant or painful emotions. When the train doors opened, the boy held the steel pole tightly with both hands, refusing to exit. It was only then that I saw he was visually impaired (blind).

The woman dragged him out to the platform, but he refused to walk. She carried him. What I saw still gnaws at my emotions. To gnaw at your emotions means to make you emotional. The boy clearly hasn’t been treated to accept his blindless. Western scientists have found ways to partially cure some blind people with protein injections in the eye. I wish I had told the woman about this, but I did not want to interfere.

最近搭港鐵時，我見到一件開心的事，與一件難過的事。我當時站在車門的一邊，一個大約七歲的小女孩和她那拿着一袋香蕉的外傭姐姐，則站在門的另一邊。一個大約十歲的男孩和一個女人站在我的附近，那女人大概是他的母親或親戚吧。小女孩正在跟外傭姐姐玩耍，外傭開玩笑地拿出一條香蕉給女孩吃，但原來只是吃剩的蕉皮。

女孩氣惱了，轉而又笑了。因為情境太有趣，我不得不stifled a laugh——to stifle your laugh是指要克制自己笑出來。當男孩和女人到站時，男孩用雙手掩着眼睛，看來像是想shut out the world——to shut out the world在這裏是指制止自己去想那些不快或痛苦的情感。當列車車門打開時，男孩用雙手緊握那金屬柱，不肯下車。到那時候我才見到他是有視障的（visually impaired）。

女人拉他出去月台，但他不肯走，她便抱着他走。我看到的情境仍然gnaws at my emotions——to gnaw at your emotions是指令你傷感的，像內心有甚麼在啃咬着你似的。那男孩很顯然還沒有好好獲得治療去接受自己的失明。西方科學家已找到一些方法，透過在眼睛注射感光蛋白，讓一些失明人士恢復部分視力。但願我能跟那位女士說這些，可是我當時候並不願多管閒事。

mickchug@gmail.com
Michael Chugani褚簡寧
中譯：七刻