Kate Huang, April 2012

尊嚴

就在那，
人群熙來攘往的騎樓下，
老人坐在矮凳，
趴在自己膝上睡著；
跟前兩個塑膠臉盆，
收集著稀疏的銅板，
這麼不積極的乞討，
讓行人也不太熱衷掏錢。

兩天過去，
任何時候經過，
他總是在睡覺…

今天恰巧由他面前的商店出來，
將所剩銅板掏出，
上前放進他的盆子裡，
輕輕的，怕吵醒他，
錢剛落下，
他已抬起頭，
口罩遮蔽的臉，
一雙真誠的眼睛，
直視向我鞠躬道謝，
隨即回到他膝上的世界。

此刻我恍然大悟-
他是深感羞恥的…

那眼睛後面的靈魂裡，
藏了原本被尊重的東西，
彎下腰，
在額頭與膝頭之間的世界，
老人將它小心翼翼地保存著。

Dignity

On the busy street of Ximengding, there he was: an old man sitting on the side walk, his head resting on his knees, with 2 plastic bowls in front of him. Occasionally, people who walked by would toss some coins into the bowls. A beggar who didn’t care so much about begging, people didn’t really care about giving either.

2 days passed, any time I passed by, he was always sleeping. Morning, afternoon, or night.

One day, I happened to come out from the convenient store in front of him, there he was, sleeping still. I approached and tried place the coins in the bowls quietly so not to wake him. As the coins landed, he raised his head, face covered with mask, looked right into my eyes and said “thank you”- sincerely, and firmly. Then rest his head right back on his knees.

That moment I realized, he felt deeply ashamed…

The soul behind those eyes, something that was once respected, was hidden there. The old man kept it carefully, in the space between his forehead and his knees.

Regardless what state our life is at the current time, regardless how people see us, regardless how we view the others, if we are only willingly to go beyond our eyes and ears, see what’s not shown, listen to what’s unspoken, then we’ll see that true quality within each one of us, it is good, it is light.

Blogs: Chinese http://tw.myblog.yahoo.com/latte-kate/, English http://kattleyastudio.blogspot.com/