翻譯世界｜還有光

2018年春天，一個大學生開著租來的麵包車，在陽光明媚的午後，開上人行道，有意識的一個一個撞倒行人，一共10死16傷。當他終於被攔下，拿著不明物品作勢掏槍幾次，攔下他的警察不為所動，甚至在對峙過程中去關掉雜亂的收音機想聽清楚嫌犯在喊些什麼。電影裡嫌犯被打成馬蜂窩的畫面沒有發生，這名勇敢的警察冷靜而且和平地制服嫌犯。

專欄作者Scott Gilmore在多倫多的小麵包車攻擊事件後，發表了一篇評論，裡面有這樣一句話：

Amidst the chaos and horror, a Toronto police officer calmly faced down the driver. It's a moment we should remember.

「在一片混亂和恐怖當中，一個多倫多的警官冷靜面對嫌犯，而我們應該記住個時刻。」

 #BlackLivesMatter如火如荼之際，忽然想到這篇文章，選擇最喜歡的片段來翻譯。

At any point if the cop had fired and killed the suspect, the public, his peers, the press, even the driver himself, everyone would have understood. In fact, we likely would have called him a hero.

在任何時候他開火殺了嫌犯，公眾、同僚、媒體、甚至嫌犯本人都能夠理解。事實上，我們會稱他為英雄。

What held his finger? Bravery? Training? Compassion? Perhaps we will find out in the days ahead. But whatever it is, it deserves attention.

什麼原因讓他沒有扣下板機？勇氣？訓練？同情？也許過一陣子我們可以知道原因，但無論如何，這都值得我們的關注。

It is easy to take a life. A quick turn of the steering wheel and 10 people are gone. A small amount of pressure on the trigger, and the suspect is dead. We kill each other out of hate, or fear, or ignorance, or duty. Sadly, we understand this instinct well. This is the dark side of humanity. And rightly, we are mesmerized by the horror of it.

奪走性命是容易的，快速地轉轉方向盤，十條人命消逝。只要輕輕扣下板機，嫌犯就會被擊斃。人們為了仇恨、恐懼、無知或是責任而相互殘殺，可悲的是，這是人類的黑暗面，於是我們很輕易地理解這種本能。我們甚至有時被它的恐怖迷惑。

But there is light inside us too. We also possess the instinct to keep each other alive. This part of us can be more difficult to understand. But it deserves our devotion much more than the act of killing does. These moments of humanity are not uncommon, but they are precious. It would be good if we could remember that about Toronto, remember the cop who didn’t shoot.

但還是有些光在我們心底深處，我們也擁有救人一命的本能--這對部份人來說或許很難理解，然留人一命比取人一命更值得我們的尊敬，這些人性的時刻並不常見卻如此寶貴。如果我們要紀念這個多倫多的悲劇，請記得這個警察並沒有開槍。

我一直很喜歡最後這一段話。

在東方，死刑是天經地義、天公地道的法則，殺人一命償一命合情合理，遑論有時候一命都不夠償，哪裡來的空間討論廢死？至於和警方對峙時開槍被打死，喔很遺憾，不過第一時間就不該和警察對峙啊！

但正如這篇文章說的，我們都有救人一命的本能，那才是人性最難得的部分，而這不應該輕易被一個殺人兇手改變。這時候就難免要引用Albus Dumbledore對Potter講得最後一句話來當結尾了：

「不要憐憫死者，哈利。憐憫活著的人，尤其是那些活著卻沒有愛的人。」