停下來，慢慢走

by Geetanjali Krishana Joyce 譯

停下來，慢慢走

The Dad Who Dropped Out

by Geetanjali Krishana Joyce 譯

IN winter, I often walk in a nearby park during lunchtime. The park is quiet, as few have the time to enjoy the winter sun on a weekday. The two people that often break my1)solitude are a middle-aged father with his little daughter. She’s in her school uniform, pigtailed hair with red ribbons tied neatly around the ends. The father looks like he has all the time in the world—he refuses to hurry along the jogging path; instead he matches his pace with that of the little girl. Sometimes when I see them, they’re eating oranges. Sometimes they’re2)lolling lazily in the sun, laughing and chatting.

Since I walk solo, I often have little better to do than3)speculate about people I pass. How does the man fnd time in the middle of the day to play in the sunny park with his daughter? He certainly doesn’t look unemployed. What sort of job must he have that gives him the fexibility to walk in the park in the middle of the day?

冬天，我經常在午休時到附近的一個公園散步。公園里很安靜，很少人在工作日里有時間享受冬日的陽光。打破我獨處的是一位中年父親和他年幼的女兒。她穿著校服，梳著辮子，紅色絲帶整齊地纏繞在辮子上。父親看起來似乎擁有無窮無盡的時間——他拒絕在慢跑道上匆忙行走，反而跟隨著小女孩的步伐。有時，我看到他們在吃橙子；有時，則懶洋洋地躺坐在陽光下談天說笑。

由于我獨自一人散步，所以除了推測我遇到的人的身份外，我通常沒什么更有建設性的事情可做。這個男人怎么會有時間在中午陪女兒在陽光明媚的公園里玩耍呢？他看起來一點兒也不像無業游民。什么樣的工作讓他能有時間在中午到公園散步呢？

A few days ago, the child caught me looking at them and smiled at me. I smiled back. Yesterday, I threw a ball that had strayed from them in my direction. And today, we fnally sat on the rocks and had a little chat.

“You must enjoy the park very much to come here so often,” I said.

The father nodded. “We love coming here…there’s no park near where we live and little Guddi enjoys playing here while we wait for her mother to get free from work,” he said.

The child’s school was next door, as was his place of work, a private business where he was an accountant.

I couldn’t help myself. I just had to ask.

“How,” I asked curiously, “do you manage to leave your offce every day in the middle of the day?”

The story that the father, Satyendra Dubey, told me showed me how, if we dig underneath the surface, even ordinary people’s lives can seem quite extraordinary.

“I used to be no different from any of those thousands of office workers4)scurrying to work every morning in buses,” he began.

1) solitude ['s?l?tju?d] n. 孤獨

2) loll [l?l] v. 懶洋洋地倚靠

3) speculate ['spekj?,le?t] v. 推測，思索

4) scurry ['sk?r?] v. 急趕，急跑

幾天前，小女孩注意到我在看他們，并對我笑了笑。我也回以微笑。昨天，他們的球飛到了我這邊，我幫忙扔了回去。而今天，我們終于得以一起坐在石頭上閑聊幾句。

“你們很常過來這里，肯定很喜歡這個公園吧，”我說道。

父親點點頭。“我們喜歡過來這里……我們住的地方附近沒有公園，小古蒂喜歡在這里邊玩邊等她媽媽下班，”他說道。

小女孩的學校就在隔壁，他工作的地方也在附近，他是一家私人公司的會計。

我忍不住了。我必須問出口。

“你怎么，”我好奇地問道，“能夠每天中午都離開辦公室呢？”

那位父親，薩特延德拉·杜貝告訴我的故事表明，如果我們深入挖掘，即便是平凡人也可能有著不平凡的故事。