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A Doctor on Night-Call
夜間出診的醫生
M. H. Nelson
M.H.內爾森
It's a privilege to be a doctor … "How lucky you are to be a doctor …" It's a privilege to be a doctor, is it? Anyone who's a doctor is right out of luck, I thought. Anyone who's studying medicine should have his head examined.
“當名醫生真叫人羨慕……”；“多走運，你當上了醫生……”干醫生這行當，難道真的叫人羨慕？我倒認為，凡是當醫生的全都倒了霉。凡是學醫的都該去查一下腦子是否正常。
You may think I want to change my job. Well, at the moment I do. As one of my friends says — even doctors have a few friends — it's all experience. Experience! I don't need such experience. I need a warm, comfortable, undisturbed bed all my own. I need it badly. I need all telephones to be thrown down the nearest well, that's what I need.
你可能會覺得我是想換個行當干干。嗯，這會兒我倒是真想換換。正如我的一個朋友所說——即便是醫生也還有幾個朋友一當醫生就是能長閱歷。閱歷！我才不需要這種閱歷呢。我想要的是一張完全屬于自己的臥榻，溫暖舒適，無人打攪。我實在太需要這樣一張床了。最好把所有的電話機，統統扔到就近的一口水井里去，這才是我所要的。
All these thoughts fly round my head as I drive my Mini （微型汽車）through the foggy streets of East London at 3:45 a.m. on a December morning. I am a ministering angel in a Mini with a heavy coat and a bag of medicines. As I speed down Lea Bridge in the dark at this horrible morning hour, the swish （沙沙聲）of the mud against the windows, the heater （發熱器） first blowing hot then cold, my back aching from the car-seat made for a misshapen camel, the fog swirling （盤旋）about the empty petrol stations, I do not feel like a ministering angel. I wish I were on the beach in southern France. Call me a bad doctor if you like. Call me what you will. But don't call me at half past three on a December morning for an ear-ache that you have had for two weeks.
這些念頭就這樣在我腦子里轉來轉去，我正開著我的那輛微型汽車在倫敦東區霧蒙蒙的小街陋巷里轉悠，此刻正是12月某個凌晨的3點45分。我是坐在微型車中的救死扶傷、身披厚外套、肩挎醫藥箱的天使。我在這討厭的凌晨時刻，摸黑急速駛過利埃大橋，泥漿在車窗上沙沙濺響，發熱器先是吹熱風，然后又吹冷風；那張對畸形駱駝才適合的車座，硌得我的脊背又酸又痛；路邊空蕩蕩的加油站四周霧氣繚繞——這時候，我并不覺得自己像個救護天使。我希望此刻是躺在法國南部的海灘上。你盡可以叫我壞醫生，你愛怎么叫都行，可你千萬別在12月的某個凌晨三點半打電話把我叫起，就為那只疼了已有兩個星期的耳朵。
Of course, being a doctor isn't really all bad. We do have our moments. Occasionally people are ill, occasionally you can help, occasionally you get given a cup of tea and rock-hard cake at two o'clock in the morning —then you worry if you have done everything. But all too often "everything" is a repetitious routine: look, listen, feel, tap. Tablets （藥片）, injection, phone, ambulance, away to the next.
當然嘍，當醫生也并非一無是處。我們也有稱心如意的時刻。偶爾人們真的病了，偶爾你確實能幫上忙，偶爾凌晨兩點光景，有人會拿給你一杯水和一塊硬邦邦的糕餅——這么一來，你就會擔心自己是否樣樣事情都做周全了。可大多數情況下，所謂“樣樣事情”不外乎例行公事那一套：望氣色，問病情，號脈聽聲，開藥，注射，打電話叫救護車，然后再去看下一個病人。
And then there is always the cool, warm voice of the girl on the switchboard of the emergency bed service who will get your patient into hospital for you — the pleasant voice that comes to you as you stand in the cold, dark, smelly, dirty telephone box somewhere in a dangerous section of town. Oh, it has its moments, this life does.
而急診服務總機，總是那個沉著、親切的女子聲音，為你派車送病人去醫院——你在城里某個危險地段，在那寒冷、陰暗、又臟又臭的電話亭里，那頭傳來的卻是個悅耳的聲音。嗬，這種生活還真有讓人感到得其所哉的時刻，確實是這樣。
