評(píng)論
打印
Cutting Across Cultures
跨文化理發(fā)
Mike Tidwell
邁克·蒂德韋爾
Against a worn strip of water buffalo leather, the Vietnamese barber slapped his straight razor back and forth. He paused to tilt my head back, leaving my Adam's apple fully exposed to the blade. Looking up now, I saw the flowers of a flaming mimosa tree, its branches forming the delicate ceiling of this one-man outdoor barber shop. I smelled the incense of a nine-hundred-year-old Confucian temple a hundred feet away. I heard the bright bells of bicycles gliding down the wide Hanoi boulevard.
越南理發(fā)師在一條舊水牛皮帶上來來回回地磨他的剃刀，然后停下來把我的頭向后扳，我的喉結(jié)完全暴露在了他的刀刃之下。我仰頭看見了含羞草怒放的花，花枝搭成了這個(gè)理發(fā)店精致的天花板，理發(fā)店是室外的，且只有一個(gè)理發(fā)師。我嗅著百尺外九百年孔子廟的焚香，聽著河內(nèi)寬闊的林蔭道上自行車鈴清脆地響過。
Yet we'd gotten off to a bad start, this barber and I. I figured he was trying to fleece me when, after I asked how much he charged, he didn't tell me. But he was just being polite in Vietnamese fashion, saying I would pay afterward, as much as I wanted, only if I was happy. When I pressed the issue, he just waved me into his wooden chair. I got in, huffing, our cultures colliding as we attempted to communicate.
但我們，這個(gè)理發(fā)師和我，開始的交流并不順利。我問他修臉理發(fā)多少錢，他沒有回答我，我猜他是想敲我一筆。但他說理完以后再付，到時(shí)候滿意的話，愿意給多少就給多少——這只是越南方式的禮貌。我再追問時(shí)，他只是揮手示意我坐到木制椅子上。我坐在上面怒氣沖沖。在試圖溝通的過程中，我們的文化發(fā)生了碰撞。
"How many fallen yellow leaves do you have?" the barber asked me, still whacking his long, gleaming razor against the leather strap. He was asking my age.
“你有多少片落下的黃葉子啦？”理發(fā)師一邊問我,一邊還在皮帶上使勁磨他的又長(zhǎng)又亮的剃刀。他是在問我的年齡。
"Thirty-three," I answered.
“三十三。”我答道。
He asked what country I was from. "America," I said.
他問我從哪個(gè)國(guó)家來的。“美國(guó)。”我說。
