Micro-translation: Frances Ommanney’s Bullet-headed Boy (1962)

Photograph by Dean Barrett, from Images of Hong Kong (1982)

But the one that touched my heart most, for in him I recognized myself forty years ago, was the little one who couldn’t quite keep up, and could not quite manage or do what the others did. He was the youngest and smallest but he was a much pluckier and gamer little boy than I had been when I occupied his humble position. He was a round-faced, bullet-headed little chap who always sat in the middle of the driving-seat of the car, leaning forward with his hands on his knees, gazing intently at the road ahead and singing an endless little crooning song to himself. He was far away in the private world that little boys inhabit and when you spoke to him you had to recall him from a great way off. I remembered, too, those jolts backward from my distant kingdom into the real world. Directly he had answered your question his little spirit fled and was off again on its wings.

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不過，喺呢班細路仔當中，有一個觸動咗我啲心靈，因爲佢同四十年前嘅我非常相似——比其他孩子都細啲，成日跟唔上佢哋，未必做到佢哋能做到嘅。佢雖然年齡最細、身材最矮、身份最卑，但係同童年嘅我比起，佢就更大膽、更有冒險精神。呢個細蚊仔嘅臉圓圓，頭頂如子彈般：每次坐車嘅時候，佢都總愛坐喺司機前排嘅中央位置，上身會向前傾，雙手一直擺放喺膝頭哥上面，一面凝神貫注咁望住前邊嘅道路，一面暗自輕哼柔情但簡單調嘅旋律。此時此刻，佢離我哋好遠，陶醉於細路仔都嚮往嘅個人世界中。每次同佢講嘢時，你都要將呢個男孩子由天涯海角召喚返嚟。我記得，我細細個亦都遭受過同樣嘅心靈襲擊，當我被迫離開我嘅私有國度，重返現實世界嘅時候，我都會經歷一次好似腦震盪嘅感覺。呢個細蚊仔回答之後，佢細小嘅靈魂就會即刻展開雙翼，趕快飛返私人嘅世界。