萬事皆有因果 尼泊爾震後重生的故事2

Laxmi led me forward and pointedimmediately to the closest feature: some corrugated metAl stalls lined up onthe hard ground, black numbers painted on their doors. “The toilets,” sheannounced in surprisingly clear English. “One, two, three, four. And twoshowers.”These were the total sanitary facilities, I realized, for the350-plus men, women, and children who made their home in this refugee camp.

拉克希米帶着我向前，給我指了指最近的一排建築：那是一些波紋狀的金屬亭子，門上都印着黑色的數字。“廁所。”她用異常清晰的英語說道，“1、2、3、4。還有兩個淋浴間。”我意識到，這是350多個在難民營安家的人共用的衛生設施。

Our tour continued. I was surprised by howlively the camp was. In the study tent, three laughing teenage girls did theirhomework together on a pile of Tibetan carpets. The kitchen tent held a huge,steaming cauldron lifted out of an Ali Baba tale. There was an altar tent withoffering bowls around a small Buddhist shrine, and a community tent where adozen children sat in front of an old TV, enraptured by a Hindi soap opera. Iwas quickly hypnotized as well.

我們的參觀還在繼續。這個難民營的生機勃勃令我頗感意外。在學習帳篷內，有3個十幾歲的女孩兒笑着湊在一張藏毯上做作業。廚房帳篷裏有一個巨大的蒸鍋，讓人想起阿里巴巴的傳說。還有一個祭壇帳篷，在一尊小佛像旁邊放了很多供奉祭品的碗。另外還有一個社區帳篷，裏面有十幾個孩子坐在一臺舊電視前面，認真觀看着一部印地語肥皂劇。我也很快被迷住了。

Laxmi tugged me away. “Come on,” shedirected. There was much More to see: the medical tent, the pantry, the tentthat she, her parents and siblings shared with three other families. She wasespecially proud of the office tent, which the children had helped decoratewith snapshot-filled bulletin boards and ribbon-festooned sport trophies

拉克希米拽着我離開了這裏。“來呀。”她說。還有很多東西要看：醫療帳篷、食品儲藏室，還有她和她的父母、兄弟姐妹以及另外三個家庭共同居住的帳篷。辦公室帳篷令她尤爲自豪，孩子們幫助大人在裏面掛上了貼滿照片的公告板和配有綵帶的體育獎盃。

I was also introduced to her friends:Binita, who dreamed of becoming a flight attendant on TAP Portugal Airlines;Laxmi’s willowy sister, Dabuthi; and two young twins who, my guideconfided in a whisper, “are too much loving chocolate”.

拉克希米還給我介紹了其他人：她的朋友、夢想在TAP葡萄牙航空公司當空姐的比尼塔(Binita)、拉克希米身材苗條的姐姐達布希(Dabuthi)、還有她一對孿生妹妹——我的小嚮導悄悄對我說：“她倆特別喜歡巧克力。”

But it was Laxmi who won my heart. She wassmart, defiant, articulate and self-possessed. Her father shared my admiration:tattooed on his chest was a portrait of his daughter.

但我最喜歡的還是拉克希米。她聰明、鎮靜、口齒清晰。她的父親同樣對女兒讚不絕口，甚至把女兒的肖像紋在了自己的胸口上。

I visited Camp Hope several more times:once to bring chocolate for the twins (and the other 79 children, of course)and again to celebrate Diwali, a beautiful, five-day festival dedicated to thegoddess of wealth, Laxmi, for whom my new friend had been named. The opening dayscelebrate cows, dogs and even crows; but on the final day, bhai tika, sistersoffer long-life blessings to their brothers, who offer back gifts and blessthem in turn. I was honoured to take part. As part of the proceedings, myforehead was emblazoned with an elaborate tika: a vertical rainbow ofprotective smudges.

我後來又到“希望營”參觀過幾次：有一次給那對雙胞胎(當然還有另外79個孩子)帶去了巧克力，還有一次是慶祝爲期5天的排燈節。傳說財富女神拉克希米(沒錯，我的新朋友與這位女神同名)會在這一天下凡。起初的幾天，人們祭拜牛、狗甚至烏鴉；但最後一天，也就是兄弟節(bhaitika)，姐妹們會向兄弟們發出長壽的祝福，兄弟們則會向姐妹們回贈禮物和祝福。能夠參加這個節日是一種榮耀。作爲節日禮儀的一部分，我的前額也塗上了一種名叫蒂卡(tika)的彩色裝飾物。

Inside the community tent, a traditionaldance presentation began. Laxmi stood behind me, one hand on my shoulder,studying me as I took photographs. She waited patiently for the moment I tuckedmy camera back into its case, then tapped me on the shoulder. “Can I takepictures?”

社區帳篷裏開始表演傳統舞蹈。拉克希米站在我身後，一隻手搭在我肩膀上，認真觀察我的拍照過程。她非常耐心，一直等到我把相機放回包裏，才拍拍我的肩膀說：“我能拍幾張照片嗎？”

Normally I’d hesitate before handing mycamera to a child. But Laxmi never seemed like a child to me. I turned on theshutter, and showed her how to operate the focus, zoom and review. Most otherkids would have been nodding eagerly, restless to go. But Laxmi watchedpatiently. When I’d finished, she brought the viewfinder to her eye, nodded brieflyand skipped off.

把相機交給一個孩子前，我通常都很猶豫。但拉克希米在我眼中從來都不是個孩子。我打開快門，教給她如何對焦、縮放和回看。其他孩子多半都會焦急地點頭，然後迫不及待地想要上手操作。但拉克希米卻始終耐心地觀察。當我講解完畢後，她把取景器放到眼前，點了點頭就溜走了。

At Dwarika’s that night, editing my photos,I was briefly baffled. I didn’t remember taking the shot of Laxmi’s fatherdisplaying his tattoo, or the slightly blurred action photo of a dancing girlin a blue silk dress. When had I captured that glum teenager, framed by bamboopoles, gazing with melancholy at her new home? Or those grinning brothers, withmulti-coloured tikas on their foreheads?

在德瓦利卡的那一晚，我在編輯照片時突然感覺有些困惑。我不記得我拍過拉克希米的父親展示他的紋身，也不記得給穿着藍色絲裙跳舞的女孩拍過一張有些模糊的照片。我什麼時拍過那個憂鬱的少年木然地盯着新家的樣子，還用竹竿把他框了起來？又是在什麼時候拍過那對露齒而笑的兄弟，在額頭上塗滿色彩斑斕的蒂卡？

I had not. I realized, amazed, that thesewere the work of Laxmi Shrestha. Along with her other gifts, she was aninstinctive photographer with a mature, insightful eye.

我突然意識到，這些照片不是我拍的，而是拉克希米·施雷薩(Laxmi Shrestha)的作品。除了其他天賦外，她竟然還是一位擁有成熟而深刻洞察力的天才攝影師。

I stared at her images, and understoodsomething. I had seen Camp Hope as a temporary caravan of dull canvas tents ona flat dirt lot, dogs lounging in ruts, a few toilet sheds standing by abarbed-wired fence. But Laxmi helped me see beyond this. To her, Camp Hope washome. It was a labyrinth, a playground, a place to shape and explore and infusewith creative imagination.

我看着她的照片，突然明白了什麼。在我眼中，“希望營”只是一片由帳篷組成的臨時居所，地面雖然平整，但卻並不潔淨，貓狗四處亂竄，在鋼絲網柵欄旁修建了幾個簡陋的廁所。但拉克希米幫助我看到了更深層的內涵。在她看來，“希望營”就是家。這裏是迷宮，是樂園，是充滿想象力的地方。

I don’t know what Sindhupalchowk had beenlike before it was swallowed by the Earth. But I’m sure that, like allvillages, it was tied to long memories and anchored in traditions. Camp Hope,on the other hand, is a new environment: a place that the children and adultsare creating together, from scratch. Many of the things that had made theirmountain village magical – animals, old stonewalls, terraced hillsides -– aremissing. But there is a different spell to this place, which I witnessedthrough Laxmi’s eyes.

我不知道辛杜帕爾喬克在被地球吞噬前是什麼樣子，但可以肯定的是，與所有村莊一樣，它也有着綿長的記憶和豐富的傳統。另一方面，“希望營”也是一個全新的環境：這是大人和孩子們攜手共建的一片家園。這個山村原本有很多神奇的東西，有可愛的動物，有古老的城牆，還有山間的梯田……但如今，這一切都蕩然無存。但透過拉克希米的雙眼，我發現這裏迸發出了別樣的韻味。

In mid-November, after three weeks inNepal, I returned home to work on my stories. The day before I left Kathmandu,Laxmi -– in pigtails and a donated down jacket – walked me to the Camp Hopegate. “Travel safely, and write well,” she said earnestly. “And come back soon.”

11月中旬，在尼泊爾採訪了3個星期後，我回到家裏整理素材。就在我離開加德滿都的前一天，拉克希米梳着小辮、穿着別人捐贈的羽絨服來到“希望營”的大門口。“一路順風，好好寫作。”她真誠地對我說，“還有，快點回來。”

I plan to. During the past few months I’vepartnered with Looking Glass, a beloved photographers’ store in Berkeley,California. We’ve sent five digital cameras and cases to Sangita and Pedro, whohave put them in the hands of Camp Hope’s children. The kids are already beinginstructed by Min Bajracharaya, a respected Nepali photographer.

我的確是這麼計劃的。過去幾個月，我已經與加州伯克利的Looking Glass攝影店展開了合作。我們給桑吉塔和佩德羅寄去了5臺數碼相機和相機包，讓他們轉交給“希望營”的孩子們。那些孩子已經獲得了尼泊爾著名攝影師明·巴拉查拉亞(Min Bajracharaya)的指導。

I’ll be back at CampHope this spring, this time to edit their work. And next Diwali, in November 2016, I hope to escort a few of the children,including Laxmi, to the opening of their own photo exhibition in northernCalifornia.

我今年春天會回到“希望營”，這一次是爲了編輯他們的作品。等到2016年11月的排燈節時，我希望能幫助幾個孩子在北加州開一場屬於他們自己的攝影展，其中當然也包括拉克希米。

Temporarily, for me at least, this chain ofchance encounters has paused. Its energy has spilled into a cluster of villagekids who, a year ago, could never have foreseen where life’s tectonic dancemight take them. And though I dread earthquakes as much as any Nepali –-myhometowns of Oakland and Kathmandu are sister cities in this respect –I findmyself hoping that some of the tremors that began last April will continue formany months to come.

至少對我來說，這一系列的偶遇已經暫時告一段落。它給這些山村裏的孩子賦予了一股能量，他們在一年前根本無法預見自己的生活將會發生何種變化。儘管我跟所有尼泊爾人一樣懼怕地震——就這一點來說，奧克蘭和加德滿都這兩個身爲我家鄉的地方已經成了姐妹城市——但在我的內心深處，卻希望去年4月開始的這場地震能夠多延續幾個月。