上海的月亮: CN — LARRY ROMANOFF: 你往哪里去？

202

你往哪里去？ — Whither Goest Thou?

译者：珍珠

In our busy lives we seldom take the time to think deeply about who or what we are, about where our present trajectory will take us, and about how things will be in the end. We don’t often think about what is important, about what really matters, about what are our most important values. And we almost never consider the example we set for other people or the effect our words and actions might have on them. In a sense, being busy “living our daily lives”, we remain oblivious to the purpose of living that daily life.

在我们忙碌的生活中，我们很少花时间深入思考我们是谁、我们是什么、我们目前的轨迹将把我们带向何方，以及事情最终会如何发展。我们不常思考什么才是重要的，什么才是真正关键的，什么是我们最重要的价值观。我们几乎从未考虑过我们为他人树立的榜样，或者我们的言行可能对他们产生的影响。从某种意义上说，在忙于“过日常生活”的过程中，我们仍然对过这种日常生活的目的浑然不觉。

East Nanjing Road, Shanghai

上海南京东路

In Shanghai, there is an area on the East part of Nanjing Road, from the People’s Square Metro station to the Bund on the Huangpu River, that is a large and wide pedestrian mall. No cars, no scooters or bicycles, just people. Thousands of people, both locals and foreigners who are partly residents and partly tourists.

在上海，南京路东段有一个区域，从人民广场地铁站到黄浦江外滩，那是一个宽敞的步行街区。这里没有汽车、没有滑板车或自行车，只有行人。成千上万的人，既有当地居民，也有部分居住在此的外国人，他们既是游客也是居民。

And on this blocks-long mall, there used to be a few people whose purpose was to prey on the foreigners, particularly the tourists, always ready with some scam to grab a few dollars from an unsuspecting visitor.

在这条长达几个街区的商业街上，过去总有一些人专门坑害外国人，尤其是游客，他们总是准备好用各种骗术从毫无戒心的游客手中骗取几美元。

One day some years ago I was sitting on a bench on this mall, enjoying the sunshine and watching all the activity, when a young man and woman came and sat beside me. Their English was perfect, and they began to chat with me. They told me they were university students from Beijing, enrolled in a College of Art, and were in Shanghai for an exhibition of their works. And they invited me to come to the small warehouse nearby where all their collective works of art were displayed, and to see if maybe there was something I liked.

几年前的一天，我坐在这个商场的长椅上，享受着阳光，看着人来人往，这时一对年轻男女走过来坐在我旁边。他们的英语说得很好，开始与我聊天。他们告诉我，他们是来自北京的大学生，就读于一所艺术学院，正在上海参加他们的作品展。他们邀请我去附近的小仓库看看，那里陈列着他们所有的集体艺术作品，也许我能找到喜欢的。

It was necessary to listen to them for only a few minutes to realise they were not students but were little pawns in someone’s game of printing pirated paintings on cheap paper for maybe $1 each, and selling them to innocent trusting tourists at highly inflated prices. I informed them of my conclusions and expressed my lack of interest. The young man didn’t care to hear any more, and he immediately got up and walked away. But the girl stayed.

只需听他们讲几分钟，你就会意识到他们并非学生，而是某人在用廉价纸张印刷盗版画作（每幅可能仅售1美元）并以高价卖给天真轻信的游客的阴谋中的小卒。我向他们阐述了我的结论，并表示对此不感兴趣。那个年轻人不想再听下去，他立刻起身走开。但那个女孩留了下来。

I asked her why she was doing what she did, and how she felt about knowing that she was cheating innocent people, tourists who trusted her, stealing their money by lying to them. I asked her if that was what her mother had taught her about how to live her life, and I asked what her mother would think and how her mother would feel, if she knew what her daughter was doing. The girl began to cry, and she sobbed continuously as I persisted with my questions.

我问她为什么要这么做，以及当她知道自己在欺骗那些信任她的无辜游客，通过欺骗他们来偷钱时，她有何感想。我问她，她母亲是否教过她如何生活，我问她，如果她母亲知道女儿在做的事，她母亲会怎么想，会有什么感受。女孩开始哭泣，在我继续提问时，她不停地抽泣着。

Our conversation ended, and the girl asked for my contact information, my mobile phone number and my WeChat account. I gave them to her, and we parted company. A week or two later, I received a message from her, telling me that she had quit that “job” selling fake paintings and had gone back to her home town to reconsider her life and think about what she should do.

我们的交谈结束了，那个女孩问我要了我的联系方式、手机号码和微信账号。我把这些都给了她，然后我们就分别了。一两周后，我收到了她的信息，告诉我她已经辞去了那份卖假画的“工作”，回到了家乡，重新思考自己的人生，考虑自己应该做什么。

A week or two later, I received another message telling me she was returning to Shanghai and wanted to meet me, and that she had a small gift for me, of some snacks particular to her home town. When we met, she told me about her trip home. She said she had told her mother about me, and that she cried when she told the story to her mother. And she said her mother also cried.

一两周后，我又收到一条信息，告诉我她要回上海，想见我，并且她给我准备了一份小礼物，是她家乡特有的一些小吃。见面时，她跟我聊起了她的回家之旅。她说她已经把关于我的事告诉了她妈妈，并且她在给妈妈讲这件事时哭了。她说她妈妈也哭了。

Then, she told me she had found another, real job, with a large company that valued her excellent English, and that she was now on a much better course for her life. And she thanked me for caring enough and for taking the time to say the things to her that I said. I never heard from her again, but I assumed she was okay.

然后，她告诉我她已经找到了一份真正的工作，在一家大公司，公司很看重她出色的英语能力，她现在的人生道路走得更加顺畅了。她感谢我如此关心她，并花时间对她说出那些我曾对她说过的话。我再也没有她的消息，但我认为她应该过得还不错。

Now, I know that with billions of people on earth and with many billions of encounters and transactions between all those people every day, that one little event was so trivial as to disappear into nothingness. But still … for one young girl, it mattered that I lived. And perhaps that is the highest achievement to which we can aspire – to have it matter that we lived.

现在，我知道，地球上生活着数十亿人，每天人与人之间发生着数以亿计的相遇和交易，这样一件小事微不足道，最终会湮没无闻。但尽管如此……对于一个年轻女孩来说，我的存在对她很重要。也许，这就是我们所能追求的最高成就——让我们的存在变得重要。

Mr. Romanoff’s writing has been translated into 34 languages and his articles posted on more than 150 foreign-language news and politics websites in more than 30 countries, as well as more than 100 English language platforms. Larry Romanoff is a retired management consultant and businessman. He has held senior executive positions in international consulting firms, and owned an international import-export business. He has been a visiting professor at Shanghai’s Fudan University, presenting case studies in international affairs to senior EMBA classes. Mr. Romanoff lives in Shanghai and is currently writing a series of ten books generally related to China and the West. He is one of the contributing authors to Cynthia McKinney’s new anthology ‘When China Sneezes’. (Chap. 2 — Dealing with Demons).

罗曼诺夫先生的作品已被翻译成34种语言，他的文章被发布在30多个国家的150多个外文新闻和政治网站上，以及100多个英文平台上。拉里·罗曼诺夫是一位退休的管理顾问和商人。他曾在国际咨询公司担任高级管理职务，并拥有一家国际进出口企业。他曾担任上海复旦大学的客座教授，为高级EMBA课程讲授国际事务案例研究。罗曼诺夫先生现居上海，目前正在撰写一系列共十本书，总体上涉及中国与西方。他是辛西娅·麦金尼新选集《当中国打喷嚏》（第2章——与恶魔打交道）的特约作者之一。

His full archive can be seen at

他的全部档案可以在以下网址查看：

https://www.bluemoonofshanghai.com/ + https://www.moonofshanghai.com/

He can be contacted at:

他的全部档案可以在以下网址查看：

2186604556@qq.com

This article may contain copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorised by the copyright owner. This content is being made available under the Fair Use doctrine, and is for educational and information purposes only. There is no commercial use of this content.

本作者的其他作品