James Poy Wong 黃培正
"We are living in a more favorable environment and we still moan and groan. Then how should we think of those tens of thousands of our human kind who struggle against death with hunger and coldness?"
"Chill Words" - 1947
寒话
人为万物之灵，但不是上帝的骄子。 如果你以为上帝为了人类而创造这个地球，你就大错特错的了。 我常常怀疑着， 天父在创制地球的时候，只存心替飞禽走兽建筑生存和居住的地方，人类在这个地球出现，不过是厚颜的不速之客， 或者是猿猴的祖宗，弄错出来的坏种。
据地质学家所说，地球的成立已有二千万万年，而人类有可追考的遗迹，也不过是五万年左右。 我们并不是最古老的动物，却是后来者。
从生存的条件来看，人类更不是注定到来这里居住的，飞禽有翅膀，走兽有爪牙，试问人类到底有什么天赋的生存竞争器官呢？ 禽兽有羽毛以抵御寒冷，人类仅有一个赤光光的身子，严冬到来，万物不愿受苦的都冬眠去了，可怜的人类， 却在饥寒交迫下，连每夜数小时的光阴，都受剥夺。
如果你和我一样的不幸，生长在这个不惯寒冷的湾畔，元旦后的几天寒冷， 也可使你一尝 “北风利如剑” 的味道。 有一位朋友告诉我说，他一夜要用热水洗几次脚，方能入睡。 我们居住在较为适宜的环境，还要呻吟，那么其他的千万同类，在饥寒线上挣扎死亡，我们当有什么感想？
就算称为南国的故乡，虽然雪是下不成的，但是当北风虎虎地括起，简陋的屋子发着抖，像要倒下来似的，贫苦的穷人空着肚子打颤，唇裂面青，静默地向北风求饶。
你可曾知道，或是记得，骑楼脚下的乞丐吗？ 他们仅以草席为被，布袋为衣。 你或者奇怪着他们怎样抵得着寒风，他们不是神仙，也是骨肉所做成的人类。 据说他们吞食硫磺以取暖，一到夏天毒性发作，就是死亡。 所以俗语有话： “没有过年的乞儿。” 这样愿意生存而痛苦地挣扎中的人，如果上帝赐他们以冬眠的本能，他们是何等快乐的呀！
Chill Words
Humanity is the divine of all beings, but not the favored son of God. If you think God created this earth for human beings, you are then beyond wrong. I often wonder when our Father created the earth, his sole intention was to provide a place for the existence and residence of the flying birds and running animals. Human beings appearing on this earth are just shameless, uninvited guests, or perhaps a bad species mistakenly created by the ancestor of the apes.
According to geologists the earth has formed for 200 billion years, but analysable traces of ancient humans are just about 50 thousand years. We are not the oldest, archaic animal but a late comer.
Based on living conditions, human beings are not even destined to reside here. The flying animals have wings, the running animals have claws and teeth; what natural organs have human beings endowed with as weapons to compete for survival? Birds and beasts have feathers and furs to resist coldness, and human beings only have naked bodies. When the freezing winter comes, beings that cannot bear to suffer from hardship would all go into hibernation. Yet the pitiful human beings would be forced into hunger and coldness. Even a few hours of time at night would be seized from them.
If you are as unfortunate as me, living in this bay area and not used to cold weather, a few days of chills after the New Year would give you an experience of the “north winds that are as sharp as knives.” A friend told me he has to wash his feet with hot water several times a night before he could sleep. We are living in a more favorable environment and we still moan and groan. Then how should we think of those tens of thousands of our human kind who struggle against death with hunger and coldness?
Even in the so-called southern part of the country in our homeland where coldness won’t mount to snowfall, when the north wind rips up, the poorly constructed houses tremble and appear ready to collapse. Poor people are quivering with their empty stomachs, cracked lips and pale faces. They quietly beg the north wind to spare them.
Do you know or remember the beggars in the qilou veranda1? They use straw mats as the only cover and rag sag as clothing. You may wonder how they withstand the chilly wind. They are not immortals; they are also humans made up of bone and flesh. It is said that they eat sulfate to keep warm , and once summer comes, the poison would be activated and they would die. So the common saying goes: “No beggar lives through the year.” For these people having a strong will to survive but must struggle miserably, if God gives them the natural ability to hibernate, how happy would they be!