麻雀冬至

去歲冬至日寫的關於冬至的小說習作。

未到二月已收到二月號。

在陽光下拍攝。可惜，拍不到陽光。

習作還會做下去。

《香港文學》362期，2015年2月號

奶茶（附英譯）

Milk Tea

Mother used an electric oven to boil a pot of western tea

and poured half a can of sweet milk on it…

‘Rest a while,’ Mother said, as if she was speaking to the filter net

The workers kneeling beside the wall stopped

Brick knife, clay board and carpenter’s ink box all lying around near the wall

A worker raised his head and exhaled some lamenting heat

Mother said whether the wall was well-built

depended on a pot of good milk tea

sometimes coffee, sometimes sesame

the density should be appropriate, no matter it was wheat porridge, sweet potato soup

or over-boiled red bean soup

Sometimes smashed leaves floated on the milk tea

The workers sometimes drank it, sometimes spit it

hard on the filtering net

Shadows moved and stopped suddenly

the halfly-plastered wall

will be our future house

I followed the appropriate proportion, mixed the mortar well

And put it carefully beside the worker

Sucking on cigarettes in their mouth, they assembled the bricks one by one

together, like a piece and another piece of

waffle, with too much cream on it

Mother just cared about collecting utensils and equipment

My mouth brimmed with the sweet flavor of sweetened milk

I gave it to the workers, just the same as the milk tea

Drunk the sunset moving to the west the cement hardened

Our house grew two shoulders

I curiously used a gradienter to measure

The bubbles floated a while then stopped in the middle

not leftward not rightward, and was the same as the milk tea foam

that people were not aware of, yet was just there

1 June 2006

Translated from Chinese by 高頌文and 郭思琪

（刊於《聲韻》第19期，2014年8月）

奶茶

母親用電爐燒了一鍋紅茶

便把半罐煉奶全澆在上面……

「歇一會」，母親像對篩沙的網說

蹲身築墻的師傅便停了手

磚刀、灰板、墨斗歪倒在牆下

師傳抬頭呵出一口蒸鬱的暑氣

母親說磚牆築得好不好

得靠一鍋好奶茶

有時是咖啡，有時是芝麻

糊得剛剛好，麥粥、蕃薯糖水

有時是煮得老爛的紅豆沙

有時奶茶面上漂著葉碎

師傅有時喝下，有時又把它

狠狠吐在篩沙的網上

影子幌動，靜止

半堵未批盪的牆

會是我們將來的房子

我把按照比例攪好的砂漿

小心放在師傅的身旁

看他們叨著煙，把磚頭逐一

堆疊，像一塊又一塊

威化，塗了過多的忌廉

母親只顧收拾鍋爐和盆盌

我的口腔溢滿煉奶的甜味

都交予師傅了就像那奶茶

喝過了日頭西移水泥硬化

我們的房子就長出了兩肩

我好奇地用水平儀一量

氣泡幌了一會便停在中央

不偏不倚，如奶茶鍋裡

無人注意卻在那裡的泡沫

2006年6月1日

圖片說明：

1.  母親當年用以煮奶茶之電爐，跟這款很相似。照片來源：

http://suner.pixnet.net/album/photo/135649864

2.  兩款當年最流行的煉奶品牌。藏品及照片來自張西門先生，見以下網址：

http://www.goldenage.hk/photos/article/1782/article_5_enlarge.jpg