當我要提醒自己的時候

每當我有什麽想不懂，或者處在一個很虛無的狀況時，我會把之前存下來的那些好文字拿出來讀一讀，一如信徒們誦讀聖經。手上有一本Primo Levi的《If not now,when?》，這是我讀完《Night》之後的延伸。書還未讀，最近卻是常常讀他的詩，尤其是我們身邊發生了如此多荒謬，教人迷失心智的事，往往就會一二再而三地讀。我尤其最喜歡這首：

Shema

You who live secure
In your warm houses
Who return at evening to find
Hot food and friendly faces:

Consider whether this is a man,
Who labours in the mud
Who knows no peace
Who fights for a crust of bread
Who dies at a yes or a no.
Consider whether this is a woman,
Without hair or name
With no more strength to remember
Eyes empty and womb cold
As a frog in winter.

Consider that this has been:
I commend these words to you.
Engrave them on your hearts
When you are in your house, when you walk on your way,
When you go to bed, when you rise.
Repeat them to your children.
Or may your house crumble,
Disease render you powerless,
Your offspring avert their faces from you.