遥远的记忆
Earliest Memory

三岁前的事情，我居然还能记得，很多人觉得不可思议。但记忆的碎片是散落的、模糊的，唯有一件事至今历历在目，对于一个三岁孩童而言，那是一件大事。Believe it or not, I do remember certain things that happened before I turned three. But such memories are hazy and scanty, except for one. The only thing from that period I do recall with inexplicable lucidity was a major event in my three-year-old life.

那一天，爸爸妈妈告诉我，有位好心的叔叔要带我进电影院看电影，只有一张票，他们就不进去了。This is what I remember: My parents had told me that a very nice uncle was going to take me into the cinema to see a film. There was only one ticket for me, so they could not join me. 之后，便来了一个白衣装束的男人，他把我抱了起来。爸爸妈妈叮嘱我好好看电影，话音刚落，那人就抱着我进了一所大房子。Then came a man dressed in white. He picked me up and held me in his arms. My parents told me to enjoy the film and the uncle carried me into the building.

他抱着我，走在一条长长的过道里。另一位同样身着白衣的叔叔迎面走来，他们相互点点头，那位叔叔一手握着一个白色的茶缸，另一只手里攥着一支蓝色的牙刷。With me in his arms, the uncle walked down a very long corridor. On the way, another uncle, also in white, passed us by. They nodded to each other. That man had a white mug in one hand and a blue toothbrush in the other.

记忆中的下一个场景，就是我平躺在“座位”上，面向天花板，天花板吊着个很大的圆盘，圆盘里镶嵌着一盏盏灯。The next scene I remember is inside the ‘cinema’. I lay down on my ‘seat’and found myself facing a big round plate hanging from the ceiling. The plate was studded with light bulbs. 我想不通：这电影院真奇怪！其它电影院都是坐着看电影，这儿怎么躺着看？其它电影院都是后面挂一盏灯，前面吊一块大帘子，我看的是帘子，这儿怎么净看灯了？I was confused: What a strange cinema this is! In the normal cinema, I would sit and watch. But here, I am lying on my back. In other cinemas, there is a single light at the back and a large piece of white cloth at the front. I would be looking at the cloth. But here, I am actually staring at the lights, many lights. 回忆至此，戛然而止。That is the point where my recollection of that event baulks abruptly. 多年后，我跟父母提起这段回忆，他们证实，那是一所医院——南京儿童医院。当时我得了“小肠气”，必须接受手术。为了让我乖乖地跟陌生叔叔走，他们便哄我，说是去看电影。Many years later, when I mentioned that memory to my parents, they confirmed I had been in a children's hospital in Nanjing at the time, undergoing an operation. I had had a hernia in my lower abdomen that the doctor had to fix. They had told me a porky-pie about going to the cinema, so I wouldn't say no to a stranger taking me away. 而我躺在手术台上看到的灯，就是无影灯。And what met my eyes while I was lying on the operating table was the shadowless lamp. 后来我在一部关于针刺麻醉的纪录片里看到了无影灯，跟我记忆里的那所“影院”里看见的一模一样。Years later, when I finally got to see a real operating ‘theatre’in a documentary about acupuncture-induced anaesthesia, the shadowless lamp on the screen looked just like the one I had seen in that unusual ‘theatre’. 再后来发生了什么，我记不起来了。当年全身麻醉用的还是乙醚，我嗅一嗅就“不省人事”了，因此记忆出现了断层。Ether was still being used for general anaesthesia when I was operated on. I sniffed it and conked out straight away. A memory fault line was thus formed. 那年，我三岁。I was three.

絮叨至此，诸位看官，感受如何？兴致依旧，还是哈欠连天？How do you feel? So far so good? Not yawning, yet? 请稍安勿躁。本书绝非编年史式流水账，否则如何做到我所奢求的引人入胜呢？尽管我深信，真实的故事更有吸引力，但听故事的人要是提不起劲来，听着听着睡着了，你的故事再真实也没有用啊。Don't worry. I shall not let this chronological thread run through my writing; nor will I weigh it down with mundane minutiae of my life. Otherwise this would not be a page turner, which every storybook ought to be. Instead, it would be a dreary, monotone rigmarole that guarantees nothing but yawns aplenty. While I'm convinced that reality does not get in the way of a good yarn, tedium does, for sure.