Many of you will have read or heard of the famous novel by Charles Dickens called A Tale of Two Cities, which is about Paris and London. Today, I want to tell you about a city with two tales. The city is Hong Kong, and the two tales (stories) are as different as night and day (completely different). One is about heart-warming kindness, and the other about repulsive (disgusting, sickening) greed. When you say something is heart-warming, it means it makes you feel emotionally good or happy. For example, it is heart-warming to see people helping others without asking for anything in return. The heart-warming story and the repulsive story together inspired (motivated, encouraged) me to write this.
T
he heart-warming story is about restaurant owner Ng Pak-yan. A customer who caught a sea turtle asked him to cook it last week. The turtle, known as a hawksbill turtle, is an endangered species, which means there are very few left. Ng Pak-yan asked the customer to put the turtle back into the sea but he refused. Ng Pak-yan then bought the turtle for thousands of dollars to save its life. He asked Ocean Park to look after the turtle until it was healthy enough to go back to the sea. It warmed my heart (made me feel very good) to see such kindness. （But sadly, the turtle has now died.）
The repulsive story is about landlords of subdivided flats. I read news reports last week that some landlords had increased rents after the government decided to help poor people in illegal subdivided flats by giving them some money. The greed of the slumlords who increased rents repulsed (disgusted) me. The slang "slumlord" is a combination of the words "landlord" and "slum". A slum is a dirty and overcrowded district where poor people live. Landlords who own small, dirty and often unsafe flats in slums are called slumlords. People in subdivided flats are already very poor. It is sickening (repulsive, disgusting) for slumlords to raise rents just because the government decided to help people in subdivided flats. Such slumlords are cold-hearted (no feeling, cruel, pitiless) people. They should learn from warm-hearted (kind) people such as Ng Pak-yan.
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你們許多人應已讀過或聽過狄更斯的著名小說《雙城記》，故事圍繞巴黎和倫敦。今天，我想跟你說個「城雙記」，就是一個城市擁有兩個故事（tales）。這個城市就是香港，而那兩個故事簡直是天壤之別（as different as night and day）。一個關乎窩心（heart-warming）的善意，另一個卻是令人厭惡（repulsive）的貪婪。當你說某事heart-warming，即是說它令你感到愉悅或快樂。例如，見到人幫助別人卻不求回報，就令人內心暖暖的（heart-warming）。那個窩心（heart-warming）的故事與可憎（repulsive）的故事，共同啟發（inspired）了我寫這篇文章。
那個窩心（heart-warming）的故事是關於一位餐廳東主吳伯恩。上星期一名顧客釣獲一隻海龜，要求他代為烹煮。那海龜玳瑁是瀕危物種（endangered species）的生物，吳伯恩叫顧客拿回海中放生但遭拒絕，吳於是以萬元買下海龜，救了牠一命。他叫來海洋公園暫時照料海龜，直至牠健康情況良好時回歸大海。見到這樣的善心，令我心頭暖暖的（warmed my heart）。（很可惜那海龜現在已經死了。）
那令人反感（repulsive）的故事則關於那些劏房業主。上星期我讀到一則新聞報道，政府決定資助一些住在非法劏房的窮人後，有些業主借勢加租。這些要加租的貧民區惡劣房東（slumlords）教我很反感（repulsed）。俚語slumlord是landlord和slum的合併，slum解作貧民窟。擁有貧民窟那些又殘舊又危險的單位的業主就被叫作slumlords。劏房住客已經夠窮，政府一決定幫助這些劏房租戶，這些惡毒房東（slumlords）就要加租，實在很噁心（sickening）。這些房東（slumlords）都是鐵石心腸（cold-hearted）。他們好應該學學像吳伯恩那樣的善心（warm-hearted）人。mickchug@gmail.com
中譯:七刻
Michael Chugani 褚簡寧
Source: http://news.hkheadline.com/dailynews/headline_news_detail_columnist.asp?id=254134§ion_name=wtt&kw=126
