蒙特維多的邂逅（外一則）
A Stalker in Montevideo（with a bonus picture）

既然說到阿貓阿狗，那我就玩?zhèn)€穿越，講述2010年我在南美與一只跟蹤犬邂逅的故事。

Since we are on the topic of cats and dogs, let's do a bit of time travel and fast forward to 2010, so I can recount my encounter with a South American canine stalker.

它在街上閑逛。我也是
那個城市叫蒙特維多，烏拉圭首都
估摸是只喪家犬，但并不落魄
我看了它一眼。它沒注意到我
我心想：這條狗，軀體所承載的靈魂會是怎樣的？它又經(jīng)歷過什么？
在這個當下，在這個空間，它和我產(chǎn)生交集；
而之前，我們天涯相隔
（這個天邊之城，我飛了22個小時才到，有同事飛了30個小時）

Since we are on the topic of cats and dogs, let's do a bit of time travel and fast forward to 2010, so I can recount my encounter with a South American canine stalker.

就在這時
它扭頭看了我一眼
很友好地走過來
我繼續(xù)閑逛，它尾隨

大約一小時過去了
雖然我知道它不是為了乞食而跟著我
但我還是把隨身帶的、僅存的一塊芝麻糕掰成兩半
一半放在地上
它搖搖尾巴，走過來
嗅嗅
抬頭向我致謝
但不吃。
于是，我嚴肅地對它說：
“你不能再跟著我了”，
“我要走了”。
它繼續(xù)搖尾，繼續(xù)尾隨

又過了一小時
我看到前方有個公車站，人很多
我就擠進人群
快速穿行
再疾行至路側(cè)。
回頭遠遠看著它
只見它挨個兒嗅著等車的人
有時還走到一些人的面前
抬頭辨認……

我轉(zhuǎn)身，走了

I saw this dog in Montevideo. I was being a tourist and the dog, a local wanderer.
It was probably a stray, but not the mangy type.
I noticed it before it did me.
When I first laid eyes on it, a thought came to my mind from nowhere:
‘What kind of soul is encaged in this canine body? What has this soul experienced through all its incarnations, up to this point, where our paths, hitherto far apart, are crossing?’（I had had to fly 22 hours to get here. Some of my colleagues had been less lucky.）
Just then, the dog turned round and saw me.
Wagging its tail and flashing a smile, it came over to me.
We exchanged pleasantries, linguistic and otherwise.
I carried on roaming the streets; it followed.
It was persistent, and greeted my numerous verbal discouragements with more tail wagging and more of what is analogous to a sunny human smile.
After about an hour, I stopped. I snapped a sesame snap in two and placed one piece on the pavement. I ate the other piece.
It gave the snack a cursory sniff out of courtesy, looked up to me to acknowledge my generosity and then looked away. It sat down.
I decided this interaction, which was getting us nowhere, had to stop and a serious tête-à-tête
was in order: ‘You cannot follow me any more. You must go home. I'm going home, too!’
It kept up its multi-purpose tail gesticulation programmed to express positive sentiments, while ‘listening’ to me, but roundly ignored my message.
The tailing continued.
Another hour or so elapsed. I saw a bus stop thronged with passengers waiting for a late bus. I had to do what I had to do...
Ten seconds later, I emerged from the far side of the crowd. I quickly crossed the frontage road and peeked back:
The same dog was sniffing round the feet of the passengers at the bus stop, one by one.
Now and then, it would stop and look up to perform facial identification...

I turned round and walked off.

順便欣賞一下這幅“怡然觀景圖”。同一天，同一座城市，四處游蕩時，不經(jīng)意間一抬頭……While I am at it, why don't I throw in this delightful picture? I was rambling along in the same city on the same day, when I casually looked up... and there it was, a languid canine onlooker!