2016-06-28

【Aiden in English】

        I remember the exact project of making paper people in the first grade. It was a hard project, but we had buddies or older kids to help us. The objective was to build teamwork among the younger kids, but for most, all it proved was for frustration. Obviously, no one threw a temper tantrum, luckily. With a few grinding teeth and banging of hands, the entire class got through it without having a single crying student. We were proud of our great, ugly creation of a person, with its triangle eyes and the misshapen body. It was put up on display for weeks, showing the school of our amazing accomplishments. And for once, it felt good to be a first-grader, to do something rewarding. 

        Then we were told to crumble the project up. 

        Germany has a bad history regarding the best of people's safety, to put it lightly. And the fact that the world agrees strongly with this idea makes things much, much worse for the citizens of Germany. Berlin is probably the most affected city of WWII, assuming the city is not the one that has been bombed to the ground. Well, I shouldn't say that, since Berlin nearly was bombed to ashes during the second war. Most of the city was turned to rubble, and right after the war, the four major powers of the Allies, France, US, Britain, and former USSR, broke up Berlin, and the Berlin Wall was constructed in 1961. According to my mom who has been here several times over the past two decades, the wall had impacted the sides so much that the map might be shown a political border. It may as well have been said that the East and West Berlin were two different countries. Looking at things today, they are quite similar to one another. This was the first sign of unifying and rebuilding in the city. Another small sign was the digging up of bombs. At the local Allied Museum, our tour group viewed three bombs. Don't worry, and the gunpowder has been removed, as you are reading this entry right now. Two were from the war, but one bomb was dug up after the war in a nearby area. Even today, the bombs from the Nazis have continuously been found around Berlin, whether they were discovered by the detection or blowing up, I have no idea. 

        The main theme of the city came during the final phase of the tour when we went around Berlin taking quick photo stops. During the second war, most of the city's known landmarks were turned to craters. Since the division of the wall in the cold war, either side needed its own necessities. The opera house had two, as the east side lacked one after the wall and vice versa with many other buildings and public services. But after the wall came down, most of the doubles used the larger or more popular one, since the city has become one again.

        Probably the largest change of all would be the decimation of the wall. When mom was here soon after it was torn down in 1989, pieces of the wall were still furnished, and the border between the two old sections was very visible. Now, the Berlin Wall has been completely torn down, and the standing parts are rusted and falling apart. The city has also blended, mixing the two different cultures together, and breaking down the old international barriers that have been set ages ago. The city was recovering from the wounds of WWII, and it takes tremendous courage to be those who have forgiven the past. 

        Well, the paper people were mostly thrown in the trash after the project, but the topic was not to show how paper needed to be recycled. Although it is a good lesson, the real point was that after the paper was crumpled up, it could be smoothed out, yet the wrinkles could never be set to perfection. The city of Berlin is a paper man, and it has been crumbled up, leaving scars that cannot be taken away. The people have begun to smooth it out, taken away what wrinkles that can be removed, but there will always be the scars of the past into the future.

        Berlin is a city of surprises, like Germany itself: a rich past, a hopeful future, and a delightful present.

【紅霞譯文】

        我對小學一年級摺疊紙人仍然記憶猶新，當時覺得手工很難，幸虧有師兄學姐及時相助。開設這項課題的目的在於，培養師弟學妹們之間團隊合作意識，不過對大多數年幼無知的新生而言，收穫最大的莫過於直面挫折，好在無人亂發脾氣，頂多牙齒磨得咯吱響，拳頭手掌對擊得噼里啪啦，沒有一位同學哭過鼻子，最後總算完成了任務。我們無不為了不起的丑紙人而感到驕傲，它生有三角眼，長得奇形怪狀，在學校展覽數周，全校師生都看到了這件傑作，作為剛踏入校門的孩子，有生以來頭一次獲得認可，心裡還是美滋滋的。

        展覽完畢，我們的作品被拆除扔掉。

        婉轉一點說，德國歷史上在保障人權自由方面可謂劣跡斑斑，因此而殃及日耳曼民族，並把他們推進恐怖的深淵。柏林大概是第二次世界大戰中蒙受蹂躪最厲害的城市，暫且撇開被夷成平地的廢墟不說。呃，我真不該哪壺不開提哪壺，二戰期間柏林差一點就被炸成灰燼，到處滿目瘡痍；二戰結束後，由法國，美國，英國，前蘇聯等四大獲勝國組成的盟軍把柏林一分為二，致使柏林牆於1961年拔地而起，預示着兩大陣營的冷戰正式拉開序幕。過去廿多年，媽媽曾幾度專訪柏林，深切意識到這個被東德人稱之為反法西斯防衛牆的人造工事象徵着德國政治分裂，那時東、西柏林儼若兩個國家。廿六年後的今天，柏林已消除不同上層建築所造成的意識形態差異，這是統一柏林重建家園的首要標誌。其次要清除炸彈，在當地“盟軍博物館”里，導遊帶我們參觀三個炸彈，別擔心，你讀到這裡就會發現所有的彈藥均被掏空，其中兩個炸彈來自二戰，第三個炸彈則是戰後從附近發現的。即使當下，納粹埋在柏林地區的炸彈始終不停地被挖掘出來，我搞不明白它們究竟是被探測器掃到的還是自爆的。

        最後我們遊覽了柏林重要景點，趁機抓拍令人難忘的鏡頭。二戰期間，全城多數著名的建築物都付之一炬；隨着冷戰步步深入，柏林牆雙邊各起爐灶，東柏林為填充空缺而修建了自己的歌劇院，結果現在柏林光歌劇院就有兩座，其它樓房和公共設施同樣出現重複性問題。不過柏林牆拆除之後，只有氣派大或者名聲響的建築才被繼續使用，突出表現柏林一體化發展。

        柏林牆從有到無也許是最反映時代意義的變化，1989年柏林牆倒塌後不久媽媽便來過這裡，不僅清晰地看到原址上斷垣殘壁，而且對交界線東、西兩地人文風貌自然景觀之間的顯著差異感觸極深。多年來象徵國際敵對政治堡壘的柏林牆如今早已退出歷史舞台，用於撫今追昔的倖存部分內層鋼筋生鏽，外在水泥剝落，取而代之的是民族和諧文化交融的喜人景象，柏林逐漸從二戰中走出創傷的陰影，人們鼓足勇氣原諒過去。

        沒錯，紙人在完成使命之後恐怕被扔進垃圾，但這裡不是討論如何回收廢舊物資的地方。手工製作讓我們明白一個道理，扭曲變形的紙張固然可以重新伸展拉平，然而因為使勁加力生成的皺褶永遠無法徹底消除。柏林好比紙人，從戰後廢墟中重生，想必歷史給這座城市留下了道道傷痕令人難以忘卻，過去的事情不堪回首，但柏林人民努力釋然過去，為的是放眼未來。

        如同德國一樣，柏林以其悠久浩瀚的歷史文化，充滿希望的發展前景以及現階段愜意自由的民生環境，無不給世人帶來驚喜。