輯譯／黃裕美

Here comes the Diablo Rojo, the Red Devil bus in Panama City blasting its air horn and fishtailing around a fellow “demon” just in time to claim Irma Betancourt and other morning commuters. Suffice it to say the Red Devils earn their name. “They are crazy,” said Betancourt, 33, a housekeeper at a downtown hotel, boarding on a main boulevard. “We all know that. All they care about is getting the fare. So many times we have almost hit somebody.”

瞧，巴拿馬市「紅魔鬼」公車來了（見圖／法新社），狂按喇叭音量破表，再及時甩尾，繞過另一部「魔鬼」，讓艾瑪．貝當古等早上通勤族上車。這些紅魔鬼可不是浪得虛名。33歲的貝當古是市中心一家酒店管家，她在一條幹道上車。她說：「他們全瘋了，我們都很清楚這點。他們只要收到車資就好，很多次還差點撞到人。」

Her bus is like hundreds of others, a converted, cast-off American school bus ablaze with color, usually heavy on the red. As if painted by a graffiti artist addicted to action movies and sports, they often boast fanciful, dreamy scenes, including, improbably, a looming Dumbledore from the Harry Potter movies glaring at Betancourt as she climbs aboard.

一如其他數百輛巴士，她那部公車是由淘汰的美國校車改裝，車身五顏六色，通常偏紅，好像出自一個沉迷於動作片和運動的塗鴉畫家之手。它們多半是天馬行空的夢幻圖案，雖然有點難以置信，但其中包括哈利波特影片中魔法學校校長鄧不利多隱隱現身，正瞪著準備上車的貝當古。

“They evolved into the most visually dominant aspect of Panama City,” said Peter Szok, a professor at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth who has studied the buses and the folk art of Panama.

在沃斯堡德州基督教大學研究巴拿馬公車和民間藝術的史佐克教授說：「它們儼然已變成巴拿馬市最引人注目的一景。」

The buses, many of them retired from Florida schools, have been the backbone of public transit in Panama City for more than four decades, with the tradition of decorating vehicles used for public transportation going back even further. Szok traces the art form to a desire to reflect Latin music styles and an idealized life.

這些巴士多半是美國佛羅里達州學校所淘汰，過去40多年來，一直是巴拿馬市主要公共交通工具，但在公共運輸交通工具上塗鴉的傳統甚至可以上溯到更久以前。史佐克追溯這種藝術形式反映了拉丁美洲的音樂風格和一種理想生活的願景。

Panama City, however, is rapidly modernizing, with a towering skyline and sprawling shopping malls that promoters hope will put it on the map as another Singapore.

但巴拿馬市正迅速現代化，有高聳入雲的天空線和寬敞的購物商場，公關人員希望巴國有朝一日能和新加坡齊名。

With that has come a push for order. A subway is being dug. Roadways are being built or planned. The Red Devils, owned and operated by their drivers with no real set schedule, are being phased out in favor of something decidedly more vanilla and benign, a Metro Bus system with generic boxy white vehicles familiar in any cities. The only dash of a color is an orange slash. “Safe, comfortable, reliable,” is the slogan. There is even a route map.

隨之而來的是秩序的建立，開挖地鐵，公路也在建設或規畫中。由司機擁有和經營的紅魔鬼，並沒有真正表定發車時間表，它們逐步被淘汰，取而代之的是比較平凡可親的公車系統。和任何城市一般常見的白色四四方方的車輛一樣，唯一一抹顏色是橙色斜線。喊出的口號則是「安全，舒適，可靠」，甚至還有路線圖。

President Ricardo Martinelli, whose administration has championed the new system, has pointed to the new buses as a sign of progress, blaming the Red Devils for accidents and accusing them of unreliable service. “They will race from one end of the city to the other, killing people, killing themselves,” he said in a speech in Washington in April. “Yeah, a lot of people were killed.”

巴拿馬總統馬丁內利的政府正大力推銷這套新系統，他稱新巴士是進步的標誌，並指責紅魔鬼意外頻傳，服務不可靠。他去年4月在華盛頓演講時說，「它們從城市這頭衝到另一頭，撞死路人，他們自己也不能倖免於難。是啊，很多人因此喪生。」

But the Metro Buses, too, are drawing complaints, mainly for slow service. The 25-cent fare on most routes is expected to rise to 45 cents this year, and is already drawing grimaces. Some have taken to calling them the Diablos Blancos, the White Devils.

但這套市營公車系統也引起不少民怨，主要批服務牛步。大部分路線車資是25美分，但預計今年就會漲到45美分，這更引起民眾怨聲載道。有些人已改口叫他們「白惡魔」。

As the Red Devils disappear-- some of them, in the ultimate twist of fate, converted back to school buses, and others dismantled for scrap or sitting in bus boneyards--something a bit unexpected has emerged.

隨著紅魔鬼消失，造化弄人，其中有些最後竟又變回校車，其他則報廢或棄置巴士墳場，這時又出現一點意想不到的轉折。

The nostalgia ranges from the tongue in cheek-- a “Save the Diablo Rojo” YouTube video purports to mourn the end of tourists' losing their wallets, among other things, on them-- to genuine regrets. “It is a loss of part of our culture,”-- said Analida Galindo, a co-director of the Diablo Rosso art gallery in the historic Casco Viejo neighborhood. Yes, the gallery name is a play on the Red Devils' name.

懷舊的情緒從YouTube視頻鬧著玩的「搶救紅魔鬼」，到哀悼遊客在車上掉錢包等等日子的結束，到真正感傷不等。「這是我們文化的部分損失。」在巴拿馬歷史悠久的舊城區開紅魔藝廊的艾娜莉妲．賈林多說。沒錯，藝廊的名字濫觴於紅魔鬼巴士。

The painters were largely self-taught, many of them the sons of West Indian immigrants, though some in later years had gone to art school. They typically charged $2000 and up to paint the buses, meaning some are a kaleidoscope of images while, in others, the yellow has been barely painted over, depending on the wherewithal of the driver.

畫家大半無師自通，其中很多是西印度群島移民的孩子，但有些後來去上藝術學校。他們為巴士作畫通常收費2000美元起跳，這意味著有些塗上萬花筒圖樣，其他則連黃色都沒蓋住，視司機財力而定。

Some owners have complained that the $25,000 that the government is offering them in compensation for giving up their buses may sound generous but will not carry them very far. Several drivers said they could not get jobs with Metro Bus because of their poor driving records, though the new system has hired many Red Devil drivers. Other drivers said they had long held second jobs and would find other work.

有些車主抱怨，政府提供2萬5千美元，作為要他們放棄巴士的補償金，乍聽好像出手大方，但挨不了多久。幾位司機說，由於過去駕駛紀錄很差，因此無法向市公車找工作，雖然新的運輸系統已經請了很多紅魔鬼司機。其他司機則說，他們早就有第二份兼差，也會騎驢找馬。