提要

僵持不下的英文是「ended in a deadlock」（困住鎖死），或「glued state」（膠著狀態）。 出自《史記．廉頗藺相如列傳》的「膠柱鼓瑟」：「王以名使括，若膠柱而鼓瑟耳。括徒能讀其父書傳，不知合變也。」是說用膠把琴柱粘住以後再嘗試演奏，柱不能移、無法調弦……比喻固執拘泥，不知變通的結果，往往害人害己。

In a small village in Himachal lived an old man and his wife. Both were over seventy and both loved each other. Only five other families lived in this tiny village of northern India.

One cold winter evening the old man and his wife were sitting inside their hut. Outside it was snowing. Suddenly the old man looked up and said, "I wish we could have some pakoras. I very much feel like eating pakodas today."

"I'll see if there's any besan (Gram flour) in the house," his wife replied. She got up and opened the tin of besan. "Oh, there's only a little bit here," she said. "It's too cold to go out and buy more. So I shall make pakoras from this little bit of besan."

The old woman lighted the fire and made pakoras. She made five. She gave her husband three pakoras and herself took two.

But the old man would not take the pakoras. "How can I eat three when you are getting only two ?" he said. "Take one pakoda from me."

"Two pakoras are enough for me," his wife replied. "It is you who asked for them. You take three now. Tomorrow I shall get more besan from the shop and make pakoras. I can then take one more than you."

"We'll see about that later," the old man said. "But today you must eat three pakoras."

They kept arguing like this all evening. Night fell, but they had still not eaten the pakoras. At last they agreed on a plan. "It is quite late," they said. "So let us go to sleep now. Tomorrow morning, the one who gets up first will have to eat three pakoras."

So they both went to sleep. Morning came. But still they kept lying in bed, eyes closed. Each wanted the other to get up first, for each wanted the other one to have three pakoras. It grew quite late and the sun rose high in the sky. But still they would not get up. The neighbours saw that their door was still closed. They got worried.

"What is the matter with the old couple ?" they said. "They still have not got up. Let us go and find out if they are all right."

The neighbours went and knocked at the door. They called out to the old couple, but there was no reply from inside. Then the neighbours hammered at the door with their fists. But still the door remained closed. Now they got really worried. "We shall have to break the door," they said. "The old people may be ill."

So they brought an axe and broke open the door. They then went in and saw the old man and his wife lying on their cots with eyes closed. "Oh no," they said. "They are both dead! Let us take them to the burning place."

When the old man heard this he shot up in alarm. He realised that they would both be burnt alive. "Oh very well," he cried. "I shall eat three andyou can eat the other two." On hearing this the old woman also shot up and cried, "That's what I've been telling you all this time. If you had listened to me, we could have eaten them last night. We wouldn't have gone hungry all night then. But we can eat them now."

When the neighbours heard this they were alarmed. They ran out of the door shouting. "Run! Run for your life! The ghosts of the old man and his wife are after us! They are going to eat us all up! The old man's ghost will eat up three families, and his wife's ghost will eat up the other two families in the village !"

The old man and his wife were surprised. They ran after the neighbours to tell them that they were not ghosts. At this the neighbours were even more frightened. They ran faster still.

Much later the old man and his wife told the neighbours about the pakoras. When they heard this, they burst out laughing. That day the old woman brought more besan from the shop and made lots of pakodas. Then she invited everyone in the village for a feast of pakoras. You see, she was sorry that she and her old man had given everyone such a fright.

解 說

在北印度喜馬偕爾邦的一個小村莊，住著一位老人與妻子，彼此相愛的兩個老人家都七十多歲了。在這個偏遠地方，只有五戶人家跟他倆作伴。

一個寒冷的冬天，老人和老妻坐在他們的小屋裡。外面下著雪，老人突然抬起頭說：「真希望我們有一些芭扣達（炸菜丸），我今天很想吃它。」

妻子回答他說：「我看看屋裡有沒有鷹嘴豆麵粉。」她起來打開了麵粉罐。「哦，這裡還有一點，」她說：「現在出去買太冷了，所以我先用現成的這些做一點。」

老太太生火烹製了五個芭扣達。她給了丈夫三個，自己拿了兩個。

但老先生不接受這樣的安排，「妳只有兩個，我怎麼能吃三個呢？」他說：「從我這裡拿一個吧！」

他的妻子說：「兩個炸菜丸對我來說夠了。是你想吃的啊，現在你吃三個，明天我會到店裡多買些麵粉、多製作些芭扣達。到時候我再從你盤裡多拿一個。」

「那個到時候再說。」老先生說，「但今天妳得吃三個。」

老夫妻整個晚上都在爭論「誰該多吃一個」。夜幕低垂，但是他倆碰都沒碰那五個炸菜丸。終於他們同意了一個計畫：「現在晚了，我們先睡覺，明天早上先起床的那個人，吃三個芭扣達。」

於是他們兩人都去睡覺，到了早上，他們仍然躺在床上、閉著眼睛。夫妻的心思一樣，都希望另一半先起床，這樣他（她）可以多吃一個芭扣達。就這樣僵持著，到了日上三竿的時候，還不起床。鄰居看到他們的門仍然緊閉，開始非常擔心。

「這一對老人家是怎麼回事呢？」他們說：「怎麼還沒起床，我們去看看他們是否無恙。」

鄰居們紛紛去敲門，呼喊老夫婦，但屋內沒有答覆。然後鄰居再握緊拳頭用力敲，但門仍然緊緊地關著。現在他們真的很擔心了：「我們必須打破門。」他們說，「老人可能生病了。」

於是他們拿來了一把斧頭破門，然後進屋一看，老夫妻躺在床上、閉著眼睛。 「哦，不好。」他們說：「他們倆死了，我們帶他們到火葬的地方吧。」

當老先生聽到「……到火葬的地方」的時候，他驚慌地起來，唯恐他們夫婦都會被燒死，「哦，好吧！」他喊著，「我吃三個，妳吃另外兩個。」聽到這話，老太太也竄起身喊著，「這是我一直在告訴你的，如果你聽了我的話，我們昨天晚上可以吃了。那就不用整晚都餓著了！但我們現在可以吃他們了。」

當聽到「……吃他們」時，受到驚嚇的鄰居奪門而出，喊著：「快跑，逃命啊！」「老人和他妻子的鬼魂在後面追我們，他們要吃掉全村！」「老先生鬼要吃三個家庭，老太太鬼會吃掉另外兩個家庭！」

見到這種景象，老夫妻很驚訝，他們追著鄰居，想告訴他們自己不是鬼魂。但是這樣一來，鄰居們更害怕、跑得更快。

追了很久以後，老人和他的妻子終於能向鄰居解釋關於想吃芭扣達的過程，當誤會澄清時，大家哄堂大笑。那天，老太太從店裡買了很多的麵粉，並製作了很多的芭扣達。然後，拜訪村裡的每一個人分送可口的炸菜丸。因為她真的很抱歉，她跟老先生讓全村人受到這樣的驚嚇。