In a humble workshop in the southern coastal town of Sarafand, the Khalifa family runs the last of Lebanon's glass blowing enterprises and is fighting to keep this millennial heritage alive.

黎巴嫩南部沿海城市撒拉方德一家不起眼的工作坊中，哈利發家族正辛苦經營碩果僅存的吹製玻璃業，並努力拚鬥，希望救活這個有上千年歷史的傳統文化。

“Our profession has been passed on from generation to generation, and six of us Khalifas today are glass-blowers,” says Ali Khalifa, 48, who for decades has painstakingly created vases, flutes and jugs with his relatives.

48歲的阿里．哈利發和他的家族，數十年來辛苦精心製造了花瓶、香檳杯和水罐，他說：「我們這個行業代代相傳，今天，我們哈利發家族有6位吹製玻璃師傅。」

Seated inside the small workshop, Ali's nephew Mahmud swirls a metal rod round inside a crackling brick furnace, where pools of molten glass are turning bright orange. Minutes later, he pulls a glowing orange ball out of the oven and blows into the long steel tube, swirling it to create a bubble.

阿里的侄子馬哈茂德坐在狹小的工作坊裡，在劈啪作響的窯爐裡旋轉一根金屬棒，小池窯裡的玻璃熔漿正轉變成鮮橙色。幾分鐘後他抽出一團發出火光的橙色球體（圖1／法新社），再對著長長的鋼管吹氣同時不斷旋轉，形成一個氣泡。

Tongs in hand, the bubble grows as he gently presses down on the edges, fashioning a delicate glass carafe in the process. “Everyone in our family learned the art at a really young age,” explains Mahmud, who like his father before him became an apprentice in the family business at the age of 12.

他一手抓住火鉗，當他輕壓邊緣時，氣泡愈來愈大，並在這過程中形塑出一個精緻的玻璃水瓶。馬哈茂德傳承他父親，12歲那年成為這門家族企業的學徒，他解釋說：「我們家族每個人都在小小年紀就開始拜師學藝。」

For the next seven years, Mahmud learned to perfect the art of breathing life into molten mounds to create pitchers, vases and ornaments, using old bottles and other glass objects discarded by factories or scavenged from garbage sites.

隨後 7年，馬哈茂德學會了在熔漿中注入生命而使技藝更臻完美，他巧手創造了大水罐、花瓶和玻璃飾品，並到垃圾場搜尋或回收使用工廠丟棄的舊瓶罐和其他玻璃器皿。

It was in this very port city, once known as Sarepta, between the modern day areas of Sidon and Tyr on Lebanon's southern coast, that the Phoenicians invented the art of glass-blowing more than 2,000 years ago. According to legend, the seafaring merchants discovered a substance that could be stretched and molded running out from under the pots they used to cook their meals along the sandy beach.

就是在這個曾經叫撒利塔的港市，也就是今天黎巴嫩南部海岸西頓和提爾之間的地帶，古腓尼基人在 2000多年前發明了吹製玻璃藝術。根據一項傳說，航海商人在沙灘上用來烹煮的餐具下發現流出一種可以拉伸和形塑的物質。

Millennia later, as sales dwindle and fuel prices rise, artisans like the Khalifas are finding it increasingly hard to keep their tradition alive and make ends meet.

幾千年後，隨著銷量萎縮和燃料價格上漲，像哈利發這種玻璃工匠發現，既要維繫傳統絕活又要維持生計，已經難上加難。

The fuel-powered kiln must be turned on for 24 hours in order to reach the necessary temperature to heat the glass, racking up a hefty cost of $250 per day. Yet a glass cup sells for a mere six dollars while a hand-made chandelier goes for some $600.

靠燃料提供動力的熔窯必須連開24小時，才能達到加熱玻璃所需要的溫度，使每天成本高達250美元（約台幣7600元）。但一個玻璃杯充其量只能賣6美元，手工製作的枝形吊燈約 600美元（約台幣1.8萬元）。

“Ours is certainly not a lucrative business,” says Mahmud's sister Nesrine Khalifa, who manages the family's shop, decorated with vases and bowls in vibrant shades of blue, green and red.

馬哈茂德的妹妹奈絲琳．哈利發說：「幹我們這行，絕對賺不了什麼錢。」她負責管理家族店面，店裡擺飾著藍、綠、紅色的玻璃花瓶和碗盆，五彩繽紛（圖2／法新社）。

Sadly, the Khalifa men have had to turn to alternative means to provide for the family, Nesrine explains. “My father also works as a fisherman and my uncle Ali is a construction worker in addition to a glass blower. “They have to provide for our family.”

奈絲琳解釋說，遺憾的是，哈利發家的男人為了養家活口，不得不另謀生計。「除了吹製玻璃，我父親還要兼打漁，叔叔阿里也要當建築工。他們總得扶養一家老小。」

The Lebanese coast was once dotted with the iconic small huts of glass blowers, who could be seen seated by the sparkling Mediterranean practising their craft. Today, this art is all but forgotten as the once-treasured handiworks are replaced with mass manufactured imports.

黎巴嫩海岸一度隨處可見具代表性的吹製玻璃工匠小屋，這些工匠坐在波光粼粼的地中海畔苦練這門手藝。今天，隨著原本珍貴的手工藝品被量產的進口貨取代，這門技藝幾乎已經失傳。

“So many merchants today are selling products made in China and claiming they are hand-made in Lebanon,” lamented Ohannes Khoustekian, CEO of Azm 4 Crafts, a group that works to create job opportunities for local craftsmen.

Azm 4 Crafts是個全力為當地工藝師傅創造就業機會的團體，執行長庫斯特坎感嘆說：「今天一大堆商家都在賣中國製造的產品，還口口聲聲說是黎巴嫩手工藝品。」

For the Khalifas, a small consolation has been the schoolchildren who, fascinated with the roaring furnace and glowing molten glass, regularly visit the family's workshop to spend the day learning the basics of glass blowing.

對哈利發家族，聊堪自慰的是，有些學童對隆隆作響的爐窯和熊熊發光的玻璃熔漿著迷，定期到這家工作坊，花一整天的時間學習基本吹製玻璃技藝。

Khoustekian said Azm 4 Crafts recently stepped in to revive the tradition in the northern port city of Tripoli where, driven into poverty, the last glass blower gave up his craft seven years ago. Today, he is again practising the art thanks to the funds provided through Khoustekian's project. “This art has long been part of our culture,” says Khoustekian. “We have to preserve it.”

庫斯特坎說 Azm 4 Crafts 最近正加快腳步，希望能在北部港口城市的黎波里重振這項傳統技藝，當地最後一位玻璃師傅由於貧困交加，已經在7年前放棄這門手藝。今天，透過庫斯特坎提供的基金，他又開始幹起這項絕活。庫斯特坎說：「這門技藝早已是我們文化的一部分，我們必須保護它。」