Is Poverty?
You ask me what is poverty?Listen to me. Here I am dirty,smelly, and with no 'proper' under-
wear on and with the stench of my rotting teeth near you. I will tell you. Listen to me. Listen without pity. I cannot use your pity. Listen with understanding. Put yourself in my dirty, worn-out, ill-fitting shoes, and hear me.
Poverty is getting up every morning from a dirty and illness-stained mattress. The sheets have long since been used for diapers. Poverty is living in a smell that never leaves.This is a smell of urine, sour milk, and spoiling food sometimes joined with the strong smell of long-cooked onions. Onions are cheap. If you have smelled this smell, you did not know how it came. It is the smell of the outdoor privy. It is the smell of young children who cannot walk the long dark way in the night. It is the smell of the mattresses where years of 'accidents' have happened. It is the smell of the milk which has gone sour because the refrigerator long has not worked, and it costs money to get it fixed. It is the smell of rotting garbage. I could bury it, but where is the shovel? Shovels cost money.
Poverty is looking into a black future. Your children won't play with my boys. They will turn to other boys who steal to get what they want. I can already see them behind the bars of their prison instead of behind the bars of my poverty.Or they will turn to the freedom of alcohol or drugs, and find themselves enslaved. And my daughter? At best, there is for her a life like mine.
Poverty is an acid that drips on pride until all pride is worn away. Poverty is a chisel that chips on honor until honor is worn away. Some of you say that you would do something in my situation, and maybe you would, for the first week or the first month, but for year after year after year?
I have come out of my despair to tell you this. Remember I did not come from another place or another time. Others like me are all around you. Look at us with an angry heart, anger that will help you and help me. Anger that will let you tell of me. The poor are always silent. Can you be silent,too?
什么是贫穷?
你问我什么是贫穷?听着。现在我就在你旁边，脏兮兮，臭烘烘，没有“合适的”内衣裤可穿，满口烂牙散发着臭味。我来告诉你。听我说。只管听，别同情。你的同情对我无用。请带着理解的心来听。你自己穿上我那又脏又破，又不合脚的鞋，然后听我说。
贫穷就是每天早晨从粘满污垢和病菌的床垫上起床。床单早被用做了尿布。贫穷就是住在永不消散的异味中。这是一种混杂了尿味、酸牛奶味和食物的馊味，有时还加上浓烈的煮了很久的洋葱的味道。洋葱便宜。即使你已经闻到了这股味，你过去是不会知道它是怎么来的。那是屋外茅厕的味道；那是晚上还不能走长长的夜路的年龄很小的小孩的味道；那是年复一年不断有“意外事故”在上面发生的床垫的味道；那是早就坏了的冰箱里牛奶变酸了的味道，而修冰箱也要花钱；那是腐坏的垃圾的味道。我可以把垃圾埋了，但哪儿有铲子呢?买铲子也要钱。
我是出于自身的失望来告诉你这些的。记住，我不是来自另一个空间或另一个时间的人。在你周围还有其他像我一样的人。请心中充满怒火地看着我们，愤怒对你对我都有帮助。愤怒会让你讲述我的故事。穷人总是沉默的。你也能保持沉默吗?
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