又中又英｜Cage homes

Hong Kong is supposed to be a prosperous city, but many people still live in appalling (shocking, very bad) conditions. I wrote about so-called cage homes as a reporter. These are rented beds surrounded by a cage to protect bed occupants and their belongings in overcrowded flats. I thought cage homes were a thing of the past but read that about 5,000 poor people still live in them. A thing of the past means something that no longer exists. The government now calls them bedspace apartments. But cage homes by any other name are still cage homes. Window dressing them can’t cover up this shame of Hong Kong.

Window dressing is the skill of arranging items in a shop window to attract customers. The expression can also mean creating a false impression of something to make it sound or look more impressive. Calling cage homes bedspace apartments is window dressing to hide the appalling conditions of cage homes. Subdivided homes are another shame of Hong Kong. They have appalling living conditions but more than 200,000 people live in them. Chief Executive John Lee Ka-chiu has created a task force to solve the problem but gave no timeframe on when such homes can be phased out.

Housing Secretary Winnie Ho Wing-yin admitted subdivided flats have deplorable (terrible, unacceptable) living conditions, such as toilets without walls or being right next to a bed. But she said the task force will need about ten months to make suggestions on how to solve the problem. I can’t understand why it takes so long just to make suggestions when the deplorable conditions are easy to see.

香港理应是个繁荣的城市，但许多人却仍然活在极为恶劣的（appalling）环境中。我做记者时，曾经写过所谓「笼屋」（cage homes）的相关故事。那是在挤迫的单位内予人租住的床位，以铁笼包围，用来保护租客以及他们的个人物品。我以为笼屋（cage homes）已是 a thing of the past，不料却读到，大约有五千穷人还住在那些笼屋里面。A thing of the past是指某事物已成过去、不复存在。政府现在叫它们做床位寓所。然而，笼屋（cage homes）换了个名字依旧是笼屋（cage homes），门面粉饰（window dressing）并不能掩盖这个香港之耻。

Window dressing是店铺橱窗装饰摆设的艺术，用以吸引顾客；这个习语也可以解作用一些弄虚作假的门面工夫，为某事物制造一个虚浮的外表，令它听或看起来更冠冕堂皇。叫笼屋（cage homes）做床位寓所是种门面粉饰（window dressing），用来遮掩笼屋（cage homes）可怕的（appalling）居住环境。劏房又是另一个香港之耻。它们也有恶劣的（appalling）居住环境，但有超过二十万人居住其中。特首李家超已经成立了专责工作小组去解决这个问题，却未能就这些居所何时被逐步淘汰，给出实质的时间表。

房屋局局长何永贤承认，劏房有着糟糕透顶（deplorable）的居住环境，例如厕所没有墙身分隔，又或马桶设在睡床旁。但她说，工作组需要十个月去作出建议，如何解决问题。我不能理解，当糟透的（deplorable）环境是那么显而易见，为何只是提出建议，也需要这么久的时间。

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Michael Chugani褚简宁
中译：七刻