一本《足球小將》成敘利亞難民兒童夢想的港灣

"The situation in Syria is terrible - so terrible that I think it stops kids from dreaming. But it's their dreams that one day will make Syria good again," says Obada Kassoumah.

“敘利亞的情況非常糟糕，糟糕到那裏的孩子已經沒有夢想。但是，只有他們有夢想，敘利亞未來纔會再次好起來，”奧巴達?凱瑟馬說。

"I wish I could just give them a little bit of hope and make them believe that yes, they can have dreams."

“我希望我能帶給他們一絲希望，讓他們相信，他們可以擁有夢想。”

Obada is a Syrian student in Tokyo who, by a mixture of chance and determination, has become the translator of Japanese manga comics into Arabic.

奧巴達是在東京留學的敘利亞學生，運氣和決心讓他成爲一名日本漫畫的阿拉伯語翻譯。

And by another twist of fate, many of these Arab editions of football saga Captain Tsubasa have been donated to aid agencies and are being handed out to Syrian refugee children across Europe and the Middle East.

在命運的安排下，他翻譯的衆多阿拉伯文版《足球小將》漫畫被捐贈給救助機構，並送到歐洲和中東的敘利亞難民兒童手中。

For Obada, the project started as an unexpected translation job but has become something very personal and important.

對於奧巴達來說，這項公益活動起源於一份意外的翻譯工作，但卻對他個人具有重大意義。

A narrow escape

死裏逃生

As a student of Japanese at university in the Syrian capital, Damascus, Obada received a scholarship to go to Japan for an exchange programme. That was in 2012, and the unrest in the country had already started.

2012年，奧巴達在敘利亞首都大馬士革的大學學習日語時拿到了一個日本交換項目的獎學金。那一年，這個國家已經爆發動盪。

The situation got worse and worse and often he would be stopped by the police in the street suspecting that as a young man he might be a rebel fighter.

敘利亞的情況越來越糟糕，作爲一名年輕男性，他經常在街上被懷疑他是叛軍的警察攔住。

When the situation got too dangerous, his parents decided to send him to live with his aunt in Jordan until he could leave for Tokyo.

當情況實在太危險時，奧巴達的父母決定在奧巴達前往東京前，將他送到約旦和阿姨一起生活。

It was almost already too late - it was only through personal connections that he managed to cross the border.

但那時已經太晚了，他只能動用一些人脈關係才成功出國。

When his scholarship ended a year later, he was able to stay in Japan by enrolling as a regular student, and picked up a part-time job translating Captain Tsubasa.

一年後，奧巴達的獎學金結束了，他被錄取爲普通學生，得以留在日本，並接下了翻譯《足球小將》的兼職工作。

"I myself watched Captain Tsubasa as a kid on TV and I loved it," says 26-year old Obada.

26歲的奧巴達說：“小時候，我很喜歡在電視上看《足球小將》，我很喜歡這個漫畫。”

"It's a story about a kid having a dream to become a professional football player and working hard to make that dream come true."

“它講述的是一個小孩兒夢想成爲職業足球運動員，併爲實現夢想而努力的故事。”

"And that's something beautiful, that's something you should make these kids see."

“這個故事很美好，應該讓敘利亞的孩子們看到。”

Initially, adapting the books for the Arab market was a mere business decision by a Japanese publisher.

最初，將《足球小將》翻譯成阿拉伯文版只是一家日本出版商的商業決策。

But they were then approached by Prof Masanori Naito, a Middle East specialist at Doshisha University in Kyoto.

但隨後，京都同志社大學的中東問題專家內藤正則教授聯繫到他們。

Prof Naito had spent several years in Damascus as a doctoral student in the 1980s and was looking for ways to help people affected by the conflict.

上世紀80年代，內藤教授在讀博期間曾在大馬士革待過幾年，他正在尋找幫助難民的方法。

He suggested the publisher could donate some of the manga books to refugee kids.

他建議出版商可以向難民兒童捐贈一些漫畫書。

"The tragedy of Syria," he says, "is a very serious concern to me. Back then I worked in villages that are now held by the rebel forces."

他說：“我非常關心敘利亞發生的悲劇。當年我工作的村莊現在已經被反政府武裝控制。”

The original copyright holders in Japan, Shueisha publishers, were immediately ready to fund the donations, he said.

他說，該漫畫的原著版權持有者日本集英社立刻準備資助捐贈活動。

Through co-operation with a number of international NGOs and Unicef, the books are now being distributed to young Syrian children in camps across Europe, Turkey and the Middle East who have escaped the terror and trauma of the civil war ravaging their home country.

在多個國際非政府組織和聯合國兒童基金會的幫助下，這些漫畫書被分發給歐洲、土耳其以及中東難民營裏的敘利亞兒童。他們爲擺脫內戰帶來的恐懼和創傷背井離鄉。

"It is very far from the reality they know," Prof Naito explains. "But for kids it is very important to be able to escape from reality for a while. And these books can also give them some hope for their own future."

內藤教授說：“書中的描寫和他們所知道的現實差距很大，但是對於孩子們來說，能夠從現實中逃離一段時間是非常重要的。而這些書籍也能給他們的未來帶去一些希望。”

Manga he says, could even be "a tool of soft power against despair and radicalisation".

他說，漫畫甚至可以成爲“對抗絕望和激進行爲的軟實力工具”。

A surprise from Japan

來自日本的驚喜

One of the places where Captain Tsubasa now provides a small escape from reality is a refugee home in Berlin where just last week, the copies were handed out by German-Turkish NGO Wefa to around 60 refugees.

《足球小子》爲柏林的難民之家提供了一處逃避現實的小小港灣。上週，德國和土耳其共同建立的非政府組織Wefa將這些漫畫書分發給約60名難民。

"It was really something quite unique and we got a completely different reaction from normal," Ismet Misirlioglu of Wefa told the BBC from Berlin.

來自Wefa的伊斯梅特在柏林接受了BBC採訪，他說：“這些漫畫書非常獨特，孩子們的反應和平時完全不同。”

"What the children usually get are of course clothes and food and so they were really surprised when we suddenly had Japanese manga books - in their own language," he says, laughing.

他笑着說：“通常孩子們得到的是衣服和食物，所以當阿拉伯語的日本漫畫書出現時，他們感到非常驚喜。”

"And you really could tell that from their eyes!"

“你從他們的眼神中就能看出來！”

Wefa in Berlin is planning to give out more of the books in the coming weeks.

柏林Wefa組織打算在未來幾周發放更多的漫畫書。

A duty to help

幫助他們是我的義務

Back in Tokyo, Obada Kassoumah is still at work putting ever more adventures of Captain Tsubada into Arabic. He is currently translating volume seven out of 37.

在東京，奧巴達?凱瑟馬仍在努力把更多《足球小將》的冒險故事翻譯成阿拉伯語。目前，他已經翻譯了37卷中的7卷。

For him, going back to Syria is not an option.

對於奧巴達而言，他無法回到敘利亞。

Instead, he will stay in Japan for now and finish his degree - he knows Syria will need his skills in the future and he hopes he can have a bigger impact if he works building links between the two countries.

目前，他將留在日本完成學業。他知道，將來敘利亞將需要他的技能，而他希望通過自己的努力發揮更大的影響，在兩國之間架起一座橋樑。

"I have friends who are fighting with the government and other friends who are fighting with the rebels," he says with a heavy voice.

奧巴達語氣沉重地說：“我有朋友在和政府戰鬥，也有朋友在和叛軍戰鬥。”

"We are all one family - and now they wish death to each other, trying to kill each other."

“我們都是一家人，而現在他們卻希望對方去死，他們試圖殺死對方。”

But he hopes his translations will put a smile on the face of a Syrian child somewhere, trying to forget the terror of the past.

奧巴達希望，他翻譯的漫畫能給某個試圖忘記恐怖過去的敘利亞兒童帶去一絲笑容。

"As a Syrian it's like my duty to help - and through this thing I can help.

“作爲一名敘利亞人，我有義務幫助他們，而我能通過這件事幫到他們。”

"This way the children can - at least for a bit - forget all the bad memories they have from the war."

“這樣可以讓孩子們忘記戰爭留下的糟糕記憶，就算不是全部，至少可以有一點幫助。”