India Boxer Fights for ‘Emancipation and Empowerment’
女拳手為解放與賦權而戰
By Nida Najar

NEW DELHI – Mangte Chungneijang Mary Kom, the most celebrated female boxer in India, grew up fighting.
印度最知名女拳手瑪麗．科姆在奮戰中長大。

She fought convention as the eldest child of a landless farmer in the northeastern state of Manipur, where she drove steer across rice fields, work that boys let her know belonged to men.
她跟傳統奮戰，身為印度東北部曼尼浦爾邦佃農的長女，她在稻田裡發號施令，男孩們告訴她那是男孩的事。

She fought lack of means when she trained in the state’s capital as a teenager – buying knockoff sneakers in a black market bordering Myanmar, making do with two meals a day, shadowboxing her reflection in a mirror.
青少年時在曼尼浦爾邦首府受訓，她跟物資缺乏奮戰，她從印緬邊界黑市買來山寨運動鞋，每天只吃兩餐，把鏡裡的自己當成假想敵練拳。

She fought her own body after undergoing one cesarean section for twin boys, then another for a third boy, then training through postpartum sluggishness.
她跟自己的身體奮戰，剖腹生下一對雙胞胎男孩後，又剖腹生了第三個兒子，接著在產後停滯期受訓。

It is perhaps not surprising then, that Ms. Kom, 32, who goes by the name Mary, cannot seem to give up the fight.
那麼，也許並不令人感到意外的是，現年32歲、人稱瑪麗的她似乎無法放棄奮戰。

She is a five-time world champion, was the Olympic bronze medalist at the London Games, and was the gold medalist at last fall’s Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea. Her autobiography, “Unbreakable,” was released in 2013 at a ceremony hosted by the Indian actress and former Miss Universe, Sushmita Sen, who called it a story of “a woman’s road to emancipation and empowerment.” She was the subject of a Bollywood biopic, perhaps the chief indicator of having arrived in India.
她五度拿下世界拳賽冠軍，並得過倫敦奧運拳擊銅牌，去年南韓仁川亞運金牌。2013年在印度女星、前環球小姐蘇絲米塔．森主持的儀式中，瑪麗推出自傳《牢不可破》（Unbreakable，暫譯），蘇絲米塔稱該自傳為「女性邁向解放與賦權之路」的故事。瑪麗是一部寶萊塢傳記電影的主題人物，這也許是她在印度已功成名就的主要指標。

But her rise has been punctuated by deep grievances, often against what she describes as a sports bureaucracy stacked against her and fellow boxers.
但她的發跡夾雜著深沉的不平不滿，而那種痛苦通常來自她所謂阻礙她及其他拳手的體育官僚體系。

The Indian Boxing Federation suspended Ms. Kom for unsportsmanlike conduct in 2009, after a tied bout was awarded to her opponent, Pinky Jangra, from the north Indian state of Haryana. Ms. Kom used “foul language” with the judges. She lost to Ms. Jangra again in 2014, in a qualifier for the Commonwealth Games.
2009年在一場勢均力敵的比賽中敗給來自印度北部哈里亞納邦的對手萍姬．珍瓜爾後，瑪麗因對裁判「口出穢言」遭印度拳擊協會以有違運動精神裁定暫時禁賽。2014年大英國協運動會資格賽中她再度敗給萍姬。

Her opponent, she said, had “never, ever beaten me. But the referees don’t favor me, they don’t give any points to me.”
瑪麗說，對手「從未打敗我，而是裁判不喜歡我，他們一分都不給我」。

Ms. Kom added, “In India, there is this problem facing most of the boxers from the Northeast.”
瑪麗還說：「在印度，來自東北部的多數拳擊手都面臨這個問題。」

India has struggled to contain multiple insurgencies within its cluster of northeastern states. Most of the states are dominated by tribal populations with ethnic ties to their Southeast Asian neighbors. When they come to Delhi or Bangalore for school or work, many complain of discrimination.
印度一向苦於無法控制東北部數邦的暴動。這些邦多由部落人口控制，而這些部落與東南亞鄰國部族有血緣關係。許多到德里、邦加羅爾去上學或工作的印度部落人都抱怨受到歧視。

Ms. Kom, who is from the tiny Kom community, is no exception. Several years ago, she was walking to church in a South Delhi neighborhood with friends, all Koms. A bus pulled up beside them, and the conductor called them Nepalis, implying, she said, that they were part of a migrant servant class. She does not remember who threw the first punch, but before she knew it, her male friends were fighting with passengers, while others fled.
來自小型部落科姆的瑪麗也不例外。幾年前，她跟一群同是科姆人的朋友步行去南德里社區教堂途中，一輛巴士停在他們旁邊，車掌稱他們尼泊爾人，瑪麗說，那暗指他們是外來傭工階級。她不記得誰先動手，但在她弄清楚狀況前，幾個男性友人已跟巴士乘客打了起來，其他乘客都逃了。

Among northeastern Indians, she said, “the face is mostly similar, they think that we’re from Nepal, and they really look down on us. That’s the main problem. They don’t know where we are from.”
她說，印度東北部人「臉孔大都很像，人家都以為我們來自尼泊爾而真的瞧不起我們。那是最大問題。他們不知我們打哪裡來。」

When she is in the ring, she circles opponents, deftly ducks punches, and lands left hooks straight on the face for maximum points. And she has a knack for intimidation.
當她上場比賽，會圍著對手轉圈，靈巧閃躲，且以左鉤拳攻擊對手的臉，拿到最多分數。她還有恫嚇妙招。

“When Mary Kom enters the ring, she’s already won,” said S Sabanayakan, a sportswriter who has followed her career.
持續追蹤瑪麗拳擊表現的運動作家薩巴納亞坎說：「瑪麗一上場，就已經贏了。」

She has been described alternately as cagey and simple, humble and proud. Her focus is on the Rio Olympics in 2016. She is seen as a straight-talker, and by extension, an ineffective diplomat. When she complains of bias, she does it with an air of setting the record straight. And she is not humble about her status – she wears the distinction with an air of vindication and defiance.
曾有人以狡黠又單純、謙虛又傲慢形容她。她現在把重點放在2016年里約奧運。在許多人眼中她說話率直，因為太直而無法圓滑機敏。當她抱怨他人有成見時，說得義正詞嚴。她對自己目前的地位並不謙虛－帶著一股平反及挑戰之氣。

“It happened because of God’s grace and my struggle, hard work, determination – because of my dedication,” she said. She wore a T-shirt with two gloves on it, each emblazoned with her name.
她說：「我能成功是因為上帝的恩典和我的奮鬥、努力、堅決－因為我完全投入。」她穿著一件T恤，上面印著兩只拳套，都繡著她的名字。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/27/world/asia/for-indias-most-famous-female-boxer-a-fight-against-prejudice-.html

2015-01-27聯合報/G5版/UNITED DAILY NEWS 馮克芸譯 原文參見紐時週報十一版上