Friday, November 9, 2007
Life and Death of a हीरो/英雄的生与死 （译文欣赏）
Life and death of a hero
You were well advised to leave your pity at the door of Christopher Reeve's airy, sun-filled home, hidden amid the rolling meadows and white wooden barns of upstate New York. What struck you first, as he was steered into the room, was his commanding height: his throne-like wheelchair lifted his broad-shouldered bulk off the ground; sitting down, you found yourself tilting your head upwards to look at him.
The accident's power over him was diminishing, he said, as his ventilator sucked and hissed. He no longer snapped awake in the quiet hours, forced to confront, all over again, the fact that he had no sensation from the neck down. He didn't need to turn away when he was driven past the barn where he kept Buck, the thoroughbred horse from which he had been thrown in 1995, breaking his neck. But learning to live with his paralysis wasn't the same as resigning himself to it. "I've still never had a dream that I'm disabled," he said. "Never." He had vowed, controversially, to walk again by the age of 50. At the time, that deadline was three weeks away.
Walking by 50 had only ever been a hope, not a prediction, Reeve insisted. But what made the news of his death so acutely disorienting was the fact that, on some level, so many of us thought that, eventually - albeit a few years behind schedule - he might actually do it. Of course, he had always stressed that ordinary disabled people were the real superheroes in response to the inevitable movie-themed questions. But for the rest of us, the personal narrative was too seductive to resist: Superman, brought down to earth, ultimately triumphs again through sheer force of will.
英雄的生与死
你最好把怜悯丢在克里斯托弗•里夫通风良好、充满阳光的家门外。他的家掩映在纽约州北部起伏的草地和白色木头畜棚之间。他被推进房间时，首先吸引你的是他那令人肃然起敬的高度。宝座一样的轮椅将他臂膀宽阔的硕大身躯从地面托起。落座之后，你发现，你得仰起头看他。
那场事故对他的影响正在减小，他说，呼吸机吸着气，咝咝作响。万籁俱寂之时，他不会再突然惊醒，又一次面对颈部以下失去知觉的事实。坐车经过饲养“巴克”的牲口棚时，他也不再转过脸避开。“巴克”是一匹纯种马，1995年，他正是从这匹马上摔下来跌断了脖颈。但是，学会在瘫痪状态下生活和听命于瘫痪不是一回事。“我还从来没有梦见过自己已是残疾人，”他说，“从来没有。”他曾经发誓五十岁时重新迈开双腿，尽管这曾引起颇多争议。因为那时，距离最后期限还有三个星期。
里夫坚称，五十岁时再走路只是希望，并非预言。但是，他的死讯之所以让人们如此不知所措，是因为这样一个事实：从某种角度看，我们那么多人都认为，即使比他的“时间表”晚几年，他最终也许真的能迈开双腿走路。当然，在回答人们不可避免提出的关于电影主题的问题时，他总是强调，普通伤残人才是真正的超级英雄。但是，对于我们大家，他个人的故事太具魅力而无法抗拒：回到现实生活中的超人，最终完全依靠意志的力量，又一次赢得胜利。
You were well advised to leave your pity at the door of Christopher Reeve's airy, sun-filled home, hidden amid the rolling meadows and white wooden barns of upstate New York. What struck you first, as he was steered into the room, was his commanding height: his throne-like wheelchair lifted his broad-shouldered bulk off the ground; sitting down, you found yourself tilting your head upwards to look at him.
The accident's power over him was diminishing, he said, as his ventilator sucked and hissed. He no longer snapped awake in the quiet hours, forced to confront, all over again, the fact that he had no sensation from the neck down. He didn't need to turn away when he was driven past the barn where he kept Buck, the thoroughbred horse from which he had been thrown in 1995, breaking his neck. But learning to live with his paralysis wasn't the same as resigning himself to it. "I've still never had a dream that I'm disabled," he said. "Never." He had vowed, controversially, to walk again by the age of 50. At the time, that deadline was three weeks away.
Walking by 50 had only ever been a hope, not a prediction, Reeve insisted. But what made the news of his death so acutely disorienting was the fact that, on some level, so many of us thought that, eventually - albeit a few years behind schedule - he might actually do it. Of course, he had always stressed that ordinary disabled people were the real superheroes in response to the inevitable movie-themed questions. But for the rest of us, the personal narrative was too seductive to resist: Superman, brought down to earth, ultimately triumphs again through sheer force of will.
英雄的生与死
你最好把怜悯丢在克里斯托弗•里夫通风良好、充满阳光的家门外。他的家掩映在纽约州北部起伏的草地和白色木头畜棚之间。他被推进房间时，首先吸引你的是他那令人肃然起敬的高度。宝座一样的轮椅将他臂膀宽阔的硕大身躯从地面托起。落座之后，你发现，你得仰起头看他。
那场事故对他的影响正在减小，他说，呼吸机吸着气，咝咝作响。万籁俱寂之时，他不会再突然惊醒，又一次面对颈部以下失去知觉的事实。坐车经过饲养“巴克”的牲口棚时，他也不再转过脸避开。“巴克”是一匹纯种马，1995年，他正是从这匹马上摔下来跌断了脖颈。但是，学会在瘫痪状态下生活和听命于瘫痪不是一回事。“我还从来没有梦见过自己已是残疾人，”他说，“从来没有。”他曾经发誓五十岁时重新迈开双腿，尽管这曾引起颇多争议。因为那时，距离最后期限还有三个星期。
里夫坚称，五十岁时再走路只是希望，并非预言。但是，他的死讯之所以让人们如此不知所措，是因为这样一个事实：从某种角度看，我们那么多人都认为，即使比他的“时间表”晚几年，他最终也许真的能迈开双腿走路。当然，在回答人们不可避免提出的关于电影主题的问题时，他总是强调，普通伤残人才是真正的超级英雄。但是，对于我们大家，他个人的故事太具魅力而无法抗拒：回到现实生活中的超人，最终完全依靠意志的力量，又一次赢得胜利。
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