TED演讲 :老兵为何恋战(5)

 He remembers people saying, as he was sort of half-conscious, he remembers people saying, Steiner's been hit in the head. Steiner's dead.  他记得。在他处于半清醒状态时听到人们说：斯坦纳被射中了头部。斯坦纳死了。

And he was thinking, I'm not dead.  他想：我没死。

And he sat up.  于是坐了起来。

And Brendan realized after that he could not protect his men,and that was the only time he cried in Afghanistan,was realizing that.  之后布伦丹意识到自己没能保护自己的手下在阿富汗那么久，他第一次哭了。因为他意识到没能保护他的战士。

That's brotherhood¹.  这就是兄弟情谊。

This wasn't invented recently.  这不是什么新词。

Many of you have probably read The Iliad.  在座的应该都读过《伊利亚特》。

Achilles surely would have risked his life or given his life to save his friend Patroclus.  阿喀琉斯宁可牺牲自己也要保护他的朋友普特罗克勒斯。

In World War II, there were many stories of soldiers who were wounded,were brought to a rear base hospital, 在二战期间也有许多故事,关于受伤士兵的故事。他们被送去后方战地医院。

who went AWOL, crawled out of windows,slipped out doors, went AWOL,wounded,to make their way back to the front lines to rejoin their brothers out there.  可是他们会逃跑,爬墙穿门。即使身负重伤也要回到战场。回到战士们中间。

So you think about Brendan,you think about all these soldiers having an experience like that, a bond like that,  所以想到布伦丹,就能想到这些战士。他们有着这样的经历，彼此之间建立起重要的纽带。

in a small group, where they loved 20 other people in some ways more than they loved themselves. 在一个小群体中关心着其他20个人胜过关心自己。

You think about how good that would feel, imagine it, and they are blessed with that experience for a year, and then they come home,and they are just back in society. 可以想象一下这是一种怎样的经历。他们有幸能有这样的经历回到家中回到社会中。

like the rest of us are, not knowing who they can count on,not knowing who loves them,who they can love,not knowing exactly what anyone they know. 像我们普通人一样不知道自己可以依赖谁。不知道谁关心自己，也不知道有谁值得自己关心不知道那些自己熟悉的人。

would do for them if it came down to it.  在自己倒下时会作何反应。

That is terrifying.  这是很恐怖的事情。

Compared to that,war, psychologically, in some ways, is easy,compared to that kind of alienation².  相比之下从心理上说，战争是很简单的,没有这种陌生感。

That's why they miss it, and that's what we have to understand and in some ways fix in our society.  这就是为什么老兵会恋战。我们必须要理解这种陌生感并且尝试找到办法去回应这一问题。

Thank you very much.Applause 谢谢大家。掌声。

 

1 brotherhood   

n.兄弟般的关系，手中情谊

参考例句：

• They broke up the brotherhood.他们断绝了兄弟关系。
• They live and work together in complete equality and brotherhood.他们完全平等和兄弟般地在一起生活和工作。

2 alienation   

n.疏远；离间；异化

参考例句：

• The new policy resulted in the alienation of many voters.新政策导致许多选民疏远了。
• As almost every conceivable contact between human beings gets automated,the alienation index goes up.随着人与人之间几乎一切能想到的接触方式的自动化，感情疏远指数在不断上升。