读者文摘:因为你与我同在(2)

My cell phone rings, dragging me back to the present.

我的手机响了，一下子把我回拉到现实。

"He's drinking," the nurse says curtly¹.

“他在喝酒，”护士简短地说道。

"It looks like hard stuff."

“事情不太好处理。”

I ask her to hand him the phone.

我让护士把电话递给他。

Taking the phone, he says,

他拿起电话，说道，

"She's overreacting ... I'm just blowing off steam."

“她有点反应过度了……我只是在发泄。”

His name is Pete; his wife's name was Jimmie.

他叫皮特；他妻子叫吉米。

"Y'all think I'm nuts, don't you?"

“你们都觉得我疯了，是吗?”

"No, we think you're hurting.

“不，我们认为你受伤了，

But if you keep drinking, I'll have to get the cops involved to make sure nothing bad happens."

但如果你继续喝酒，我得让警察介入，确保不会发生什么不好的事。”

"All right, I'll put the whiskey away," he says gruffly.

“好吧，我把威士忌收起来，”他粗声粗气地说。

We talk about Jimmie and their life together.

我们谈一谈吉米，还有他们在一起的生活。

"What do you think Jimmie would say to you right now if she could see what's going on?" I ask.

“如果吉米看到你现在这样，她会对你说什么?”我问。

He starts crying. "She'd tell me to shut my damn² mouth and let people help me for a change."

他开始哽咽了。“她会让我闭嘴，找人帮我换个环境”

He hands the phone back to the nurse.

他把电话还给了护士。

"The guy is in a universe of hurt," I say.

“这家伙难过的无法自拔了，”我说。

"We need to respond to the pain without being thrown by the behavior."

“痛苦就得想办法面对，而不是在这儿把自己灌醉。”

Within minutes, I'm turning onto a dirt road with a No Trespassing³ sign.

不出几分钟，我就拐进了一条泥土路，上面写着“禁止入内”。

My mind returns to Claude at the bar.

我又想到了酒吧里的克劳德。

Until then, our conversations had skated along the intellectual surface.

在此之前，我们的谈话一直都还算理智。

That night, I'd sensed that Claude, an older guy who'd been knocked around by life,

但那天晚上，我感觉到克劳德像是一个老人，经历了岁月的沧桑，

was making himself uncharacteristically vulnerable⁴.

脆弱不堪。

Wanting nothing to do with it, I scoffed⁵:

我不想再去做什么，嘲笑说：

"Aren't you the guy who's always dismissed that stuff as wishful thinking?"

“你不是一直对那些东西不予理会吗?”

He smiled, his mouth just a bit off-kilter.

他笑了，嘴角很不自然地动了一下 。

"It comforts me to think that I won't be alone down in that valley,

“想到我不是一个人呆在那个山谷里，我感到很欣慰，

that someone will be with me, whether it's God, a friend, even a stranger."

有人会和我在一起，无论是上帝，朋友，甚至是陌生人。”

Then he turned serious. "Maybe you'll be the one lending a hand down in the valley someday."

然后他变得严肃起来。“也许某一天你会在山谷里向别人施以援手。”

1 curtly   

adv.简短地

参考例句：

• He nodded curtly and walked away. 他匆忙点了一下头就走了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The request was curtly refused. 这个请求被毫不客气地拒绝了。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 damn   

int.该死，他妈的；vt.指责，贬斥，诅咒

参考例句：

• Damn this useless typewriter!这台破打字机真该死！
• I knew damn well what he was going to say.我非常清楚他要说什么。

3 trespassing   

[法]非法入侵

参考例句：

• He told me I was trespassing on private land. 他说我在擅闯私人土地。
• Don't come trespassing on my land again. 别再闯入我的地界了。

4 vulnerable   

adj.易受伤的，脆弱的，易受攻击的

参考例句：

• He volunteered to protect her as she looked so vulnerable.她看上去很脆弱，他就主动去保护她。
• The company is in an economically vulnerable position.该公司目前经济状况不稳定。

5 scoffed   

嘲笑，嘲弄( scoff的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He scoffed at our amateurish attempts. 他对我们不在行的尝试嗤之以鼻。
• A hundred years ago people scoffed at the idea. 一百年前人们曾嘲笑过这种想法。