读者文摘:顿悟时刻(2)

Lovell's next move was hard for even him to believe.

洛弗尔接下来的行为连他自己都难以相信。

He returned the guy's money and declared himself done with the swindler's life.

他把钱还给了那个人，并宣称从此金盆洗手。

"There was an absolute epiphany that I just couldn't do it anymore," he says.

他说：“我醒悟过来了，我再也不这样做了。”

The next day, he felt different. Lighter¹.

第二天，他感觉就不一样了，放松多了。

"I had become," he says, "a real human being again."

他说：“我再次做回我自己了。”

He never ran another con².

他再也没有行骗。

In the decades that followed,

在接下来的几十年里，

Lovell turned his gift for smooth patter and sleight³ of hand into a successful oneman show that ran off-Broadway for eight years.

洛弗尔把他那花言巧语和巧妙手腕的天赋变成了一场成功的独角戏，在百老汇上演了八年。

After he suffered a stroke, good wishes and cash donations for his care poured in from friends and fellow magicians.

在他中风后，他的朋友和同行们纷纷寄来了美好的祝愿和捐款，以示关心。

In his professional world and well beyond it, Lovell had become respected, even beloved.

洛弗尔在其专业领域内外广受尊敬，甚至深得爱戴。

His rehabilitation⁴ was complete.

他的身体康复了。

That moment in the hotel had been Lovell's wake-up call.

旅馆里的那一刻唤醒了洛弗尔。

But what is a wake-up call—or, if you'd rather, an epiphany or an aha moment?

但是什么唤醒了洛弗尔呢——是耶稣显灵，还是幡然醒悟呢?

What could possibly explain an event so unexpected, forceful, and transformative that it cleaves⁵ a life into two parts: before and after?

有什么能解释如此出乎意料、以至于将人生分成两个部分：之前和之后的巨大转变呢？

1 lighter   

n.打火机，点火器；驳船；v.用驳船运送；light的比较级

参考例句：

• The portrait was touched up so as to make it lighter.这张画经过润色，色调明朗了一些。
• The lighter works off the car battery.引燃器利用汽车蓄电池打火。

2 con   

n.反对的观点，反对者，反对票，肺病；vt.精读，学习，默记；adv.反对地，从反面；adj.欺诈的

参考例句：

• We must be fair and consider the reason pro and con.我们必须公平考虑赞成和反对的理由。
• The motion is adopted non con.因无人投反对票，协议被通过。

3 sleight   

n.技巧，花招

参考例句：

• With a little statistical sleight of hand they could make things look all right.只要在统计上耍些小小的花招，他们就能瞒天过海。
• In the theater of the media there is an economic sleight of hand.传播媒介在经济上耍了一个大花招。

4 rehabilitation   

n.康复，悔过自新，修复，复兴，复职，复位

参考例句：

• He's booked himself into a rehabilitation clinic.他自己联系了一家康复诊所。
• No one can really make me rehabilitation of injuries.已经没有人可以真正令我的伤康复了。

5 cleaves   

v.劈开，剁开，割开( cleave的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This wood cleaves easily. 这木材好劈。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• The water cleaves the banks away like a knife. 河水象一把刀似的，把两岸削掉。 来自辞典例句