读者文摘:魔术改变了我的生活(1)

I became a magician by accident. When I was nine years old learned how to make a coin disappear.

我成为一名魔术师是一个偶然。九岁的时候我学会了如何让硬币消失。

I'd read The Lord of the Rings and ventured into the adult section of the library to search for a book of spells—

我读过《魔戒》，并且冒险进入图书馆的成人区寻找咒语书——

nine being that curious age at which you're old enough to work through more than 1,200 pages of arcane¹ fantasy literature

九岁是一个好奇的年龄，这个年纪已经能够阅读超过1200页的神秘奇幻文学作品

but young enough to still hold out hope that you might find a book of real, actual magic in the library.

但你还年轻，仍然有希望可能会在图书馆找到一本关于真正魔术的书。

The book I found instead taught basic sleight-of-hand technique, and I dedicated² the next months to practice

我找到的那本书教的是基本的手法技巧，接下来我花了几个月时间练习

At first the magic wasn't any good.

起初，魔术表演的并不好。

At first it wasn't even magic; it was just a trick—a bad trick.

一开始它甚至不算是魔术，只是个恶作剧——一个坏把戏。

I spent hours each day in the bathroom running through the secret moves in front of the mirror.

我每天花几个小时在浴室里对着镜子练习隐秘动作。

I dropped the coin over and over, a thousand times in a day,

我把硬币扔了一遍又一遍，一天掉了无数次，

and after two weeks of this my mom got a carpet sample from the hardware store and placed it under the mirror to muffle³ the sound of the coin falling again and again

两个星期之后，妈妈从五金店买了一块地毯，把它放在镜子下面，以掩盖硬币一次又一次落下的声音，

I had heard my dad work through passages of new music on the piano,

我听爸爸在钢琴上练习新乐曲，

so I knew how to practice—slowly, deliberately⁴, going for precision rather than speed.

所以我知道练习方法——慢慢地，有意识地，追求精确而不是速度。

One day I tried the illusion in the mirror and the coin vanished.

有一天我试着对着镜子表演，然后硬币不见了。

It did not look like a magic trick. It looked like a miracle.

这看起来不像是一个魔术，像是个奇迹。

1 arcane   

adj.神秘的，秘密的

参考例句：

• The technique at one time was arcane in the minds of most chemists.这种技术在大多数化学家心目中一度是神秘的。
• Until a few months ago few people outside the arcane world of contemporary music had heard of Gorecki.直至几个月前，在现代音乐神秘殿堂之外很少有人听说了戈莱斯基。

2 dedicated   

adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的

参考例句：

• He dedicated his life to the cause of education.他献身于教育事业。
• His whole energies are dedicated to improve the design.他的全部精力都放在改进这项设计上了。

3 muffle   

v.围裹；抑制；发低沉的声音

参考例句：

• Mother made an effort to muffle her emotions.母亲努力控制自己的感情。
• I put my hand over my mouth to muffle my words,so only my friend could hear. 我把手挡在嘴上，遮住声音，仅让我的朋友听到。

4 deliberately   

adv.审慎地；蓄意地；故意地

参考例句：

• The girl gave the show away deliberately.女孩故意泄露秘密。
• They deliberately shifted off the argument.他们故意回避这个论点。