读者文摘:我不知道自己还能活多久(1)

I Didn't Know How Long I'd Survive

我不知道自己还能活多久

The morning of Good Friday started like any other for Kurt Kaser, a third-generation farmer in northeast Nebraska.

对内布拉斯加州东北部的第三代农民库尔特·卡斯尔来说，耶稣受难日的早晨像平时一样开始了。

The 63-year-old, taciturn and as lean as a fence post, woke around 5:30, his wife, Lori Kaser, by his side.

这位63岁的老人沉默寡言、身体瘦弱，他大约在五点半左右醒来，妻子洛莉·凯瑟就在他身边。

He lit a cigarette, pulled on his muck boots, stuck an old pocketknife in a front pocket, and headed outside to start his day.

他点上一支烟，穿上他的破靴子，把一把旧的小刀插在前面的口袋里，然后出去了，他的一天开始了。

With 3,000 hogs¹ and roughly 1,500 acres of corn and soybeans, not to mention a small trucking business,

库尔特有3000头猪和大约1500英亩的玉米和大豆，更不用说还有一家小型卡车运输公司。

Kurt's to-do list never really shrank so much as recycled itself, though he understood all too well the dangers of rushing on the job.

库尔特的待办清单从来没有这么缩水过，尽管他非常清楚匆忙开工的危险性。

In sixth grade, he'd jumped down from his father's tractor only to land with one foot inside the corn picker.

六年级时，他从父亲的拖拉机上跳下来，结果一只脚伸进了玉米采摘机。

Though he didn't break any bones, the teeth mauled his foot and ankle so badly he spent the next three months in and out of a hospital bed,

虽然他没有骨折，但轮齿严重地损伤了他的脚和脚踝。在接下来的三个月里，他多次住院，

the surgeons finally grafting² skin from the top of his leg to the bottom before it could fully³ repair.

外科医生们终于将其皮肤从大腿顶部移植到底部，然后才完全修复。

"Everybody gets in a hurry and we just don't think," he says. "I got lucky on that one."

“每个人都很着急，我们只是不去想，”他说，“我在这件事上很幸运。”

On this Friday morning in 2019, he sent a few of his hired hands out to load some corn, then hopped⁴ in a grain truck himself to do the same.

2019年的这个周五早上，他派出几个雇工出去装玉米，然后自己跳上了一辆谷物卡车做同样的事情。

It was a beautiful day for a drive, Kurt remembers.

库尔特回忆说，那天是个开车的好日子，

Crisp and clear and, if the meteorologists were to be trusted, headed for the upper 60s by late afternoon.

凉爽、晴朗，如果气象员可信的话，下午晚些时候温度将为15度左右。

No rain, thank God—the Midwest and Great Plains had just endured historic flooding that destroyed a billion dollars' worth of crops.

感谢上帝，没有下雨，中西部和大平原地区刚刚经历了历史性的洪水，摧毁了价值10亿美元的农作物。

And only the slightest northwest breeze in Thurston County.

瑟斯顿县只有轻微的西北风。

He'd lived there, just a few miles outside of small-town Pender (population 1,100),

他就住在那里，离彭德小镇（人口1100）只有几英里远，

his entire life—long enough to know the fickleness⁵ of spring and appreciate a calm and sunny morning when he caught one.

他的一生足以体会春天的变化无常，当他遇到这样的日子时，就会让自己享受一个宁静而阳光明媚的早晨。

Long enough to marry Lori and raise a son and two daughters.

他娶了洛莉，育有一子两女。

Long enough to stumble and stand again, to crutch⁶ on booze and finally cut loose, to feel his community supporting him when he needed it the most.

他跌倒后又站起来，酗酒成瘾后，最终又戒了酒，在他最需要帮助的时候感受到了所在社区的支持。

1 hogs   

n.（尤指喂肥供食用的）猪( hog的名词复数 )；（供食用的）阉公猪；彻底地做某事；自私的或贪婪的人

参考例句：

• 'sounds like -- like hogs grunting. “像——像是猪发出的声音。 来自英汉文学 - 汤姆历险
• I hate the way he hogs down his food. 我讨厌他那副狼吞虎咽的吃相。 来自辞典例句

2 grafting   

嫁接法，移植法

参考例句：

• Even grafting new blood vessels in place of the diseased coronary arteries has been tried. 甚至移植新血管代替不健康的冠状动脉的方法都已经试过。
• Burns can often be cured by grafting on skin from another part of the same body. 烧伤常常可以用移植身体其它部位的皮肤来治愈。

3 fully   

adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地

参考例句：

• The doctor asked me to breathe in,then to breathe out fully.医生让我先吸气，然后全部呼出。
• They soon became fully integrated into the local community.他们很快就完全融入了当地人的圈子。

4 hopped   

跳上[下]( hop的过去式和过去分词 )； 单足蹦跳； 齐足（或双足）跳行； 摘葎草花

参考例句：

• He hopped onto a car and wanted to drive to town. 他跳上汽车想开向市区。
• He hopped into a car and drove to town. 他跳进汽车，向市区开去。

5 fickleness   

n.易变；无常；浮躁；变化无常

参考例句：

• While she always criticized the fickleness of human nature. 她一方面总是批评人的本性朝三暮四。 来自互联网
• Cor.1:17 This therefore intending, did I then use fickleness? 林后一17我有这样的意思，难道是行事轻浮么？ 来自互联网

6 crutch   

n.T字形拐杖；支持，依靠，精神支柱

参考例句：

• Her religion was a crutch to her when John died.约翰死后，她在精神上依靠宗教信仰支撑住自己。
• He uses his wife as a kind of crutch because of his lack of confidence.他缺乏自信心，总把妻子当作主心骨。