In Ukraine they call them ‘Chernobylites’. People affected by the accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in then-Soviet Ukraine. Residents evacuated after the April 26, 1986 disaster lost their homes as well as their health. And the workers sent in to clean up also developed health problems.
在乌克兰,当人们谈到前苏联时期切尔诺贝利核电站受害者时常常称这些人为切尔诺贝利人。1986年4月26号灾难发生后,这些人不仅失去了家园,也失去了健康。那些赶到现场进行清理的工作人员也出现了健康问题。
Now that access to the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone has become possible, some evacuees are returning to visit their abandoned neighborhoods for the first time since those tragic events of 25 years ago.
现在人们可以重返切尔诺贝利撤离区,一些当年被疏散人头一次回到了这个因核事故而封闭了25年被废弃的社区。
Twenty-five-year-old Ivanna was just 6 months old when Reactor Number Four exploded at Chernobyl, and Pripyat - founded in 1970 to house workers for the plant - was evacuated. Over the years, she heard many stories from her parents about the city where she was born.
25岁的伊万娜被撤离时还是六个月的婴儿。当时切尔诺贝利核电站四号反应堆发生爆炸以后,这个1970年为核电站职工和家属兴建的叫作普里皮亚季的新城居民被全部撤离。伊万娜在成长的过程中常从父母那里听到很多她出生的这个城镇的故事。
"I wanted to go there," she said. "I was drawn to that place. I would ask my mother - ‘Mama, when can we finally go?’”
她说:“我很想回到那里,那是令我魂牵梦萦的的地方,我小时候经常问,‘妈妈,我们到底什么时候才能回到那里去看看?’”
At the time of the Chernobyl disaster, Ivanna’s older brother Yevhen was seven years old. "My childhood was very happy there, in Pripyat. Then came the constant moves, visits to clinics," he said.
切尔诺贝利核电站发生事故时,伊万娜的哥哥叶夫罕才7岁。他说:“我在普里皮亚季度过了快乐的童年。事故发生以后,一切都变了,我必须经常去看病。”
The Makarevych family now lives on the outskirts of the capital. Kyiv. But mother Nadiya, who worked as a medical assistant in Pripyat ,and father Vasyl, who made cement blocks at the plant, still cannot forget the town where they were so happy.
这对兄妹的家庭现在居住在首都基辅郊外,但是他们的父母至今仍不能忘记那个曾经幸福生活过的城镇。当时母亲娜迪亚在普里皮亚季是一位医务助理,父亲瓦西里是核电站的水泥工。
It was paradise on earth. We had a river nearby, woods nearby, multitudes of children all around, all young. There were many flowers. It was so beautiful," she said.
母亲一回忆起原来的家就充满幸福感,她说那里附近有小溪流水、沃野丛林、门外是鲜花绿草,简直像世外桃源,到处充满了孩子们的欢声笑语,一切都美不胜收。
This former paradise is now known as the Exclusion Zone. Scattered throughout the area, the family finds checkpoints, barbed wire and stations that measure radiation levels.
这个犹如天堂的城镇现在变成了禁区,四周布满了检查点,铁丝网和测量放射线的检测站。
To get to their apartment, the Makarevych family needs a special pass. They will also need to overcome quite a few physical obstacles.
为了回到原来的公寓,这个四口之家必须得到特别通行证,此外还克服不少健康方面的障碍。
The family finally arrives at the apartment. The door easily gives in and memories come flooding back. "This is the frame of my crib. My father made it himself, by hand," she said.
当他们轻轻打开那个公寓房门的时候,往日的情景立即涌现在眼前。女儿伊万娜说:“这就是我的小床,现在只剩了框架,当初是我父亲自己动手为我做的。”
The morning of the accident, Ivanna’s crib stood below an open window. No one knew of the explosion or the radiation leak, and no one said anything. That morning Nadiya had sent her son off to school and was set to wash the windows and paint the balcony in preparation for May Day celebrations.
事故发生的当天早上,伊万娜的小摇篮就在一扇窗户底下。当时人们还不知道发生了爆炸,不了解泄漏了放射性物质,也没有人报怨。那一天,母亲照常送儿子到学校上学,回来后又清洗门窗,油漆阳台,准备迎接5.1劳动节的到来。
Having visited their own apartment, the family goes next door. After the evacuation, they lost contact with their neighbors, so they scratch their telephone number in Kyiv on the wall - just in case.
看过了自己原来的家,他们又去看了邻居的房子。多年后,老邻居都已经失去了联系,因此哥哥把在基辅的电话号码一字一字地念着写在了墙上。
Ivanna searches for her birth records in Pripyat’s Maternity Ward without success.. But her brother Yevhen finds his teacher’s grade book in the building where he went to school.
"Here I am, here I am ! Makarevych: 3, 3, 3, 5," he said.
Even the date of the accident April 26, 1986 has been entered: Makarevych, Yevhen - present.
他甚至把事故发生的日子1986年4月26号,也写在了墙上,并写下了自己的名字。
At the end of the day, these Pripyat evacuees stand alone among the abandoned buildings of a ghost town. They came here with the intention of leaving behind their fears. But it appears they only re-opened old wounds that have held them captive for a quarter of a century.
一天就要过去了,几名从普里皮亚季撤离的居民仍在废弃的建筑物旁留连忘返。重回故里或许是为了要最终走出恐惧的阴影,但是对有些人来说,这次故地重游却再次揭开了25年未愈的创伤。 |