Anyway, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life, and the way I ended up on this path was from a very tragic event. I was maybe 19, and my girlfriend at the time was killed in a car accident. And I passed the accident, and I didn't know it was her and I kept going, and I found out shortly after that, it was her. And I was living in a basement apartment, I had no money, I had no heat, no air, I had a mattress on the floor and the apartment was infested with fleas. And I was soul-searching, I was like, why is she suddenly gone, and there are fleas here? I don't understand, there must be a purpose, and wouldn't it be so convenient if we could pick up the phone and call God, and ask these questions.
总之，当时我不知道自己这一辈子要干什么，最后因为一件十分悲惨的事情，我找到了自己的人生目标。大约是在19岁时，我的女朋友在一次车祸中身亡。我路过事故现场时不知道是她，就继续走。但不久我发现，那就是她。当时我住在地下室的公寓里，我没有钱，没有暖气，没有新鲜空气，只是在地板上铺一个垫子，房间里到处都是跳蚤。我感到困惑不已。我在想，“为什么她突然走了？为什么我住在满是跳蚤的房子里？”我无法理解，但一定有理由的，要是能直接拿起电话问上帝的话不是太好了吗？
And I started writing and what poured out of me was an imaginary conversation with God, which was one-sided, and I finished writing it and I looked at it and I said to myself, and I hadn't even been doing stand-up, ever, there was no club in town. I said, "I'm gonna do this on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson"at the time he was the king-"and I'm gonna be the first woman in the history of the show to be called over to sit down." And several years later, I was the first woman in the history of the show, and only woman in the history of the show to sit down, because of that phone conversation with God that I wrote. And I started this path of stand-up and it was successful and it was great, but it was hard, because I was trying to please everybody and I had this secret that I was keeping, that I was gay. And I thought if people found out they wouldn't like me, they would laugh at me.
于是我开始写东西，脑海中涌现出一段与上帝的对话，那是只有我一个人的独白。写完之后，我看着我写的东西，对自己讲话。那时，我还没有开始做单人脱口秀节目，因为当时新奥尔良没有俱乐部。我说，我将要在“今夜秀”上和约翰尼·卡森一起表演这一段。他当时是主持界天王，我将成为该节目史上第一个和他一起坐下被访问的女性。数年之后，我成了该节目史上第一位、也是唯一一位和约翰尼一起坐下被访问的女性，完全是因为我写的“与上帝打电话对话”的剧本。从此我开始做单人脱口秀节目，并且非常成功。但也非常艰难，因为我想取悦每一个人。我守着一个秘密，那就是我是一个同性恋，我想人们要是发现了，就不会喜欢我了，还会嘲笑我。
重点讲解：
1. be infested with
多得成灾；
eg. The apartments were infested with rats and roaches.
公寓里面到处都是老鼠和蟑螂。
eg. The town used to be infested with bandits in the old days.
这个镇从前常遭到匪帮的骚扰。
2. soul-searching
自我剖析；深刻反省；
eg. My year was really spent doing a lot of soul-searching and trying to find out what had gone wrong in my life.
这一年来，我真的进行了许多深刻的反思，努力地找出自己的生活中到底哪里出了问题。
eg. After days of soul - searching he finally came to the decision to leave home.
他经过几天的反躬自问，最终决定离家而去。
3. pour out
涌出；倾吐，倾诉，毫无保留地诉说（思想、感情或经历）；
eg. The fabulous statistics continued to pour out of the telescreen.
电幕上神话般的数字不断奔涌出来。
eg. I poured my thoughts out on paper in an attempt to rationalize my feelings.
为了对自己的感情作出合理的解释，我把想法全都写在纸上。
4. one-sided
单方面的，一边的；
eg. I begin to suspect that this is a one-sided love.
我开始怀疑，这是一种单相思。
eg. Imposing one-sided adjustment on erstwhile debtors will not work.
让昔日债务人单方面调整不会有多大效果。
5. stand-up
单人滑稽表演；单口相声；
eg. When did you start doing stand-up?
你什么时候开始表演独白喜剧的？
eg. He does all kinds of accents, he can do jokes—he could be a stand-up comic.
他会模仿各种口音，还会讲笑话——他可以当个独角喜剧演员。
6. laugh at
嘲笑；讥笑；
eg. He may laugh at our discomfiture now, but before long he'll be laughing on the other side of his face.
他现在可以对我们幸灾乐祸，但是要不了多久他就会转喜为忧。
eg. To rub salt into her wounds, he began to laugh at her.
为了加深她的创痛，他开始嘲笑她。 |