读者文摘:最美的赞歌(4)（在线收听）

And then I thought back to when I was real young and my mom had sent me to Catholic school.

然后我回想起在我很小的时候，我妈妈把我送到天主教学校。

It was the ’70s, and there had been this hippie nun who would come out with a guitar at recess and sing hymns on the playground.

那是70年代，有个嬉皮士修女会在课间休息时拿着吉他出来，在操场上唱赞歌。

She always sang “Michael Row Your Boat Ashore.” And I was like, ooh, ooh—I did know a hymn!

她总是唱“迈克尔划你的船上岸”。我说，哦，哦，我知道一首赞歌！

I turned to the organist, who was waiting patiently, and I said, “‘Michael Row Your Boat Ashore,’ please, ma’am.”

我转向耐心等在一旁的风琴师，对他说：“‘迈克尔划你的船上岸’，夫人。”

The music started, and about the place where it felt like there should be some words, I started to sing.

音乐开始了，在应该出现一些歌词时，我开始唱。

“Michael, row your boat ashore, alleluia. Michael, row your boat ashore ...”

“迈克尔，把你的船划上岸，哈利路亚。迈克尔，把你的船划上岸...”

It was about the time I reached the second alleluia that I realized that was in fact the only line I remembered.

直到我到达第二个哈利路亚时，我才意识到这实际上是我记得的唯一的一句歌词。

But Shawnees have never been quitters. So I decided there can be different versions of the same song.

但肖尼人从来不会轻易放弃。所以我决定一首歌可以有不同的版本。

There could be extended dance remixes, where vocals are looped repetitively.

可以有延长的舞蹈混合，其中声乐是循环重复。

And so I thought I’d sing the line four times, give it a little bit of a rest, sing it four more.

所以我想我应该把这句话唱四遍，稍微休息一下，再唱四遍。

And so on for a total of 16 times, which seemed long enough to be a real song.

以此类推，一共唱了16遍，看起来足够长了，足以成为一首真正的歌曲。

About halfway through I closed my eyes, because sometimes it’s better not to see your audience.

大概唱到一半时，我就闭上了眼睛，因为有时候最好不要看到你的观众。

And while I stood there singing, I had plenty of time for existential questions, like: Who is Michael?

当我站在那里唱歌时，我有很多时间思考存在主义的问题，比如：迈克尔是谁？

Why does God want him to row his boat ashore? And then, finally, I hit that line for the 16th time and I stopped.

为什么神要他把船划到岸上？然后，最后，我唱了16次后，我停了下来。

The organist, who was not quite sure what was happening, continued to play,

风琴手不太清楚发生了什么事，他继续演奏，

but when she realized it was finally over, she stopped in kind of an abrupt way, and then there was silence, and in that silence I walked back down the aisle.

但当她意识到这一切终于结束时，她突然停了下来，然后是一片寂静，在寂静中我沿着过道往回走。

I started to climb back over my friend’s knees. As I did, our eyes met and he just said, “Dude.” I sat back down.

从我朋友的膝盖处爬回去。就在这时，我们的目光相遇了，他说：“伙计。我又坐了下来。

Miss Myrtle was on the other side of me. She wasn’t making eye contact. And her posture seemed somewhat rigid.

桃金娘小姐在我的另一边。她没有眼神交流。她的姿势似乎有些僵硬。

But once I was settled in my seat, she leaned toward me slightly and said quietly, “I don’t believe I’ve ever met someone that didn’t know at least one hymn.”

但当我在座位上安顿下来后，她略微向我倾过身来，轻声说：“我相信我所遇到的每个人都懂至少一首赞歌。”

There wasn’t a whole lot I could say about that, so I was just like, “Happy Mother’s Day.”

关于这一点，我没什么好说的，所以我就说，“母亲节快乐。”