VOA常速英语2019--世界各地的童婚:美国-凯蒂

Child Marriage Around the World: USA — Katie

Kathleen Burns, I live in Dyersburg Tennessee. I work all the time, take care of my baby and the husband. Hang out with my buddies¹. That’s about it.

我叫凯瑟琳·伯恩斯，我住在田纳西州的戴尔斯堡。我一直在工作，照顾我的孩子和丈夫。和我的朋友出去玩。仅此而已。

I met him about when I was like 13, 14. They lived next door to me and hung out with his family and his friend or his sisters and I don’t know we just kind of started becoming friends and I got attached to him.

我大概是在十三四岁的时候认识他的。他们住在我家隔壁，和他的家人、朋友或姐妹一起出去玩，我们刚开始成为朋友，我喜欢上了他。

I have probably a little crush². You know what I’m saying?

我可能有点迷恋他。你知道我的意思吧? 

And he couldn’t never keep a girlfriend because they didn’t like me being around him. So one thing after another, after a few years we just kind of ended up together.

他交不到女朋友，因为她们不喜欢我和他在一起。所以一件事接一件事的，几年之后我们就在一起了。

I got pregnant³ underage and that was kind of what had us go ahead and get married so I wouldn’t send him to jail⁴.

我未成年就怀孕了，这就是我们结婚的原因，我不会把他送进监狱。 

A lot of people look down on him for it and stuff⁵. That’s kind of why he didn’t want to do this at first.

很多人因此看不起他。这就是为什么一开始他不想这么做。 

You know but like I told him I don’t care what anybody thinks. I love them you know here’s what it is.

但就像我跟他说的，我不在乎别人怎么想。我爱他们，就这样。 

I mean we’re like any other married couple. We we’ve had our problems. I mean we split⁶ up.

我是说，我们和其他夫妻一样。我们有我们的问题。我们分开过。 

I went and stayed with him for a little bit, but we just know we want to live with each other, we want to be with each other. You know what I mean?

我去和他住了一段时间，但我们知道我们想和彼此生活在一起，想和彼此在一起。你明白我的意思吗?

So we worked through our problems. I couldn’t live without him.

所以我们解决了问题。没有他我活不下去。 

My mom was against it. She was like, you know, ‘y’all shouldn’t have done it. You can take your consequences for it.’

我妈妈反对这件事。她说，你们都不应该这么做。要为此承担后果。 

Me and my mom ended up having a lot of problems, You Know. But she stuck by me through everything so I love that woman to death.

我和我妈妈有很多问题。但是她一直支持着我，所以我深爱那个女人。 

Head cook at Neil’s Barbecue. I just kind of stuck around you know, stayed unlike everybody else. And he just kept moving me up, giving me raises, so I stayed there.

我是尼尔烧烤的厨师长。我只是被困在这里。和其他人不一样。他不断地提拔我，给我加薪，所以我就呆在那里。

I did not graduate after I had Zena, got hard for to get a babysitter and stuff . I needed money.

有泽娜之后我还没有毕业，很难找到保姆。我需要钱。 

Candice got me the job. I just dropped out. And they kind of just let me slip through the cracks.

坎迪斯帮我找到了那份工作。我刚退学。他们让我钻了个空子。 

I made it to 11th grade. And I had one more year should have finished it out honestly.

我读到十一年级了。我本来还有一年的时间可以完成学业。 

I regret that every day. Eventually I’ll get my GED but grown-up life is really hard so you know.

我每天都在后悔。我最终会拿到普通同等学历证书，但你知道，长大后的生活真的很难。 

Well before I married, honestly I was a kid, so there was really no bills. I don’t really miss nothing about it except just having to grow up and doing the adult thing.

在我结婚之前，说实话，我还是个孩子，没什么花销。我真的没有错过任何事情，除了必须长大，做成人的事情。

Man it’s hard. huh it is hard but other than that I really miss nothing, you know? I’m fine with how everything turned out with me.

太难了，但除此之外，我真的没有错过什么，你知道吗?我对一切都满意。 

Zena my little girl. She is my pride and joy and I will do everything to take care of her and protect her.

我的女儿泽娜，她是我的骄傲和快乐，我会尽一切努力照顾她和保护她。 

So my mom always asked me if I would let her get with somebody older.

我妈妈总是问我是否会让她和比她大的人在一起。 

No I probably won’t, because you know we did have a lot of issues.

不，我可能不会，因为你知道我们确实有很多问题。 

I mean, it put me through a lot mentally and physically⁷ and I would not let my daughter do that.

我的意思是，我在精神和身体上承受了很多，我不会让我的女儿那样做。 

And probably marrying young. Yeah no it’d be no. Just cuz I know where I’m at right now from making them decisions.

而且很可能早婚。不会的。因为我知道我现在可以做决定。 

I don’t know, I mean I should have waited, I truly believe that I should have waited, but things came up.

我不知道，我的意思是我应该等待，我真的觉得我应该等待，但是事情发生了。 

I should have waited on having the baby. You know because you really do need to be 18 in my opinion. You need to be grown-up, you need to have your childhood.

我本该等等再生孩子的。你知道，因为在我看来，你真的需要到十八岁。你需要长大，你需要有你的童年。

I lost all of my childhood. I do regret you know not finishing school.

我失去了我所有的童年。我很遗憾没有完成学业。 

Growing up way too fast you know that’s just stuff you shouldn’t do when you’re a kid honestly. I see that all now. I didn’t see it then though.

成长得太快了，你知道那不是你小时候应该做的事情。我现在全明白了。不过我当时没明白。 

So and you can’t change.

你也改变不了了。 

1 buddies   

n.密友( buddy的名词复数 )；同伴；弟兄；（用于称呼男子，常带怒气）家伙v.（如密友、战友、伙伴、弟兄般）交往( buddy的第三人称单数 )；做朋友；亲近（…）；伴护艾滋病人

参考例句：

• We became great buddies. 我们成了非常好的朋友。 来自辞典例句
• The two of them have become great buddies. 他们俩成了要好的朋友。 来自辞典例句

2 crush   

v.压垮，压倒，压服，镇压；压碎，碾碎

参考例句：

• This machine is made to crush the rock into powder.这台机器是用来把石头压成碎末的。
• You can't crush so many people into the classroom.不能让这么多人挤进教室。

3 pregnant   

adj.怀孕的，怀胎的

参考例句：

• She is a pregnant woman.她是一名孕妇。
• She is pregnant with her first child.她怀了第一胎。

4 jail   

n.监狱，看守所；vt.监禁，拘留

参考例句：

• The castle had been used as a jail.这城堡曾用作监狱。
• If she carries on shoplifting,she'll end up in jail.她如果还在店铺里偷东西，最终会被抓进监狱的。

5 stuff   

n.原料，材料，东西；vt.填满；吃饱

参考例句：

• We could supply you with the stuff in the raw tomorrow.明天我们可以供应你原材料。
• He is not the stuff.他不是这个材料。

6 split   

n.劈开，裂片，裂口；adj.分散的；v.分离，分开，劈开

参考例句：

• Who told you that Mary and I had split up?谁告诉你玛丽和我已经离婚了？
• The teacher split the class up into six groups.老师把班级分成6个小组。

7 physically   

adj.物质上，体格上，身体上，按自然规律

参考例句：

• He was out of sorts physically,as well as disordered mentally.他浑身不舒服，心绪也很乱。
• Every time I think about it I feel physically sick.一想起那件事我就感到极恶心。