華中師范大學(xué) 石斯琳 選譯

丟失的助聽器

華中師范大學(xué) 石斯琳 選譯

With my hands and knees on the floor of the airplane,I was searching for an old lady’s missing hearing aid during the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.It happened to me that this may not be the mostdignified1posture for aBuddhist nun2.

一位老婦人的助聽器在從悉尼飛往洛杉磯的航班上丟失了。飛機(jī)飛行途中，我全身匍匐在機(jī)艙地板上幫她尋找這個助聽器。我忽然意識到這個動作對于一個尼姑來說可能有些許不雅。

I had seen the old lady from the seat in front of me as she walked up and down the passage with aflashlight3.I asked a few times what was wrong,but she didn’t answer at first—she couldn’t hear me.She was wearing a woolen coat.Judging from her accent,she came from Eastern Europe.

我看到坐在我前面座位的這位老婦人拿著手電筒在飛機(jī)通道來回走動。我詢問過她幾次發(fā)生了什么事，但一開始她沒有回答我（事實上她是聽不到）。她穿著一件毛呢外套。聽她的口音，她應(yīng)該來自東歐。

Do you know what hearing aids cost?Thousands,especially for the new tiny hidden-in-theear type she described.It takes a long time for an appointment to make new one and many doctor visits to get the thingadjusted4right.Therefore,my dignity seemed less important than finding that hearing aid.But how does one find a tiny black object in ashadowy5jet cabin?

你知道助聽器有多貴嗎？（每個）價格要好幾千，特別是老婦人口中提到的她佩戴的那種新微型入耳式助聽器。定制一個需要提前很久預(yù)定，醫(yī)生也需要多次反復(fù)為之調(diào)試好。因此，比起找到這個助聽器，我的尊嚴(yán)顯得并不那么重要了。但是要怎么在昏暗的客艙中找到這么小的黑色物體呢？

The lady wasn’t even sure where or when she had lost it.At one point,a couple of flightattendants6did a careless search around the lady’s seat;I wasn’t impressed.They left suggesting that she search the seat of her last flight!My flashlight turned up all kinds of small objects,bits of plastic,broken pieces of headphones.The old lady said that she gave up.Yet I couldn’t.After we landed,as passengers walked past us,Iinsisted7that the lady move aside while waiting for her wheelchair.Then I got into a real down and dirty search among the dust under her seat and on the floor.

老婦人甚至不清楚她是什么時候在哪兒弄丟的。兩個乘務(wù)員一度在老婦人座位周遭亂翻一氣，我并不待見這種做法。他們離開的時候竟然還建議老婦人去她之前的班機(jī)座位找找看。我打開手電筒，找到了許多（之前丟失的）小物件（塑料塊兒，壞耳機(jī)碎片）。老婦人宣布放棄尋找，但是我不想放棄。我們的飛機(jī)著陸之后，旅客們蜂擁而下，而我堅持讓老婦人坐在一旁等待她的輪椅。然后我一頭扎進(jìn)滿是灰塵的座位底下，趴在地上尋找著助聽器。

Look!A little peanutsized shiny black object caught the light of my flashlight in a floorcrack8near her seat.“I found it!”I shouted.With great surprise,the old lady said to me thankfully,“I haven’t the words to express my thanks! ”

看！順著手電筒的光源，在離老婦人座位不遠(yuǎn)的一處底板縫隙中有一個花生般大小的反著光的黑色小物件。“我找到了！”我大喊一聲。老婦人驚喜之余，感激地對我說：“我對你的感激無以言表！”

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