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Life Story

生活的故事

By Tennessee Williams

作者：田納西·威廉斯

After you’ve been to bed together for the first time,

Without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior acquaintance,

The other party very often says to you,

Tell me about yourself, I want to know all about you,

What’s your story?

And you think maybe they really and truly do sincerely want to know your life story,

And so you light up a cigarette and begin to tell it to them,

The two of you lying together in completely relaxed positions

Like a pair of rag dolls a bored child dropped on a bed.

你們就像一個身處無聊的小孩扔在床上的一對布娃娃

You tell them your story, or as much of your story

你告訴他們你的往事，或者說你的整個過去，

As time or a fair degree of prudence allows,

出于時間的流逝或者一種彬彬有禮，謹慎處事的教養(yǎng)，

And they say, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

他們說嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯

Each time a little more faintly, until the oh is just an audible breath,

回應(yīng)一次比一次漸微漸弱，直到這個"嗯"字，完全變成了聽得到的鼾聲，

And then of course there’s some interruption.

然后，理所當(dāng)然地總會有些干擾突然出現(xiàn)。

Slow room service comes up with a bowl of melting ice cubes,

比如說緩慢的客房服務(wù)送來了，一碗融化的糖漿，

Or one of you rises to pee

或者你們中的一個突然想要起夜

And gaze at himself with the mild astonishment in the bathroom mirror.

面對盥洗室的鏡子時，他略帶吃驚的凝視著自己的鏡像

And then, the first thing you know,

然后，你所知道的第一件事，

Before you’ve had time to pick up where you left off with your enthralling life story,

在你有時間再去陳說你那沒有講完的迷人生命歷程前

They’re telling you their life story, exactly as they’d intended to all along,

他們開始對你講說他們以前的故事，這是他們期待已久的傾訴

And you’re saying, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

你開始對他們的言語回應(yīng)，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯，嗯

Each time a little more faintly, the vowel at last becoming no more than an audible sigh,

每一次聲量都減弱一分，最后這種應(yīng)答成為了清晰可辨的鼾息

As the elevator, halfway down the corridor and a turn to the left,

這種鼾聲如同一臺出門需要左行卻早已卡在半層的電梯，

Draws one last, long, deep breath of exhaustion and stops breathing forever.

讓某人呼盡最后的、精疲力竭的、長而深的氣息便再也沒有了呼吸。

Then?

然后呢?

Well, one of you falls asleep and the other one does likewise with a lighted cigarette in his mouth,

其實，當(dāng)你們中的一個人進入了永恒的夢鄉(xiāng)，其他人則繼續(xù)叼著一支點燃的香煙，開始講述他們的故事，無可厚非地

And that’s how people burn to death in hotel rooms.

這就是人們怎樣在一家旅館中，燃盡自己的生命。