【赫临译笔】生活的对半理论

ヮ成熟、羙°

生活的对半理论

荷叶/译

      我相信对半理论。一半时间情况好过常态，一半时间则较糟。我认为生活如钟摆。理解常态需要时间和阅历。这种理解给与我们处理不可预知的将来全面的思维方法。

      让我们制定一个好坏的标准。是的，我注定会死去。我曾经面对过许多死亡，我的父母，一位好友，一个自己爱戴的老板，几只珍爱的宠物。有些死亡突然而暴烈，就在眼前，有些死亡则缓慢而痛苦。非常糟糕，对吧，这属于标准的最底层。

      生活中也有高潮，如爱上梦中情人，并与之结婚生子，乐为人父，比如去指导儿子所在的棒球队，棹一叶小舟在儿子游泳的港湾，旁边还有他的宠物狗，发现他的同情心如此深沉以至于善待一只蜗牛，他的想象力如此丰富以至于把一堆散放的乐高积木拼装成一只宇宙飞船。

      然而生活中有一大部分处于中间地带，犹如茵茵绿草一望无际。在这里好与坏此消彼长像表演杂技。正是这使我相信生活的对半理论。

      一年春天，我过早地在一块洼地种上了玉米，这里易遭洪水，所以邻居们都笑话我。有可能白费力气，我感到很懊恼。夏天来得非常酷烈，那年的热浪和干旱在我一生中从没遇到过。空调坏了，井水干了，婚姻完了，工作丢了，金钱花光了。我的生活犹如进入了一首乡村音乐的剧情，这是我最讨厌的一首歌。只有一支堪萨斯城皇家队的崛起鼓舞了我的情绪。

      回顾那个夏季使我明白，相继而来的好事只是为了弥补坏事造成的阴影。坏过常态的事不会持久。我该享受平静和幸福，应该品味幸福时光。这会给我下一次的恶运重注活力，并确保我兴旺发达。生活的对半理论甚至使我从堪萨斯城皇家队的低潮中看到了希望。运动场上挣扎奋进的新手犹如播下的良种，某一年的十月，我们就会有一个黄色收成。

      因为在酷热的夏天，地表温度适宜，早播使得授粉在热浪晒枯禾苗之前得以完成，雨水的缺乏又使我的玉米免受了灭顶之灾。那年冬天，我那块马槽形洼地里结满了玉米，一茎三穗，籽粒饱满。而我的邻居里地里仅长出了棕色的空壳。

      虽然过去的播种可能没有预期收获的一半，将来可能还会这样，但干旱时繁茂生长的庄稼证实了我的对半理论。

附：原文

The 50-Percent Theory of Life

I believe in the 50-percent theory. Half the time things are better than normal; the other half, they are worse. I believe life is a pendulum swing. It takes time and experience to understand what normal is, and that gives me the perspective to deal with the surprises of the future.

Let’s benchmark the parameters: yes, I will die. I’ve dealt with the deaths of both parents, a best friend, a beloved boss and cherished pets. Some of these deaths have been violent, before my eyes, or slow and agonizing. Bad stuff, and it belongs at the bottom of the scale.

Then there are those high points: romance and marriage to the right person; having a child and doing those Dad things like coaching my son’s baseball team, paddling around the creek in the boat while he’s swimming with the dogs, discovering his compassion so deep it manifests even in his kindness to snails, his imagination so vivid he builds a spaceship from a scattered pile of Legos.

But there is a vast meadow of life in the middle, where the bad and the good flip-flop acrobatically. This is what convinces me to believe in the 50-percent theory.

One spring I planted corn too early in a bottomland so flood-prone that neighbors laughed. I felt chagrined at the wasted effort. Summer turned brutal---the worst heat wave and drought in my lifetime. The air-conditioned died; the well went dry; the marriage ended; the job lost; the money gone. I was living lyrics from a country tune---music I loathed. Only a surging Kansas City Royals team buoyed my spirits.

Looking back on that horrible summer, I soon understood that all succeeding good things merely offset the bad. Worse than normal wouldn’t last long. I am owed and savor the halcyon times. The reinvigorate me for the next nasty surprise and offer assurance that can thrive. The 50-percent theory even helps me see hope beyond my Royals’ recent slump, a field of struggling rookies sown so that some year soon we can reap an October harvest.

For that on blistering summer, the ground moisture was just right, planting early allowed pollination before heat withered the tops, and the lack of rain spared the standing corn from floods. That winter my crib overflowed with corn---fat, healthy three-to-a-stalk ears filled with kernels from heel to tip---while my neighbors’ fields yielded only brown, empty husks.

Although plantings past may have fallen below the 50-percent expectation, and they probably will again in the future, I am still sustained by the crop that flourishes during the drought.

丛中笑

欣赏了！

ヮ成熟、羙°

丛中笑 发表于 2013-8-11 22:52
欣赏了！

谢老师。

丛中笑

ヮ成熟、羙° 发表于 2013-8-12 05:51
谢老师。