2024年6月5日发(作者：金晓露)
TEXT A
The weight men carry
男人背负的重担
1 When I was a boy growing up off the grid in the Commonwealth of Virginia,
the men I knew labored with their bodies from the first rooster crow in the
morning to sundown. They were marginal farmers, shepherds, just scraping by, or
welders, steelworkers, carpenters; they built cabinets, dug ditches, mined coal, or
drove trucks, their forearms thick with muscle. They trained horses, stocked
furnaces, made tires, stood on assembly lines, welding parts onto refrigerators or
lubricating car engines. In the evenings and on weekends, they labored equally
hard, working on their own small tract of land, fixing broken-down cars, repairing
broken shutters and drafty windows. In their little free time, they drowned their
livers in beer from cheap copper mugs at a bar near the local brewery or
racecourse.
当我还是个小男孩时，我住在弗吉尼亚州一个偏远的地区，那时我所认识的男人们从
清晨的第一声公鸡啼鸣一直劳作到日落。他们都是些不起眼的农民、牧羊人，勉强度日，
或是焊接工、钢铁工或木匠；他们制作橱柜、挖掘沟渠、开采煤炭，或驾驶卡车，这使他
们拥有肌肉结实的上臂。他们训练马匹、填塞炉膛、制造轮胎，站在装配线上将零件焊接
到冰箱，或是给汽车发动机上润滑剂。到了傍晚或周末，他们也要同样辛苦地劳作，在自
己的一小片土地上耕作，修理出了问题的汽车，修复坏掉的百叶窗和漏风的窗户。在仅剩
的闲暇时间里，他们会在当地的啤酒作坊或赛马场附近的酒馆里用盛在廉价铜杯中的啤酒
将自己灌得烂醉。
2 The bodies of the men I knew were twisted and wounded in ways visible and
invisible. Heavy lifting had given many of them spinal problems and appalling
injuries. Some had broken ribs and lost fingers. Racing against conveyor belts had
given some ulcers. Their ankles and knees ached from years of standing on
concrete. Some had partial vision loss as the glow of the welding flame damaged
their optic receptors. There were times, studying them, when I dreaded growing up.
All around us, the fathers always seemed older than the mothers. Men wore out
sooner, being martyrs of constant work. Only women lived into old age.
我所认识的那些男人的身躯遭受着种种看得见或看不见的扭曲和伤痛。搬运沉重的物
品给他们很多人造成了脊柱病和可怕的伤痛。有些人断了肋骨，掉了手指。在传输带上不
停地工作使他们有些人患了溃疡。他们的脚踝和膝盖由于经年累月站立在水泥地上疼痛不
已。有些人由于焊接火光损伤视觉感官而遭受部分视觉缺失的折磨。有些时候，打量着他
们，我会害怕长大。在我们周围的人中，父亲们看上去总是比母亲们要老。男人衰老得更
早，长期遭受着因持续劳作带来的病痛。只有女人才活到年老。
3 There were also soldiers, and so far as I could tell, they scarcely worked at all.
But when the shooting started, many of them would die for their patriotism in
fields and forts of foreign outposts. This was what soldiers were for — they were
tools like a wrench, a hammer or a screw.
2024年6月5日发(作者：金晓露)
TEXT A
The weight men carry
男人背负的重担
1 When I was a boy growing up off the grid in the Commonwealth of Virginia,
the men I knew labored with their bodies from the first rooster crow in the
morning to sundown. They were marginal farmers, shepherds, just scraping by, or
welders, steelworkers, carpenters; they built cabinets, dug ditches, mined coal, or
drove trucks, their forearms thick with muscle. They trained horses, stocked
furnaces, made tires, stood on assembly lines, welding parts onto refrigerators or
lubricating car engines. In the evenings and on weekends, they labored equally
hard, working on their own small tract of land, fixing broken-down cars, repairing
broken shutters and drafty windows. In their little free time, they drowned their
livers in beer from cheap copper mugs at a bar near the local brewery or
racecourse.
当我还是个小男孩时，我住在弗吉尼亚州一个偏远的地区，那时我所认识的男人们从
清晨的第一声公鸡啼鸣一直劳作到日落。他们都是些不起眼的农民、牧羊人，勉强度日，
或是焊接工、钢铁工或木匠；他们制作橱柜、挖掘沟渠、开采煤炭，或驾驶卡车，这使他
们拥有肌肉结实的上臂。他们训练马匹、填塞炉膛、制造轮胎，站在装配线上将零件焊接
到冰箱，或是给汽车发动机上润滑剂。到了傍晚或周末，他们也要同样辛苦地劳作，在自
己的一小片土地上耕作，修理出了问题的汽车，修复坏掉的百叶窗和漏风的窗户。在仅剩
的闲暇时间里，他们会在当地的啤酒作坊或赛马场附近的酒馆里用盛在廉价铜杯中的啤酒
将自己灌得烂醉。
2 The bodies of the men I knew were twisted and wounded in ways visible and
invisible. Heavy lifting had given many of them spinal problems and appalling
injuries. Some had broken ribs and lost fingers. Racing against conveyor belts had
given some ulcers. Their ankles and knees ached from years of standing on
concrete. Some had partial vision loss as the glow of the welding flame damaged
their optic receptors. There were times, studying them, when I dreaded growing up.
All around us, the fathers always seemed older than the mothers. Men wore out
sooner, being martyrs of constant work. Only women lived into old age.
我所认识的那些男人的身躯遭受着种种看得见或看不见的扭曲和伤痛。搬运沉重的物
品给他们很多人造成了脊柱病和可怕的伤痛。有些人断了肋骨，掉了手指。在传输带上不
停地工作使他们有些人患了溃疡。他们的脚踝和膝盖由于经年累月站立在水泥地上疼痛不
已。有些人由于焊接火光损伤视觉感官而遭受部分视觉缺失的折磨。有些时候，打量着他
们，我会害怕长大。在我们周围的人中，父亲们看上去总是比母亲们要老。男人衰老得更
早，长期遭受着因持续劳作带来的病痛。只有女人才活到年老。
3 There were also soldiers, and so far as I could tell, they scarcely worked at all.
But when the shooting started, many of them would die for their patriotism in
fields and forts of foreign outposts. This was what soldiers were for — they were
tools like a wrench, a hammer or a screw.