Who Wants to Shoot an Elephant?
It is just before dawn at a hunting camp in Botswanaâs game-rich northern savanna, and Robyn Waldrip is donning an ammunition belt that could double as a hernia girdle.
黎明前，在博茨瓦纳猎物丰富的北部稀树草原上的一个狩猎营地，罗宾·沃尔德里普 (Robyn Waldrip) 正在系上一条弹药带，它可以兼作疝气腰带。
âYou canât help but feel like sort of a badass when you strap this thing on,â she says.
“当你戴上这个东西时，你会情不自禁地感觉自己像个坏蛋，”她说。
Robyn, a Texan in her midthirties, seems to stand about six feet two, with piercing eyes of glacial blue shaded by about twelve swooping inches of eyelash.
罗宾是一位三十几岁的德克萨斯人，身高约六英尺二英寸，冰蓝色的眼睛锐利有力，睫毛长约十二英寸。
Sheâs a competitive bodybuilder and does those tractor-tire and sledgehammer workouts, and there is no part of her body, from the look of it, that you couldnât crack a walnut on.
她是一名竞技健美运动员，经常进行拖拉机轮胎和大锤训练，从外观上看，她身体的任何部位都是你无法敲碎核桃的。
In her audition video for a reality-television show called Ammo & Attitude , Robyn described herself as a stay-at-home mom whose âtypical Friday-night date with [her] husband is going to the shooting range, burning through some ammo, smelling the gunpowder, going out for a rib-eye steak, and calling it a night.â
在真人秀《弹药与态度》的试镜视频中，罗宾将自己描述为一位全职妈妈，她“与丈夫典型的周五晚上约会就是去射击场，烧掉一些弹药，闻到火药味，出去吃肋眼牛排，然后就到此为止了。”
Robyn Waldrip could kick my ass, and also your ass, hopping on one leg.
罗宾·沃尔德里普可以踢我的屁股，也可以踢你的屁股，单腿跳跃。
Her extensive résumé of exotic kills includes a kudu, a zebra, a warthog, and a giraffe.
她收集了大量的奇异猎物，其中包括捻角羚、斑马、疣猪和长颈鹿。
But she has never shot a Loxodonta africana , or African elephant, so before she sets out, her American guide, a professional hunter named Jeff Rann, conducts a three-minute tutorial on the art of killing the worldâs largest land animal.
但她从未射杀过非洲象，因此在她出发之前，她的美国导游、一位名叫杰夫·兰恩的职业猎人为她进行了三分钟的教程，讲解如何捕杀世界上最大的陆地动物。
âYou want to hit him on this line between his ear holes, four to six inches below his eyes,â Jeff explains, indicating the lethal horizontal on a textbook illustration of an elephantâs face.
“你要击中他耳洞之间的这条线，距离他眼睛下方四到六英寸，”杰夫解释道，指着教科书上大象脸部插图上的致命水平线。
The ammo Robyn will be using is a .500 slug about the size of a Concord grape, propelled from a shell not quite as large as Shaquille OâNealâs middle finger.
罗宾将使用的弹药是一颗 0.500 弹头，大小与康科德葡萄差不多，从一个没有沙奎尔·奥尼尔中指那么大的弹壳中发射。
About three feet of bone and skin insulate the elephantâs brain from the light of day, and it can take more than one head shot to effect a kill.
大约三英尺长的骨头和皮肤使大象的大脑与阳光隔绝，要击杀大象可能需要多次头部射击。
âIf he doesnât go down on your second shot, Iâll break his hip and you can finish him off.â
“如果他在你的第二次射击中不倒下，我就打断他的臀部，然后你就可以干掉他了。”
âThe main thing is, just stay with the guns,â Jeff tells the rest of the party, which includes Robynâs husband, Will Waldrip, two trackers, this journalist, a videographer who chronicles Jeffâs hunts for a television program, Deadliest Hunts , and a government game scout whose job it is to ensure that the hunt goes according to code.
“最重要的是，拿着枪，”杰夫告诉派对上的其他人，其中包括罗宾的丈夫威尔·沃尔德里普、两名追踪员、这位记者、一名记录杰夫狩猎的电视节目《致命狩猎》的摄像师，以及一名政府游戏侦察员，其工作是确保狩猎按照代码进行。
The bunch of us pile into the open bed of a Land Cruiser and set off into the savanna, the guides and the Waldrips peering into the lavender pre-dawn for an elephant to shoot.
我们一行人挤进一辆陆地巡洋舰的开放式床上，出发进入稀树草原，向导和瓦德里普在黎明前凝视着薰衣草，寻找大象的猎物。
If you are the sort of person who harbors prejudices against people who blow sums greater than Americaâs median yearly income to shoot rare animals for sport, let me say that Will and Robyn Waldrip are very easy people to like.
如果你是那种对那些花费超过美国年收入中位数的钱来猎杀稀有动物作为运动的人怀有偏见的人，那么我想说威尔和罗宾·沃尔德里普是很容易喜欢的人。
They didnât grow up doing this sort of thing.
他们并不是在做这种事的过程中长大的。
Robynâs dad was a fireman who took her squirrel hunting because it was a cheap source of fun and meat.
罗宾的父亲是一名消防员，他带她去猎松鼠，因为这是一种廉价的乐趣和肉类来源。
Willâs father was a park ranger.
威尔的父亲是一名公园管理员。
In his twenties, Will went into the architectural-steel business, and now he co-owns a company worth many millions of dollars.
威尔在二十多岁的时候进入了建筑钢铁行业，现在他与他人共同拥有一家价值数百万美元的公司。
They look like models from a Cabelaâs catalog.
它们看起来就像 Cabela 目录中的模特。
They are companionable and jolly, and part of the pleasure of their company is the feeling that youâve been welcomed into a kind of America where no one is ever fat or weak or ugly or gets sad about things.
他们友善而快乐，与他们为伴的部分乐趣在于，你会感到自己受到了欢迎，来到了这样一个美国，那里没有人肥胖、虚弱、丑陋，也没有人为事情感到悲伤。
The Waldrips arrived in Rannâs camp on the eighth of July, and theyâve allotted ten days for the hunt.
瓦德里普一家于 7 月 8 日抵达兰纳的营地，他们分配了十天的时间进行狩猎。
But it is unlikely to take that long to find their trophy.
但不太可能花那么长时间才能找到他们的奖杯。
Botswana contains somewhere in the neighborhood of 154,000 elephants, most of them concentrated in this 4,000-square-mile stretch of northern bushland where the Kalahari Desert meets the Okavango Delta.
博茨瓦纳附近有 154,000 头大象，其中大部分集中在喀拉哈里沙漠与奥卡万戈三角洲交汇处的北部丛林，占地 4,000 平方英里。
In addition to airfare, ammo, and equipment costs (the antique double-barreled Holland & Holland rifle Robyn bought for the trip typically sells for about $80,000), the Waldrips are paying Jeff Rann $60,000 for the privilege of shooting the animal, at least $10,000 of which goes to the Botswana government.
除了机票、弹药和装备费用（罗宾为这次旅行购买的古董双管 Holland & Holland 步枪通常售价约 80,000 美元）之外，Waldrips 夫妇还向 Jeff Rann 支付 60,000 美元以获得射杀动物的特权，其中至少 10,000 美元捐给博茨瓦纳政府。
In September 2013, a ban on elephant hunting goes into effect in Botswana, making the Waldripsâ hunt one of the last legal kills.
2013 年 9 月，博茨瓦纳禁止狩猎大象，这使得沃尔德里普家族的狩猎成为最后的合法猎杀活动之一。
It is a precious, expensive experience, and Robyn wants to take her time to find big ivory, not to simply blast away at the first elephant that wanders past her sights.
这是一次宝贵而昂贵的经历，罗宾想花时间去寻找大象牙，而不是简单地对第一头经过她视线的大象进行爆炸。
Through the brightening dawn, the Land Cruiser bucks and rockets along miles of narrow trails socked in by spindly acacia trees, camellia-like mopani shrubs, and a malign species of thornbush abristle with natureâs answer to the ice pick.
在明亮的黎明中，陆地巡洋舰沿着数英里长的狭窄小道疾驰而过，小道上长满了细长的金合欢树、山茶花般的莫帕尼灌木，以及一种邪恶的荆棘丛，上面长满了大自然对冰镐的回应。
No elephants are on view just yet, though a few other locals have come out to note our disturbance of the peace.
尽管其他一些当地人已经出来注意到我们扰乱了和平，但目前还没有看到大象。
Here is a wild dog, a demonic-looking animal whose coat is done up in a hectic slime-mold pattern.
这是一只野狗，一种看起来像恶魔的动物，它的皮毛上有浓密的粘菌图案。
Wild dogs, among the worldâs most effective predators, are the biker gangs of Africa.
野狗是世界上最有效的掠食者之一，也是非洲的摩托帮。
They chase the gentle kudu to exhaustion in a merciless relay team.
他们在无情的接力队中追赶温柔的捻角羚，直到精疲力尽。
A softhearted or lazy dog who lets the prey escape can catch a serious ass-kicking from the rest of the heavies in the pack.
一只心软或懒惰的狗让猎物逃跑，可能会遭到狼群中其他重磅狗的狠狠教训。
Whatâs that, Mr. Wild Dog?
那是什么，野狗先生？
Youâre on the endangered-species list?
你在濒危物种名单上吗？
Well, karma is a bitch.
好吧，业力是个婊子。
Letâs move along.
让我们继续前进吧。
Now here is a pair of water buffalo.
现在这里有一对水牛。
Charming they are not.
他们并不迷人。
They scowl sullenly from beneath scabrous plates of unmajestic, drooping horn.
它们在粗糙、下垂的角板下面阴沉地皱着眉头。
âHostile, illiterateâ are the descriptors I jot on my notepad.
“充满敌意、文盲”是我在记事本上记下的形容词。
And there is the southern yellow-billed hornbill, and there the lilac-breasted roller, which, yes, are weird and beautiful to look upon, but if you had birds jabbering like that outside your window every morning, would you not spray them with a can of Raid?
还有南方黄嘴犀鸟，还有紫胸鹩莺，是的，它们看上去既怪异又美丽，但如果每天早上都有鸟儿在窗外叽叽喳喳地叫，你会不会向它们喷一罐 Raid 呢？
Say what?
说什么？
Iâm unfairly harshing the fauna?
我对动物群进行了不公平的对待？
Yes, I know I am.
是的，我知道我是。
Iâm sorry.
对不起。
To the extent that Iâve discussed it with Jeff Rann and the Waldrips and other blood-sport folk I know, I believe that hunters are being sincere when they say they harbor no ill will toward the animals they shoot.
就我与杰夫·兰恩（Jeff Rann）、沃尔德里普（Waldrips）以及我所认识的其他血腥运动人士的讨论而言，我相信当猎人说他们对他们射杀的动物没有恶意时，他们是真诚的。
Not being a hunter myself, I subscribe to an admittedly sissyish philosophy whereby I only wish brain-piercing bullets upon creatures I dislike.
我自己并不是一个猎人，我承认一种公认的娘娘腔的哲学，即我只希望对我不喜欢的生物进行穿脑子弹。
Iâve truthfully promised Jeff Rann that Iâm not here to write an anti-hunting screed, merely to chronicle the hunt coolly and transparently.
我已经如实地向杰夫·兰恩保证，我来这里不是为了写一篇反狩猎的长篇大论，只是为了冷静而透明地记录这场狩猎。
But the thing is, Iâm a little worried that some unprofessional, bleeding-heart sympathies might fog my lens when the elephant gets his bullet.
但问题是，我有点担心当大象中弹时，一些不专业的、令人心碎的同情可能会模糊我的镜头。
So Iâm trying to muster up some prophylactic loathing for the animals out here.
所以我正在努力唤起一些对这里动物的预防性厌恶情绪。
I want to be properly psyched when the elephant goes down.
当大象倒下时，我想保持适当的精神状态。
âI am sitting on a cool verandah with vines growing through the trellises, having returned from a morning hunt in which I killed a Python and an Impalla Antelope.
——我早上打猎回来，杀死了一条蟒蛇和一只黑斑羚，现在我正坐在凉爽的阳台上，藤架上长满了藤蔓。
Yesterday I killed two Antelopes, and the day before a Rhino and a Hippo, and the day before that, Kermit killed a Leopard which charged him viciously, after mauling one of the beaters.â âletter to his sister from Juja Farm, Nairobi, May 9, 1909
昨天我杀死了两只羚羊，前一天杀死了一头犀牛和一头河马，再前一天，克米特杀死了一只豹子，这只豹子在殴打一名殴打者后，凶猛地向他冲来。 — — 1909 年 5 月 9 日，内罗毕 Juja 农场给他妹妹的信
Perhaps out of a kind of kindred impulse, Will and Robyn Waldrip are quick to point out the violences elephants have inflicted on the local landscape.
也许出于某种相似的冲动，威尔和罗宾·沃尔德里普很快指出了大象对当地景观造成的暴力。
And itâs true, the Loxodonta africana isnât shy about destroying trees.
确实，非洲象齿兽并不羞于破坏树木。
We are standing in an acreage of bare earth ringing a watering hole Jeff Rann maintains.
我们正站在杰夫·兰恩（Jeff Rann）维护的水坑周围的一片裸露土地上。
It looks like a feedlot on the moon.
它看起来就像月球上的饲养场。
Where there is not a broken tree or a giant dooky bolus, there is a crater where an elephant started eating the earth.
没有折断的树或巨大的大团的地方，就有一个大象开始吃土的火山口。
âMan, [the elephants] have just destroyed the ecosystem,â Will says.
“天哪，[大象]刚刚破坏了生态系统，”威尔说。
âPeople who oppose hunting ought to see this.â Will is a bowhunter.
– 反对狩猎的人应该看到这一点。 – 威尔是一名弓箭手。
Elephants arenât his bag.
大象不是他的包袱。
And while he has no reservations about Robyn shooting the elephant, he is doing, I think, some version of the hunt-justifying psych-up going on in my own head.
虽然他对罗宾射杀大象毫无保留，但我认为，他正在做某种版本的狩猎合理性心理活动，发生在我的脑海中。
He wants to feel like itâs a good deed his wife is doing out here, a Lorax-ly hit in the name of the trees.
他想要感觉他的妻子在这里做了一件好事，以树木的名义做出了洛拉克斯的成功。
Itâs midafternoon before we spy a candidate for one of Robynâs Concord grapes.
下午三点左右，我们发现了罗宾的康科德葡萄的候选品种。
In the shade of a very large tree, a couple of hundred yards from the jeep trail, is something that does not at first register as an animal, more a form of gray weather.
在距离吉普车小道几百码的一棵大树的树荫下，有一个东西乍一看并不像是一种动物，更像是一种灰色天气的形式。
We dismount and huddle before setting off into the brush.
我们下马并挤在一起，然后出发进入灌木丛。
The elephant appears to be a trophy-caliber animal, but at this distance, itâs hard to say for sure.
大象似乎是一种战利品级别的动物，但在这个距离上，很难确定。
âOne thing,â Jeff says to Robyn.
“有一件事，”杰夫对罗宾说。
âIf it charges, we have to shoot him.â
“如果它冲锋，我们就必须开枪打死他。”
âIf he charges, Iâm gonna shoot him,â Robyn says.
“如果他冲锋，我就会开枪射杀他，”罗宾说。
The entourage begins a dainty heel-to-toe march into the spiky undergrowth.
随行人员开始从头到脚优雅地走进尖刺的灌木丛。
As it turns out, it is not one elephant but two.
事实证明，这不是一头大象，而是两只。
One is the big, old, shootable bull.
其中之一是一头又大又老、可以射击的公牛。
The other is a younger male.
另一个是一名年轻男性。
Elephants never stop growing, a meliorative aspect of which (elephant-hunt-misgivings-wise) is that the mongo bulls that hunters most want to shoot also happen to be the oldest animals, usually within five or so years of mandatory retirement, when elephants lose their last set of molars and starve to death.
大象永远不会停止生长，其中一个改善的方面（大象狩猎疑虑方面）是，猎人最想射杀的蒙戈公牛也恰好是最古老的动物，通常在强制退休后的五年左右内，当大象失去最后一组臼齿并饿死时。
For the record, this detail does not soothe me as the guns make their way toward the elephants under the tree.
郑重声明，当枪口向树下的大象射击时，这个细节并没有让我感到安心。
I have not yet figured out how to dislike elephants enough to want to see one shot.
我还没弄清楚如何讨厌大象到想看一枪的地步。
In private treason against my hosts, I am thinking, Not now, not now.
我私下背叛了我的东道主，我在想，现在不行，现在不行。
Let it please not get shot today.
今天请不要被枪杀。
We near the creatures.
我们靠近这些生物。
The big bull shifts its ears, and it is a significant event, like the hoisting of a schoonerâs rigging.
大公牛转动耳朵，这是一件重大事件，就像吊起纵帆船的索具一样。
Jeff lifts his binoculars.
杰夫举起双筒望远镜。
As it turns out, the bull is missing a tusk, probably broken off in a fight.
事实证明，公牛缺少一根象牙，可能是在打斗中折断的。
So it will not be shot, its ultimate reward for the tusk-snapping tussle.
所以它不会被射杀，这是折断象牙的战斗的最终奖励。
We creep back to the jeep.
我们爬回吉普车。
Robyn is electrified, breathing hard, her blue eyes luminous with adrenaline: âThat was big!â she says to Will.
罗宾激动不已，呼吸困难，她的蓝眼睛因肾上腺素而闪闪发亮：“太棒了！”她对威尔说。
âAs soon as we got out of the truck, was your heart going?â
“我们一下车，你的心就开始跳动了吗？”
âNah, but when he turned and his ears spread and he went from huge to massive?
——不，但是当他转过身，耳朵张开时，他就从巨大变成了巨大？
Yeah.â
是的。 –
âWeâd be jelly,â says Will.
“我们会变成果冻，”威尔说。
âBut you wouldnât want to have shot him on your first day, anyway.â
“但无论如何，你也不想在第一天就开枪打死他。”
Between trophy fees and tags, the price of killing an animal in Africa can easily run into the thousands.
算上奖杯费和标签费，在非洲杀死一只动物的价格很容易达到数千美元。
Here, the continent-wide averages for seven species.
在这里，全大陆平均有七个物种。
Fair warning: An elephant does get shot in this story.
公平警告：在这个故事中，大象确实被枪杀了。
It gets shot pretty soon.
很快就会被枪杀。
Maybe that upsets you, as it did 100 percent of the people (hunters and nonhunters) to whom I mentioned this assignment.
也许这会让你感到不安，因为我向 100% 提到这项任务的人（猎人和非猎人）都感到不安。
Elephants are obviously amazing, or rather, they are obvious receptacles for our amazement, because they seem to be a lot like us.
大象显然是令人惊奇的，或者更确切地说，它们显然是我们惊奇的容器，因为它们看起来很像我们。
They live about as long as we do.
他们的寿命和我们一样长。
They understand it when we point at things, which our nearest living evolutionary relative, the chimpanzee, doesnât really.
当我们指着事物时，它们能理解，而我们现存的进化近亲黑猩猩却不能真正理解。
They can unlock locks with their trunks.
他们可以用树干开锁。
They recognize themselves in mirrors.
他们在镜子里认出了自己。
They are socially sophisticated.
他们社交成熟。
They stay with the same herds for life, or the cows do, anyway.
它们终生与同一群牛在一起，或者说奶牛也是如此。
They mourn their dead.
他们哀悼死者。
They like getting drunk (and are known to loot village liquor stashes in Africa and India).
他们喜欢喝醉（并且以抢劫非洲和印度村庄的酒窖而闻名）。
When an elephant keels over, its friends sometimes break their tusks trying to get it to stand up again.
当大象倒地时，它的朋友有时会折断象牙，试图让它重新站起来。
They bury their dead.
他们埋葬死者。
They bear grudges against people whoâve hurt them, and sometimes go on revenge campaigns.
他们对伤害过他们的人怀恨在心，有时还会进行报复。
They cry.
他们哭了。
So why would you want to put a bullet in one?
那么你为什么要在其中装一颗子弹呢？
Well, if we are to take hunters at their word, it is because the experience of shooting an animal yields a thrill, a high that humans have been getting off on since we clubbed our first cave bear.
好吧，如果我们相信猎人的话，那是因为射杀动物的经历会让人感到兴奋，自从我们用棍棒打到第一只洞熊以来，人类就一直在享受这种兴奋。
And if you go in for this sort of thing, then it arguably stands to reason that the bigger the beast, the bigger the thrill when it hits the ground.
如果你喜欢这种事情，那么可以说，野兽越大，当它落地时的刺激就越大。
On the subject of huntingâs pleasures, Robyn Waldrip has this to say: âIt kind of taps into your primal instincts.
关于狩猎的乐趣，罗宾·沃尔德里普 (Robyn Waldrip) 是这样说的：“它在某种程度上激发了你的原始本能。”
I think everybody has it in them.â But an elephant?
我想每个人都有这样的特质。但大象呢？
âIt was on my bucket list of hunting.
——它在我的狩猎清单上。
Itâs the largest land mammal, and just to go up against something that big, itâs exciting.
它是最大的陆地哺乳动物，与这么大的动物对抗就令人兴奋。
I ran into this mom at the grocery store and she was like, âWhat are you doing for the summer?â and I said, âIâm going to Africa to do an elephant hunt.â And she said, âWhy in the world would you wanna do that?â and Iâm like, âWhy wouldnât you?ââ
我在杂货店遇到了这位妈妈，她问，“你夏天要做什么？”我说，“我要去非洲狩猎大象。”她说，“你到底为什么要这么做？”我想，“为什么不呢”你呢？——
Jeff Rann has a similar take: âHuntingâs almost like a drug to people that do it.â In his thirty-eight-year career, Jeff has presided at the shootings of around 200 elephants, and he has never had a trophy get away from him.
杰夫·兰恩 (Jeff Rann) 也有类似的看法：“狩猎对于从事狩猎活动的人来说几乎就像是毒品。”在杰夫 38 年的职业生涯中，杰夫主持了大约 200 头大象的射杀，而且从未有过战利品从他手中夺走。
It is Jeff Rann whom King Juan Carlos I of Spain calls when he wants to shoot an elephant, as he did in April 2012.
当西班牙国王胡安·卡洛斯一世想要射杀一头大象时，他会打电话给杰夫·兰恩（Jeff Rann），正如他在 2012 年 4 月所做的那样。
(King Juan Carlos likely will not get the hankering again.
（胡安·卡洛斯国王可能不会再得到这种渴望。
He broke his hip on the safariâin the shower, not on Rannâs watchâand amid the general outrage sparked by leaked photos of the king posed alongside his kill, Juan Carlos was booted from the honorary presidency of the World Wildlife Fund and compelled to issue a public apology.)
他在狩猎旅行中摔断了臀部——是在淋浴时，而不是在兰纳的值班时——而国王与他的猎物合影的照片被泄露，引发了普遍的愤怒，胡安·卡洛斯被解除了世界自然基金会名誉主席的职务，并被迫发表公开道歉。）
Rann is the most perfect exemplar I have ever met of Hemingwayâs speak-softly-and-shoot-big-things-without-being-a-blowhard-about-it masculine ideal.
兰恩是我所见过的最完美的典范，体现了海明威那种轻声细语，拍大事，而不是大肆吹嘘的男性理想。
He is lethally competent and incredibly understated and cool, even when heâs telling swashbuckling stories, such as the time he nearly got killed by a leopard: âThe leopard charged.
他具有致命的能力，而且极其低调和冷静，即使在他讲述虚张声势的故事时也是如此，比如他差点被豹子杀死的那次：“豹子冲锋。”
I shot him.
我开枪打死了他。
It was a bad shot.
这是一次糟糕的射门。
He jumped on me, and we just kind of looked at each other.
他跳到我身上，我们就这样看着对方。
I remember those yellow eyes staring back at me.
我记得那双黄色的眼睛盯着我。
He bit me twice and dropped to the ground.
他咬了我两口，然后倒在地上。
He also pissed all over me.
他还对我撒尿。
For about a year, Iâd wake up in the night and Iâd smell that strong cat smell.
大约有一年的时间，我会在半夜醒来，闻到浓烈的猫味。
But I donât think about it anymore.â Or the time he led the Botswana Defence Force into a camp of poachers whoâd been hunting in the land he leases from the government.
但我不再想这件事了。还有一次他带领博茨瓦纳国防军进入一个偷猎者营地，这些偷猎者一直在他从政府租用的土地上狩猎。
âWe went into camp, and there were two old guys and one kid about 16 years old.
– 我们走进营地，有两个老人和一个 16 岁左右的孩子。
The agents just opened up on them.
特工们刚刚向他们敞开心扉。
Killed the two old guys outright.
直接杀掉了两个老家伙。
The one they shot eleven times, the other they shot fourteen times.
一个他们开了十一枪，另一个则开了十四枪。
The kid took off running, but they shot him a couple of times in the back.â
那孩子拔腿就跑，但他们在他背后开了几枪。”
In addition to million-acre leases in Botswana, Rann has a hunting concession in Tanzania and a 5,500-acre rare-game ranch outside San Antonio.
除了在博茨瓦纳拥有百万英亩的租赁权外，兰恩还在坦桑尼亚拥有狩猎特许权，并在圣安东尼奥郊外拥有一个占地 5,500 英亩的稀有动物牧场。
The economic downturn did not put much of a bite in Rannâs business, a happy fact he credits to the addictive nature of huntingâs elemental pleasures: âOur clients might not buy a new car as often, or buy a second or third home, but theyâre still going to go hunting.â But this new hunting ban is poised to do to Rannâs elephant-hunting business what economic calamity could not.
经济衰退并没有对兰恩的生意造成太大影响，他将这一令人高兴的事实归功于狩猎的基本乐趣令人上瘾的本质：“我们的客户可能不会经常购买新车，也不会购买第二套或第三套住房，但他们仍然会去打猎。”但这项新的狩猎禁令将对兰恩的大象狩猎业务造成什么经济影响祸不能。
Thereâs been a regulated hunting industry in Botswana since the 1960s.
自 20 世纪 60 年代以来，博茨瓦纳的狩猎业一直受到监管。
Before the ban took effect, the government was issuing roughly 400 elephant-bull tags per year, of which Jeff Rann was allowed to buy about forty.
在禁令生效之前，政府每年发放大约 400 个象牛标签，其中杰夫·兰恩 (Jeff Rann) 被允许购买大约 40 个。
And counterintuitively, even in the presence of an active bullet-tourism industry, Botswanaâs elephant population has multiplied twentyfold, from a low point of 8,000 in 1960 to more than 154,000 today.
与直觉相反，即使存在活跃的子弹旅游业，博茨瓦纳的大象数量也增加了 20 倍，从 1960 年的最低点 8,000 头增加到今天的 154,000 多头。
These healthy numbers, as people like Rann are keen to mention, mirror elephant populations in other African countries where hunting is allowed.
正如兰恩等人热衷于提及的那样，这些健康的数字反映了其他允许狩猎的非洲国家的大象数量。
Despite a recent uptick in poaching problems, both Tanzania (with 105,000 elephants) and Zimbabwe (with 51,000) have seen similar patterns of population growth.
尽管最近偷猎问题有所增加，但坦桑尼亚（拥有 105,000 头大象）和津巴布韦（拥有 51,000 头大象）的人口增长模式相似。
Kenya, on the other hand, banned elephant hunting in 1973 and has seen its elephant population decimated, from 167,000 to 27,000 or so in 2013.
另一方面，肯尼亚于 1973 年禁止大象狩猎，大象数量大幅减少，从 167,000 头减少到 2013 年的 27,000 头左右。
Some experts predict that elephants will be extinct in Kenya within a decade.
一些专家预测肯尼亚的大象将在十年内灭绝。
âThe lion is a fine animal.
– 狮子是一种优秀的动物。
He is not afraid or stupid.
他并不害怕，也不愚蠢。
He does not want to fight, but sometimes man makes him, and then it is up to the man to shoot his way out of what he has got himself into.â âto The New York Times , April 4, 1934
他不想打架，但有时是人逼他的，然后就得靠这个人来摆脱自己陷入的困境了。——致《纽约时报》，1934 年 4 月 4 日
As the pro-hunting side has it, elephant safaris assist conservation by pretty simple means: A bull killed on a legal hunt is, in theory, worth more to the local economy than an animal slaughtered by poachers.
正如支持狩猎的一方所言，大象狩猎活动通过非常简单的方式帮助保护动物：理论上，合法狩猎中杀死的公牛对当地经济的价值比偷猎者宰杀的动物更高。
In the most far-flung parts of the Botswana bush, the hunting industry has been the chief employer, offering a paycheck to people in places where there simply is no other gainful work.
在博茨瓦纳丛林最偏远的地区，狩猎业一直是主要雇主，为那些根本没有其他有酬工作的地方的人们提供薪水。
When localsâ livelihoods are bound to the survival of the elephants, theyâre less likely to tolerate poachers, or to summarily shoot animals that wander into their crop fields.
当当地人的生计与大象的生存息息相关时，他们就不太可能容忍偷猎者，也不太可能立即射杀闯入农田的动物。
Furthermore, hunting concessions are uninviting to poachers.
此外，狩猎特许权对偷猎者来说并不有吸引力。
Hunters like Jeff Rann employ private security forces to patrol the remoter parts of the preserve.
像杰夫·兰恩这样的猎人雇佣私人保安部队在保护区的偏远地区巡逻。
Huntingâs critics maintain that, in practice, the industry tends to fall short of these ideals.
亨廷顿的批评者认为，实际上，该行业往往达不到这些理想。
For every professional hunter who follows the rules, there are others who overshoot their quotas, or engage in illegal ivory tracking, or cheat their employees of a living wage.
对于每一个遵守规则的职业猎人来说，都有其他人超出配额，或者从事非法象牙追踪，或者欺骗员工的生活工资。
In countries more corruption-plagued than Botswana, crooked officials commonly siphon off safari profits before they reach the elephantsâ rural human neighbors on whose mercy and financial interest the fate of the species ultimately depends.
在比博茨瓦纳更腐败的国家，不诚实的官员通常会在大象到达大象——人类的乡村邻居手中之前就将它们吸走，而大象的命运最终取决于大象的仁慈和经济利益。
And lately, in Tanzania and Zimbabwe (where last year 300 elephants were poisoned in a single massacre), the hunting industry has proven no antidote to poaching.
最近，在坦桑尼亚和津巴布韦（去年，这两个国家的一次大屠杀中有 300 头大象被毒死），事实证明，狩猎业并没有解决偷猎问题的办法。
Citing âquestionable managementâ and âlack of effective law enforcementâ in Zimbabwe and Tanzania, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in April 2014, suspended the import of elephant trophies from both nations.
2014 年 4 月，美国鱼类和野生动物管理局以津巴布韦和坦桑尼亚“管理有问题”和“缺乏有效执法”为由，暂停从这两个国家进口大象战利品。
But Satsumo, the Department of Wildlife and National Parks employee whoâs tagging along on the Waldripsâ safari, believes that Botswanaâs hunting ban may ultimately turn out badly for the elephants.
但跟随 Waldrips 狩猎之旅的野生动物和国家公园部员工萨莫认为，博茨瓦纳的狩猎禁令最终可能会对大象造成不利影响。
âThere will be more poachers,â she says.
“将会有更多的偷猎者，”她说。
âMore elephants will get out of the reserve.
– 更多的大象将会离开保护区。
They will go to peopleâs crop fields.
他们将前往人们的农田。
The hunters pump the water for them, but now they will have to move to the villages to find it.
猎人为他们抽水，但现在他们必须搬到村庄去寻找水。
Itâs a bad thing.
这是一件坏事。
Itâs a very bad thing.â
这是一件非常糟糕的事情。”
Abhorrent as the practice is to most Western, Dumbo-adoring sensibilities, elephant hunting occupies an awkward, grayed-out space in the landscape of conservation policy.
尽管这种做法对于大多数喜欢小飞象的西方人来说是令人厌恶的，但大象狩猎在保护政策的景观中占据了一个尴尬的、灰色的空间。
Some nonprofits such as the World Wildlife Fund have quietly endorsed it as part of a conservation strategy but decline to discuss their position on record.
世界自然基金会等一些非营利组织已悄悄认可其作为保护战略的一部分，但拒绝讨论他们的立场。
The issue is such an emotional live wire, for people on both sides of the debate, and is so deeply laced with PR perils, that itâs just about impossible to find a frank and disinterested expert opinion about huntingâs efficacy as a means to help conserve the species.
对于辩论双方来说，这个问题是一个情感上的火线，并且深深地带有公关危险，以至于几乎不可能找到一个坦率、公正的专家意见来讨论狩猎作为帮助保护物种的手段的功效。
Itâs worth noting that I couldnât find anyone on the anti-hunting side who could convincingly answer this question: If hunting is so disastrous for the long-term survival of the species, why do the countries where itâs legal to hunt elephants have so many more of them than those where the practice is banned?
值得注意的是，我找不到反狩猎方的任何人能够令人信服地回答这个问题：如果狩猎对于物种的长期生存来说是如此灾难性的，为什么合法狩猎大象的国家比禁止这种做法的国家有更多的大象？
With the next couple of tourist seasons, most of Botswanaâs elephant concessions will be converted to photographic-safari destinations, which many conservationists promote as an effective way to monetize the animals and thereby protect them.
随着接下来的几个旅游季节，博茨瓦纳的大部分大象特许经营地都将转变为摄影狩猎目的地，许多自然资源保护主义者将其视为通过动物获利并保护它们的有效方式。
But according to Jeff Rann, photo safaris arenât all that difficult for poachers to work around.
但杰夫·兰恩 (Jeff Rann) 表示，对于偷猎者来说，摄影之旅并不是那么困难。
â[Photo tourists] are not armed.
Ø [拍照游客]没有携带武器。
And they stick to a set, predictable routine, so the poachers just go kill animals in parts of the concessions where they know the photographics arenât going to go.â
他们遵循一套既定的、可预测的惯例，所以偷猎者只会在他们知道照片不会被拍到的特许经营地的部分地区猎杀动物。”
Obviously Rannâs got a vested interest in this perspective.
显然，兰恩从这个角度获得了既得利益。
But looking at the case of Kenya, home to one of Africaâs largest photo-safari sectors and a poaching problem of catastrophic proportions, you sort of have to give Rann his due.
但看看肯尼亚的例子，这里是非洲最大的摄影狩猎区之一，而且偷猎问题严重，你必须给予兰恩应有的尊重。
Of course, thereâs every possibility that some combination of public policy, private money, and anti-ivory market pressures will render hunting obsolete as a conservation instrument.
当然，公共政策、私人资金和反象牙市场压力的某种结合很可能会使狩猎作为一种保护手段变得过时。
But for now, if you are one of those people who chokes up at reports of poachers poisoning elephants by the herd, you may have to countenance the uncomfortable possibility that one solution to the survival of the species may involve people paying lots of money to shoot elephants for fun.
但就目前而言，如果你是那些因偷猎者在象群中毒害大象的报道而哽咽的人之一，你可能不得不接受一种令人不安的可能性，即解决该物种生存的一种解决方案可能涉及人们花很多钱射杀大象以取乐。
The hunt continues.
狩猎仍在继续。
We are not back in the truck ten minutes before the tracker calls for a halt.
在追踪器要求停车前十分钟，我们还没有回到卡车上。
Robyn and Will linger in the Land Cruiser while Jeff and the tracker go off into the bush to investigate.
罗宾和威尔在陆地巡洋舰上徘徊，而杰夫和追踪者则前往灌木丛进行调查。
On the heels of our run-in with the monotusker and his pal, it feels as though the day has already coughed up a full lode of potential prey.
在我们与单牙兽和他的朋友发生冲突之后，感觉这一天已经吐出了一大堆潜在的猎物。
So it registers as something of a surprise when Jeff returns with this news: âThereâs five bulls, all of âem pretty good size.â One of them is carrying at least sixty pounds of ivory, Jeffâs threshold, I gather, for trophy viability.
因此，当杰夫带着这个消息回来时，人们感到有些惊讶：“有五头公牛，个头都很大。”其中一头至少携带了六十磅象牙，我猜想，这是杰夫获得战利品的门槛。
âItâs a shooter,â he says.
“这是一名射手，”他说。
âIf we get a shot, weâve gotta shoot it.â
“如果有机会，我们就必须开枪。”
Robyn shoulders her rifle.
罗宾扛起步枪。
Her eyes are incandescent.
她的眼睛是炽热的。
Off we troop over the sand.
我们在沙滩上成群结队地出发。
The bush resounds with a din of timber destruction.
灌木丛中回响着木材被破坏的喧闹声。
The sun is making its descent, and perhaps a hundred yards off, through the brambles, tusks glow in the rich light.
太阳正在落下，大约一百码外，穿过荆棘丛，獠牙在丰富的光线下闪闪发光。
The animals are fanned out ahead of us, noisily munching.
动物们在我们面前呈扇形散开，大声咀嚼。
We come in closer, and the elephants begin to take note, though we register more as a mild irritant, not a mortal threat.
我们走近了，大象开始注意到，尽管我们更多地将其视为轻微的刺激物，而不是致命的威胁。
The trophy animal is in a lane of dense shrubs, mooning us.
这只战利品动物在一条茂密的灌木丛中注视着我们。
Robyn could conceivably flank it and get an angle on its head, but in the thick undergrowth it would be a poor shot, and that first bullet might be all sheâd get.
可以想象，罗宾可以从侧翼攻击它的头部，但在茂密的灌木丛中，这将是一次糟糕的射击，而第一颗子弹可能就是她所能得到的全部。
Thereâs a risk that she would only wound it and her $60,000 would sprint off into the weeds.
存在的风险是，她只会弄伤它，而她的 60,000 美元就会化为乌有。
Jeff and Robyn whisper tactically.
杰夫和罗宾策略性地窃窃私语。
The elephantâs obliviousness is exasperating.
大象的健忘令人恼火。
It seizes my lungs with a breathless frustration to watch the elephant foolishly grubbing salad while we stand within a stoneâs throw, plotting the proper method to put a bullet in its brain.
看着大象愚蠢地挖着沙拉，而我们却站在一箭之遥的地方，策划着用子弹射入它的大脑的正确方法，我的肺部感到一种喘不过气来的挫败感。
Not thirty feet from us, the elephant with the missing tusk, the same elephant we just ran into, suddenly appears, having made its approach way more stealthily than an animal the size of a bread truck ought to be capable of.
距离我们不到三十英尺，那头失去象牙的大象，也就是我们刚刚遇到的那头大象，突然出现了，它的接近方式比面包车大小的动物应该更隐蔽。
The bull is pissed.
公牛生气了。
It nods and snorts and tosses snoutfuls of sand our direction.
它点头、喷鼻息，并向我们的方向扔出一口沙子。
Okay, whatever you are, itâs kind of annoying, so get the fuck out of here, please.
好吧，不管你是什么，这都有点烦人，所以请他妈的离开这里。
I find the performance convincing.
我觉得表演很有说服力。
It keeps coming.
它不断到来。
Two more strides and the elephant could reach out and touch someone with its trunk.
再跨出两步，大象就可以伸出鼻子，用鼻子触碰人了。
The elephant looks to be about twelve feet tall.
大象看起来大约有十二英尺高。
The trunk weighs hundreds of pounds and is easily capable of breaking a human spine.
树干重达数百磅，很容易折断人的脊柱。
Apologies if that sounds like sensationalistic inanities youâve heard intoned sotto voce by Discovery Channel narrators trying to ramp up the drama of snorkeling with porpoises and such.
如果这听起来像是耸人听闻的愚蠢之举，我深表歉意，因为您已经听到过探索频道解说员低声吟诵的声音，试图增强与海豚等浮潜的戏剧性。
But the elephant is about fifteen feet away, and I will now confess to being scared just about shitless.
但大象就在大约十五英尺远的地方，我现在承认我被吓得屁滚尿流。
The elephant snorts and brandishes its vast head.
大象喷着鼻息，挥舞着它巨大的头。
Lunch goes to lava in my bowels.
午餐在我的肠子里变成了熔岩。
If not for my present state of sphincter-cinching terror, I would well be in the market for an adult diaper.
如果不是因为我目前的括约肌紧张的恐惧状态，我很可能会去市场购买成人尿布。
This is an amazingly pure kind of fear.
这是一种令人惊奇的纯粹的恐惧。
My arteries are suddenly capable of tasting my blood, which right now has the flavor of a nine-volt battery.
我的动脉突然能够尝到我的血液的味道，现在它有九伏电池的味道。
Jeff Rann is in dialogue with the elephant.
杰夫·兰恩正在与大象对话。
This consists of whispering menacingly and jabbing his rifle around in the air.
这包括威胁性地低声说话并用步枪在空中刺来戳去。
The elephant does its pissed-off little shuffle for perhaps a minute, probably less.
大象生气地小步拖着步子，时间可能只有一分钟，也可能更短。
And then the tape runs in slow reverse.
然后磁带慢速倒转。
The elephant retreats backward into the shrubs, eyeing us, curtsying hostilely as he goes.
大象向后退到灌木丛中，一边走一边看着我们，充满敌意地行屈膝礼。
âWells, you good, buddy?â Robyn asks, grinning.
“威尔斯，你好吗，伙计？”罗宾笑着问道。
Apparently Iâm visibly, risibly freaked.
显然，我明显感到非常害怕。
I regain my bearings, and we resume our approach to the trophy bull.
我重新定位，我们继续接近战利品公牛。
It requires the same strategy.
它需要相同的策略。
The target is in the middle of the fan of five.
目标位于五扇形的中间。
The elephants have arranged themselves such that itâs kind of diffcult to get an angle on the prize without straying into the paths of the others.
大象们的排列方式使得很难在不误入其他大象的路径的情况下获得奖品的角度。
A disquiet, a shared unease, is taking hold among these fellows.
一种不安、一种共同的不安正在这些人中蔓延。
The racket of salad consumption is tapering off.
沙拉消费量正在逐渐减少。
The elephants are beginning to push on.
大象开始向前推进。
But, goddamn, these guys could use a coach.
但是，该死的，这些家伙可以使用教练。
The interaction with the one-tusker notwithstanding, their defense pretty much sucks.
尽管与独牙牙有互动，但它们的防御却很糟糕。
Theyâre moving, but itâs not so much flight as a slow and cranky mosey.
它们在移动，但与其说是飞行，不如说是缓慢而暴躁的莫西。
The light is caramelizing.
光呈焦糖色。
If Robyn canât get a shot in the next five or ten minutes, the sun will sink past the trees and it will be lion-oâclock out here.
如果罗宾在接下来的五到十分钟内无法拍摄到照片，那么太阳就会从树林中落下，此时这里已经是凌晨了。
The sun, too, seems murderously slow in its descent.
太阳的落下速度似乎也慢得要命。
We move past one elephant, past another, until we are on the trophy beast.
我们经过一头大象，又经过另一头大象，直到我们登上了战利品野兽。
Again, its butt is to us.
再说一次，它的屁股是对着我们的。
Nothing in the animal world tops an elephantâs ass as an emblem of indifference and reproof.
在动物世界中，没有什么比大象的屁股更能成为冷漠和责备的象征了。
Coyness is keeping the elephant alive.
羞涩让大象得以生存。
If he does not turn his head, the sun will set and the elephant will not be killed today.
如果他不转头，太阳就会落山，大象今天就不会被杀死。
And then he turns his head.
然后他转过头。
His expression is wary, rueful.
他的表情是警惕的、懊悔的。
In his long-lashed bedroom eyes is the look of an old drag queen turning to regard an importunate suitor tugging at the hem of her dress.
在他长长的卧室眼睛里，有一种老变装皇后转身看着一个纠缠不休的追求者拉扯她裙子下摆的神情。
Robyn raises her rifle.
罗宾举起步枪。
For the past few months, sheâs been rehearsing this moment in her bedroom closet in Texas, aiming, reloading, aiming again.
在过去的几个月里，她一直在德克萨斯州卧室的衣柜里排练这一刻，瞄准、重新装弹、再次瞄准。
She shoots.
她开枪。
The rifleâs thunder is somehow insignificant.
步枪的雷声在某种程度上是微不足道的。
The shot catches the elephant in the appropriate place, at the bridge of its trunk.
镜头在适当的位置捕捉到了大象，即大象鼻子的桥部。
But an elephant brain is a big piece of equipmentâit can weigh as much as twelve pounds.
但象脑是一个很大的设备——它的重量可达十二磅。
Robynâs bullet did not apparently sever enough vital neurons to kill the animal in a single shot.
罗宾的子弹显然没有切断足够多的重要神经元，无法一击杀死动物。
He shakes his head, as if to wag away the pain of a waspâs sting.
他摇摇头，仿佛要甩掉黄蜂蜇伤的疼痛。
There is a second shot that strikes him in the neck.
第二枪击中了他的脖子。
He turns to flee, but his right foreleg has buckled.
他转身想要逃跑，但他的右前腿已经弯曲。
He strives to stand.
他努力站起来。
The effect is of a cripple trying to pitch a broken circus tent.
效果就像一个瘸子试图搭建一个破损的马戏团帐篷。
In the franticness of his movements, one can sense the elephantâs surprise that his body, a machine that has served him well for over fifty years, has suddenly stopped accepting his commands.
在大象疯狂的动作中，人们可以感觉到大象的惊讶，因为他的身体，这台为他服务了五十多年的机器，突然不再接受他的命令。
To see so large and powerful an animal vised in an even larger and more powerful inevitability is, for lack of a better word, intense.
看到如此巨大和强大的动物不可避免地面临着更大和更强大的威胁，因为找不到更好的词来形容，这是非常强烈的。
The other elephants scatter.
其他大象四散奔逃。
Robyn and Jeff jog toward the animal.
罗宾和杰夫慢跑向那只动物。
In the fervor of the moment, Robyn has momentarily forgotten to put fresh rounds in her gun.
一时冲动，罗宾忘记了给枪里装新子弹。
âReload, reload, reload,â Jeff instructs.
“重新加载，重新加载，重新加载，”杰夫指示道。
They advance to a distance of maybe twenty-five feet.
他们前进了大约二十五英尺的距离。
âOkay, shoot him right in the hip.â The gun fires twice.
– 好吧，朝他的臀部开枪。 – 枪开了两次枪。
The tent sags right and seems to sort of sway and billow, as though surrendering to wind.
帐篷向右下垂，似乎在摇晃和翻滚，就像在风中屈服一样。
âOkay, come with me,â Jeff says.
“好吧，跟我来吧，”杰夫说。
He leads Robyn along the animalâs left flank.
他带领罗宾沿着动物的左胁走。
At the sound of the hunters coming in close, the elephant struggles more direly to rise, but instead, he loses ground against gravity and settles closer to the earth.
听到猎人靠近的声音，大象更加拼命地挣扎着想要站起来，但它却在重力的作用下失去了地面，离地面更近了。
âJust watch his trunk.
– 只要注意他的行李箱即可。
[Be sure] he doesnât hit you with it.â
[确保]他不会用它打你。”
Jeff leads her to a position perhaps ten feet from the elephantâs left temple.
杰夫带领她来到距离大象左侧太阳穴大约十英尺的位置。
âOkay, hit him right in the ear hole.â At this point there is little the elephant can do except to turn his face away.
– 好吧，就打他的耳洞。 – 此时大象除了转过脸去别无他法。
The last shot claps into the elephantâs ear.
最后一枪打在大象的耳朵里。
âPerfect,â says Jeff Rann.
“完美，”杰夫·兰恩说。
âBrain shot.
– 脑部射击。
You brained him.â
你把他脑子搞坏了。”
And the elephant, still swaying on its haunches, a slow faucet of blood trickling from his forehead, is no more.
而那头大象仍然用臀部摇晃着，一滴血从他的额头上缓缓流下，已经不复存在了。
âIt wonât happen again.â âAt apology press conference for his African elephant hunt, April 18, 2012
“这种事不会再发生了。” – 2012 年 4 月 18 日，他在为自己狩猎非洲象而举行的道歉新闻发布会上
So that is how the elephant got shot.
大象就是这样被射杀的。
Once in the forehead, once in the neck, twice in the hip, once in the ear.
额头一次，颈部一次，臀部两次，耳朵一次。
How it felt to watch the elephant get shot is something else.
看着大象被射杀的感觉又是另一回事了。
As I watched the elephant go down, what obtruded into my consciousness was a kind of a thing , a psychological sensation with a very particular shape and weight and texture, a geometry as discrete and seemingly physical as a house key or a tire iron, but which I donât have any useful language to describe.
当我看着大象倒下时，闯入我意识的是一种东西，一种具有非常特殊的形状、重量和纹理的心理感觉，一种像房子钥匙或轮胎熨斗一样离散且看似物理的几何形状，但我没有任何有用的语言来描述。
This thing, this mute-pseudo revelation, had something to do with adrenalineâs power to catalyze time into taffy.
这个东西，这个无声的伪启示，与肾上腺素催化时间变成太妃糖的力量有关。
Forty seconds elapsed between the first shot and the last, yet what happened in those forty seconds seemed to happen out of time.
第一个镜头和最后一个镜头之间相隔了四十秒，但这四十秒里发生的事情却显得有些不合时宜。
It was another kind of time in which a new understanding of death impressed itself upon me more rapidly than my cognition could accommodate.
那是另一种时期，对死亡的新理解比我的认知能力更快地给我留下了深刻的印象。
The indescribable thought sensation was not this, but some tiny part of it was sort of like this: Before I saw the elephant get shot, I understood that there was life, and there was its cessation.
那种难以形容的思想感受不是这样的，而是其中某个微小的部分是这样的：在我看到大象被射杀之前，我明白了有生命，也有生命的终结。
But now I understand there is this other thingâdying, when death stops being an idea and becomes a thing that the body, if not the conscious mind, grasps in its full intensity.
但现在我明白了还有另外一件事——死亡，当死亡不再是一个想法，而是成为身体（如果不是有意识的心灵）全力把握的事情时。
Watching the elephant die granted the illusory understanding of deathâs grammar and meaning, as with an alingual child who hears five words and thinks he knows a language.
看着大象死去，人们对死亡的语法和意义产生了虚幻的理解，就像一个不会语言的孩子听到五个单词并认为自己懂得一种语言一样。
The first word went through the forehead, the second through the neck, the third and fourth through the hip, the fifth through the ear.
第一个词通过前额，第二个词通过颈部，第三个和第四个词通过臀部，第五个词通过耳朵。
The month before this trip, on another assignment for this magazine, for the first time in my life, I handled the corpse of a dead human being, and I learned nothing about death.
这次旅行的前一个月，在本杂志的另一项任务中，我有生以来第一次处理一具死人的尸体，但我对死亡一无所知。
I learned nothing about death, either, when Robyn Waldrip shot the elephant.
当罗宾·沃尔德里普射杀大象时，我对死亡也一无所知。
But it left in my skull at least the languageless shadow of the indescribable thing: Death is this.
但它至少在我的头骨中留下了无法形容的事物的无言阴影：死亡就是这样。
Death is the elephant taking the first shot in the forehead, and the second in its neck, slumping, listing right, taking two in the hip, struggling, sinking, turning, taking one through the ear and not moving anymore.
死亡是大象的前额中了第一枪，脖子上中了第二枪，它瘫倒在地，向右倾斜，臀部中了两枪，挣扎，下沉，转身，耳朵中了一枪，不再动弹。
As it was in the beginning, and as it always will be: one in the forehead, one in the neck, two in the hip, one in the ear, world without end.
就像一开始一样，也永远都是这样：一个在额头，一个在脖子，两个在臀部，一个在耳朵，世界没有尽头。
The dead elephant is leaking audibly.
死去的大象发出漏水声。
A substance resembling scrambled egg is spattered on its ear.
一种类似炒鸡蛋的物质溅到了它的耳朵上。
Iâm jotting notes and hoping Jeff Rann or Robyn does not notice how badly my hand is shaking.
我正在记笔记，希望杰夫·兰恩或罗宾没有注意到我的手颤抖得有多厉害。
But Robyn is off in her own intense moment.
但罗宾正处于她自己的紧张时刻。
She is sort of hooting and jumping up and down, going âOh, my God, oh, my God,â and generally experiencing an order of ecstasy we tend to share only with our intimates.
她有点叫喊，上蹿下跳，“哦，我的上帝，哦，我的上帝”，通常会经历一种我们往往只与亲密的人分享的狂喜。
On either side of the animal, we are both of us breathing hard, massively doped with a storm of neurochemicals that, if you could synthesize in a smokable form, would make you very rich.
在动物的两侧，我们都呼吸困难，体内大量掺杂着神经化学物质，如果你能以可吸烟的形式合成这些化学物质，你就会变得非常富有。
But the manner in which we are riding our respective highs is a pretty good illustration of why, in high school, Robyn was almost certainly a more welcome and popular presence at parties than I was.
但我们各自的高潮的方式很好地说明了为什么在高中时，罗宾在聚会上几乎肯定比我更受欢迎、更受欢迎。
While I am privately gibbering darkly and visibly whacked-out, she is pepped up, thrilled.
当我私下里胡言乱语、明显疲惫不堪时，她却精神抖擞、兴奋不已。
We embrace her congratulatorily.
我们祝贺她。
She kisses her fingertips and touches the bullâs trunk.
她亲吻指尖，触摸公牛的鼻子。
Salt water, rather gratuitously, spills from the elephantâs eyes.
盐水无缘无故地从大象的眼睛里溢出。
âWe eat, therefore we hunt.â â Going Rogue: An American Life , November 2009
– 我们吃饭，所以我们打猎。 – – 《Going Rogue: An American Life》，2009 年 11 月
The day after a hunt, villagers break down the elephant, removing the tusks and other trophy parts before divvying up the meat.
狩猎后的第二天，村民们将大象分解，除去象牙和其他战利品部分，然后分配肉。
Only an empty field remains.
只剩下一片空白。
In the morning, the elephant is as we left it, unmolested by snacking carnivores.
早上，大象和我们离开时一样，没有受到食肉动物的骚扰。
Today, the animal will be cleaned and butchered, its flesh shared out among the locals.
今天，这只动物将被清洗和屠宰，其肉将与当地人分享。
The hide and other mementos will be packed up for the Waldrips.
兽皮和其他纪念品将被打包送给 Waldrips 一家。
Though the tusks and the rest of it are, ostensibly, the prizes Robyn came to Africa to collect, the electricity has gone out of the safari.
虽然象牙和其他东西表面上是罗宾来非洲收集的战利品，但狩猎之旅已经停电了。
Returning to the animal has a cleaning-up-after-the-party sort of feel.
回到动物身上有一种派对结束后清理干净的感觉。
A team of a half-dozen Botswana men and women have turned out for the event.
六名博茨瓦纳男子和女子代表队参加了此次活动。
The equipment list includes an ax, a winch, and a bunch of cheap-looking plastic-handled boning knives.
设备清单包括一把斧子、一台绞盘和一堆看起来很便宜的塑料柄剔骨刀。
First order of business is a stropping orgy that lasts the better part of half an hour.
第一件事是一场持续半个小时的狂欢。
While thatâs going on, the Waldripsâ childrenâLola, 6, and Will junior, 8âwho have been back at the camp, play with the elephant, touch its trunk for its rough, lichenish feel, handle its ears.
与此同时，沃尔德里普一家的孩子们——6 岁的洛拉和 8 岁的小威尔已经回到营地，与大象玩耍，摸摸大象的鼻子，感受它粗糙、青苔般的感觉，还用手摸它的耳朵。
âItâs surreal, isnât it?â Will senior says, squinting at the creature.
“这太超现实了，不是吗？”老威尔眯着眼睛看着这个生物说道。
âYeah,â says Robyn, a little dreamily.
“是的，”罗宾说道，语气有点梦幻。
âI hope it stays that way for a long time.â
“我希望这种情况能长期保持下去。”
Iâm feeling it, too, the slightly spongy sense of dislocation emanating from the previous day, but this is why I will never be a hunter: She wants to savor it.
我也感觉到了，前一天散发出的那种有点松软的错位感，但这就是为什么我永远不会成为一名猎人：她想品味它。
I am ready for it to go away.
我已经准备好让它消失了。
Before the skinning commences, the tableau is beautified and made camera-ready.
在蒙皮开始之前，画面会被美化并准备好拍照。
The elephantâs tusks are scrubbed.
大象的象牙被擦洗干净。
One of Jeffâs assistants takes an ax to a tree that is casting an unphotogenic shadow.
杰夫的一名助手用一把斧头砍倒一棵树，树上的影子投下的影子不适合上镜。
âLook how long it takes him to chop that down,â Will observes.
“看看他花了多长时间才能把它砍掉，”威尔观察到。
âAn elephant would walk right over it.â
“大象会从上面走过。”
Larry the videographer takes some footage of the children perched on the elephantâs skull, though Jeff cautions him, âYou might get shit if you put that in the show.
摄像师拉里拍了一些孩子们栖息在大象头骨上的镜头，尽管杰夫警告他，“如果你把它放在节目中，你可能会吃屎。”
You donât want to be seen as disrespecting the animal.â
您不想被视为不尊重动物。”
The cleaning goes like this: First you take the ears.
清洁过程如下：首先，取出耳朵。
Each is the size of a manta ray.
每一个都有蝠鲼大小。
It is severed close to the head and laid in the dirt.
它在靠近头部的地方被切断并埋在泥土中。
Next, the trunk, the size of a middle-aged gator, is girdled at its bridge and then removed.
接下来，将象中年鳄鱼大小的树干在其鼻梁处束紧，然后将其移走。
Blood comes forth in an incredible tide, more of it than Iâve probably seen in aggregate over the course of my lifetime.
血液以令人难以置信的方式涌出，其数量可能比我一生中见过的总和还要多。
Yet the flaying, surprisingly, inspires none of the mortal vertigo the killing did.
然而，令人惊讶的是，剥皮并没有引起杀戮时那样的致命眩晕。
As the knives flash, the animal becomes less extraordinary, less like the worldâs largest land mammal and more a bricolage of familiar butcher-shop hues.
随着刀子的闪光，这种动物变得不再那么非凡，不再像世界上最大的陆地哺乳动物，而更像是肉店里熟悉的色调的拼凑。
The trunk is stripped of its leather, and for a time it lies in the dirt, looking like an automobile transmission made of fresh raspberry sorbet.
行李箱的皮革被剥掉，有一段时间躺在泥土中，看起来就像一个用新鲜覆盆子冰糕制成的汽车变速箱。
Will is by the elephantâs rear.
威尔在大象的后面。
He has taken up a knife, eager to do his share of the dismantlement.
他拿起一把刀，迫不及待地想尽自己的一份力量来拆除。
âI always tell my kids, anything you kill, you gotta clean it yourself.
– 我总是告诉我的孩子们，无论你杀死什么，你都必须自己清理它。
I know Jeffâs got clients who come out here and kill five elephants.
我知道杰夫的客户来到这里杀死了五头大象。
Shoot âem and leave âem.
射击他们并离开他们。
To me thatâs not right.
对我来说这是不对的。
Out of respect for the animal, you gotta do it yourself.
出于对动物的尊重，你必须自己做。
I didnât kill this elephant, but even still.â
我没有杀死这头大象，但即便如此。”
A cut has been made along the spine.
沿着脊柱做了一个切口。
Will slashes away, pulling at the skin, revealing a goreless expanse of fibrous white fascia.
威尔猛砍，拉扯皮肤，露出一大片毫无血色的白色纤维筋膜。
The winch is applied to help peel the hide.
使用绞盘来帮助剥皮。
The resistance is sufficient to pull the truck forward at first when the crank turns on.
当曲柄打开时，阻力足以将卡车向前拉动。
Once the skin has been freed, Will and the skinners begin blocking out the meat.
一旦皮肤被剥掉，威尔和剥皮者就开始把肉挖出来。
The sound is of hard, wet work.
声音听起来像是艰苦、潮湿的工作。
Up front, they are getting at the skull.
在前面，他们正在攻击头骨。
The skin is gone from the elephantâs cheeks, and the bare eye peering from the pale tissue is demonic.
大象脸颊上的皮肤已经消失，从苍白的组织中窥视的裸眼是邪恶的。
Below the eyes, the look of the tuskless head, still actively suppurating, recalls a cliff face after a strong rain.
眼睛下方，无獠牙的头颅仍在积极化脓，让人想起大雨后的悬崖面。
Then the head itself is cut off, into the arms of a pair of catchers.
然后头部被切下来，放入一对捕手的怀里。
Later today or tomorrow, the skull will be buried for a period of ten days.
今天晚些时候或明天，头骨将被埋葬十天。
Insects will attend to the finer details of cleaning the skull for its voyage to Texas.
在前往德克萨斯州的航行中，昆虫将负责清洁头骨的细节。
When the head is removed, the elephant begins to speak in a morbid throat-flatus.
当头被移除后，大象开始用病态的喉胀气说话。
Air escaping the trachea makes sounds of growls and shudders and sighs.
从气管逸出的空气会发出咆哮、颤抖和叹息的声音。
This is not upsetting.
这并不令人不安。
By now, it is not elephant but a wrecked Volkswagen made of flesh.
现在，它已经不是大象了，而是一辆用肉制成的失事大众汽车。
The job wears on.
工作还在继续。
How much of the creature, I ask Jeff Rann, do the skinners intend to take?
我问杰夫·兰恩，剥皮者打算拿走多少这种生物？
âEverything,â he says.
“一切，”他说。
âThisâll probably feed a hundred people.â
“这可能可以养活一百个人。”
The skinners cut away fire-hydrant-sized wads of meat and fling them heavily into a Land Cruiserâs bed.
剥皮工人切下消防栓大小的肉团，然后将它们重重地扔进陆地巡洋舰的床上。
The carcass is winnowed to a pile of innards that calls to mind one of those inflatable-looking sports arenas.
尸体被筛得只剩下一堆内脏，这让人想起那些看起来像充气的运动场。
In the flawless blue above, a fleet of delighted buzzards has begun to wheel.
在头顶无瑕的蓝色中，一群高兴的秃鹰已经开始盘旋。
The work is mostly over.
工作基本结束了。
Will Waldrip can now retire from the job.
威尔·沃尔德里普现在可以退休了。
He is abundantly daubed in blood and is exhausted, though chipper.
他浑身沾满了血，虽然精神抖擞，但已经筋疲力尽了。
âA little different than quartering out a whitetail,â he says.
“与将白尾鱼切成四等分有点不同，”他说。
Amid the spare parts lying in the grass is the elephantâs jaw, from which we can know the elephantâs age.
草丛中躺着的零件中有大象的下巴，从中我们可以知道大象的年龄。
An elephant gets six sets of teeth in its lifetime.
大象一生会长出六副牙齿。
This one was on its final set, and judging from its condition it was probably about 53.
这是最后一套，从它的状况来看，大概有53左右。
The sand of the savanna is hard on an elephantâs dentition.
稀树草原的沙子对大象的牙列来说很硬。
Five to seven more years and itâd have blown through this set and starved to death, assuming neither Jeff nor the poachers got him first.
再过五到七年，假设杰夫和偷猎者都没有先抓住他，它就会被吹过这个集合并饿死。
Looking at this rummage sale of elephant flesh inspires an equally messy inventory of contradictory thoughts.
看着这堆象肉的乱七八糟的买卖，我也激起了同样混乱的矛盾想法。
The elephantâs skull is buried.
大象的头骨被埋葬了。
Its flesh has been hung out to dry.
它的肉已经被挂起来晾干了。
The Waldrips are booked at Jeff Rannâs safari camp for eight more days, but these folk are hunters, and the notion of spending a week doing nothing but observing creatures of the wild holds little interest for them.
沃尔德里普一家在杰夫·兰纳 (Jeff Rann) 的狩猎营地又预订了八天，但这些人都是猎人，他们对花一周时间除了观察野生动物之外什么都不做的想法没什么兴趣。
So tomorrow, they will go to South Africa, because Will Waldrip Jr. wants to undertake something called a âspringbok slam,â which involves shooting one of each of that speciesâ four subvarieties.
所以明天，他们将前往南非，因为小威尔·沃尔德里普想要进行一项名为“跳羚大满贯”的活动，其中包括射杀该物种的四个亚种中的每一个。
Jeff has an extra elephant tag for his concession in Tanzania.
杰夫在坦桑尼亚的特许经营权获得了额外的大象标签。
He offers this to Will senior, and Will declines.
他向老威尔提出这个建议，但威尔拒绝了。
Our last evening in camp, we go for sunset cocktails at a locally famous baobab tree.
在营地的最后一个晚上，我们去当地著名的猴面包树旁喝日落鸡尾酒。
The tree is craggy, Gandalfian, and 1,000 years old.
这棵树崎岖不平，具有甘道夫式的风格，已有 1000 年的历史。
It has a crazed unruly spread of branches, which inspired the folk saying, Jeff tells us, that âGod pulled the baobab out of the ground and stuck it upside down.â A leopard sometimes hangs out in the man-sized cave in its trunk.
杰夫告诉我们，它的树枝疯狂地、不守规矩地伸展开来，这启发了民间谚语“上帝把猴面包树从地里拔出来，然后把它倒过来。”有时，一只豹子会用树干在一个人大小的洞穴里闲逛。
The leopard isnât home.
豹子不在家。
The only locals on the scene are a squadron of huge buzzards, resting in the baobabâs branches.
现场唯一的当地人是一群巨大的秃鹰，它们在猴面包树的树枝上休息。
The camp dumps its hunting refuse not too far from here, and the buzzards, Jeff tells us, have likely spent the day gorging on the remains of Robynâs elephant.
营地将狩猎垃圾倾倒在离这里不远的地方，杰夫告诉我们，秃鹰很可能一整天都在吃罗宾大象的残骸。
At our approach, they take grudging flight in a storm of black wings.
当我们接近时，它们在黑色翅膀的风暴中勉强飞行。
While Jeffâs wife is arranging the cocktail table, the party moves in to have a look at the leopard hole.
当杰夫的妻子正在布置鸡尾酒桌时，一行人走进去看看豹子洞。
Suddenly the sounds of shrieking pierce the quiet of the dusk.
突然，一阵尖叫声划破了黄昏的宁静。
My first thought is that the leopard was home after all and has mauled one of the children.
我的第一个想法是，豹子毕竟在家，并且咬伤了其中一个孩子。
But it turns out that one last buzzard had been hiding in the tree.
但事实证明，最后一只秃鹰一直躲在树里。
The bird had gobbled so much of Robynâs elephant that it couldnât take off.
这只鸟把罗宾的大象吃掉了太多，以至于它无法起飞。
So, to attain flight weight, the buzzard started puking on the safari group.
因此，为了达到飞行重量，秃鹰开始向狩猎队呕吐。
Fran, the Waldripsâ nanny, got the heftiest portion of Robynâs elephant, on her shoulders and hair, and Jeff Rann got speckled a bit.
Waldrips 的保姆 Fran 得到了 Robyn 大象最重的部分，即她的肩膀和头发，而 Jeff Rann 则沾染了一些斑点。
The elephant huntress herself dodged the vomit entirely as the bird set a course for the sun.
当大象朝着太阳飞去时，猎象人自己完全躲开了呕吐物。
Listen to writer Wells Tower talk to GQ about his trip to Botswanaâand the aftershocks of an elephant hunt.
听作家威尔斯·塔 (Wells Tower) 接受《GQ》杂志采访，讲述他的博茨瓦纳之旅以及狩猎大象的余震。