The Unhappy King of Snooker
O’Sullivan “sits over everyone,” an ex-manager said.
一位前经理说，奥沙利文“高于所有人”。
“He is not a normal bloke.” Photograph by Nadav Kander Early on a Tuesday morning last fall, Ronnie O’Sullivan was running through the woods near his home, in Chigwell, Essex, northeast of London.
“他不是一个正常的人。”去年秋天的一个星期二清晨，罗尼·奥沙利文（Ronnie O’Sullivan）正在伦敦东北部埃塞克斯郡奇格韦尔的家附近的树林里跑步。
It was damp and muddy, England in November.
十一月的英国，天气潮湿泥泞。
O’Sullivan, who is thirty-nine, loves the anonymity of running.
三十九岁的奥沙利文喜欢匿名跑步。
About ten years ago, he discovered that it was one thing that truly takes him out of himself—more than the drink and the drugs and the antidepressants—and suspends the otherwise unavoidable fact that he is the most talented snooker player of all time.
大约十年前，他发现有一件事真正让他失去了自我——比酗酒、毒品和抗抑郁药更重要——并悬置了一个原本不可避免的事实：他是有史以来最有才华的斯诺克球员。
At the age of eleven, O’Sullivan was making good money in the sport, and in the past three decades he has won five World Championships and set a number of records while enduring a bewildering odyssey of breakdowns, addictions, and redemptions, largely precipitated by the imprisonment of his father, whom he loves, for murder.
十一岁时，奥沙利文就在这项运动中赚了很多钱，在过去的三十年里，他赢得了五次世界冠军并创造了多项纪录，同时也经历了一段令人困惑的崩溃、毒瘾和救赎的旅程，这在很大程度上是由于他深爱的父亲因谋杀而入狱所促成的。
O’Sullivan is frequently described as a genius.
奥沙利文经常被描述为天才。
But he does not see how this can be so.
但他不明白怎么会这样。
Most days, he feels like a fraud.
大多数时候，他感觉自己像个骗子。
His game comes only in fits and starts.
他的比赛只是断断续续的。
He wins because the others lose.
他赢了，因为其他人输了。
He has wondered for a long time whether he would be happier doing something else.
很长一段时间以来，他一直想知道做其他事情是否会更快乐。
He has moved nine times in the past ten years.
过去十年他搬家九次。
“I’m fucking, you know, searching,” he told me recently.
“我他妈的，你知道，在寻找，”他最近告诉我。
“I kind of know who I am but I don’t like who I am, do you know what I mean?
“我知道自己是谁，但我不喜欢自己，你明白我的意思吗？
I wish I was a bit more fucking stable.”
我希望我能稳定一点。”
O’Sullivan tries to run six or seven miles a day.
奥沙利文尝试每天跑六七英里。
That morning, he was with his best friend from school, George Palacaros.
那天早上，他和学校最好的朋友乔治·帕拉卡罗斯在一起。
(O’Sullivan grew up a short distance from Chigwell, in the town of Ilford.) It was a final run before the U.K. Championship, snooker’s second-biggest tournament, in York, two hundred miles to the north.
（奥沙利文在伊尔福德镇距离奇格韦尔不远的地方长大。）这是英国锦标赛之前的最后一场比赛，斯诺克第二大锦标赛在约克以北 200 英里举行。
O’Sullivan’s first-round match, against an amateur named Daniel Wells, was two days away.
距离奥沙利文的首轮比赛还有两天，对手是业余选手丹尼尔·威尔斯。
About five miles into the run, Palacaros called out to O’Sullivan to check the heart-rate monitor that he wears on his wrist.
跑了大约五英里后，帕拉卡罗斯叫奥沙利文检查他手腕上戴的心率监测器。
As O’Sullivan turned to reply, he slipped and fell, breaking his left ankle.
当奥沙利文转身回答时，他滑倒了，摔断了左脚踝。
He tried to carry on.
他试图继续下去。
“I thought, I ain’t going to waddle back,” he said.
“我想，我不会摇摇晃晃地回来，”他说。
He jogged another mile, but whenever he looked down he saw his ankle swelling up.
他又慢跑了一英里，但每当他低头一看，他就发现脚踝肿胀起来。
By the time O’Sullivan reached the changing room at his running club, he couldn’t put any weight on his leg.
当奥沙利文到达跑步俱乐部的更衣室时，他的腿上无法承受任何重量。
At the hospital, O’Sullivan was told that he had a simple fracture.
在医院，奥沙利文被告知他只是简单骨折。
His ankle wouldn’t need surgery, but it would take twelve weeks to heal and he would have to wear a protective brace.
他的脚踝不需要手术，但需要十二周才能愈合，而且他必须戴上防护支架。
He called his psychiatrist.
他打电话给他的精神科医生。
In the afternoon, O’Sullivan posted a picture of his ankle, bulging alarmingly, on Twitter, with the message “Might be one legged Snooker at the #UKChampionship on Thursday.” He found a pair of soft blue boots in his closet that fit over the brace.
下午，奥沙利文在推特上发布了一张脚踝凸出的照片，令人震惊，并配文“周四#UKChampionship 上可能会出现单腿斯诺克。”他在衣柜里发现了一双柔软的蓝色靴子，可以套在支架上。
The next day, a friend drove him to York so that he could keep his foot elevated on the way.
第二天，一位朋友开车送他去约克，这样他就可以在途中保持高度。
Snooker, like its poor relation pool, is a cue sport.
斯诺克就像它的穷关系台球一样，是一项台球运动。
Unlike pool, snooker has twenty-two balls: fifteen red, six of other colors, and one white.
与台球不同，斯诺克有 22 个球：15 个红球、6 个其他颜色球和 1 个白球。
(Pool and its variants involve sixteen balls or fewer.) Players take turns attempting to clear the table and earn as many points as possible, using the white cue ball to “pot” a red, then a colored ball (which is returned to the table), then a red, and so on.
（撞球及其变体涉及 16 个或更少的球。）玩家轮流尝试清理桌子并赚取尽可能多的分数，使用白色母球“入盆”红球，然后是彩球（返回到桌子上），然后是红球，依此类推。
When all the reds are gone, the players dispatch the colors in order of their value, from the yellow, which is worth two points, up to the black, which is worth seven.
当所有红色都消失后，玩家按照颜色的价值顺序分配颜色，从黄色（价值两分）到黑色（价值七分）。
If a player fails to pot a ball at any point, he must yield the table to his opponent.
如果球员在任何时候未能将球击入球袋，他必须将球桌让给对手。
Matches are divided into frames, each won by whichever player scores the most points.
比赛分为几局，每局由得分最多的玩家获胜。
In the professional game, frames tend to unfold with vivid, unsettling ease—the balls slide into the pockets as if there were nowhere else for them to go—or with staggering, metaphysical difficulty, as the players foil one another by arranging the balls in illogical patterns, a type of play known as “safety,” and everyone’s nerves go to hell.
在职业比赛中，画面往往以生动、令人不安的轻松方式展开——球滑入口袋，好像它们无处可去——或者以惊人的、形而上的难度展开，因为球员们通过以不合逻辑的方式排列球来互相挫败，这是一种被称为“安全”的比赛，每个人的神经都会紧张。
Snooker’s civilized appearance belies its vicious and enervating nature.
斯诺克文明的外表掩盖了其邪恶和令人衰弱的本质。
A snooker table is three times larger than a pool table and its pockets are an inch smaller.
斯诺克台球桌比台球桌大三倍，而台球桌的口袋却小一英寸。
Even the most basic shot is a concatenation of foresight, friction, and various Newtonian laws.
即使是最基本的镜头也是预见、摩擦和各种牛顿定律的串联。
Players seek to control where at least two balls are going: the red or colored “object” ball, preferably toward a pocket; and the white ball, its rate of braking and spin carefully calibrated, either to stop near another object ball, so the process can begin again, or to continue toward some hostile district of the table, from where the opponent will be unlikely to score.
玩家试图控制至少两个球的去向：红色或彩色的“目标”球，最好朝向口袋；白球的制动和旋转速度经过仔细校准，要么停在另一个目标球附近，以便该过程可以再次开始，要么继续朝桌子上的某个敌对区域移动，从那里对手不太可能得分。
The best players string together thirty shots in a row, in a hushed environment of thick carpet and dinner suits.
最好的球员在厚地毯和晚宴服的安静环境中连续进行三十次射击。
(Snooker’s dress code recalls, more or less, that of a nineteen-thirties music hall.) Players compete to pot the same balls, so every shot has a psychological echo: What is good for me is bad for you.
（斯诺克台球的着装要求或多或少让人想起十九世纪三十年代音乐厅的着装要求。）球员们竞相将相同的球打进球袋，因此每次击球都会产生心理回响：对我有利的事情对你不利。
The longer I am at the table, the longer you must watch and fret.
我在牌桌上待的时间越长，你必须观察和烦恼的时间就越长。
Players avoid eye contact.
玩家避免目光接触。
No one speaks.
没有人说话。
At the U.K. Championship, all matches except the final were the best of eleven frames.
在英国锦标赛上，除决赛外，所有比赛都是十一局三胜制。
O’Sullivan was reluctant to put weight on his ankle.
奥沙利文不愿意让脚踝承受重量。
“I feel like a baby that’s trying to learn to walk,” he told reporters.
“我感觉自己就像一个正在努力学习走路的婴儿，”他告诉记者。
He limped through his first match but won, 6–2.
他一瘸一拐地完成了第一场比赛，但最终以 6-2 获胜。
Three days later, in the second round, he faced Peter Lines, a forty-four-year-old journeyman pro.
三天后，在第二轮比赛中，他面对的是 44 岁的熟练职业选手彼得·莱恩斯 (Peter Lines)。
I travelled north to watch him play.
我北上去看他打球。
I reached the Barbican theatre in York, just outside the city’s medieval walls, early in the evening.
傍晚时分，我到达了约克的巴比肯剧院，就在这座城市的中世纪城墙外。
O’Sullivan had been debating whether to pull out of the tournament.
奥沙利文一直在争论是否退出比赛。
His balance wasn’t right.
他的平衡不正确。
There was no sign of him by the practice table, where the other players, dressed in bow ties and waistcoats, waited, leaning on their cues.
练习台旁没有他的踪影，其他球员都系着领结，穿着背心，靠着球杆等待着。
Referees pulled on white gloves.
裁判们戴上了白手套。
Nevertheless, at 7 P.M.
尽管如此，晚上 7 点
, O’Sullivan appeared, walking out under the lights in answer to the snookering nickname that he has had since he was a teen-ager, “Ronnie (the Rocket) O’Sullivan!” In a dinner suit and his blue boots, his sideburns shot with gray, he looked like a croupier on his way home from work.
，奥沙利文出现，在灯光下走出，回应了他从青少年时期起就有的斯诺克绰号“罗尼（火箭）奥沙利文！”他穿着晚礼服和蓝色靴子，鬓角泛着灰色，看上去就像一个下班回家路上的荷官。
“You don’t feel comfortable when Ronnie’s playing,” Barry Hearn told me.
“罗尼打球的时候你会感觉不舒服，”巴里·赫恩告诉我。
Hearn has been snooker’s dominant impresario since the nineteen-eighties.
自十九世纪八十年代以来，赫恩一直是斯诺克运动的主导人物。
He controls the commercial rights to the sport and has managed O’Sullivan three times, on and off, throughout his turbulent career.
他控制着这项运动的商业权，并在奥沙利文动荡的职业生涯中断断续续地管理过三次。
(O’Sullivan fired two managers during the reporting of this article.) “You’re almost watching an accident waiting to happen,” Hearn said.
（奥沙利文在报道本文期间解雇了两名经理。）“你几乎看到了一场等待发生的事故，”赫恩说。
Against Lines, O’Sullivan was obviously out of sorts.
对阵莱恩斯时，奥沙利文显然状态不佳。
Most snooker players, obsessed with repetition, seek to become robotic versions of themselves.
大多数斯诺克选手沉迷于重复，试图成为自己的机器人版本。
But O’Sullivan in full flow is always in motion, checking this, squinting at that, buzzing backward and forward around the table, grimacing at the balls, fussing at chalk marks on the baize.
但全神贯注的奥沙利文总是在运动，检查这个，眯着眼睛看看那个，在桌子周围来回嗡嗡作响，对着球做鬼脸，对台布上的粉笔痕迹大惊小怪。
His ankle made that impossible.
他的脚踝让这一切变得不可能。
Every movement was an effort.
每一个动作都是一种努力。
Still, it was too much for Lines.
尽管如此，这对 Lines 来说还是太过分了。
Ranked sixty-first in the world, he seemed unnerved by the television cameras and missed a number of easy shots.
世界排名第六十位的他似乎对电视镜头感到不安，并错过了一些轻松的击球。
Many lower-ranked players find it hard to concentrate when they play O’Sullivan.
许多排名较低的球员在对阵奥沙利文时很难集中注意力。
The crowd is against them, and they wonder what he thinks of their game.
观众反对他们，他们想知道他对他们的比赛有何看法。
The match was untidy.
比赛打得乱七八糟。
In the fifth frame, with the score at 3–1, O’Sullivan potted a fluky red and the balls suddenly opened.
第五局，比分3-1，奥沙利文侥幸打进红球，球突然打开。
In the course of twenty-nine strokes, he scored a hundred and six points—a “century”—and it seemed as if he might race away.
在二十九杆的过程中，他得到了一百零六分——一个“世纪”——看起来他似乎要跑掉了。
But Lines came back.
但莱恩斯回来了。
O’Sullivan was distracted; he picked his teeth and watched the game under way at a nearby table.
奥沙利文心烦意乱。他咬着牙，在附近的桌子上观看了比赛。
“Come on, Ronnie, our son,” a Yorkshire voice called out from the crowd.
“来吧，罗尼，我们的儿子，”约克郡的声音从人群中喊道。
By the time the game finished—6–3, to O’Sullivan—it was ten-thirty.
当比赛结束时——奥沙利文以 6 比 3 获胜——时间是十点三十分。
O’Sullivan was exhausted.
奥沙利文已经筋疲力尽了。
I caught up with him in the corridor as he hobbled back to his dressing room.
当他一瘸一拐地走回更衣室时，我在走廊里追上了他。
In person, he can be disarming—trouble, but you want him to like you.
面对面时，他可以解除你的戒备——麻烦，但你希望他喜欢你。
I congratulated him on the match and said I enjoyed it.
我对他的比赛表示祝贺，并表示我很享受这场比赛。
“Fucking hell,” he said.
“真他妈的见鬼，”他说。
“I didn’t.”
“我没有。”
People who grew up in Britain in the nineteen-eighties, as I did, found themselves steeped in snooker whether they liked it or not.
像我一样，在十九世纪八十年代在英国长大的人发现自己沉迷于斯诺克运动，无论他们喜欢与否。
The game was invented in 1875, by British military officers in colonial India, but for the next hundred years it was confined mostly to gentlemen’s clubs and dubious billiards halls.
这项运动是 1875 年由殖民印度的英国军官发明的，但在接下来的一百年里，它主要局限于绅士俱乐部和可疑的台球厅。
(In the nineteen-fifties, Charlie, Ronnie, and Reggie Kray—London’s best-known gangsters—got their start running a snooker hall in East London.) In 1978, however, the BBC broadcast the sport’s thirteen-day World Championship, at the Crucible Theatre, in Sheffield, for the first time.
（十九世纪五十年代，伦敦最著名的黑帮查理、罗尼和雷吉·克雷开始在东伦敦经营一家斯诺克台球馆。）然而，1978 年，BBC 首次在谢菲尔德的克鲁斯堡剧院转播了这项运动为期 13 天的世界锦标赛。
Television transformed snooker: the game’s slow, hypnotic quality; the trapped, pacing players; even the acidic colors of the balls seemed made for the small screen.
电视改造的斯诺克：比赛节奏缓慢、催眠；被困、踱步的玩家；甚至球的酸性颜色似乎也是为小屏幕而设计的。
Tobacco companies poured money into events.
烟草公司在活动上投入了大量资金。
In 1985, almost twenty million people stayed up past midnight to watch the World Championship final, in which the top player of the era, Steve (the Nugget) Davis, was beaten by Dennis Taylor, an underdog with specially adapted eyeglasses to help him see down the table.
1985年，近两千万人熬夜观看了世锦赛决赛，当时的顶级球员史蒂夫（掘金）戴维斯被丹尼斯·泰勒击败，丹尼斯·泰勒是一位失败者，他戴着经过特殊改造的眼镜，以帮助他看清比赛桌下的情况。
In the sport’s heyday, two snookering archetypes seemed to be at war, and television dramatized the duality.
在这项运动的鼎盛时期，两种斯诺克原型似乎处于战争状态，电视戏剧化了这种二元性。
There were the champions, clean-cut automatons who ruled the game for years at a time before abruptly burning out: Ray Reardon, a former policeman, in the nineteen-seventies; Davis, in the nineteen-eighties; Stephen Hendry, a baby-faced Scot who won a record seven world titles, in the nineteen-nineties.
其中有冠军，干净利落的机器人，他们一度统治了这项运动多年，然后突然精疲力竭：雷·里尔登，十九世纪七十年代的前警察；戴维斯，十九世纪八十年代；斯蒂芬·亨德利（Stephen Hendry）是一位长着娃娃脸的苏格兰人，他在十九世纪九十年代创下了七次世界冠军的纪录。
And there were the broken and the beautiful, who produced exquisite passages of play but couldn’t keep their heads together: Kirk Stevens, a Canadian cocaine addict who played in a white suit; Alex (the Hurricane) Higgins, who died, furious and alcoholic, of throat cancer, in 2010; and Jimmy (the Whirlwind) White, who reached six world finals and lost them all.
还有破碎的和美丽的，他们创造了精美的游戏段落，但无法保持头脑清醒：柯克·史蒂文斯，一个加拿大可卡因瘾君子，穿着白色西装玩；亚历克斯（飓风）希金斯，2010 年因咽喉癌在愤怒和酗酒中去世；吉米（旋风）怀特六次闯入世界决赛，但全部失利。
Ronald Antonio O’Sullivan was born in 1975.
罗纳德·安东尼奥·奥沙利文出生于 1975 年。
His parents, Ron and Maria, had met a couple of years earlier, as teen-agers, working at a vacation camp.
他的父母罗恩和玛丽亚是几年前认识的，当时他们还是十几岁的孩子，当时他们在一个度假营工作。
They moved to London and cleaned cars to make ends meet.
他们搬到伦敦并清理汽车以维持生计。
When their son hit the professional snooker scene, in the early nineteen-nineties, he was younger, more gifted, and ruder than anyone else.
当他们的儿子在十九世纪九十年代初踏入职业斯诺克舞台时，他比任何人都更年轻、更有天赋，但也更粗鲁。
He won his first major title at seventeen.
十七岁时，他赢得了他的第一个大满贯冠军。
In 1996, O’Sullivan was accused by a Canadian opponent, Alain Robidoux, of disrespecting him by playing left-handed.
1996年，奥沙利文被加拿大对手阿兰·罗比多指控为左撇子不尊重他。
O’Sullivan arranged to be certified as good enough to play professional snooker with either hand.
奥沙利文被安排获得足以用双手打职业斯诺克的认证。
That same year, he was suspended for head-butting an official.
同年，他因用头撞击一名官员而被停职。
He drank too much and saw too many first-round exits.
他喝得太多，也见证了太多首轮出局。
He talked openly about his loathing for the game, and for himself.
他公开谈论了他对这项运动和他自己的厌恶。
In 2000, O’Sullivan went to rehab, to seek treatment for an addiction to marijuana.
2000年，奥沙利文因大麻成瘾而前往戒毒所寻求治疗。
By the time he turned thirty, the age at which other great players, such as Davis and Hendry, were beginning their decline, O’Sullivan had won two world titles, the same number as Alex Higgins—respectable, but well short of his potential.
当奥沙利文年满三十岁时，也就是戴维斯和亨德利等其他伟大球员开始衰落的年龄，奥沙利文已经赢得了两个世界冠军，与亚历克斯·希金斯的数量相同——令人尊敬，但远远低于他的潜力。
Between late 2009 and early 2012, O’Sullivan failed to win a single ranking tournament.
2009年底至2012年初，奥沙利文未能赢得一场排名赛。
“My arsehole had gone,” he told me.
“我的屁眼不见了，”他告诉我。
“My fight.
“我的战斗。
I had nothing in me.” But the following year, at the age of thirty-six, and long after he had given up on the possibility, O’Sullivan began to win again, rediscovering a consistency and a freedom of play he had not experienced since he was sixteen.
我身上什么都没有。”但第二年，三十六岁，在他放弃这种可能性很久之后，奥沙利文再次开始获胜，重新发现了他自十六岁以来从未经历过的比赛的稳定性和自由度。
Since 2012, he has reached three successive World Championship finals, winning two of them.
自2012年以来，他连续三届闯入世锦赛决赛，并两次夺冠。
At this year’s tournament, which starts on April 18th, in Sheffield, O’Sullivan will be expected to reach his fourth final in as many years.
今年的赛事将于 4 月 18 日在谢菲尔德举行，预计奥沙利文将在多年来第四次进入决赛。
This late, unexpected flowering has altered his standing in the game.
这次迟来的、意想不到的开花改变了他在比赛中的地位。
“Ronnie is the genius that sort of sits over everyone,” Hearn said.
“罗尼是一个高于所有人的天才，”赫恩说。
“He is not a normal bloke.” Earlier this year, O’Sullivan overtook Stephen Hendry’s record of seven hundred and seventy-five century breaks.
“他不是一个正常的人。”今年早些时候，奥沙利文超越了斯蒂芬·亨德利保持的七百七十五杆破百纪录。
Many wonder whether O’Sullivan can equal Hendry’s record of seven world titles and officially become, in his forties, the greatest player the game has ever known.
许多人想知道奥沙利文能否追平亨德利七次获得世界冠军的纪录，并在四十多岁时正式成为这项运动有史以来最伟大的球员。
He remains fragile, though, and amazed by the turn of events.
但他仍然很脆弱，并对事态的转变感到惊讶。
Damien Hirst, the artist, is fascinated by snooker: the promise of its seemingly straight lines, “the grid over the landscape,” as he calls it, and the struggle of the players caught up in its geometry.
艺术家达米恩·赫斯特 (Damien Hirst) 对斯诺克运动着迷：它看似笔直的线条所带来的希望，正如他所说的“风景上的网格”，以及球员们在其几何形状中的挣扎。
Hirst is close friends with O’Sullivan and often accompanies him to tournaments.
赫斯特是奥沙利文的亲密朋友，经常陪伴他参加比赛。
When we met, I asked Hirst if he thought O’Sullivan was afraid of the future and of what would happen when his talent eventually faded.
当我们见面时，我问赫斯特是否认为奥沙利文害怕未来，以及当他的才华最终消退时会发生什么。
“I think he’s scared of everything,” Hirst said.
“我认为他害怕一切，”赫斯特说。
“That’s his beauty—that he is absolutely shitting himself.
“这就是他的魅力所在——他绝对是在自欺欺人。
Do you know what I mean?
你知道我的意思吗？
He doesn’t know what the fuck is going on.”
他不知道他妈的到底发生了什么。”
The evening after O’Sullivan defeated Lines, he had dinner at Toto’s, an Italian restaurant in York, with Gary Smith, his manager, and Chic Gourlay, a friend from Glasgow.
奥沙利文击败莱恩斯后的第二天晚上，他与他的经纪人加里·史密斯（Gary Smith）以及来自格拉斯哥的朋友奇克·古尔利（Chic Gourlay）在约克的一家意大利餐厅托托（Toto's）共进晚餐。
O’Sullivan was in good spirits.
奥沙利文心情很好。
He flirted with the waitress and ordered a steak.
他和女服务员调情，点了一份牛排。
His ankle was feeling stronger, and he had found a pair of black sneakers, which looked better with his suit.
他的脚踝感觉更结实了，他找到了一双黑色的运动鞋，和他的西装搭配起来更好看。
“I feel all right now,” he said.
“我现在感觉很好，”他说。
“I feel like a snooker player again.”
“我感觉自己又像一名斯诺克球员了。”
At the next table, Ken Doherty, a crafty Irish player who won the world title in 1997, was eating with friends.
邻桌的肯·多尔蒂（Ken Doherty）是一位狡猾的爱尔兰选手，他于 1997 年赢得了世界冠军，他正在和朋友们一起吃饭。
Doherty and O’Sullivan have known each other since Doherty, at the age of eighteen, became the club pro at the Ilford Snooker Centre.
多尔蒂和奥沙利文自从十八岁的多尔蒂成为伊尔福德斯诺克中心的俱乐部职业球员以来就认识了。
O’Sullivan, six years younger, would take the bus there to play after school.
比他小六岁的奥沙利文放学后会乘公共汽车去那里打球。
It was the late nineteen-eighties—peak snooker—and O’Sullivan was the game’s prodigy.
那是十九世纪八十年代末，斯诺克运动达到顶峰，奥沙利文是这项运动的神童。
He won his first tournament at the age of nine and made his first century break at age ten; his chubby face was all over the snooker magazines.
他在九岁时赢得了他的第一场比赛，并在十岁时实现了他的第一个百分百突破。他的胖乎乎的脸出现在斯诺克杂志上。
He stuck out at the club in Ilford: prepubescent, foulmouthed, his afternoons at the table bankrolled by a seemingly limitless supply of five-pound notes from his father, Big Ron, who had become wealthy running a chain of sex shops in London’s West End.
他在伊尔福德的俱乐部里脱颖而出：青春期前的人，满嘴脏话，他的下午在餐桌上的资金来自他父亲大罗恩似乎无限供应的五英镑钞票，他在伦敦西区经营一家连锁性用品商店，变得富有。
“He would just smile at you sometimes when you were playing,” Fin Ruane, another young Irishman who hung around the club, told me.
“当你踢球的时候，他有时只是对你微笑，”另一位在俱乐部里闲逛的年轻爱尔兰人芬·鲁安告诉我。
O’Sullivan’s father would drop by: good-looking, thickset, ready with jokes.
奥沙利文的父亲会顺便过来：英俊、粗壮、爱讲笑话。
“Ron’s the name, porn’s the game,” he used to say.
“罗恩就是名字，色情就是游戏，”他常说。
“He would come in, and if there was twenty people in the room he would have to buy twenty teas,” Doherty recalled.
“他进来时，如果房间里有二十个人，他就必须买二十杯茶，”多尔蒂回忆道。
“No one put their hand in their pocket.
“没有人把手伸进口袋。
It would have been an insult.” People liked Big Ron, but they didn’t cross him.
这将是一种侮辱。”人们喜欢大罗恩，但他们并不反对他。
He told everyone that his boy was going to be world champion.
他告诉所有人他的儿子将成为世界冠军。
His uncles had been boxers, and he taught his son to think like one: “Take his head off.” “Don’t get beat.” “Fuck ’em, son.” Ruane said, “I remember his dad, he would be playing cards and someone would say, ‘Ron, it’s your deal.’ But he would just be looking over at his kid playing.
他的叔叔们都是拳击手，他教儿子像拳击手一样思考：“砍下他的头。” “别被打败了。” “去他妈的，儿子。”鲁恩说：“我记得他的父亲，他会打牌，有人会说，‘罗恩，这是你的事。’但他只是看着他的孩子打牌。
He just loved him, loved watching him.”
他只是爱他，喜欢看他。”
The young O’Sullivan worshipped Steve Davis, the champion at the time.
年轻的奥沙利文崇拜当时的冠军史蒂夫·戴维斯。
He wore the same waistcoat, without a cinch.
他穿着同样的背心，没有系带。
When he was nine, O’Sullivan heard Bill King, the father of a rival junior player, say that Davis was “never a foot away” in snooker, and it struck him as a profound truth.
九岁的时候，奥沙利文听到一位竞争对手青少年球员的父亲比尔·金（Bill King）说戴维斯在斯诺克运动中“离我们一步之遥”，这让他觉得这是一个深刻的真理。
Unlike the other players, who relied on forms of backspin (“stun” and “screw”) to position the white ball for their next shot, Davis played with topspin and used the cushions to play longer and more inventive strokes that flowed around the table.
与其他依靠后旋（“击晕”和“螺旋”）形式来定位白球以进行下一次击球的球员不同，戴维斯使用上旋球并利用缓冲来打出在球台周围流动的更长且更具创造性的击球。
It was riskier and more technically challenging, and often got the white only a few inches closer to the object ball, but it was worth it.
这风险更大，技术上也更具挑战性，而且通常会让白球距离目标球只有几英寸，但这是值得的。
When O’Sullivan finally beat Doherty at a local tournament, he decided to become a professional.
当奥沙利文最终在当地的一场比赛中击败多尔蒂时，他决定成为一名职业选手。
“That was the day,” he told me.
“就是那一天，”他告诉我。
“I’d done everything.
“我已经做了一切。
I used the cushions.
我用的是垫子。
I beat Ken.
我打败了肯。
I played to a level where, fucking hell, I fancied it.”
我打到了一个我非常喜欢的水平。”
At Toto’s that night, the two men swapped stories about Goffs, in County Kildare, a sporting resort where the Irish Masters tournament used to be held.
那天晚上，在托托餐厅，两人交换了关于基尔代尔郡戈夫斯的故事，基尔代尔郡是一个体育度假胜地，爱尔兰大师赛曾在这里举行。
In 1998, O’Sullivan beat Doherty in the final but was stripped of his title a few weeks later; he had eaten a hash cake, and failed a drug test.
1998年，奥沙利文在决赛中击败多尔蒂，但几周后他的冠军头衔被剥夺。他吃了一块哈希蛋糕，并没有通过药检。
It was a beautiful place to play.
那是一个美丽的玩耍的地方。
“Everyone used to go, take their wives,” O’Sullivan said, shaking his head.
“以前每个人都会带着自己的妻子去，”奥沙利文摇着头说道。
“Lovely.”
“迷人的。”
The next day, in his third-round match, O’Sullivan found that he could move more easily.
第二天，在第三轮比赛中，奥沙利文发现他可以更轻松地移动。
He won, 6–2, against Ben Woollaston, a player ranked twenty-seventh in the world.
他以 6-2 战胜了世界排名第 27 位的本·伍拉斯顿 (Ben Woollaston)。
Woollaston took the lead in the third frame but lost his nerve.
伍拉斯顿在第三局取得领先，但失去了勇气。
“It was embarrassing to be out there,” he said afterward.
“在外面感觉很尴尬，”他后来说。
In O’Sullivan’s fourth-round match, a twenty-nine-year-old named Matthew Selt disintegrated completely.
在奥沙利文的第四轮比赛中，二十九岁的马修·塞尔特彻底崩溃了。
Once O’Sullivan was ahead 4–0, he started looking for a maximum.
当奥沙利文以 4-0 领先时，他开始寻找最大的机会。
A maximum in snooker is the perfect break: fifteen reds, fifteen blacks, and the rest of the colors—a hundred and forty-seven points in a single spell at the table.
斯诺克台球比赛的最高分是完美的突破：十五个红球，十五个黑球，以及其余的颜色——在牌桌上一次拼出一百四十七分。
It is the sport’s equivalent of a hole in one or a pitcher’s perfect game.
这相当于这项运动中的一洞或投手的完美比赛。
Joe Davis, snooker’s undefeated world champion from 1927 to 1946, made the first official hundred and forty-seven, in 1955, at the age of fifty-three.
乔·戴维斯 (Joe Davis) 是 1927 年至 1946 年间保持不败的斯诺克世界冠军，1955 年，他在 53 岁的时候首次进入官方 147 杆。
O’Sullivan made his first maximum when he was fifteen.
奥沙利文在十五岁时首次取得了最大成就。
Against Selt, he recorded the thirteenth of his career—two more than Hendry, the nearest player.
在对阵塞尔特的比赛中，他打出了职业生涯的第十三次进球——比最接近的球员亨德利多了两次。
“Nothing special,” O’Sullivan told me later.
“没什么特别的，”奥沙利文后来告诉我。
“If he had made it hard, I could never have got there.”
“如果他让事情变得困难，我永远不可能到达那里。”
O’Sullivan trains in a first-floor office in an industrial park in Romford, a few miles from his house.
奥沙利文在罗姆福德一个工业园区的一楼办公室里训练，距离他的家只有几英里。
The surrounding blocks are occupied by accountants, insurance brokers, and gas-meter retailers.
周围的街区都是会计师、保险经纪人和燃气表零售商。
The office belongs to one of his former managers, Django Fung, who allows him to practice there as much as he wants.
该办公室属于他的一位前经理 Django Fung，他允许他在那里随心所欲地练习。
Fung, who is from Hong Kong, represents several Chinese players, but they are often out of the country.
来自香港的冯先生代表了几位中国球员，但他们经常出国。
When I arrived to watch O’Sullivan train one day in January, there was no one else in the building.
一月份的一天，当我到达观看奥沙利文训练时，大楼里没有其他人。
The blinds were down.
百叶窗放下了。
Five snooker tables sat under fluorescent lights, on a spartan floor of blue carpet tiles.
五张斯诺克台球桌位于荧光灯下，地板上铺着蓝色地毯，地板简朴。
O’Sullivan was looking in the fridge for milk, to add to a cup of tea.
奥沙利文正在冰箱里寻找牛奶，以添加到一杯茶中。
Often, he craves company.
他常常渴望有人陪伴。
Since 2011, he has worked without a coach, hitting balls in myriad patterns for three or four hours a day.
自2011年以来，他一直在没有教练的情况下工作，每天以各种模式击球三四个小时。
When discussing O’Sullivan’s game, commentators and rivals often talk about his unusual sequencing—the way he links shots together around the table.
在讨论奥沙利文的比赛时，评论员和对手经常谈论他不同寻常的排序——他在球台周围将投篮连在一起的方式。
Phil Yates, who was the snooker correspondent for the Times of London for twenty years, compares O’Sullivan to a savant, able to perceive mathematical solutions without knowing how or why.
担任《伦敦泰晤士报》斯诺克记者二十年的菲尔·耶茨 (Phil Yates) 将奥沙利文比作学者，能够在不知道如何或为何的情况下感知数学解决方案。
“I don’t think he can break down why he is as good as he is,” Yates said.
“我认为他无法解释为什么他能做到如此出色，”耶茨说。
“He just is.” According to Hirst, O’Sullivan often comes off the table in a fugue state: “I go, ‘What about that pink you potted?’ And he’ll go, ‘What pink?’ He’s blank.
“他就是这样。”根据赫斯特的说法，奥沙利文经常在神游状态下离开桌子：“我问，‘你盆栽的那个粉红色怎么样？’他会说，‘什么粉红色？’他一片空白。
He’s totally startled.
他完全惊呆了。
It’s like van Gogh.
这就像梵高。
I go, ‘You did brilliantly there.’ And he goes, ‘Did I?’ ”
我说，‘你在那里表现得很出色。’他说，‘我做到了吗？’”
O’Sullivan spends a lot of time thinking about the white ball.
奥沙利文花了很多时间思考白球。
He has come to believe that the quality of the initial contact between his chalked, pressed-leather cue tip and the phenolic-resin sphere—the momentary grip, the transfer of energy and intent—is what decides everything else.
他开始相信，用粉笔压制的皮革球杆头与酚醛树脂球体之间的初始接触质量（瞬间的抓地力、能量和意图的传递）决定了其他一切。
If the white responds, he will not lose.
如果白方回应，他就不会输。
“You’re using force,” he said, after making his tea.
“你正在使用武力，”他泡完茶后说道。
“You’re using your hands.
“你用的是你的双手。
You’re creating.
你正在创造。
You’re making that white dance.”
你正在跳那种白色的舞蹈。”
When the connection isn’t there, O’Sullivan feels it right away.
当这种联系不存在时，奥沙利文立刻就能感觉到。
“It’s invisible, but it’s night and day to me,” he said.
“它是看不见的，但对我来说却是日日夜夜，”他说。
During the good days and the good months, he senses it in every stroke.
在美好的日子和美好的月份里，他在每一次划动中都能感受到这一点。
When he is cueing well, he leaves fat chalk streaks on the surface of the table, like a golfer’s divots, and the white ball topspins extravagantly, slowing down across the nap and then accelerating again, as if late for an appointment.
当他击球出色时，他会在球台表面留下粗粗的粉笔条纹，就像高尔夫球手的草皮一样，白球会剧烈地旋转，在午睡期间减速，然后再次加速，仿佛约会迟到了。
There is a particular echo as balls hit the middle of the pocket.
当球击中袋中央时会产生特殊的回声。
He disregards the score.
他无视比分。
“I know I’m playing a different game from what they’re playing,” he said.
“我知道我正在玩与他们玩的游戏不同的游戏，”他说。
And, because of the duel-like intimacy of snooker, O’Sullivan is able to observe the mesmerizing effect that his skill has on his opponents: “You’re thinking, ‘You’ve got that on a string, mate.
而且，由于斯诺克的决斗般的亲密感，奥沙利文能够观察到他的技术对对手产生的令人着迷的效果：“你在想，‘你已经掌握了这一点，伙计。
That cue ball.
那个母球。
It’s just .
只是。
.
。
.’ And you just sit there.
”然后你就坐在那里。
And that is what beats you.”
这就是打败你的原因。”
In 1992, when he was sixteen and had just turned professional, O’Sullivan went to snooker’s “qualifying school”—a three-month marathon of knockout matches, in Blackpool, during which fringe players competed to enter the tournaments of the season ahead.
1992年，16岁的奥沙利文刚刚转为职业球员，他进入了斯诺克的“资格学校”——在布莱克浦举行的为期三个月的马拉松式淘汰赛，在此期间，边缘球员们竞相进入下赛季的比赛。
Matches were played on twenty-four snooker tables in the Norbreck Castle Hotel, a colossal sand-colored structure on the city’s seafront.
比赛在诺布雷克城堡酒店（Norbreck Castle Hotel）的二十四张斯诺克球台上进行，诺布雷克城堡酒店是一座位于城市海滨的巨大沙色建筑。
O’Sullivan was one of the youngest competitors.
奥沙利文是最年轻的参赛者之一。
“Up against the world,” Hearn, his manager at the time, recalled.
“与世界对抗，”他当时的经理赫恩回忆道。
“Everything was new.”
“一切都是新的。”
The previous summer, O’Sullivan’s father had been arrested after a fight in a night club, during which a man had died.
去年夏天，奥沙利文的父亲在一家夜总会发生斗殴事件后被捕，斗殴事件导致一名男子死亡。
(O’Sullivan found out while playing in a junior tournament in Thailand.) The dead man, Bruce Bryan, had worked as a driver for Charlie Kray, the gangster.
（奥沙利文是在泰国参加青少年锦标赛时发现的。）死者布鲁斯·布莱恩 (Bruce Bryan) 曾为黑帮查理·克雷 (Charlie Kray) 担任司机。
He was stabbed after what Big Ron later claimed was an argument over the bill.
大罗恩后来声称是因为该法案发生争执，之后他被刺伤。
While O’Sullivan was in Blackpool, his father was out on bail, charged with murder.
当奥沙利文在布莱克浦时，他的父亲因被控谋杀而被保释。
He came up to stay with his son.
他过来和儿子住在一起。
Each day, the seats around O’Sullivan’s snooker table filled a little faster.
每天，奥沙利文台球桌周围的座位都快满了。
“All the old soaks and all the old dyed-in-the-wool players would go and watch him play,” Yates, who was covering the event, said.
“所有老球员和所有老球员都会去看他打球，”报道这一赛事的耶茨说。
“Because they couldn’t believe what they were seeing.”
“因为他们不敢相信自己所看到的。”
In Blackpool, O’Sullivan won his first thirty-eight matches as a professional snooker player—a record for consecutive victories that still stands.
在布莱克浦，奥沙利文赢得了他作为职业斯诺克选手的前三十八场比赛——这一连胜纪录至今仍保持着。
He won thirty-six of the next thirty-eight as well, losing just two games at the qualifying school.
他在接下来的三十八场比赛中赢了三十六场，在资格赛学校只输了两场比赛。
People who saw him there like to argue about whether he has ever played as well since.
在那里看到他的人们喜欢争论他从那以后是否打得那么好。
“It was a bit like Tiger Woods or Mike Tyson, when they came along,” O’Sullivan told me.
“当他们出现时，这有点像泰格·伍兹或迈克·泰森，”奥沙利文告诉我。
“That is how my life should have been, if my dad didn’t go away.” O’Sullivan played his last match in Blackpool on September 20, 1992.
“如果我父亲没有离开，我的生活就应该是这样的。” 1992年9月20日，奥沙利文在布莱克浦打了最后一场比赛。
The next day, his father was found guilty of murder.
第二天，他的父亲被判犯有谋杀罪。
In his summation, the judge referred to “racial overtones” in the case—Bryan was black—and sentenced Big Ron to eighteen years in prison.
在总结中，法官提到了本案的“种族色彩”——布莱恩是黑人——并判处大罗恩十八年监禁。
The story made all the newspapers.
这个故事登上了所有报纸。
O’Sullivan said, “From that moment onward, everything was shit, to be fair.”
奥沙利文说：“公平地说，从那一刻起，一切都是狗屎。”
Three years later, O’Sullivan’s mother, Maria, was also sent to prison.
三年后，奥沙利文的母亲玛丽亚也被送进监狱。
She had taken over the management of the sex shops and was found guilty of tax evasion.
她接管了性用品商店的管理工作，并被判犯有逃税罪。
She served seven months.
她服刑七个月。
During her absence, O’Sullivan’s younger sister, Danielle, who was twelve, went to live with family friends.
在她不在期间，奥沙利文十二岁的妹妹丹妮尔去和家人的朋友住在一起。
O’Sullivan, who was nineteen, went off the rails.
十九岁的奥沙利文出轨了。
He partied in his parents’ house, got stoned, and put on weight.
他在父母家里参加派对，喝醉了酒，体重也增加了。
When he turned up at tournaments, he would look at the other players and envy the small, stable groups they travelled with: parents, managers, drivers.
当他出现在锦标赛上时，他会看着其他球员，羡慕与他们同行的小而稳定的群体：父母、经理、车手。
“They had this wall built around them,” he said.
“他们在他们周围建起了这堵墙，”他说。
“I had no wall.” For several years, O’Sullivan was accompanied on tour by a man known as the Yunzi, a friend of one of his father’s friends in prison.
“我没有墙。”多年来，奥沙利文的巡演一直由一位名叫“云子”的人陪同，云子是奥沙利文父亲在狱中的一位朋友的朋友。
He thought about his father constantly and sought to win on his behalf.
他时刻思念着他的父亲，并寻求为他赢得胜利。
“It was me and Dad, fighting the fucking world,” he said.
“是我和爸爸在与这个操蛋的世界作斗争，”他说。
But he also held his father responsible for the chaos that had enveloped his life.
但他也认为父亲应对他生活中的混乱负责。
The table became complicated, loaded with meaning.
这张桌子变得复杂，充满意义。
His game went haywire.
他的比赛陷入混乱。
The white ball could dance, or not, at any time.
白球随时可以跳舞，也可以不跳舞。
In the first round of the World Championship in 1997, O’Sullivan made a maximum in five minutes and twenty seconds, surpassing the previous record by almost two minutes.
1997年世锦赛第一轮，奥沙利文以5分20秒的成绩取得了最大成绩，比之前的纪录快了近两分钟。
He was knocked out in the next round.
他在下一轮比赛中被淘汰。
The British press called him “the Two Ronnies,” after a comic duo who were big in the nineteen-seventies.
英国媒体称他为“两个罗尼”，以十九世纪七十年代著名的喜剧二人组的名字命名。
During the 2001 World Championship, in Sheffield, where he won the title for the first time, at the age of twenty-five, O’Sullivan called the Samaritans, a suicide hot line, and started taking Prozac.
2001 年，在谢菲尔德举行的世界锦标赛期间，25 岁的奥沙利文首次获得冠军，他拨打了自杀热线“撒玛利亚人”，并开始服用百忧解。
The unpredictability was exhausting.
不可预测性让人筋疲力尽。
He was desperate for a thought system that would make sense of his life.
他迫切需要一种能够让他的生活有意义的思想体系。
He saw shrinks and gurus.
他看到了心理医生和专家。
He tried Christianity, Buddhism, and Islam.
他尝试过基督教、佛教和伊斯兰教。
After recovering from his addiction to marijuana, O’Sullivan tried all of the Anonymouses, out of a sense of completism.
奥沙利文从大麻瘾中恢复过来后，出于一种完美主义的感觉，尝试了所有的匿名者。
He went to sex-addiction meetings even though he was not addicted to sex.
尽管他对性没有上瘾，但他还是参加了性成瘾会议。
Nothing helped.
没有任何帮助。
During the 2008 season, by any measure one of his most successful, O’Sullivan would get drunk every weekend.
2008 年赛季是奥沙利文最成功的赛季之一，每个周末他都会喝得酩酊大醉。
His long-term relationship with Jo Langley, the mother of two of his three children, whom he met in rehab, was falling apart.
他与乔·兰利（Jo Langley）的长期关系正在破裂。乔·兰利是他在康复中心认识的三个孩子中的两个孩子的母亲。
(O’Sullivan has an eighteen-year-old daughter, Taylor, from an earlier relationship.) “I was cueing well, but I had no family, no home,” he said.
（奥沙利文有一个 18 岁的女儿泰勒，是前一段感情所生。）“我的暗示很好，但我没有家人，没有家，”他说。
Between tournaments, he stayed on a friend’s sofa, reading “How I Play Snooker,” Joe Davis’s classic manual from 1949.
比赛间隙，他会窝在朋友的沙发上，阅读乔·戴维斯 (Joe Davis) 1949 年出版的经典手册《我如何打斯诺克》。
O’Sullivan’s father was allowed out of prison on day release for the first time in early 2009.
2009 年初，奥沙利文的父亲首次获准日间释放。
In the latter stages of his sentence, he had been held at a low-security facility in Sudbury, in the Midlands.
在刑期的最后阶段，他被关押在中部萨德伯里的一个安全级别较低的设施中。
O’Sullivan went to meet him at the gates.
奥沙利文去门口迎接他。
He was shocked by his father’s appearance.
他被父亲的样子震惊了。
“He looked like a burglar,” he said.
“他看起来像个窃贼，”他说。
They spent the day at a hotel.
他们在一家酒店度过了一天。
When Big Ron called O’Sullivan’s mother, his hands shook.
当大罗恩给奥沙利文的母亲打电话时，他的手在颤抖。
In the evening, O’Sullivan dropped his father off in the prison parking lot and watched him troop inside with the other inmates; he seemed happy to be back.
晚上，奥沙利文把他的父亲送到监狱停车场，看着他和其他囚犯一起走进监狱。他似乎很高兴能回来。
“I just thought, Where do we go from here?
“我只是想，我们该去哪里？
I’ve been waiting twenty years,” O’Sullivan said.
我已经等了二十年了。”奥沙利文说道。
Since his father’s final release, his parents have lived apart.
自从他父亲最终获释后，他的父母就分居了。
After one or two experiments, Big Ron decided to stay away from O’Sullivan’s snooker matches as well.
经过一两次实验后，大罗恩也决定不再参加奥沙利文的斯诺克比赛。
(He declined to speak with me for this article.)
（他拒绝就这篇文章与我交谈。）
When O’Sullivan took a break at the training facility in Romford, he invited me to share his lunch—salmon with ginger, which he had cooked and brought from home.
当奥沙利文在罗姆福德的训练场休息时，他邀请我分享他的午餐——三文鱼加姜，这是他从家里做的。
“This game can fuck your head up like no other game,” he said.
“这款游戏比其他游戏更能让你大吃一惊，”他说。
Another player had come in to practice, and in the background there was the quiet, irregular sound of colliding balls.
另一位球员进来训练，背景里传来安静、不规则的球碰撞声。
“I have told my son he ain’t fucking playing snooker, because I love him too much.” His son, Ronnie, is seven years old.
“我告诉我儿子他他妈的才不会打斯诺克，因为我太爱他了。”他的儿子罗尼今年七岁。
“I love him too much to see him coming in here.
“我太爱他了，不敢看到他来到这里。
Because, you know what, there should be no money in this game.
因为，你知道吗，这个游戏不应该有钱。
There should be no fame in this game.
这个游戏应该没有什么名气。
They should take TV away from this game.
他们应该把电视从这场比赛中拿走。
They should take it away.
他们应该把它拿走。
This is like a fucking”—O’Sullivan hesitated, grasping for a word of sufficient violence—“an eccentric sport.”
这就像一场他妈的”——奥沙利文犹豫着，抓住一个足够暴力的词——“一项古怪的运动。”
By 2009, O’Sullivan was thirty-four, old for a snooker champion, and playing poorly.
2009年，奥沙利文已经三十四岁了，对于斯诺克冠军来说已经很老了，而且打得也很糟糕。
He came to believe that his decline was permanent.
他开始相信自己的衰退是永久性的。
His breakup with Langley dragged through the courts.
他与兰利的分手一直拖到法庭上。
They fought over money and the custody of Ronnie and his older sister, Lily.
他们为了金钱以及罗尼和他姐姐莉莉的监护权而发生争执。
O’Sullivan lived on a barge.
奥沙利文住在驳船上。
He lost in the first round of four consecutive major tournaments.
他连续四场重大赛事首轮失利。
His income from snooker fell from around seven hundred and fifty thousand pounds a year ($1.1 million) to a hundred and fifty thousand (two hundred and twenty thousand dollars).
他的斯诺克收入从每年约七十五万英镑（一百一十万美元）下降到十五万英镑（二十二万美元）。
He pulled out of risky shots.
他退出了危险的投篮。
He lost the conviction necessary for topspin.
他失去了上旋球所需的信念。
“I was stuck inside,” he said.
“我被困在里面了，”他说。
“I couldn’t really deliver the cue.”
“我无法真正传达提示。”
His manager persuaded him to see Steve Peters, a professor of psychiatry at Sheffield University.
他的经理说服他去见谢菲尔德大学精神病学教授史蒂夫·彼得斯。
Peters used to be a doctor at Rampton Hospital, one of England’s three maximum-security psychiatric facilities, but in the past ten years he has enjoyed a second, high-profile career working with élite athletes, including the British Olympic cycling team, to improve their mental performance.
彼得斯曾是兰普顿医院的医生，该医院是英格兰三座安全级别最高的精神病院之一，但在过去的十年里，他享受了第二个备受瞩目的职业生涯，与包括英国奥林匹克自行车队在内的精英运动员一起工作，以提高他们的心理表现。
Peters, who is sixty-one, lives in a gloomy villa in the Peak District, a region of gaunt beauty in northern England.
六十一岁的彼得斯住在峰区一栋阴暗的别墅里，峰区是英格兰北部美丽的荒凉地区。
O’Sullivan arrived in the spring of 2011.
奥沙利文于2011年春天抵达。
“He was in a really bad place,” Peters said.
“他的处境非常糟糕，”彼得斯说。
“It was quite disturbing to see.”
“看到这真是令人不安。”
Many of the surfaces in the psychiatrist’s house are filled with plastic, china, or knitted figures of chimpanzees.
精神科医生房子里的许多表面都充满了塑料、瓷器或黑猩猩的针织物。
In the nineteen-nineties, Peters came up with what he calls the “chimp paradox” to explain to first-year medical students how the mind functions.
在十九世纪九十年代，彼得斯提出了他所谓的“黑猩猩悖论”来向一年级医学生解释大脑是如何运作的。
According to his analogy, there is a contest within the brain between its more rational, “human” parts and its anciently evolved “chimp” regions.
根据他的类比，大脑中更理性的“人类”部分和古老进化的“黑猩猩”区域之间存在着一场竞争。
The chimp fulfills essential functions, but it is also powerful and prone to panic.
黑猩猩履行基本功能，但它也很强大并且容易惊慌。
“A chimpanzee is five times stronger than us,” Peters told me.
“黑猩猩比我们强壮五倍，”彼得斯告诉我。
“If you have this animal sharing your life with you, you have to treat it with respect.” Peters does not call himself a doctor when he is dealing with athletes.
“如果你有这只动物与你分享你的生活，你必须尊重它。”彼得斯在与运动员打交道时并不称自己为医生。
He thinks of himself as a coach, teaching them how to manage their chimps.
他认为自己是一名教练，教他们如何管理黑猩猩。
O’Sullivan immediately related to the idea: “I was, like, ‘That’s how I’ve been living my life for seventeen years.’ ” Since his father’s imprisonment and the subsequent fracturing of his snooker and his life, O’Sullivan had alternated between searching for inner peace and trying to stop thinking altogether.
奥沙利文立即想到了这个想法：“我当时想，‘这就是我十七年来的生活。’”自从他父亲入狱以及随后他的斯诺克和他的生活破裂以来，奥沙利文一直在寻找内心的平静和试图完全停止思考之间摇摆不定。
Peters encouraged him to write down his negative thoughts—O’Sullivan’s chimp worries a lot about his right arm—and then rebut them with proven facts about his ability and his achievements.
彼得斯鼓励他写下自己的消极想法——奥沙利文的黑猩猩非常担心他的右臂——然后用有关他的能力和成就的事实来反驳这些想法。
Peters calls this inner dialogue “boxing the chimp.” For O’Sullivan, it was revelatory.
彼得斯将这种内心对话称为“拳击黑猩猩”。对于奥沙利文来说，这是一个启示。
“I didn’t know I could behave like this,” he said.
“我不知道我可以这样做，”他说。
“I didn’t know I had the ability to hold it down.”
“我不知道我有能力抑制住它。”
At first, seeing Peters had no effect on his snooker.
起初，见到彼得斯并没有对他的斯诺克产生任何影响。
At the U.K. Championship in 2011, O’Sullivan suffered a particularly dispiriting defeat to a player named Judd Trump.
在 2011 年的英国锦标赛上，奥沙利文输给了贾德·特鲁姆普 (Judd Trump)，尤其令人沮丧。
Trump, who was twenty-two at the time, has a flamboyant potting style, which he calls “naughty snooker,” and he is often described as the closest thing to O’Sullivan’s heir.
当时22岁的特鲁姆普有着华丽的击球风格，他称之为“顽皮的斯诺克”，他经常被描述为最接近奥沙利文继承人的人。
He plays in spiked Christian Louboutin loafers and has black stars sewn into the collar of his shirt.
他穿着 Christian Louboutin 尖刺乐福鞋打球，衬衫领子上缝着黑色星星。
In York that year, O’Sullivan lost to Trump even though his mind felt clear and he thought he had played well.
那一年在约克，奥沙利文输给了特鲁姆普，尽管他的头脑很清醒，他认为自己打得很好。
“I didn’t think that was possible,” he said.
“我认为这是不可能的，”他说。
The following spring, the white ball came back.
第二年春天，白球又回来了。
In the quarter-finals of the China Open, in Beijing, O’Sullivan was clearing the table and on his way to victory in the game’s deciding frame.
在北京举行的中国公开赛四分之一决赛中，奥沙利文清零了桌子，并在比赛的决胜局中取得了胜利。
He faced a routine backspin stroke to position the white for the final red.
他面对常规的后旋击球，将白球定位为最后的红球。
“I remember thinking, Well, I know that is the right shot to play,” he said.
“我记得我当时想，好吧，我知道这是正确的击球方式，”他说。
“Ten times out of ten, it will go in.” Instead, O’Sullivan went for a subtle, almost impossibly difficult topspin shot—entirely needless under the circumstances.
“十有八九，它都会进去。”相反，奥沙利文选择了一个微妙的、几乎不可能困难的上旋球——在这种情况下完全没有必要。
The ball loped across the table, touched the cushion, and rolled a few inches too far.
球跑过桌子，碰到了垫子，又滚了几英寸远。
It cost O’Sullivan the match, but he was elated.
奥沙利文输掉了比赛，但他很高兴。
No one else plays like that.
没有人这样玩。
“That shot still sticks in my mind, because it was the wrong shot to play but I didn’t care,” he said.
“那一球仍然留在我的脑海里，因为那是错误的一球，但我不在乎，”他说。
He won his next tournament, the 2012 World Championship, and put his cue away.
他赢得了下一场比赛，即 2012 年世界锦标赛，并收起了球杆。
He fully intended to retire.
他完全打算退休。
He went running, and spent time with his children.
他去跑步，并与孩子们共度时光。
Away from the table, O’Sullivan’s life is modest.
球台之外，奥沙利文的生活很简朴。
He goes to the gym, and buys bagels in Chigwell.
他去健身房，然后在奇格韦尔买百吉饼。
He likes finding new Chinese restaurants.
他喜欢寻找新的中餐馆。
He hardly played for the rest of that year.
那年剩下的时间里他几乎没有打球。
In the winter, he volunteered to work on a local farm.
冬天，他自愿到当地农场工作。
He dug ditches and fed the pigs.
他挖沟渠，喂猪。
He was somewhat afraid of the goats.
他有点害怕山羊。
People didn’t ask him questions or seem to know who he was.
人们没有问他问题，也没有似乎知道他是谁。
He enjoyed the quiet solidarity of the farm and of his running clubs, spending time with ordinary people, with ordinary lives and families.
他享受农场和跑步俱乐部的安静团结，与普通人、普通的生活和家庭共度时光。
But life without snooker was boring, and frightening, too.
但没有斯诺克的生活既无聊又可怕。
“It’s scary,” he said.
“这很可怕，”他说。
“I thought I could look at it, and then I looked at it and I didn’t like it.”
“我以为我可以看它，然后我看了它，我不喜欢它。”
O’Sullivan became anxious about money.
奥沙利文开始为钱而焦虑。
He fell behind on his children’s school fees and realized he hadn’t planned adequately for the future.
他拖欠了孩子们的学费，并意识到自己没有为未来做好充分的规划。
“I was quite happy not playing,” he said.
“我很高兴没有参加比赛，”他说。
“But then it hit me—‘Fuck, I’ve got another forty years to get through, here.’ ” He announced that he would defend his title in Sheffield.
“但后来我突然意识到——‘操，我还有四十年的时间要度过，在这里。’”他宣布他将在谢菲尔德捍卫自己的冠军头衔。
The bookmakers made him one of the favorites.
博彩公司将他列为热门人选之一。
O’Sullivan practiced for six weeks.
奥沙利文练习了六周。
Even if he lost in the first round, he reasoned, he would still make twelve thousand pounds, enough for a semester of school fees.
他推断，即使他在第一轮失败，他仍然可以赚到一万二千英镑，足够支付一个学期的学费。
In the end, he won his fifth World Championship and two hundred and fifty thousand pounds, becoming the first player since Stephen Hendry to win in successive years.
最终，他赢得了第五个世界冠军和25万英镑，成为继斯蒂芬·亨德利之后第一位连年夺冠的球员。
“This is my last farewell,” he told reporters during the tournament.
“这是我最后的告别，”他在比赛期间告诉记者。
“I can’t keep putting myself through being unhappy.” A month later, O’Sullivan decided to rejoin the tour.
“我不能让自己一直不快乐。”一个月后，奥沙利文决定重新参加巡回赛。
Since his return, in 2013, O’Sullivan has thought more about what comes after snooker.
自2013年回归以来，奥沙利文更多地思考了斯诺克之后的发展。
He has his own TV program, “The Ronnie O’Sullivan Show,” on Eurosport, and wants to do more broadcasting.
他在欧洲体育频道拥有自己的电视节目“罗尼·奥沙利文秀”，并希望进行更多转播。
But preparing for the rest of his life is distracting.
但为余生做准备却让人分心。
This past winter, he was worried about his form.
去年冬天，他对自己的状态感到担忧。
He felt vulnerable and wondered if he was sufficiently focussed on his game.
他感到很脆弱，并想知道自己是否足够专注于比赛。
In early February, he began to prepare for this year’s World Championship.
2月初，他开始备战今年的世锦赛。
But on any given day, he said, his mind throbs with what he should or shouldn’t be doing: “Should I be playing more?
但他说，在任何一天，他的脑海里都会跳动着自己应该做什么或不应该做什么：“我应该打更多比赛吗？
Am I taking on too much other stuff?
我是否承担了太多其他事情？
Am I becoming a jack-of-all-trades and master of none?
我是否正在成为一个多才多艺却一事无成的人？
Am I now becoming this person, a commercial animal?”
我现在是不是变成了这个人，一个商业动物了？”
In tournaments, he remains a bully, a greedy old king.
在锦标赛中，他仍然是一个恶霸，一个贪婪的老国王。
In December, at the U.K. Championship, the injured O’Sullivan was, by turns, kindly and vicious toward opponents.
12月的英锦赛上，受伤的奥沙利文对对手时而友善，时而恶毒。
After he beat Anthony McGill, a young Scottish player whom he admires, he spent ten minutes advising him on his technique.
在他击败了他所钦佩的苏格兰年轻球员安东尼·麦吉尔之后，他花了十分钟的时间为他提供技术方面的建议。
(McGill stayed up all night replaying the game and texted O’Sullivan to thank him.) In the semifinal, O’Sullivan found himself 4–1 down and on the brink of losing to Stuart Bingham, the ninth-ranked player in the world.
（麦吉尔彻夜未眠重播了比赛，并给奥沙利文发短信表示感谢。）在半决赛中，奥沙利文发现自己以 4-1 落后，濒临输给世界排名第九的斯图尔特·宾厄姆。
“That was a match where I just thought, I’m not going to be pushed around by someone like Stuart,” O’Sullivan told me afterward.
“那场比赛我只是想，我不会被斯图尔特这样的人摆布，”奥沙利文事后告诉我。
“I’m not ready to accept that role yet.
“我还没有准备好接受这个角色。
I fucking hated that match.” He won, 6–5.
我他妈的讨厌那场比赛。”他以 6-5 获胜。
The final was against Judd Trump.
决赛的对手是贾德·特朗普。
Their rivalry is now snooker’s main attraction.
他们的竞争现在是斯诺克运动的主要吸引力。
The match spanned nineteen frames; the winner would be the first to ten.
这场比赛跨越了十九局；获胜者将是前十名。
It started at lunchtime on a Sunday, twelve days after O’Sullivan had broken his ankle.
事情始于周日的午餐时间，距离奥沙利文脚踝骨折十二天。
Outside, it was a sunny winter afternoon.
外面，是一个阳光明媚的冬日午后。
Inside the Barbican, it was the perpetual midnight of snooker.
巴比肯中心内，永远是斯诺克比赛的午夜。
A thousand people were there.
那里有一千人。
Trump walked out first.
特朗普率先走出去。
“The ace in the pack,” the m.c.
“王牌中的王牌，”主持人。
hollered, “with his own brand of naughty snooker!” Tall and thin, Trump retained the disconcerting legginess of a teen-ager who’s grown too fast.
喊道，“用他自己的顽皮斯诺克品牌！”特朗普又高又瘦，但仍保留着一个长得太快的青少年的令人不安的双腿。
In the early frames, Trump drew frequent gasps for the skill of his potting.
在早期的比赛中，特鲁姆普经常因他的击球技巧而惊叹不已。
When he arranges himself for a shot, it is like watching a heron preparing to catch a fish.
当他准备射击时，就像看苍鹭准备捕鱼一样。
But he found himself in dead ends.
但他发现自己陷入了死胡同。
He would pot five or six balls and then have to cede the table to O’Sullivan.
他会打进五六个球，然后不得不把桌子让给奥沙利文。
Most of the match was played in silence.
比赛的大部分时间都是在沉默中进行的。
Spectators at snooker matches often wear earpieces, to listen to commentary on the subtler points of the game.
斯诺克比赛的观众经常佩戴耳机，以收听比赛微妙之处的解说。
Through a trick of acoustics, this commentary sometimes drifted into the hall, and the players heard themselves being described.
通过音响效果，这种评论有时会飘进大厅，球员们听到自己被描述。
In the fourth frame, O’Sullivan lifted his injured ankle up on the table behind him to sink an awkward brown.
在第四局中，奥沙利文将受伤的脚踝抬起到身后的桌子上，尴尬地陷入了棕色。
“He makes shots look so easy,” a voice said.
“他让投篮看起来很容易，”一个声音说道。
At the end of the afternoon session, O’Sullivan was ahead, 5–3.
下午比赛结束时，奥沙利文以5-3领先。
In the evening, he took control.
晚上，他控制了局面。
Every time Trump faltered, O’Sullivan rose to clear the table.
每当特朗普犹豫不决时，奥沙利文就会站起来收拾桌子。
He won four of the next five frames.
他赢得了接下来五局中的四局。
In the twelfth, he made a break of a hundred and thirty-three, zigzagging the balls home around the black.
第十二局，他取得了一百三十三分的突破，绕着黑球以之字形击球回家。
Two red balls hugged each other in the middle of the table, seemingly inseparable, until O’Sullivan broke them apart with a ricochet that bordered on the abstract, like a thought.
两个红球在桌子中间紧紧相拥，看似密不可分，直到奥沙利文用一个近乎抽象的弹跳将它们分开，就像一个想法。
“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” a man behind me murmured.
“很漂亮，不是吗？”一个男人在我身后低声说道。
When O’Sullivan got to 9–4, a frame from victory, his friend Chic Gourlay emerged from the dressing room to watch.
当奥沙利文以 9-4 领先，仅差一局获胜时，他的朋友奇克·古尔利 (Chic Gourlay) 从更衣室出来观看。
Then Trump woke up.
然后特朗普醒了。
With nothing to lose, he began to hit balls even harder than before, and now they flew in.
由于没有什么可失去的，他开始比以前更加用力地击球，现在球飞了进去。
Trump reclaimed a frame, and then three.
特朗普收回了一个框架，然后是三个。
In the space of twenty-six minutes, he scored three hundred and thirty-three points.
在二十六分钟的时间里，他得到了三百三十三分。
O’Sullivan, more or less stuck to his chair, scored eight.
奥沙利文或多或少地坐在椅子上，拿下了八分。
“O’Sullivanesque,” the wandering voice of the commentator said, describing Trump.
“奥沙利文式的，”评论员用飘忽不定的声音描述特朗普。
The score moved to 9–9.
比分变成9-9。
How does it end?
结局如何？
O’Sullivan’s untrustworthy mind leaves him fearing that he will not recognize the signs.
奥沙利文不可靠的头脑让他担心自己认不出这些迹象。
“I could lose it for the next two years, and then come back for another two years,” he said.
“我可能会在接下来的两年里失去它，然后再回来两年，”他说。
“That’s the worrying thing, in some ways.
“从某些方面来说，这是令人担忧的事情。
How do you get closure on something like that?”
你怎样才能结束这样的事情呢？”
The players came out for the final frame.
选手们在最后一局比赛中出场。
They shook hands.
他们握手了。
A spectator near the front wore a T-shirt that said, “Keep Calm and Play Snooker.” Trump broke.
靠近前排的一名观众穿着一件 T 恤，上面写着“保持冷静，打斯诺克”。特朗普破产了。
O’Sullivan potted an early red.
奥沙利文早早打进了红球。
Suddenly, it seemed dangerous to go first.
突然间，先走似乎很危险。
With sixteen points on the board, O’Sullivan missed and gave up the table.
奥沙利文在领先16分的情况下失手并放弃了桌子。
But Trump couldn’t take advantage.
但特朗普无法利用这一点。
The men exchanged safety shots: long flicks of the white ball, down the table, to catch the edge of a red, hit a cushion, and then retreat up behind a barrier of colored balls.
两人交换了安全击球：白球长距离击球，沿着桌子向下，抓住红球的边缘，击中垫子，然后退回到彩球屏障后面。
They did this until Trump snagged a red and brought it back up the table as well.
他们这样做了，直到特朗普抓住了红色并将其带回了桌子上。
“All the fancy fucking footwork, the control that he has had for maybe twenty, thirty shots,” O’Sullivan told me once about the art of safety.
“所有他妈的花哨的步法，他对二十、三十次射门的控制力，”奥沙利文有一次告诉我关于安全的艺术。
“Bang, I’m going to pounce on him.” He blocked the white ball behind the green.
“砰，我要扑向他了。”他将白球挡在果岭后面。
Trump missed his shot, and O’Sullivan had the freedom of the table.
特鲁姆普投丢了球，奥沙利文则获得了桌子上的自由。
He opened his mouth slightly and padded faster in his sneakers.
他微微张开嘴，加快了运动鞋的脚步。
The match clock showed four hours, fifty-three minutes, and six seconds.
比赛时钟显示四小时五十三分零六秒。
There was a moment, only a moment, after that when O’Sullivan was in trouble.
在那之后，奥沙利文遇到了麻烦，有那么一刻，只有那么一刻。
He got too close to the blue and had to sneak around it.
他离蓝色太近了，不得不偷偷绕过它。
But for the rest of the match the balls were where he wanted them to be.
但在接下来的比赛中，球都在他想要的地方。
Red followed by pink, red followed by yellow.
红色之后是粉色，红色之后是黄色。
The white stayed with him.
白色留在了他身边。
He got to the end.
他走到了最后。
Later, after the confetti and the prize, I found him backstage.
后来，在五彩纸屑和奖品之后，我在后台找到了他。
Workmen were dismantling snooker tables, to transport them to the next tournament.
工人们正在拆除斯诺克台球桌，以便将它们运往下一场比赛。
“It came back,” O’Sullivan said.
“它回来了，”奥沙利文说。
He looked relieved and haunted at the same time.
他看起来松了口气，同时又感到困扰。
“Sometimes you know it will.” ♦
“有时候你知道它会的。” ❖
Sam Knight is a staff writer at The New Yorker, based in London.
萨姆·奈特 (Sam Knight) 是《纽约客》驻伦敦的特约撰稿人。
His first book, “ The Premonitions Bureau: A True Account of Death Foretold ,” was published in May, 2022.
他的第一本书《预感局：死亡预言的真实记录》于 2022 年 5 月出版。
This Week’s Issue Never miss a big New Yorker story again.
本周的问题 再也不会错过《纽约客》的重大报道了。
Sign up for This Week’s Issue and get an e-mail every week with the stories you have to read.
订阅本周的期刊，每周都会收到一封电子邮件，其中包含您必须阅读的故事。
Profiles The Chaos of the Dice A backgammon hustler’s quest to gain an edge.
简介 骰子的混乱 西洋双陆棋骗子寻求获得优势。
By Raffi Khatchadourian
拉菲·哈查杜里安
The Sporting Scene The Yips What’s behind the condition that every golfer dreads?
体育界 The Yips 每个高尔夫球手都害怕的状况背后隐藏着什么？
By David Owen
大卫·欧文
A Reporter at Large A Murder Roils the Cycling World In gravel racing—the sport’s hottest category—the killing has exposed a lot of dirt.
一名在逃记者 一起谋杀案搅动了自行车界 在这项运动最热门的碎石赛项目中，这起谋杀案暴露了很多真相。
By Ian Parker
伊恩·帕克
American Chronicles The Terrifying Car Crash That Inspired a Masterpiece Fifty years ago, a Kansas family picked up a hitchhiker on their way to Iowa.
美国编年史 激发杰作灵感的可怕车祸 五十年前，堪萨斯州的一个家庭在前往爱荷华州的途中搭上了一名搭便车的人。
What happened on that drive became part of literary history.
那次驾车途中发生的事情成为文学史的一部分。
By Ted Geltner
特德·格尔特纳