Longreads Best of 2012: Paige Williams

Paige Williams is a National Magazine Award-winning writer whose stories have been anthologized in five Best American volumes.

佩吉·威廉姆斯是一位荣获国家杂志奖的作家，她的故事已被收录在五本最佳美国卷中。

She teaches at the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard and edits Nieman Storyboard.

她在哈佛大学尼曼新闻基金会任教，并编辑尼曼故事板。

For elegance + acute observation in the service of theme

为主题服务的优雅+敏锐的观察力

Belle Boggs’ “The Art of Waiting,” on fertility (Orion)

贝尔·博格斯（Belle Boggs）关于生育的“等待的艺术”（猎户座）

“The family as a socially isolating unit is an idea not limited to humans.

“家庭作为一个社会隔离单位的概念并不局限于人类。

In the wild, infants represent competition for resources, and it is not uncommon for a mother’s job to be primarily about hiding and protecting their infants from members of their own species.

在野外，婴儿代表着对资源的竞争，而母亲的工作主要是隐藏和保护婴儿免受同类成员的侵害，这种情况并不少见。

Jane Goodall observed chimpanzee mothers completely protecting their infants from contact with other nonsibling chimpanzees for the first five months of life, pulling their infants’ hands away when they reached for nearby chimps.”

珍·古道尔观察到，黑猩猩母亲在生命的前五个月里，完全保护自己的婴儿不与其他非兄弟姐妹的黑猩猩接触，当婴儿伸手去接近附近的黑猩猩时，他们会把婴儿的手拉开。

And:

并且：

“Because we spend much of our young lives dramatizing and imagining ourselves as parents, it isn’t surprising that even the strongest of us let the body’s failure become how we define ourselves.

“因为我们年轻时的大部分时间都在戏剧化地想象自己是父母，所以即使是我们中最坚强的人也会让身体的失败成为我们定义自己的方式，这并不奇怪。

But nature, which gives us other things to do, tells us otherwise.

但大自然给我们提供了其他事情要做，却告诉我们事实并非如此。

The feeling of grief subsides; we think through our options and make choices.

悲伤的感觉消退了；我们仔细考虑我们的选择并做出选择。

We work, travel, find other ways to be successful.

我们工作、旅行、寻找其他成功的方式。

After completing The Waves, at forty-eight, Woolf writes of a feeling of intoxication that comes from writing well:

四十八岁的伍尔夫完成《海浪》后，写到了一种因出色写作而产生的陶醉感：

“Children are nothing to this.”

“孩子对于这件事来说毫无意义。”

For unpretentious power + authorial restraint

朴实无华的权力+作者的克制

Mark Warren’s “My Father’s Last Words,” on his father (Esquire)

马克·沃伦（Mark Warren）关于他父亲的“我父亲的遗言”（Esquire）

“Of course, my father numbered his boys among the reprobates and never missed an opportunity to let us know it.

“当然，我父亲把他的孩子们列为恶棍，并且不放过任何一个让我们知道这一点的机会。

He resented that we just assumed that we’d have stuff, like food and clothes.

他对我们只是假设我们拥有食物和衣服等东西感到不满。

In the great ledger of material things, my family didn’t merit a mention.

在物质财富的大账本上，我的家人不值得一提。

We had little to speak of, and as the youngest I got everything we did have last.

我们没什么可说的，作为最小的我，我们拥有的一切都是最后的。

It was just life and nobody complained.

这就是生活，没有人抱怨。

But compared with some of the boys I went to school with, we were absolutely prosperous.

但与我一起上学的一些男孩相比，我们绝对是富裕的。

In my town, you showed yourself to be truly poor by showing up at school barefoot.

在我的镇上，你光着脚出现在学校就表明自己真的很穷。

And there were so many kids without shoes that we really didn’t think much of it.

而且有很多孩子没有鞋子，我们真的没有多想。

I remember one kid from my street vividly.

我对街上的一个孩子记忆犹新。

Aiken was a fully muscled man at ten.

艾肯十岁的时候就已经是一个肌肉发达的男人了。

Aiken was weathered at ten — steel-calloused hands, deep-set, weary eyes — looked like he punched a clock as a longshoreman just in time to make it to Mrs. Norris’s fifth-grade class every morning.

艾肯十岁那年就已经饱经风霜了——双手布满了钢铁般的老茧，双眼深陷，疲惫不堪——看起来就像他作为码头工人时打卡的样子，正好赶上每天早上诺里斯太太的五年级班级。

Aiken had no shoes, and he wore the same clothes every day of the week.

艾肯没有鞋子，一周中的每一天都穿着同样的衣服。

You’d see his mama out in the yard doing the wash on Sunday, and they’d start out clean on Monday, and by Friday they’d have fresh holes and be pretty ripe.

你会看到他的妈妈周日在院子里洗衣服，周一它们就会干净起来，到周五它们就会有新的洞并且已经相当成熟了。

But Aiken walked through the world unfazed by this, and even though we didn’t have a pot to piss in, either, I felt sorry for him all the same.

但艾肯在这个世界上走来走去，却没有为此感到困扰，尽管我们也没有可以撒尿的盆子，但我仍然为他感到难过。

In Aiken’s grim acceptance of the world and its privations, my father saw a lesson for me.

在艾肯对世界及其匮乏的冷酷接受中，我父亲给了我一个教训。

When my brothers and I asked for extravagances, like shoes, Daddy would say, ‘You girls better marry rich wives, you’ve got expensive tastes.’ Now, you’re probably saying to yourself, surely this was meant affectionately!

当我和我的兄弟们要鞋子之类的奢侈品时，爸爸会说：“你们女孩子最好嫁给有钱的妻子，你们的品味很昂贵。”现在，你可能会对自己说，这肯定是深情的意思！

A little ribbing, to make men of us.

一点开玩笑，让我们成为男人。

But just to make sure that we knew he wasn’t joking in the slightest, he’d quickly add: ‘You’ll never amount to anything.’”

但为了确保我们知道他根本没有开玩笑，他很快补充道：“你永远不会有任何成就。”

For vibrant wordplay and sentence structure

充满活力的双关语和句子结构

Karen Russell’s “The Blind Faith of the One-Eyed Matador,” on the comeback of a torero after a near-fatal goring (GQ)

凯伦·拉塞尔 (Karen Russell) 的《独眼斗牛士的盲目信仰》讲述了一位斗牛士在被顶撞近乎致命后的卷土重来 (GQ)

“Marques scoops his head toward Padilla’s face on the sandy floor, a move that resembles canine tenderness, as if he’s leaning down to lick him, but instead the bull drives his sharp left horn through the bullfighter’s jaw.

“马克斯在沙地上将头探向帕迪拉的脸，这一举动类似于犬科动物的温柔，仿佛他正俯身舔他，但公牛却用锋利的左角刺穿了斗牛士的下巴。

When Marques tusks up, the horn crunches through Padilla’s skin and bone, exiting through his left eye socket.

当马克斯长出獠牙时，角会嘎吱嘎吱地穿过帕迪拉的皮肤和骨头，从他的左眼窝中退出。

Cameras clock the instant that a glistening orb pops loose onto the matador’s cheek.

摄像机记录下一个闪闪发光的球体突然落在斗牛士脸颊上的那一刻。

A frightening silence descends on the crowd.

人群陷入可怕的沉默。

Nobody knows the depth of the wound.

没有人知道伤口的深度。

“Marques gallops on, and Padilla gets towed for a few feet, pulled by his cheek.

“马克斯继续疾驰，帕迪拉被拖了几英尺，拉着他的脸颊。

He loses a shoe.

He loses a shoe.

Skin stretches away from his jawbone with the fragile elasticity of taffy.

皮肤像太妃糖一样脆弱，从颌骨上伸展开来。

Then Padilla’s prone body is left in the bull’s dust.

然后帕迪拉俯卧的身体就被留在了公牛的尘土中。

He springs up like a jack-in-the-box and hops around.

他像个玩偶盒子一样跳起来，到处跳来跳去。

His face is completely red.

他的脸已经完全红了。

As the blood gushes down his cheek, he holds his dislodged eye in place with his pinkie.

当鲜血顺着他的脸颊涌出时，他用小指固定住脱落的眼睛。

He thinks he must be dying.

他想他一定要死了。

I can’t breathe.

我无法呼吸。

I can’t see.”

I can’t see.”

For exquisite reporting and detail

提供精美的报告和细节

David Grann’s “The Yankee Comandante,” on the American expatriate William Morgan in revolutionary Cuba (The New Yorker)

大卫·格兰的《洋基司令》讲述美国侨民威廉·摩根在革命古巴的经历（《纽约客》）

“Her name was Olga Rodríguez.

“她的名字叫奥尔加·罗德里格斯。

She came from a peasant family, in the central province of Santa Clara, that often went without food.

她来自中部圣克拉拉省的一个农民家庭，经常缺乏食物。

‘We were so poor,’ Rodríguez recalls.

“我们太穷了，”罗德里格斯回忆道。

She studied diligently, and was elected class president.

她学习刻苦，被选为班长。

Her goal was to become a teacher.

她的目标是成为一名教师。

She was bright, stubborn, and questioning—as Rodríguez puts it, ‘always a little different.’ Increasingly angered by the Batista regime’s repressiveness, she joined the underground resistance, organizing protests and assembling bombs until, one day, agents from Batista’s secret police appeared in her neighborhood, showing people her photograph.

她聪明、固执、爱质疑——正如罗德里格斯所说，“总是有点与众不同。”她对巴蒂斯塔政权的镇压越来越愤怒，加入了地下抵抗组织，组织抗议活动并组装炸弹，直到有一天，巴蒂斯塔秘密警察的特工出现在她的社区，向人们展示她的照片。

‘They were coming to kill me,’ Rodríguez recalls.

“他们是来杀我的，”罗德里格斯回忆道。

“When the secret police could not find her, they beat up her brother, heaving him on her parents’ doorstep ‘like a sack of potatoes,’ she says.

“当秘密警察找不到她时，他们殴打了她的兄弟，把他‘像一袋土豆一样’扔到了她父母的家门口，”她说。

Her friends begged her to leave Cuba, but she told them, ‘I will not abandon my country.’ In April, 1958, with her appearance disguised and with a tiny .32 pistol tucked in her underwear, she became the first woman to join the rebels in the Escambray.

她的朋友们恳求她离开古巴，但她告诉他们，“我不会放弃我的国家。”1958 年 4 月，她乔装打扮，内衣里藏着一把小 0.32 手枪，成为第一个加入埃斯坎布雷叛军的女性。

She tended to the wounded and taught rebels to read and write.

她照顾伤员并教叛乱分子读书写字。

‘I have the spirit of a revolutionary,’ she liked to say.

“我有革命精神，”她喜欢说。

“When Morgan met her, he gently teased her about her haircut, pulling down her cap and saying, ‘Hey, muchacho.’ Morgan had arrived at the camp literally riding a white horse, and she had felt her heart go ‘boom, boom, boom.’”

“当摩根见到她时，他温柔地取笑她的发型，拉下她的帽子说，‘嘿，穆查乔。’摩根实际上是骑着一匹白马到达营地的，她感到自己的心在‘砰、砰、砰’。”

For humor + descriptiveness + a masterful sense of the absurd

幽默+描述性+对荒诞的精湛感觉

Devin Friedman’s “The Best Night $500,000 Can Buy,” about the Vegas superclub Marquee (GQ)

Devin Friedman 的“500,000 美元可以买到的最佳夜晚”，讲述拉斯维加斯超级俱乐部 Marquee (GQ)

“Going to a nightclub, like going on vacation, sometimes gives rise to this really stressful internal-feedback loop that initiates when some dark part of your brain transmits a pretty obvious question: ‘Am I having fun?’ Then: ‘Is this fun?

“去夜总会，就像去度假一样，有时会产生这种压力很大的内部反馈循环，当你大脑的某个黑暗部分传递出一个非常明显的问题时，就会启动这种循环：‘我玩得很开心吗？’然后：‘这有趣吗？

What about that?’ Or, ‘Those people look like they’re having fun—are they pretending like I am?’ Or, ‘I should be having fun, but am I really?

那又怎么样？’或者，‘那些人看起来很开心——他们是假装像我一样吗？’或者，‘我应该很开心，但我真的吗？

How about now?

现在怎么样？

Or…now?’ And then this other part of your brain says, ‘Shut up, this is your dedicated night for fun, you paid all this money for it, and if you’re not having fun now, maybe you’re not capable of fun, so please for the love of God just shut up.’ ‘Okay.

或者……现在？’然后你大脑的另一部分会说，‘闭嘴，这是你专门为了好玩而度过的夜晚，你为此付出了所有的钱，如果你现在不开心，也许你没有能力开心，所以看在上帝的份上，请闭嘴。’‘好吧。

Okay…

好吧……

But how about now?’”

But how about now?’”

And:

并且：

“You can kind of see how the chemistry between Jason and Noah works.

“你可以看到杰森和诺亚之间的化学反应是如何发挥作用的。

Jason is handsome and prone to fixing his hair while he speaks to you.

杰森很英俊，在和你说话时喜欢整理头发。

He is just tan enough so that you wonder whether he is naturally that color.

他的皮肤晒得黝黑，让你怀疑他是否天生就是这种颜色。

He’s superserious about electronic dance music and keeps the satellite radio in his Denali tuned to ‘Electric Area’ and presents as the kind of guy you want to be with on the night when occasion lands you at a fancy nightclub.

他对电子舞曲非常认真，并将他的 Denali 中的卫星收音机调到“Electric Area”，当你有机会去一家豪华夜总会时，他就会表现得像那种你想和他在一起的人。

It’s wrong to say that Noah is a lovable schlub, because he’s not that schlubby.

说诺亚是个可爱的笨蛋是错误的，因为他不是那么笨蛋。

I’m not implying that he isn’t handsome, though I am implying that he is bald and sweats more than Jason, and I don’t think he’s ever had a tan in his life.

我并不是在暗示他不英俊，尽管我是在暗示他秃顶，比杰森出汗更多，而且我认为他一生中从未晒黑过皮肤。

When he opens his mouth, accentwise, the Manhattan of the 1990s, of the Beastie Boys and Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, comes out.

当他张开嘴时，20 世纪 90 年代的曼哈顿、野兽男孩和市长鲁道夫·朱利安尼的口音就浮现出来了。

Jason is pals with millionaire DJs from Amsterdam; Noah is friends with, like, Jay-Z and Paris Hilton.

Jason 与来自阿姆斯特丹的百万富翁 DJ 是好朋友；诺亚 (Noah) 是 Jay-Z 和帕丽斯·希尔顿 (Paris Hilton) 等人的朋友。

And also everyone.

还有大家。

It’s just very, very easy to like him.”

喜欢他是非常非常容易的事。”

Read more guest picks from Longreads Best of 2012

阅读 Longreads 2012 年度最佳嘉宾精选