101: Niagara - This American Life
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00:00 00:00 Transcript Share This American Life Life Partners How to Listen Episodes Recommended About Overview Staff Announcements Fellowships Jobs Music Make Radio On The Road FAQ Submissions Merch Contact Us Our Other Shows Merch Follow Us Life Partners Subscribe to our newsletter Full episode Toggle Audio and Transcript Sync Transcript | Episode #101 | August 13, 1999 101: Niagara Note: This American Life is produced for the ear and designed to be heard.
00:00 00:00 文字记录 分享此 美国生活 生活伙伴 如何收听 剧集 推荐 关于 概述 员工公告 奖学金 工作 音乐 在路上制作电台 常见问题解答 提交 商品 联系我们 我们的其他节目 商品 关注我们 生活伙伴 订阅我们的时事通讯 整集 切换音频和文字记录同步 文字记录 | 内容第 101 集 | 1999 年 8 月 13 日 101：尼亚加拉 注意：《This American Life》是为耳朵而制作的，旨在让人们听到。
If you are able, we strongly encourage you to listen to the audio, which includes emotion and emphasis that's not on the page.
如果可以的话，我们强烈建议您收听音频，其中包括页面上没有的情感和重点。
Transcripts are generated using a combination of speech recognition software and human transcribers, and may contain errors.
文字记录是使用语音识别软件和人类转录员结合生成的，可能包含错误。
Please check the corresponding audio before quoting in print.
请在印刷版引用前检查相应的音频。
Prologue Ira Glass In the 1830s, the area around Niagara Falls was still mostly wilderness.
序言 Ira Glass 在 1830 年代，尼亚加拉瀑布周围地区大部分还是荒野。
Railroads were just coming in, and already people were complaining about how commercialization was ruining Niagara Falls.
铁路刚刚建成，人们就开始抱怨商业化正在毁掉尼亚加拉大瀑布。
Already there were cheesy attempts to make money off tourism.
已经有人试图通过旅游业赚钱。
In 1827, promoters sent a ship full of animals over the falls.
1827 年，发起人派了一艘满载动物的船飞越瀑布。
They had advertised that it would be ferocious animals of the forest-- panthers, wildcats, wolves.
他们在广告上说，这将是森林中的凶猛动物——黑豹、野猫、狼。
Instead, the cargo included a buffalo, two foxes, a raccoon, a dog, and 15 geese.
相反，货物包括一头水牛、两只狐狸、一只浣熊、一只狗和 15 只鹅。
It didn't matter.
没关系。
Everybody made money.
大家都赚钱了。
The town of Niagara Falls had barely been settled for two decades.
二十年来，尼亚加拉瀑布镇才刚刚有人定居。
This kind of exploitation of the falls has continued for nearly two centuries since then.
从那时起，这种对瀑布的开发已经持续了近两个世纪。
And what's surprising about it really is how unsuccessful it's been.
真正令人惊讶的是它竟然如此不成功。
Power plants fell into the river.
发电厂掉进河里。
Bridges collapsed.
桥梁倒塌。
Deals were struck that benefited no one.
达成的交易对任何人都没有好处。
If the classic story of America is the story of people who started with nothing, pulled themselves up by their bootstraps, made something of themselves, the story of Niagara Falls is the opposite story.
如果说美国的经典故事是白手起家、白手起家、自力更生的故事，那么尼亚加拉大瀑布的故事则恰恰相反。
Here, they started with something, something big, something huge, but didn't build anything lasting from it.
在这里，他们从一些东西开始，一些大的东西，一些巨大的东西，但没有建立任何持久的东西。
The modern history of Niagara Falls can be divided roughly into three phases-- the schemers who came in trying to exploit the falls for tourism, how their dreams rose and fell.
尼亚加拉大瀑布的现代历史大致可以分为三个阶段——那些试图利用瀑布开发旅游业的阴谋家，以及他们的梦想如何起起落落。
But that's not the story we're here to tell today.
但这不是我们今天要讲的故事。
Then there were the schemers who came in trying to exploit the falls for industry.
然后还有一些阴谋家试图利用经济衰退来发展工业。
By the twentieth century, they built hydroelectric power plants and factories that used that power, that cheap power, moved in.
到了二十世纪，他们建造了水力发电厂，并使用这种廉价电力的工厂迁入。
But then those factories left, decimated by the same economic forces that ravaged the industries in most of the Rust Belt states, forces so powerful they can destroy a town, even a town with one of the world's natural wonders in it.
但随后这些工厂离开了，被摧毁了大多数铁锈地带各州工业的同样的经济力量所摧毁，这种力量如此强大，以至于可以摧毁一个城镇，甚至是一个拥有世界自然奇观之一的城镇。
But that's not the story we're here to tell today either.
但这也不是我们今天要讲的故事。
We're here to tell the story of the third phase of Niagara's life-- the people who live in the aftermath of those dreams that have been dreamt and lost, who live in present day Niagara Falls, a city like many cities around the country, blessed at some point with natural advantages and resources that somehow fell from grace, fell apart, a town full of people trying to make sense of what's happened, living in the aftermath of what's happened, some who've made their peace with what Niagara is, some who haven't.
我们来这里是为了讲述尼亚加拉生命第三阶段的故事——那些生活在那些曾经梦想过但失去的梦想的余波中的人们，他们生活在今天的尼亚加拉瀑布，这座城市就像全国许多城市一样，在某个时候拥有自然优势和资源，但不知何故失宠、分崩离析，这座小镇充满了试图理解所发生的事情的人，生活在所发生的事情的余波中，有些人已经与所发生的事情和平相处。尼亚加拉是，有些人没有。
During the next half hour, we're going to bring you two sets of stories interlaced, half of them from documentary producer Alix Spiegel, who went to the falls and interviewed people living there, half from David Kodeski, who grew up in the town of Niagara Falls.
在接下来的半个小时里，我们将为您带来两套交织的故事，一半来自纪录片制片人阿利克斯·斯皮格尔，他去了瀑布并采访了那里的人们，一半来自大卫·科德斯基，他在尼亚加拉瀑布镇长大。
It's This American Life, from WBEZ Chicago, Public Radio International, I'm Ira Glass.
《这就是美国生活》，来自 WBEZ 芝加哥、国际公共广播电台，我是 Ira Glass。
Stay with us.
留在我们身边。
All the stories this hour will be from Alix and David.
这一小时的所有故事都来自阿利克斯和大卫。
We'll start with this one from Alix.
我们将从 Alix 的这篇文章开始。
There's a painting of Niagara above the couch in Paul's living room and another on the opposite wall over a chair.
保罗客厅的沙发上方有一幅尼亚加拉的画，另一幅则在对面墙上的椅子上。
These pictures have a romantic, epic feel, like the two Niagara pictures he's hung on the wall near the front door.
这些照片有一种浪漫、史诗般的感觉，就像他挂在前门附近墙上的两张尼亚加拉瀑布照片一样。
Then there are the four aerial photographs of the falls above the greenhouse window and the etchings of the falls in his office and the small, delicate portrait of the falls in the kitchen over the sink.
然后是温室窗户上方瀑布的四张航拍照片、他办公室里的瀑布蚀刻画以及厨房水槽上方瀑布的小而精致的肖像。
There is in fact a picture of Niagara on almost every wall of every room in Paul's house.
事实上，保罗家里几乎每个房间的每面墙上都贴有尼亚加拉瀑布的照片。
I visit Paul, and we sit together on the couch in his living room under the biggest picture of blue water rushing the brink.
我拜访了保罗，我们一起坐在他客厅的沙发上，下面是一幅蓝色的海水冲向悬崖的最大照片。
He's wearing his Niagara baseball cap.
他戴着尼亚加拉棒球帽。
Walking towards the falls you can notice the crescendo building up, the change.
走向瀑布，您会注意到渐强的变化。
Then you can hear this mmmmmm, and that sound of the falls as you're getting closer and closer and closer.
然后你可以听到这个“嗯嗯嗯”，以及当你越来越近时掉落的声音。
And finally you're there.
最后你来了。
It's like the "1812 Overture," when the symbols go, boom!
就像《1812序曲》一样，当符号响起时，轰隆隆！
Dum-da-da-dum!
咚咚咚！
I get goosebumps when I hear that every time I hear it.
每次听到这句话我都会起鸡皮疙瘩。
Honest to God.
对神诚实。
If you've ever heard the "1812 Overture," I'm sure.
如果您曾经听过“1812序曲”，我敢肯定。
Well, that's the same feeling.
嗯，这也是同样的感觉。
That's what people should get when they go to Niagara-- goosebumps.
这就是人们去尼亚加拉时应该得到的——鸡皮疙瘩。
Paul was a schoolteacher but retired early so he could study and write about Niagara full time.
保罗是一名教师，但很早就退休了，这样他就可以全职研究和撰写有关尼亚加拉的文章。
He's written five books, a folder of poems and gives lectures to local high schools and environmental groups.
他写了五本书和一本诗集，并为当地高中和环保组织做过演讲。
Nothing about the falls is too small for Paul to study.
对于保罗来说，瀑布的一切都不是太小而无法研究的。
He is, for example, the only person ever to compile a comprehensive history of suicides at the falls.
例如，他是唯一一位编制了瀑布自杀事件综合历史的人。
He did this by combing through a century's worth of newspapers at the local library, picking out all the articles and references to suicide, and collecting this information in a series of graphs, colored bar charts on poster board, which break the suicides down by age, sex, and so on.
为此，他在当地图书馆梳理了一个世纪的报纸，挑选出所有有关自杀的文章和参考文献，并将这些信息收集在一系列图表中，即海报板上的彩色条形图，这些图表按年龄、性别等对自杀进行了分类。
Monday, blue Monday, I guess is the most popular day.
星期一，蓝色星期一，我想是最受欢迎的一天。
Wednesday is the least popular.
星期三是最不受欢迎的。
Over the hump.
越过驼峰。
People always feel good.
人们总是感觉良好。
Over the hump.
越过驼峰。
Weekend's coming, so who wants to do away with themselves?
周末快到了，谁愿意放纵自己呢？
We got the weekend coming.
我们周末快到了。
And then what time of the day are suicides?
那么一天中的什么时间有自杀事件呢？
4 o'clock in the afternoon.
下午4点。
So tired of work.
工作太累了。
Can't stand it.
受不了了
Can't decide to go home or whatever.
无法决定回家还是其他什么。
And then what month of the year?
然后是一年中的哪一个月？
September is the most.
九月最多。
And believe it or not, the next month is the least, October.
不管你信不信，下个月是最少的一个月，十月。
Paul reads me a poem he wrote called "Sensing the Wonders of Niagara." He tells me that the American Falls and the area around the American Falls is supposed to be a natural reserve according to a hundred years of New York state law.
保罗给我读了一首他写的诗，题为“感受尼亚加拉的奇观”。他告诉我，根据纽约州一百年来的法律，美国瀑布及其周围地区应该是自然保护区。
But, he says, the city of Niagara doesn't care.
但是，他说，尼亚加拉市并不关心。
He says there are too many skyscrapers, too much honky-tonk, too many factories, and tourist helicopters buzzing low all day long.
他说，这里有太多的摩天大楼、太多的小酒馆、太多的工厂，以及整天低空嗡嗡作响的旅游直升机。
On the Canadian side of the falls, there's casino gambling and wax museums and sushi.
瀑布的加拿大一侧有赌场、蜡像馆和寿司店。
Then Paul starts asking me questions, not the kind I'm supposed to answer.
然后保罗开始问我问题，而不是我应该回答的问题。
The kind that answer themselves.
自己回答的那种。
Who are we, the residents on either side of this wonder, to think that it is ours to do with as we wish?
我们这些奇迹两侧的居民是谁，竟然认为它是我们的，可以随心所欲地处理？
Why do we insist on introducing more and more buildings and distractions around the falls?
为什么我们坚持在瀑布周围引入越来越多的建筑物和干扰物？
Why must we turn the falls into a commodity?
为什么我们必须把瀑布变成商品？
How come so many people are so unhappy today?
今天怎么这么多人不高兴呢？
Why are people angry when they drive?
为什么人们开车时会生气？
Isn't this because there are no places of natural beauty where people can escape modern life?
这难道不是因为没有自然美景可以让人们逃离现代生活吗？
How would it look if you stood in line at the Louvre in Paris to see the Mona Lisa, as I did in 1979, how would it be if when you finally got to see it there were neon lights all around it, flashing.
如果你像我1979年那样在巴黎卢浮宫排队看《蒙娜丽莎》，会是什么样子？如果当你最终看到它时，周围都是霓虹灯闪烁，那会是什么样子。
Buy this.
买这个。
Buy that.
买那个。
Buy this.
买这个。
Could you really enjoy the painting?
你真的能欣赏这幅画吗？
No. If you went to hear Mozart-- oh, my favorite composer, Mozart.
不。如果你去听莫扎特——哦，我最喜欢的作曲家，莫扎特。
If you wanted to hear Mozart and went to a concert, and you've waited for months to hear this concert and then, right next to the stage was a rock band playing at the same time, could you enjoy the Mozart?
如果你想听莫扎特，就去听一场音乐会，你等了好几个月才听到这场音乐会，然后舞台旁边有一支摇滚乐队在同时演奏，你能欣赏莫扎特的音乐吗？
I'm afraid not.
恐怕不是。
So when you come to see Niagara Falls, you should see something natural.
所以当你来尼亚加拉大瀑布时，你应该看到一些自然的东西。
When you come to hear Niagara Falls, you should hear something natural.
当您来聆听尼亚加拉大瀑布时，您应该听到一些自然的声音。
Paul writes letters to the Niagara Gazette and the Buffalo News, and speaks out at town meetings about limiting commercialization of the area around the falls.
保罗给《尼亚加拉公报》和《布法罗新闻报》写信，并在镇会议上公开谈论限制瀑布周围地区的商业化。
His opinions are unpopular.
他的观点不受欢迎。
He's seen as an outsider, an extremist.
他被视为局外人、极端分子。
He's been called a complainer and anti-industry.
他被称为抱怨者和反行业者。
One city councilman told one of his friends that he'd like to see Paul disappear.
一位市议员告诉他的一位朋友，他希望看到保罗消失。
In 1983, Paul was testifying against a landfill that he thought might threaten the Niagara River.
1983 年，保罗作证反对他认为可能威胁尼亚加拉河的垃圾填埋场。
And that night he was woken up at three in the morning by the sound of a truck in his driveway.
那天晚上，他凌晨三点就被车道上卡车的声音吵醒了。
A truck pulled up in my driveway and put a large metal sawhorse against my overhead garage door.
一辆卡车停在我的车道上，把一个大金属锯木架放在我的车库门上。
And my dog was barking.
我的狗在吠叫。
I got up, and I just got to see the truck leaving my driveway.
我站起来，刚好看到卡车驶离我的车道。
And there were two men on the back of the pickup truck and a man driving.
皮卡车后面坐着两名男子，一名男子正在开车。
And there were two blinking amber lights on the sawhorse.
锯木架上有两盏闪烁的琥珀色灯。
I put my coat on, went outside, and I took a look at it.
我穿上外套，走到外面，看了看。
I said, my god, why is this here?
我说，天哪，为什么会在这里？
So I called the police.
所以我报了警。
And the sheriff came to my house.
警长来到我家。
And he said Mr. Gromosiak, you've been warned.
他说格罗莫西亚克先生，我们已经警告过你。
I said, by whom?
我说，谁的？
He said, I don't know, but that's how they warn people.
他说，我不知道，但这就是他们警告人们的方式。
I said, oh, really?
我说，哦，真的吗？
As a kid, Paul would visit Niagara three or four times a week.
小时候，保罗每周会去尼亚加拉三到四次。
He would sit on his favorite stump, watch the water, and fantasize about what his life would be like.
他会坐在他最喜欢的树桩上，看着水，幻想他的生活会是什么样子。
But now Paul doesn't visit Niagara at all.
但现在保罗根本不去尼亚加拉了。
He lives less than three miles from the falls, studies and writes about the falls every day, covers his walls with pictures of the falls, but he can't bring himself to go.
他住在距离瀑布不到三英里的地方，每天研究并撰写有关瀑布的文章，墙上贴满了瀑布的照片，但他无法让自己离开。
For relaxation, I can't anymore.
为了放松，我不能再这样了。
I just can't.
我就是不能。
I get upset now.
我现在很不安。
I could cry.
我可以哭。
I feel like I'm walking on the ruins of a wonder.
我感觉自己正走在奇迹的废墟上。
So I go other places to walk.
所以我去其他地方散步。
When you think about your life in the future, do you ever think that you will be able to--
当你思考未来的生活时，你是否想过你能够——
No. No. No, I can't.
不，不，不，我不能。
I don't think I will.
我想我不会。
I will only go there when I have to, to do a favor for someone or to take people there to see it.
我只会在必要时去那里，为某人做点什么，或者带人们去那里看看。
But I will remind them about what it was.
但我会提醒他们那是什么。
Paul tells me that he sometimes thinks that fighting for the falls is his destiny.
保罗告诉我，他有时认为为瀑布而战就是他的命运。
He never married and lives alone, so he has plenty of time to really pursue it.
他从未结过婚，独自生活，所以他有足够的时间去真正追求它。
And ultimately, he believes he will see a natural Niagara Falls-- one day-- when he gets to heaven.
最终，他相信有一天，当他到达天堂时，他会看到天然的尼亚加拉大瀑布。
Could you imagine being in that place forever, how it used to be with the bald eagle soaring above, hundreds of them, with that ground shaking, with the trees bending over the gorge, growing larger than most other places in North America, all kinds of food to eat?
你能想象永远呆在那个地方吗？以前秃鹰在上空翱翔，成百上千只，大地摇晃，树木弯过峡谷，长得比北美其他地方都大，有各种各样的食物可吃，是怎样的情景？
Just cup your hands together and put them in the water and drink it while you're looking at the falls.
只需将双手合拢，放入水中，边看瀑布边喝水即可。
I can deal with that forever.
我可以永远处理这个问题。
I can deal with that forever.
我可以永远处理这个问题。
There are really only two kinds of jobs at Niagara-- heavy industry and tourism.
尼亚加拉实际上只有两种工作——重工业和旅游业。
I got a job in tourism.
我找到了一份旅游业的工作。
Early in the spring of 1986, I was hired by Gray Line Tours, Incorporated, licensed by the state of New York and the province of Ontario.
早在 1986 年春，我就受聘于获得纽约州和安大略省许可的 Gray Line Tours, Incorporated。
I had to pass a couple of simple tests.
我必须通过几个简单的测试。
The Canadian, or Horseshoe Falls, are 158 feet high.
加拿大瀑布或马蹄瀑布高 158 英尺。
The American Falls are 184 feet high and have a crest line of 1,060 feet.
美国瀑布高 184 英尺，顶线高 1,060 英尺。
30,000 cubic feet of water pass over both falls every minute during the daylight hours in the summer months.
夏季白天，每分钟有 30,000 立方英尺的水流过两个瀑布。
The water at the base of the falls is as deep as the falls are high.
瀑布底部的水与瀑布的高度一样深。
I became Niagara Parks commission tour guide number 674.
我成为尼亚加拉公园委托导游，编号 674。
All that spring, summer, and fall, I drove van loads of tourists to all points of interest in the region.
整个春天、夏天和秋天，我开着满载游客的面包车前往该地区的所有景点。
Every tour a three-hour tour, three times a day, 21 times a week.
每次游览三小时，每天3次，每周21次。
Did you go on the boat, I'm often asked.
经常有人问我，你上船了吗？
Yes, I went on the boat three times a day, 21 times a week.
是的，我每天上船3次，每周21次。
Today, I know that in family photo albums in India and Japan there are pictures of me pointing out a geologic feature, telling a tale of daredevilry, posed with the rest of the tour group, the natural wonder in the background providing the perfect backdrop.
今天，我知道在印度和日本的家庭相册中，有我指出地质特征、讲述冒险故事的照片，与旅行团的其他成员合影，背景中的自然奇观提供了完美的背景。
When I was a kid we visited the falls often, nearly every weekend, usually just before Sunday supper at grandma and grandpa's.
当我还是个孩子的时候，我们经常去瀑布，几乎每个周末，通常是周日在爷爷奶奶家吃晚饭之前。
Yet I never really got over my terror of the falls.
然而我从未真正克服对瀑布的恐惧。
Despite the fact that I led tours at Niagara Falls three times a day every day for a single summer, I never got over my terror of them.
尽管在一个夏天里我每天都会带队参观尼亚加拉大瀑布三次，但我从未克服对它们的恐惧。
The water there is so swift, the drop so sudden.
那里的水流得那么急，落得那么突然。
You can't stand there at the brink-- watching the water roll over, changing yet always the same-- you can't stand there without the thought crossing your mind.
你不能站在边缘——看着水翻滚，变化却始终如一——你不能站在那儿而不会有这个想法闪过你的脑海。
It would be so easy, so peaceful, to just jump.
跳起来是那么容易、那么平静。
And it does happen.
它确实发生了。
Often.
经常。
Everyone who lives here has a story of someone they've seen, of someone they've heard about, of someone they've known who was killed in the falls.
每个住在这里的人都有一个他们见过的人、他们听说过的人、他们认识的在瀑布中丧生的人的故事。
Sometimes people will plan for a long time for a trip to the falls.
有时人们会为去瀑布旅行计划很长时间。
They stand there watching the water for a while.
他们站在那里观察了一会儿水。
Usually they'll remove their shoes, place their belongings, their personal effects inside their shoes, climb up over the railing and jump.
通常他们会脱掉鞋子，将随身物品、个人物品放入鞋子内，爬上栏杆并跳下去。
I've seen it happen once.
我见过这种事发生过一次。
It was terrible.
太可怕了。
A young woman.
一个年轻女子。
I was at Table Rock guiding a tour.
我在 Table Rock 导游。
There was commotion as the would-be be rescuers ran past us.
当潜在的救援人员从我们身边跑过时，发生了骚动。
There were people on the observation deck calling out to the people on the Maid of the Mist boat trip who were taking photos of the majestic cataract, waving to the people 158 feet above, people who had seen her jump and were now trying to get the tourists aboard the boat to help the woman who was now being tossed about in the swirling waters.
观景台上有人向雾中少女号游船上正在拍摄雄伟瀑布照片的人喊话，并向158英尺高空的人们挥手致意，那些亲眼目睹她跳下的人们现在正试图让游客上船，帮助这位在漩涡中翻滚的女子。
Her body was sucked behind the curtain of water.
她的身体被吸进了水帘后面。
Disappeared.
消失了。
I don't know if they ever found her body.
我不知道他们是否找到了她的尸体。
Sometimes they don't.
有时他们不这样做。
They pay people to go down to the lower river and retrieve the bodies they do find.
他们付钱让人去下游的河流取回他们发现的尸体。
$100 a body.
尸体100美元。
I think it started back in my grandfather's day.
我想这要从我祖父的时代开始。
He did a lot of hunting and a lot of fishing.
他做了很多狩猎和钓鱼。
Them days they used to hunt below the falls.
那些日子里，他们常常在瀑布下面打猎。
And being he was around the river all the time, any time they had someone jump over the falls, commit suicide or someone drowned accidentally, or someone would fall over the cliff, they'd get my grandfather to go down and recover the bodies or if the person was injured to find them and get the help to bring them up.
因为他一直在河边，所以每当有人跳下瀑布、自杀或意外溺水，或者有人掉下悬崖时，他们都会让我的祖父下去找到尸体，或者如果有人受伤了，找到他们并寻求帮助将他们带上来。
Well, then from there, it went to my dad.
好吧，然后从那里，它就传给了我爸爸。
Now, when I was eight or nine years old, I used to go down with my dad when he pulled bodies out.
现在，当我八、九岁的时候，当我父亲把尸体拉出来时，我常常和他一起下去。
I'd just stand back and watch.
我只是站在一旁观看。
He did the same to all my brothers.
他对我所有的兄弟也做了同样的事。
And I got three boys and a daughter.
我有三个男孩和一个女儿。
And all my boys used to go down with me to retrieve the bodies too, help us carry them up and everything.
我所有的男孩也曾经和我一起去取回尸体，帮助我们搬运它们以及所有东西。
Wes Hill collects the dead bodies of people who go over the falls.
韦斯·希尔收集了翻过瀑布的人的尸体。
A warning-- some of his descriptions may be a little graphic for some listeners.
警告——他的一些描述对于某些听众来说可能有点生动。
After you see one or two or three, you get used to it.
见一二三之后，就习惯了。
It's just like looking at a dead animal really, because 90% of these people committed suicide.
这就像看着死去的动物一样，因为90%的人都是自杀的。
And it wasn't accidental.
这并非偶然。
They wanted to be there, so why feel sorry for them?
他们想去那里，为什么要为他们感到难过呢？
And it gets so after you've taken out a hundred or so, then it's just like somebody repairing a car.
当你取出一百个左右之后，情况就会变得如此，就像有人修理汽车一样。
It's the same thing over and over again.
一遍又一遍都是同样的事情。
And I've taken around 400 bodies out of the river.
我已经从河里捞出了大约 400 具尸体。
One time, it was in the afternoon.
有一次，是在下午。
I was going to collect my paycheck.
我要去领取我的薪水。
And it was too early to get my paycheck.
而且现在领取薪水还为时过早。
I had to wait a couple hours.
我不得不等几个小时。
My wife was with me, so I said, let's drive down to the Maid of the Mist, and I'll go look around the driftwood, see what's floating in there.
我的妻子和我在一起，所以我说，让我们开车去雾中少女号，我去看看浮木周围，看看那里漂浮着什么。
Because I got all kinds of fish and tackle and boat parts and everything out of the driftwood years ago.
因为几年前我从浮木中得到了各种各样的鱼、渔具、船部件以及所有东西。
So as I parked car in the parking lot of the Maid of the Mist, I could see something pink going around the point just below the Maid of the Mist docks.
因此，当我把车停在雾中少女号的停车场时，我可以看到雾中少女号码头下方的点周围有一些粉红色的东西。
There's a point of a rock that sticks out.
有一块岩石突出了一点。
I told my wife, that looked like someone's back or something.
我告诉我的妻子，那看起来像是某人的背影什么的。
So I walked in behind one of the docks, and I got a pike pole.
于是我走进一个码头后面，拿到了一根长矛。
It's a logger's pole they have the pull out driftwood.
他们用一根伐木杆拉出浮木。
I got that, and I walked around the bay and went in behind this big rock.
我明白了，我绕着海湾走了一圈，走进了这块大石头后面。
And here's an old woman laying there in the water.
这是一位老妇人躺在水里。
So I grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up on shore.
于是我抓住她的手臂，把她拉上岸。
Her body was still warm and everything, but her back was all smashed.
她的身体还是温暖的，一切都还好，但她的背已经碎了。
She was dead.
她死了。
Apparently somebody in Montreal went to visit his mother and father.
显然有人在蒙特利尔去看望他的父母。
And he went in the house.
他走进屋子。
And there's a suicide note on the table saying that one didn't want to live without the other.
桌子上有一张遗书，上面写着一个人不想在没有另一个人的情况下生活。
And being they're up in their 70s, they figure, one could die any time.
他们认为，由于他们已经七十多岁了，所以随时都有可能死去。
So they said they're going over Niagara Falls and jump together.
所以他们说他们要越过尼亚加拉大瀑布并一起跳下去。
And they did.
他们做到了。
We got her body that day, and I got the man's body about a week later.
那天我们得到了她的尸体，大约一周后我得到了那个男人的尸体。
I got a 18-year-old girl out of the river.
我从河里救了一个 18 岁的女孩。
She got pregnant, and her boyfriend said he'd marry her.
她怀孕了，她的男朋友说要娶她。
And then he didn't, and she accidentally caught him with another girl.
然后他没有，她不小心发现他和另一个女孩在一起。
And she jumped over the falls.
她跳过了瀑布。
And of course, with the pressure on the body, when I went to pull her body out, the baby was halfway out.
当然，随着身体的压力，当我去把她的身体拉出来时，婴儿已经拉出一半了。
That is sickening.
这真是令人作呕。
Back in 1950, my brother, Red, decided he was going to try to go over the falls in a barrel.
早在 1950 年，我的兄弟雷德 (Red) 就决定尝试用木桶翻越瀑布。
And he figured he needed something light, that if it hit any rocks, it would bounce so he wouldn't get hurt.
他认为他需要一些轻的东西，如果它撞到任何岩石，它会反弹，这样他就不会受伤。
So he got these big truck inner tubes, and he had them all put together with nylon webbing and everything, and a large net over the whole thing.
所以他得到了这些大卡车内胎，他把它们全部用尼龙带和所有东西组合在一起，并在整个东西上覆盖了一张大网。
The ends were closed with smaller inner tubes.
末端用较小的内管封闭。
And he figured if he went over in this thing made with inner tubes-- and he called it the Thing-- that he'd come out all right.
他想，如果他穿上这个用内胎制成的东西——他称之为“东西”——他就可以出来了。
So I told him, I'm not going to help you.
所以我告诉他，我不会帮你。
And he said, why?
他说，为什么？
I said, mainly because you weigh more than the barrel you're going over in.
我说，主要是因为你比你要放进去的桶重。
And I said, those inner tubes, when you go over the falls, it's going to hit the water and stop dead.
我说，那些内管，当你越过瀑布时，它会撞到水并停止不动。
And I said, you're going to shoot right through it, right out of it.
我说，你要直接射穿它，从里面射出去。
No, no, he says, I'll be all right.
不，不，他说，我会没事的。
I seen him that morning when he left my house.
那天早上他离开我家时我看见了他。
I was with my mother.
我和妈妈在一起。
And I went down to the Maid of the Mist landing with my brothers and my mother, because they figured he'd come out all right and they wanted to be there to greet him.
我和我的兄弟和母亲一起去了雾中少女号着陆点，因为他们认为他没事，他们想在那里迎接他。
And I was standing on the dock of the Maid of the Mist when I seen this jumble of tubes come out.
当我看到这堆乱七八糟的管子出来时，我正站在雾中少女号的码头上。
And I turned to my mother and said, Bill's dead.
我转向母亲说，比尔死了。
She said, how do you know?
她说，你怎么知道？
I said, look at the tubes.
我说，看看管子。
They're all smashed up.
他们都被砸碎了。
And the small boat from the Maid of the Mist pulled the tubes in.
雾中少女号的小船把管子拉了进来。
He wasn't in it.
他不在其中。
They got his body the next morning.
第二天早上他们收到了他的尸体。
My mother had been fighting my father and us boys for years.
多年来，我母亲一直与我父亲和我们这些孩子争吵。
Every time we'd go down to the whirlpool, take a body out or rescue somebody, she'd say, you're going to get in trouble.
每次我们去漩涡，取出尸体或营救某人时，她都会说，你会遇到麻烦的。
Stay home.
待在家里。
She'd worry about us all the time we were gone.
我们不在的时候她会一直担心我们。
She always did that.
她总是这么做。
When my brother said he was going over the falls, two of the neighbors said, why don't you try to stop him?
当我哥哥说他要翻过瀑布时，两个邻居说，你为什么不阻止他呢？
She says, ain't no sense in talking to my family.
她说，和我的家人说话没有意义。
She says, see?
她说，看到了吗？
I can't talk him out of it.
我无法说服他放弃这件事。
She tried, but we're all bullheaded.
她尝试过，但我们都很顽固。
She hated it.
她讨厌它。
She really hated it.
她真的很讨厌这样。
My other brother Norman, he worked on the Maid of the Mist for years, and when they started the hydro project, he went to work in the hydro.
我的另一个兄弟诺曼，他在雾中少女号工作了多年，当他们开始水力发电项目时，他就去水力发电站工作。
And he was down working in the tunnels, and a rock came down one of the shafts and hit him on the head and killed him.
当时他正在隧道里工作，一块石头从一根竖井里掉下来，击中了他的头部，导致他死亡。
So actually, he was killed working along the river too.
事实上，他也是在河边工作时被杀的。
There's a legend for retelling by tour guides.
有一个导游复述的传说。
I would retell this legend at the base of the Bridal Veil Falls during the Cave of the Winds trip part of my tour.
在我旅行的风洞之旅中，我会在新娘面纱瀑布的底部重述这个传说。
This is a legend.
这是一个传奇。
Every year the Indians who lived at the falls would, in the autumn, choose a maid to be sacrificed at Niagara to appease the angry god who lived in the waterfall, to ensure safe passage through long, cold, dark winter months.
每年秋天，居住在瀑布附近的印第安人都会选择一名女仆在尼亚加拉牺牲，以安抚居住在瀑布中愤怒的神灵，以确保安全度过漫长、寒冷、黑暗的冬季。
Now, it happened one year that the kind chief's only lovely daughter was selected as the maid of sacrifice.
如今，有一年，善良的酋长唯一可爱的女儿被选为祭祀侍女。
The chief loved his daughter very much.
酋长非常疼爱他的女儿。
And though it broke his heart, he went through with the preparations.
尽管这让他心碎，但他还是完成了准备工作。
When the fateful day arrived, the canoe, beautifully painted and laden with garlands of flowers and cornucopias of nature's bounty was carried to the village with his lovely only daughter inside.
当这决定性的一天到来时，画得漂亮、满载着鲜花花环和大自然恩赐的聚宝盆的独木舟被运到了村庄，里面载着他可爱的独生女。
It was set into the river, and she drifted away, silently, nobly to her destiny.
它被放入河中，她默默地漂流而去，高贵地走向她的命运。
When she hit the first rapids above the falls, she let out a small cry of terror, and her father, overcome by heartwrenching grief, jumped into his own canoe in hopes of rescuing her.
当她遇到瀑布上方的第一个急流时，她发出了一声惊恐的小叫，而她的父亲则被撕心裂肺的悲痛所压倒，跳进了自己的独木舟，希望能救她。
As her canoe tossed and turned in the rapids, she called out again and again.
当她的独木舟在急流中翻腾时，她一次又一次地叫喊。
The chief paddled faster, but alas, he was too late.
酋长划得更快了，但可惜，他来得太晚了。
With a final cry, she passed over the brink and was lost.
随着最后一声呼喊，她越过了悬崖边缘，迷路了。
Her father paddled with speed to the edge, and he too disappeared.
她父亲飞快地划到边缘，也消失了。
It is said that the roar that you hear at the falls is the father crying out in anger, and the mist you feel raining down are her tears.
据说，瀑布中你听到的轰鸣声是父亲愤怒的呼喊，你感受到的雾气是她的眼泪。
I would retell this legend three times a day every day to Australian and German tourists, to visitors from Tokyo and Bombay, to smiling blond-haired, straight-toothed families from Nebraska.
我每天都会向澳大利亚和德国的游客、来自东京和孟买的游客、来自内布拉斯加州微笑的金发、牙齿整齐的家庭重述这个传说三遍。
They would smile and nod.
他们会微笑点头。
Smile and nod.
微笑并点头。
And then, simply because I could not help myself, I would tell them that the whole thing was a fabrication.
然后，仅仅因为我无法控制自己，我就会告诉他们整件事都是捏造的。
Not true at all.
根本不是真的。
The visitors, whether from Missouri or Melbourne, would lower their cameras, squinting at me, slack-jawed, like they were woken from a dream.
游客们，无论是来自密苏里州还是墨尔本，都会放下相机，眯着眼睛看着我，张着嘴，就像从梦中醒来一样。
I'd tell them that the aboriginal people who lived here never, ever engaged in human sacrifice of any kind, that really, what was in a way amazing about this story was that it survived for so long from the time of the very earliest tour guides in the area, from the 1820s when Niagara was only just starting up.
我会告诉他们，住在这里的原住民从来没有参与过任何形式的活人祭祀，这个故事的真正令人惊奇之处在于，它从该地区最早的导游时代开始，从 1820 年代尼亚加拉刚刚起步的时候就一直存在。
What I didn't tell them was that I would, as a kid, attend the Maid of the Mist parade every summer.
我没有告诉他们的是，小时候我每年夏天都会参加雾中少女号游行。
It came right down main street in Niagara Falls.
它就在尼亚加拉瀑布的主要街道上。
And at the end of the parade every year, after the Shriners, the Knights of Columbus, high school bands and waving dignitaries, the most elaborate float would appear-- a re-creation of the Maid of the Mist legend, usually with a pretty young woman from the reservation nearby.
每年游行结束时，在圣地兄弟会、哥伦布骑士团、高中乐队和挥手致意的贵宾之后，最精致的花车就会出现——再现了雾中少女号的传说，通常有一位来自附近保留地的漂亮年轻女子。
There she'd be in her chicken wire and crepe paper canoe, poised on the very brink of the paper mache cataract, smiling, waving, throwing wooden nickels.
在那里，她会坐在铁丝网和皱纹纸独木舟里，站在纸浆瀑布的边缘，微笑着，挥手，扔着木镍币。
I met a man in a bar who told me a story about the city of Niagara Falls, which is the story I think of whenever I'm trying to explain Niagara to myself.
我在酒吧遇到一个男人，他给我讲了一个关于尼亚加拉瀑布城的故事，每当我试图向自己解释尼亚加拉时，我就会想起这个故事。
He told me that the mayor of the city gets two things-- a $30,000 salary and a license plate for his car.
他告诉我，市长有两件事——3万美元的薪水和他的汽车牌照。
The license plate reads NF number one-- Niagara Falls number one.
车牌上写着 NF number one——尼亚加拉大瀑布第一。
A couple years ago, there was a mayor in Niagara who got voted out of office, but was so mad about being ousted that he refused to give the license plate to the new mayor.
几年前，尼亚加拉有一位市长被选下台，但他对被赶下台非常愤怒，拒绝将车牌交给新市长。
They argued back and forth and back and forth, the new mayor insisting the old mayor give the plate up, the old mayor refusing.
他们争论不休，新市长坚持让老市长把牌照交出来，老市长不肯。
Finally, said the man in the a bar, the new mayor came up with a plan.
酒吧里的男人说，最后，新市长想出了一个计划。
He hired some men to steal the plate off the car of the old mayor.
他雇了几个人偷了老市长车上的车牌。
This, I should say, is unlikely.
我应该说，这不太可能。
The new mayor was a policeman for 31 years, and he absolutely denied taking the plate.
新市长当了31年警察，断然否认拿了车牌。
But the man in the bar said that he and many of his friends didn't believe the mayor.
但酒吧里的男子表示，他和他的很多朋友都不相信市长的话。
He said, this is the kind of town Niagara is.
他说，尼亚加拉就是这样的小镇。
It's the kind of town where the new mayor steals the license plate off the old mayor's car.
在这种小镇上，新市长会偷走旧市长汽车的车牌。
Don Glynn is a newspaper man who's worked at the Niagara Gazette for 37 years, not including his time as a paper boy.
唐·格林 (Don Glynn) 是一名报社工作人员，在《尼亚加拉公报》工作了 37 年，这还不包括他作为报童的时间。
He takes me on a tour of the city.
他带我游览这座城市。
We drive through downtown Niagara.
我们开车穿过尼亚加拉市中心。
There's not much driving to do.
没有太多开车可做的事情。
It's mostly a grid of empty lots.
它主要是一片空地网格。
So we circle the same streets over and over, past the convention center, past the old Niagara Hotel, past the Wintergarden and the Rainbow Mall, past the convention center, past the old Niagara Hotel.
所以我们一遍又一遍地绕着同样的街道，经过会议中心，经过老尼亚加拉酒店，经过冬季花园和彩虹购物中心，经过会议中心，经过老尼亚加拉酒店。
You see this big building here, the flashcube, we call it.
你在这里看到这座巨大的建筑，我们称之为闪光立方体。
That's the Occidental Chemical center.
那是西方化学中心。
There's very little occupancy in there anymore because, well, Occidental has moved out for the most part.
那里已经很少有人居住了，因为西方石油公司大部分已经搬走了。
And the largest tenant in that nine story building-- this says something about the city of Niagara Falls-- the largest tenant is the Small Business Disaster Assistance office.
那座九层建筑中最大的租户——这说明了尼亚加拉瀑布市——最大的租户是小企业灾难援助办公室。
All these places on both sides of the street for two or three blocks are just bars.
街道两边两三个街区的所有这些地方都只是酒吧。
And a lot of them are in Chapter 11.
其中很多都在第 11 章中。
In fact, I often thought it would be neat to open a bar and just call it Chapter 11.
事实上，我常常想，开一家酒吧并命名为“Chapter 11”会比较好。
It'd probably be packed with all the people that can't pay their bills.
那里可能挤满了无力支付账单的人。
Niagara was an industrial boomtown from the '20s through the early '50s, but in the late '50s and '60s, the electrochemical companies which lined the river found cheap power, nonunion labor, and lower taxes in other states.
从 20 世纪 20 年代到 50 年代初，尼亚加拉是一个工业新兴城市，但在 50 年代末和 60 年代，沿河的电化学公司在其他州发现了廉价的电力、非工会劳动力和较低的税收。
They left, and people left with them.
他们走了，人们也跟着他们走了。
Then in the late '60s and early '70s, things got so bad that Niagara elected a flamboyant mayor with a plan.
然后在 60 年代末和 70 年代初，情况变得如此糟糕，以至于尼亚加拉选出了一位有计划的浮夸市长。
The mayor was E.
市长是E。
Dent Lackey, and the plan was urban renewal.
登特·拉基（Dent Lackey），该计划是城市更新。
It was a simple plan which had three parts.
这是一个简单的计划，分为三个部分。
Part one, the city would buy up all the property on the 82 acres of land which constituted Niagara's downtown area.
第一部分，该市将买下尼亚加拉市中心 82 英亩土地上的所有财产。
Part two, the city would tear down all the property on the 82 acres of land which it had bought.
第二部分，市政府将拆除其购买的82英亩土地上的所有财产。
And part three, developers from across America would flock to buy the empty lots, and they would build a new city.
第三部分，来自美国各地的开发商将蜂拥而至购买空地，他们将建造一座新城市。
This plan is part of the reason it doesn't take very long to go on a driving tour of Niagara Falls.
这个计划是尼亚加拉大瀑布驾车游览不需要很长时间的部分原因。
They only made it through parts one and two.
他们只完成了第一部分和第二部分。
Everything was just kind of like leveled, and they thought that all these developers would come in and rebuild.
一切都像是被夷为平地，他们认为所有这些开发商都会进来重建。
And that didn't happen, because the developers weren't standing in line like this mayor thought they would be.
但这并没有发生，因为开发商并没有像这位市长想象的那样排队。
They just didn't want to come here, and they didn't want to invest.
他们只是不想来这里，也不想投资。
So it was this one administration that just kind of leveled the city.
所以正是这一届政府将这座城市夷为平地。
I thought he had a lot to do with it, Mayor E.
我认为他与这件事有很大关系，E 市长。
Dent Lackey, for whom the plaza is named, by the way.
顺便说一句，广场就是以登特·拉基 (Dent Lackey) 的名字命名的。
You tear down a city and they name a plaza for you.
你拆毁一座城市，他们为你命名一个广场。
Don turns a corner and drives us past the Lackey Plaza, a large concrete square with a shallow white wall around it in front of Niagara's convention center.
唐拐过一个拐角，带我们经过拉基广场，这是一个大型混凝土广场，周围有一堵浅白的墙，位于尼亚加拉会议中心前面。
He points to the corner of the wall, where there's a smooth bronze plate.
他指着墙角，那里有一块光滑的青铜板。
See that marker there on the end there?
看到最后的那个标记了吗？
See that little plate there?
看到那个小盘子了吗？
It looks like just an empty space.
看起来只是一个空旷的空间。
Uh-huh.
嗯嗯。
Don Glynn Somebody stole the plaque.
唐·格林 有人偷了牌匾。
That's the Lackey Plaza, and that was the only proof that that was the Lackey Plaza, and someone stole it.
那是走狗广场，这是唯一证明那是走狗广场的证据，有人偷走了它。
It's been gone for like half a dozen years, the Lackey Plaza plaque.
走狗广场牌匾已经消失了大约六年了。
Does that tell you something about the city?
这是否告诉您有关这座城市的一些信息？
Isn't that pathetic?
这不是很可悲吗？
I mean somebody felt that strongly about it that they removed the plaque.
我的意思是有人对此有强烈的感觉，所以他们移除了牌匾。
But that tells you something.
但这告诉了你一些事情。
We drive up the street a ways, past two enormous parking complexes a couple of blocks from the falls.
我们沿着街道行驶一段距离，经过距离瀑布几个街区的两个巨大的停车场。
They are pristine structures, four-story garages which take up two entire city blocks and dwarf everything around them.
它们是原始的建筑，四层车库，占据了整个城市街区，使周围的一切都相形见绌。
We've got these ramp garages, and they've never really been filled.
我们有这些坡道车库，但它们从未真正被填满。
They've never been used, and they're free.
它们从未被使用过，而且是免费的。
You notice that?
你注意到了吗？
Yeah, because it was foolish to try to charge.
是的，因为尝试收费是愚蠢的。
Finally they put a fee on this one here, but that's only because they're trying to take advantage of the people that work in the office building across the street.
最后他们在这里对此收取了费用，但这只是因为他们试图利用在街对面办公楼工作的人。
But the one closest to the falls is free.
但距离瀑布最近的一个是免费的。
You can walk in there, and all the levels are free.
你可以走进去，所有级别都是免费的。
It doesn't cost anything.
它不需要任何成本。
And yet all the booths are in place there and the electronic system and the cars.
然而所有的展位、电子系统和汽车都已就位。
They spent a lot of money on just setting up the mechanisms, and they don't use it.
他们花了很多钱建立机制，但他们没有使用它。
You got to remember that this is probably the capital of pipe dreams.
你必须记住，这可能是白日梦的首都。
I don't know why that is.
我不知道为什么会这样。
You could go over to Navy Island, which is close by.
你可以去附近的海军岛。
It's around five miles away.
距离大约有五英里。
That was one of the sites suggested once for the home of the United Nations.
这是曾经建议作为联合国总部的地点之一。
I mean, that's big thinking and big planning, right?
我的意思是，这是伟大的思考和伟大的计划，对吗？
Of course it never happened because the Rockefellers donated the land in New York.
当然，这从未发生过，因为洛克菲勒家族捐赠了纽约的土地。
But they actually thought they could get the United Nations here.
但他们实际上认为他们可以让联合国来到这里。
More than half of Niagara's population has left since the '50s.
自 50 年代以来，尼亚加拉一半以上的人口已经离开。
With industry gone, Don tells me about 2/3 of the population of Niagara Falls is on some form of public aid, and almost 60% of its population is elderly.
Don 告诉我，随着工业的消失，尼亚加拉大瀑布大约 2/3 的人口依靠某种形式的公共援助，其中近 60% 的人口是老年人。
Young people do not stay here.
年轻人不留在这里。
They move out.
他们搬出去了。
So in another, let's say, 20 years, you're going to have an entire city full of 80-year-olds.
比如说，再过 20 年，整个城市将会充满 80 岁的老人。
This is going to be like a huge retirement village or senior citizen's village.
这将像一个巨大的退休村或老年人村。
Absolutely.
绝对地。
No question.
毫无疑问。
I think you're right.
我认为你是对的。
Young people just don't come in here and don't stay here.
年轻人只是不来这里，也不留在这里。
And then, 25 years from now, it's going to be a ghost town, isn't it?
然后，25年后，它就会变成一座鬼城，不是吗？
Well, it has all the makings of that, yeah.
嗯，它具备所有这些条件，是的。
Coming up, two weddings and a funeral, plus tape recordings made by someone inside a barrel as he went over the falls.
接下来，有两场婚礼和一场葬礼，还有他翻过瀑布时在桶里录制的录音带。
Guess which Bon Jovi song he was listening to as he went over the brink.
猜猜当他越过悬崖边缘时，他正在听哪首 Bon Jovi 歌曲。
That's in a minute from Public Radio International when our program continues.
一分钟后，国际公共广播电台将继续我们的节目。
It's This American Life.
这就是美国生活。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Each week on our program, of course, we choose a theme, bring you a variety of stories on that theme.
当然，我们每周的节目都会选择一个主题，为您带来有关该主题的各种故事。
Today's program, Niagara.
今天的节目，尼亚加拉。
Stories from documentary producer Alix Spiegel, who visited the falls, and from David Kodeski, who grew up there.
纪录片制片人阿利克斯·斯皮格尔 (Alix Spiegel) 曾参观过瀑布，而大卫·科德斯基 (David Kodeski) 则在那里长大。
In one sense, the story of Niagara Falls is the story of how we as Americans relate to nature.
从某种意义上说，尼亚加拉大瀑布的故事就是我们美国人如何与自然相处的故事。
We revere it and romanticize it on the one hand, and we try to exploit on the other.
一方面我们崇敬它，将它浪漫化，另一方面我们又试图利用它。
It's no accident that one of our country's most famous ecological disasters, Love Canal, where so many toxic chemicals were dumped that residents had to be evacuated, is just a few minutes' drive from the falls.
我国最著名的生态灾难之一拉夫运河距瀑布仅几分钟车程，这并非偶然，这里倾倒了大量有毒化学品，居民不得不疏散。
Those chemicals were there because so many factories grew up near the falls, near the cheap hydroelectric power provided by the falls.
这些化学物质之所以存在，是因为许多工厂都建在瀑布附近，靠近瀑布提供的廉价水力发电站。
And that's where our story continues.
这就是我们的故事继续的地方。
Cheap, plentiful hydroelectric power lured the electrochemical industries of the world to Niagara.
廉价、充足的水力发电吸引了世界各地的电化学工业来到尼亚加拉。
My father worked 40 years or so for DuPont in the sodium facility there.
我父亲在杜邦公司的钠工厂工作了大约 40 年。
My uncle Ray worked for Carborundum, my cousin Paul for Union Carbide, my cousin Carl for Goodyear Tire and Rubber, my uncle Matt for Occidental Chemical and Petroleum, formerly known as Hooker Chemical.
我的叔叔雷在 Carborundum 工作，我的表弟保罗在联合碳化物公司工作，我的表弟卡尔在固特异轮胎和橡胶公司工作，我的叔叔马特在西方化学和石油公司（以前称为胡克化学公司）工作。
The factories line the Niagara River not far from the falls themselves.
工厂位于尼亚加拉河沿岸，距离瀑布不远。
When I was driving tours that summer, we were instructed to direct the attention of our guests toward the river to point out the wideness of the river, to point out the relative calmness of the water.
那年夏天，当我开车旅行时，我们被指示将客人的注意力引向河流，指出河流的宽阔，指出水的相对平静。
We were instructed to keep the attention toward the river and away from the chemical factories belching yellow and white smoke.
我们被指示将注意力集中在河流上，远离喷出黄色和白色烟雾的化工厂。
None of this would appear in the official tour guide training manuals, of course, but the veteran guides who trained us reminded us that we were working for tips.
当然，这些都不会出现在官方导游培训手册中，但是培训我们的资深导游提醒我们，我们正在为小费而努力。
And who would tip a tour guide who pointed out a ravaged and polluted landscape?
当导游指出一片被破坏和污染的景观时，谁会给小费呢？
Someone whose attention had drifted to the east might ask, what are those factories?
注意力转移到东方的人可能会问，那些工厂是什么？
And we were then instructed to explain how during the war effort these plants had supplied the armed services to aid in beating the Axis powers and those nylons GIs were plying Euro cuties with were made right here in Niagara Falls.
然后我们被指示解释在战争期间这些工厂如何为武装部队提供帮助以帮助击败轴心国，而欧洲小可爱们所使用的那些尼龙大兵就是在尼亚加拉瀑布这里制造的。
The summer I turned 17, there was a great deal of family talk about which plant I should work for, just for the summer, see if I like it.
我 17 岁那年夏天，家里有很多讨论我应该为哪家工厂工作，就为了夏天，看看我是否喜欢。
The money's good.
有钱真好啊
The money is very good.
钱很好。
But I did not want to work in any one of the factories under any circumstances.
但在任何情况下我都不想在任何一家工厂工作。
They seemed deadly.
他们看起来是致命的。
I knew that my grandfather retired early because of his failing health.
我知道祖父因为健康状况不佳而提早退休。
He died of pancreatic cancer in 1966.
1966年，他因胰腺癌去世。
My grandfather was a chemical operator.
我的祖父是一名化学操作员。
He ran what they called caustic, caustic and chlorine.
他运行的是他们所谓的苛性碱、苛性碱和氯。
They make drain cleaner out of it, detergents, soap too.
他们还用它制作下水道清洁剂、洗涤剂、肥皂。
They use it to purify water.
他们用它来净化水。
My relatives say dioxin was in the air there.
我的亲戚说那里的空气中有二恶英。
They say that when they made caustic, the vapor would go up and it would turn into caustic dust.
他们说，当他们制造腐蚀性时，蒸气会上升并变成腐蚀性粉尘。
They say it was everywhere, even in the place where they ate.
他们说它无处不在，甚至在他们吃饭的地方。
They say you could write your name in the dust on the table.
他们说你可以把你的名字写在桌子上的灰尘上。
You'd leave your coffee cup on the table, and there'd be a mark.
你把咖啡杯放在桌子上，就会有一个标记。
I spent a lot of time sitting on the front porch of my parents' house staring at the factories on the horizon-- towers, ironworks, smokestacks.
我花了很多时间坐在父母家的前廊上，盯着地平线上的工厂——塔楼、炼铁厂、烟囱。
You could also see the mist of the falls from there, but you couldn't be sure if it was the mist you were seeing or the smoke from the factories.
从那里你还可以看到瀑布的雾气，但你不能确定你看到的是雾气还是工厂的烟雾。
Near my parents' house, kids would play on the sites of abandoned factories and dump sites.
在我父母家附近，孩子们会在废弃工厂和垃圾场的场地上玩耍。
They called them the whites because everything there was thick with white ash.
他们称它们为白色，因为那里的一切都覆盖着厚厚的白色灰烬。
It's hard to say what this did to people.
很难说这对人们造成了什么影响。
If you look at the studies, Niagara's cancer rate is higher than other areas, but just a little.
如果你看一下这些研究，尼亚加拉的癌症发病率比其他地区要高，但也只是一点点。
He went in and out of the hospital for months.
他连续几个月进出医院。
One night when Tom was home from the hospital, we were all watching a movie on television, Karen Black in Trilogy of Terror , the one where she gets chased around her apartment by that little Zuni fetish doll.
一天晚上，汤姆从医院回家，我们都在电视上看一部电影，恐怖三部曲中的凯伦·布莱克，在这部电影中，她被那个崇拜祖尼的小娃娃在她的公寓里追赶。
And Tom had to go to the bathroom.
汤姆不得不去洗手间。
And we helped him down the hall and into the bathroom, and he had a seizure.
我们扶他穿过走廊，进入浴室，他癫痫发作了。
He went limp.
他瘫软了。
He passed out on the bathroom floor, and his eyes rolled back into his head.
他昏倒在浴室地板上，眼睛又翻到了头上。
We all started to cry.
我们都哭了。
That summer, Tom was given radiation therapy, cobalt treatments.
那年夏天，汤姆接受了放射治疗和钴治疗。
We had to watch him.
我们必须看着他。
We had to take care of him.
我们必须照顾他。
Sharon was taking care of him one afternoon, and they were playing with some toy soldiers in the yard.
一天下午，莎伦在照顾他，他们正在院子里玩一些玩具士兵。
Sharon believes that Tom knew that he was dying.
莎伦相信汤姆知道他快要死了。
He was killing the already fallen soldiers, shooting them over and over.
他正在杀死已经倒下的士兵，一遍又一遍地射击他们。
And Sharon said, why are you killing them like that?
莎伦说，你为什么要那样杀掉他们？
Well, he said, well, they won't suffer like that.
好吧，他说，好吧，他们不会那样受苦。
Death and love-- that's what Niagara represents-- the nexus of death and love.
死亡与爱——这就是尼亚加拉所代表的——死亡与爱的联系。
Suicides on the one hand, honeymoons on the other.
一方面自杀，另一方面蜜月。
When I told a friend I was going to Niagara Falls, he asked me if I was getting married.
当我告诉朋友我要去尼亚加拉瀑布时，他问我是否要结婚。
Four different people asked me that question.
四个不同的人问了我这个问题。
I told them all I had no immediate plans.
我告诉他们我没有立即计划。
Then I called 1-800-785-L-O-V-E, the Niagara wedding chapel at the Radisson Hotel in Niagara Falls, New York.
然后我拨打了 1-800-785-L-O-V-E，纽约尼亚加拉瀑布丽笙酒店的尼亚加拉婚礼教堂。
The Niagara wedding chapel offers what they call a full-service wedding, which means that in addition to a ceremony with flowers, preacher, complimentary bottle of champagne, license, and wedding video, I'm entitled to a day of beauty at the hair salon next door and a discount on a room for my wedding night at the Radisson.
尼亚加拉婚礼教堂提供他们所谓的全方位服务婚礼，这意味着除了鲜花仪式、牧师、免费一瓶香槟、许可证和婚礼视频之外，我还有权在隔壁的美发沙龙享受一天的美容，并在雷迪森酒店新婚之夜享受房间折扣。
Niagara, I was told, is the honeymoon capital of the world.
有人告诉我，尼亚加拉是世界蜜月之都。
The Niagara wedding chapel performs over 2,000 weddings annually.
尼亚加拉婚礼教堂每年举办 2,000 多场婚礼。
At the end of our conversation, the man on the phone, who identified himself as the owner's brother, suggested that he and I get married.
在我们谈话结束时，电话里的那个自称是店主兄弟的男人建议我和他结婚。
He told me he was single and I had a nice voice.
他告诉我他是单身，而且我的声音很好听。
I actually have his proposal in my notes of our conversation.
事实上，我的谈话记录中有他的建议。
There it is.
就在那里。
Right under the information about the 24-hour waiting period, I wrote with a blue ballpoint pen, "Will marry me."
在24小时等待期的信息下方，我用蓝色圆珠笔写下了“愿意嫁给我”。
It's Catherine and A.J.'s first time, which is a little unusual for the Niagara wedding chapel.
这是凯瑟琳和 A.J. 的第一次，这对于尼亚加拉婚礼教堂来说有点不寻常。
Most of their market is second marriages.
他们的大部分市场是第二次婚姻。
Catherine and A.J.
凯瑟琳和 A.J.
have driven to Niagara from Pittsburgh with 30 of their friends and family, and are now waiting together with their maid of honor in the welcome area outside the chapel.
与他们的 30 位朋友和家人一起从匹兹堡驱车前往尼亚加拉，现在与他们的伴娘一起在教堂外的欢迎区等候。
They all look happy and nervous.
他们看上去都很高兴又紧张。
They're laughing and joking, talking about the kinds of things you talk about right before you get married.
他们有说有笑，谈论着你们结婚前谈论的事情。
Chris, the owner and manager of the Niagara chapel, comes in to tell Catherine and A.J.
尼亚加拉教堂的主人兼经理克里斯进来告诉凯瑟琳和 A.J.
that even though two of their guests haven't arrived, the wedding must start.
即使他们的两位客人还没有到达，婚礼也必须开始。
He's got a 4:30.
他的时间是 4 点 30 分。
He can't wait anymore.
他不能再等了。
Everyone hurries to their places while Chris makes a brief announcement to their guests.
每个人都匆忙回到自己的位置，克里斯向他们的客人做了简短的宣布。
They're allowed to take pictures, but everyone must remain in their seats until the end of the ceremony.
他们可以拍照，但每个人都必须留在座位上直到仪式结束。
I barely have time to wonder why this last instruction is necessary before--
我几乎没有时间思考为什么最后一条指令是必要的——
[MUSIC - "BRIDAL CHORUS" BY RICHARD WAGNER]
[音乐 - 理查德·瓦格纳的《新娘合唱》]
Catherine starts crying as soon as she enters the chapel.
凯瑟琳一进入教堂就开始哭泣。
She cries her way to the altar, cries as she takes her beside A.J., cries as the justice reads through the opening of the ceremony, cries more when the justice asks her if she'll love her husband through sickness and through health.
她哭着走向祭坛，当她把她带到 A.J. 身边时哭了，当法官宣读仪式的开头时哭了，当法官问她是否会通过疾病和健康来爱她的丈夫时，她哭得更厉害。
The bareness of her emotion infects everyone in the room.
她的赤裸裸的情感感染了房间里的每个人。
I see three people in the front row hunch their shoulders and bring their hands to their faces, then the man in the second row next to the wall, then the woman sitting next to him.
我看到前排的三个人耸起肩膀，把手放在脸上，然后是第二排靠墙的男人，然后是坐在他旁边的女人。
It jumps the 12-year-old boy sitting next to her and moves to the third row, then the fourth.
它跳过坐在她旁边的 12 岁男孩，移到第三排，然后是第四排。
Now I am crying.
现在我哭了。
We are all in the room crying.
我们都在房间里哭。
Everyone happy and flushed and sure that everything, everywhere is going to be OK after all.
每个人都高兴、脸红，并确信一切、所有地方终究都会好起来的。
And then, six minutes and 47 seconds after it begins, it's finished.
然后，开始后 6 分 47 秒，结束了。
A.J.
A.J.
and Catherine are now husband and wife.
和凯瑟琳现在是夫妻了。
Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to introduce to you Mr. and Mrs. [UNINTELLIGIBLE].
女士们先生们，我很高兴向你们介绍[无法辨认]先生和夫人。
[CHEERS] Alix Spiegel In another 10 minutes they're gone.
[干杯] Alix Spiegel 再过 10 分钟他们就走了。
All evidence of the couple is removed, and the only sound in the chapel is the hum of fluorescent lights.
这对夫妇的所有证据都被清除了，教堂里唯一的声音就是荧光灯的嗡嗡声。
Chris pops in a new video for the next couple and resets the video machine.
克里斯为接下来的几个人播放了一个新视频，并重置了录像机。
He sets out a new bouquet and checks to see if the bride's dressing room is clean.
他摆出一束新花束，并检查新娘的更衣室是否干净。
Then his 4:30 arrives, Rod and Lori, just the two of them.
然后他的 4:30 到了，罗德和洛里，只有他们两个。
No friends.
没有朋友。
No family.
没有家人。
Lori goes to the bride's dressing room to check her makeup, and I try to talk to Rod.
洛瑞去新娘更衣室检查妆容，我尝试与罗德交谈。
This is not an easy thing to do.
这不是一件容易的事。
Where are you coming from?
你从哪里来？
Rod New Jersey.
新泽西州罗德.
Right.
正确的。
Alix Spiegel What brought you up here?
阿利克斯·斯皮格尔 是什么风吹你来到这里的？
Well, Lori.
好吧，洛瑞。
Alix Spiegel She wanted to come to the falls?
阿利克斯·斯皮格尔 她想去瀑布吗？
Right.
正确的。
Alix Spiegel Had you heard about it?
阿利克斯·斯皮格尔 你听说过吗？
Yeah, I think.
是的，我想。
You know.
你知道。
Man 2 He's very quiet.
男人2 他很安静。
He is.
他是。
Alix Spiegel Lori comes out, and she and Rod are introduced to the minister.
阿利克斯·斯皮格尔·洛瑞 (Alix Spiegel Lori) 出来了，她和罗德被介绍给部长。
There are handshakes and some uncomfortable laughter.
有握手和一些不舒服的笑声。
Then--
然后——
[MUSIC - "BRIDAL CHORUS" BY RICHARD WAGNER]
[音乐 - 理查德·瓦格纳的《新娘合唱》]
No one cries at this wedding.
这场婚礼上没有人哭泣。
The two of them walk alone to the altar.
两人独自走向祭坛。
The chapel is empty, just rows and rows of chairs.
教堂里空无一人，只有一排排椅子。
Rod and Lori stand stiffly as the preacher reads on and on.
当牧师不停地朗读时，罗德和洛瑞僵硬地站着。
Rod seems perpetually awkward, not visibly happy at all.
罗德看上去总是很尴尬，一点也不高兴。
Lori isn't visibly happy either.
洛瑞显然也不高兴。
As I've said, there's no one in the room, just a bunch of chairs and some video cameras.
正如我所说，房间里没有人，只有一堆椅子和一些摄像机。
And it's hard not to wonder why they've chosen to engage in this exercise at all.
我们很难不好奇他们为什么选择参与这项活动。
It just seems so sad.
只是看起来很悲伤。
I look around the little stage that serves as a wedding altar, where all day long it's a series of these dramas in 30-minute intervals, one couple after another, some happy, some not.
我环顾了一下作为婚礼祭坛的小舞台，那里整天上演着一系列这样的戏剧，每30分钟一次，一对对情侣，有些高兴，有些不高兴。
Then eight minutes after it began, it's over.
然后开始八分钟后就结束了。
Rod and Lori are husband and wife.
罗德和洛瑞是夫妻。
No one's there to applaud.
没有人在场鼓掌。
Niagara, home of the two-tank honeymoon-- one tank up, one tank back.
尼亚加拉，两舱蜜月之乡——一舱升起，一舱返回。
That's what Chris tells me.
这就是克里斯告诉我的。
He hands me a card which says, Niagara, honeymoon capital of the world.
他递给我一张卡片，上面写着：尼亚加拉，世界蜜月之都。
But Niagara isn't the honeymoon capital of the world.
但尼亚加拉并不是世界蜜月之都。
It hasn't been for a long, long time.
已经很久很久没有这样了。
It held this title between the 1840s and the 1940s when the railroads made Niagara a cheap and easy weekend getaway for newlyweds in New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New Jersey, all up and down the east coast.
它在 1840 年代和 1940 年代之间保持着这一称号，当时尼亚加拉铁路使尼亚加拉成为纽约州、宾夕法尼亚州、俄亥俄州、新泽西州以及东海岸各地新婚夫妇的廉价而轻松的周末度假胜地。
But the railroad was discontinued decades ago, and affordable air travel makes destinations like Hawaii much more popular with newlyweds today.
但铁路在几十年前就已停产，而价格实惠的航空旅行使夏威夷等目的地更受当今新婚夫妇的欢迎。
But the idea of Niagara as honeymoon capital remains in a hundred old movies and songs.
但尼亚加拉作为蜜月之都的想法仍然存在于一百多部电影和歌曲中。
And those movies and songs are a powerful force.
这些电影和歌曲是一股强大的力量。
Chris tells me he gets calls from Florence Italy, London England, from Japan.
克里斯告诉我，他接到了来自意大利佛罗伦萨、英国伦敦和日本的电话。
In the office in the back of the chapel, there's an entire wall of pictures of happy couples who have been married by Chris.
在教堂后面的办公室里，有一整面墙都是克里斯结婚的幸福夫妻的照片。
I look at the pictures.
我看照片。
Chris gets ready for his 5 o'clock.
克里斯为他的五点钟做好了准备。
Here's another story we would tell as tour guides.
这是我们作为导游会讲的另一个故事。
This one happens to be true.
这件事恰好是真的。
Annie Edson Taylor was a 73-year-old school teacher from Bay City, Michigan.
安妮·埃德森·泰勒 (Annie Edson Taylor) 是一位来自密歇根州贝城的 73 岁学校教师。
She arrived in Niagara sometime in the summer of 1903.
1903 年夏天，她抵达尼亚加拉。
She was alone, some say an old maid.
她孤身一人，有人说她是个老处女。
She was penniless.
她身无分文。
She was desperate.
她很绝望。
She'd made up her mind that she would be the first person to go over Niagara Falls in a barrel and live.
她下定决心要成为第一个在木桶中越过尼亚加拉大瀑布并活着的人。
She designed and had built a special barrel.
她设计并制造了一个特殊的桶。
She hired a manager, one Frank M.
她聘请了一位经理，弗兰克·M.
"Tussy" Russell.
“塔西”拉塞尔。
Russell announced to the world that the 73-year-old Taylor was a widow, 42.
拉塞尔向全世界宣布，73岁的泰勒已是寡妇，现年42岁。
Taylor met the press saying, I might as well be dead as remain in my present condition.
泰勒在接受媒体采访时表示：“如果我保持现在的状态，那还不如死了。”
It will be fame and fortune or instant death.
这将是名誉和财富，或者立即死亡。
At half past 1:00 on October 24, 1903, Annie Edson Taylor squeezed into her barrel.
1903 年 10 月 24 日凌晨 1 点半，安妮·埃德森·泰勒 (Annie Edson Taylor) 挤进了她的桶里。
Cold water inside the barrel sloshed around her ankles.
桶里的冷水溅到了她的脚踝上。
Annie could feel the pull of the river, the swiftness of the rapids.
安妮能感觉到河流的拉力和急流的湍急。
Her barrel banged and scraped against the rocks above the falls.
她的桶撞击并刮擦瀑布上方的岩石。
Annie, deafened by the roar of the river, prayed aloud.
安妮被河水的咆哮震聋，大声祈祷。
The barrel neared the crest of the mighty Horseshoe and hung there at the lip, seemingly stuck, hanging over the boiling chasm.
桶靠近强大的马蹄形的顶部，挂在边缘，似乎被卡住了，悬挂在沸腾的裂缝上方。
The crowd gasped, held its breath, and then she dropped into the cataclysm, into the chasm, into the roiling tempest below.
众人倒抽一口冷气，屏住呼吸，然后她就跌入了灾难之中，跌入了深渊，跌入了下面翻滚的风暴之中。
She was pulled out of the barrel below the falls, dazed, bleeding, but very much alive.
她被从瀑布下面的桶里拉了出来，头晕目眩，流着血，但还活着。
A cheer went up from the assembled crowd.
聚集的人群中爆发出一阵欢呼声。
The woman is alive!
女人还活着！
While Annie recuperated in a Canadian hotel, Frank M.
当安妮在加拿大一家酒店休养时，弗兰克·M.
"Tussy" Russell disappeared with Annie's barrel.
“Tussy”Russell 带着安妮的木桶消失了。
He made his fortune with it and a beautiful young woman posing as Annie, queen of the falls.
他靠它和一个冒充瀑布女王安妮的美丽年轻女子发了财。
Annie had another barrel built, posed for photos with it, told and retold her story to tourists for pennies.
安妮又制作了一个木桶，与它合影留念，并为游客讲述和复述她的故事。
She wrote her autobiography.
她写了自传。
She aged on the streets of Niagara, told tourists she was a widow, 52.
她在尼亚加拉街头变老，告诉游客她是一名寡妇，今年 52 岁。
She became scary, died alone, a lady of good breeding and refinement.
她变得可怕，孤独地死去，她是一位有教养、有教养的女士。
This is a story of my hometown.
这是我家乡的故事。
The prevailing symbol of the town used to be the beautiful Indian Maid of the Mist, when really it ought to have been bad luck, down at the heels Annie Edson Taylor, a lady of good breeding and refinement who never got an even break.
这座城镇的主要标志曾经是美丽的印度雾中少女号，但实际上它应该是运气不好的，紧随其后的是安妮·埃德森·泰勒，一位有良好教养和优雅的女士，但从未获得过均匀的休息。
You have to become one.
你必须成为其中之一。
I remember when the guys were working on my barrel, I used to stand back, stand aside and just psych into it.
我记得当他们在我的桶上工作时，我常常站在后面，站在一旁，只是专注于它。
I used to do a lot of work on it myself.
我自己曾经在这方面做了很多工作。
And that's the only thing keeping you from death.
这是唯一能让你免于死亡的东西。
You become one.
你成为其中之一。
You actually acquire quite a relationship with a barrel, a piece of metal, that one will not understand unless they're there.
实际上，你与一个桶、一块金属建立了相当的关系，除非它们在那里，否则人们不会理解。
That is saving their life.
这就是拯救他们的生命。
So you can imagine the psyching in and the unity that you have with this vessel.
所以你可以想象你与这艘船的心灵和团结。
Peter DeBernardi lives half a mile from the falls, so close that his windows sometimes rattle from the roar.
彼得·德伯纳迪 (Peter DeBernardi) 住在距离瀑布半英里的地方，距离瀑布如此之近，以至于他的窗户有时会因轰鸣声而嘎嘎作响。
One night in 1987, Peter was lying in bed listening to the falls, and it hit him.
1987 年的一个晚上，彼得躺在床上听着瀑布的声音，这让他感到震惊。
He would make history by going over the falls in a barrel built for two men, the first time ever two people would go over together.
他将在一个为两人建造的桶中穿越瀑布，从而创造历史，这是有史以来第一次两个人一起穿越。
He found a partner, a guy named Jeff, and together with a crew of men they built a 3,000 pound deluxe steel barrel with inner tubes inside to cushion their fall, two windows of bulletproof glass so they could see out as they went over, and a stereo system so they could listen to tunes.
他找到了一个合作伙伴，一个名叫杰夫的人，他们和一群人一起建造了一个 3,000 磅重的豪华钢桶，里面有内胎以缓冲他们的坠落，两扇防弹玻璃窗，这样他们在翻过去时可以看到外面，还建造了一个立体声系统，这样他们可以听音乐。
They also installed a recording system so they could document the whole experience on tape.
他们还安装了录音系统，以便可以用磁带记录整个经历。
It took them 19 months to build.
他们花了 19 个月才建成。
And then, as Peter will tell you, there was the mental preparation.
然后，正如彼得会告诉你的，有心理准备。
As far as psyching in, I used to sit out here on the front porch sometimes up to 3:00 in the morning, 4:00 in the morning, because it's just me and the falls.
就心理而言，我过去常常坐在前廊上，有时直到凌晨 3:00、凌晨 4:00，因为只有我和瀑布。
It's rumbling.
它正在隆隆作响。
Like I said, I'm only a half mile away.
就像我说的，我距离这里只有半英里。
And it was so quiet.
而且非常安静。
Now sometimes if the wind is right, the breeze is right, it carries the mist all the way down the gorge.
现在有时，如果风向合适，微风合适，就会带着薄雾一路顺着峡谷而下。
You can see it's like a white wall that goes down the gorge.
你可以看到它就像一堵沿着峡谷延伸的白色墙壁。
OK?
好的？
I'm sitting there.
我坐在那里。
And all of a sudden, there was this little finger of mist that left the mainstream of the mist, came over, and it hovered over the small [UNINTELLIGIBLE] across the street here.
突然，有一根小手指的雾气离开了雾气的主流，过来了，盘旋在街对面的小[无法辨认]这里。
And it looked like two little fingers.
它看起来像两个小手指。
And it was pointing-- believe it or not-- pointing right at me sitting there.
不管你信不信，它正指向坐在那儿的我。
It stayed there for about 10 minutes.
它在那里停留了大约10分钟。
Then it finally, like a finger, as if you're just bending your finger back to the palm of your hand, it joined the rest of the mist.
最后，它像一根手指一样，就好像你只是将手指弯曲回到手掌上，它加入了其余的雾气。
And that was it.
就是这样。
Talk about getting in deep with this.
谈论深入探讨这一点。
It was trying to send me messages.
它试图向我发送消息。
And oh, god, what I went through mentally on this.
哦，天啊，我在这件事上经历了什么。
The night before, I came home.
前一天晚上，我回到家。
I was out doing a normal job during the day, and then I came home, had something to eat, went to bed, fell asleep, and woke up the next morning.
白天我出去做正常的工作，然后回到家，吃点东西，上床睡觉，第二天早上醒来。
I didn't wake up, nothing like that.
我没有醒来，什么都没有。
I guess I was so mentally prepared, psychologically prepared, that it didn't bother me.
我想我已经做好了心理准备，所以这并没有困扰我。
As a matter of fact, around my bed, I used to have pictures of Niagara Falls.
事实上，我的床边曾经挂过尼亚加拉大瀑布的照片。
I used to stare into them to fall asleep.
我常常凝视着它们入睡。
I never had any bad nightmares or nothing like that.
我从来没有做过任何噩梦或类似的事情。
But next morning I got up, and Jeff was down.
但第二天早上我起床时，杰夫却倒下了。
So we got everything together, the whole crew together.
所以我们把一切都聚集在一起，所有的工作人员都聚集在一起。
And the vessel was up at the crew chief's house.
船停在了船员长的家里。
It was a great big state truck.
这是一辆很棒的大型国营卡车。
And the barrel was on a special crib system on the truck.
桶位于卡车上的特殊婴儿床系统上。
And I remember we climbed into it.
我记得我们爬进去了。
And I will never forget the sound.
我永远不会忘记那个声音。
And to this day, that sound remains in my mind.
直到今天，那个声音还留在我的脑海里。
Them pounding those metal dog lathes.
他们敲打那些金属狗车床。
It was like being sealed into a metal coffin.
就像是被封印在金属棺材里一样。
And that was like, yeah, this could be it.
就好像，是的，可能就是这样。
This is your coffin.
这是你的棺材。
That's good.
那挺好的。
Peter Debernardi So here we are.
Peter Debernardi 我们到了。
We're going down the road.
我们正沿着路走。
That was the shortest two-mile trip ever in my life.
那是我一生中最短的两英里旅行。
We could hear each gear shift, each stop, each turn.
我们可以听到每次换档、每次停车、每次转弯的声音。
I knew exactly where we were turning.
我清楚地知道我们要转向哪里。
And they went down Murray Hill and along River Road.
他们沿着墨累山 (Murray Hill) 走下，沿着河路 (River Road) 前进。
Feels like we're going down Murray Hill.
感觉就像我们要走下墨累山。
Uh-oh.
呃哦。
OK.
好的。
She's straight now man.
她现在是直人了。
Jeff Petkovich OK, good.
杰夫·佩特科维奇 好的，很好。
Guess what?
你猜怎么着？
What?
什么？
Jeff Petkovich We're [BLEEP] on River Road, I think now.
杰夫·佩特科维奇（Jeff Petkovich）：我想我们现在在河畔路[BLEEP]。
Yeah, there we go.
是的，我们开始吧。
Peter Debernardi And the truck pulled in, backed up.
Peter Debernardi 卡车停了下来，倒车。
And they released the barrel, and they pushed it.
他们释放了枪管，并推动了它。
And that's when it crashed into the water.
就在那时，它坠入水中。
When you hit that water, this barrel weighing that much-- a ton and a half, when we hit that river bed-- it was about five feet of water-- it slammed into the floor of it so hard that it, like, jolted the mind.
当你碰到水时，这个木桶重达一吨半，当我们碰到河床时，它大约有五英尺深，它猛烈地撞击到底部，就像震动了心灵一样。
It was benumbing to the mind.
这让我的头脑变得麻木。
And I thought, oh, my god, we didn't even go over yet.
我想，天哪，我们还没过去呢。
We just hit the river.
我们刚到河边。
Then I'm looking out of the glass.
然后我就从玻璃里往外看。
And here's a bunch of seagulls floating over.
这里有一群海鸥漂浮着。
And I'm looking out through the bulletproof glass.
我透过防弹玻璃往外看。
And what's in my mind immediately is that, oh, no. No, no, no. This barrel is freshly painted.
我立即想到的是，哦，不。不，不，不。这个桶是新油漆的。
There's people here with cameras and stuff.
这里有人带着相机和其他东西。
Please don't crap all over this barrel.
请不要在这个桶上拉屎。
That was in my mind.
这就是我的想法。
Meanwhile we're on a 25-second second countdown-- 25, 24--
与此同时，我们正在进行 25 秒倒计时——25、24——
[UNINTELLIGIBLE].
[无法理解]。
Peter Debernardi Sounds in the barrel were of course the two-way communication we had with our crew.
Peter Debernardi 桶中的声音当然是我们与船员之间的双向沟通。
Our crew chief had the radio, and he was telling us how many feet away we were from the brink.
我们的机组长拿着收音机，他告诉我们距离悬崖边缘还有多少英尺。
He was giving us a description of everything that was happening.
他向我们描述了正在发生的一切。
And we had a stereo.
我们有一个立体声音响。
That's a story itself.
这本身就是一个故事。
I'll tell you later on the story of how these fellows programmed the music.
稍后我会告诉你这些人如何编写音乐的故事。
Well, I can say it.
嗯，我可以这么说。
My barrel partner, Jeff, he says, guy, we got to have tunes in there, you know?
我的桶搭档杰夫，他说，伙计，我们必须在那里放音乐，你知道吗？
And he's just quite a fellow.
他只是一个普通人。
He said, you got to have tunes in there.
他说，你那里必须有曲子。
And the tunes were, believe it or not-- the guys did a good job programming the tape.
不管你信不信，这些曲调——这些人在磁带上的编程工作做得很好。
They should be music directors, I swear, at a radio station.
我发誓，他们应该是广播电台的音乐总监。
As soon as I hit the river, the first song was "Riverboat Fantasy." Then the next song was "Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi.
一到河里，第一首歌就是《河船幻想》。接下来的歌曲是 Bon Jovi 的《Dead or Alive》。
You know, after we go over.
你知道，我们过去之后。
I mean, these guys, what a warped sense of humor.
我的意思是，这些家伙的幽默感是多么扭曲。
We're going down, Peter.
我们要下去了，彼得。
Peter Debernardi [BLEEP].
彼得·德贝尔纳迪 [BLEEP]。
We're going down.
我们要下去了。
Peter Debernardi Now, prior to doing the falls, I always thought it'd be something like a fast elevator ride, super fast.
Peter Debernardi 现在，在进行瀑布之前，我一直认为这就像乘坐快速电梯，超级快。
You know that feeling you get inside, real queasy, like, whoo.
你知道你内心的那种感觉，真的很恶心，就像，哇。
No, not at all.
不，一点也不。
Not at all.
一点也不。
And we did a 360 back flip, and I didn't believe what I was looking at because it felt like you lied down on the couch and went to bed, lying perfectly horizontal.
我们做了一个 360 度后空翻，我简直不敢相信自己所看到的，因为感觉就像你躺在沙发上然后上床睡觉，完全水平躺着。
And it was peaceful.
一切都很平静。
It was so peaceful.
一切都是那么平静。
The serenity, even with the music-- for three and a half seconds.
即使有音乐，也能保持三分半钟的宁静。
After three and a half seconds, though, we hit, yes, that rock that was the size of a house.
然而，三分半钟后，我们击中了，是的，那块石头有房子那么大。
Hit the side of that.
打那一边。
Water blew in at the same time.
水同时吹了进来。
Then we went under the surface, hit two more times.
然后我们潜入水下，又打了两次。
And I can remember it shifted the barrel.
我记得它移动了枪管。
It twisted it like a 180 in a circle.
它像一个 180 度的圆圈一样扭曲。
I remember we hit two more times.
我记得我们又打了两次。
Everything went kind of translucent, white, darkest color.
一切都变成了半透明、白色、最暗的颜色。
Then of course we hit two more times, then it surfaced.
当然，我们又打了两次，然后它就浮出水面了。
And then it was all over.
然后一切都结束了。
I remember Jeff yelling out, we did it.
我记得杰夫大喊，我们做到了。
We did it.
我们做到了。
There were a few profanities here and there, which I won't say right now.
到处都有一些脏话，我现在不会说。
Whoo-hoo!
呼呼！
Whoo!
呼！
We're OK!
我们没事！
[BLEEP] right we're OK!
[BLEEP] 好的，我们没问题！
Peter, what a [BLEEP] buzz, eh?
彼得，真是一阵[BLEEP]嗡嗡声，嗯？
We [BLEEP] made it, man.
我们[哔]成功了，伙计。
Jeff Petkovich Put her there bud!
杰夫·佩特科维奇 把她放那儿吧伙计！
But when we came out of the barrel, I can tell you, we were able to climb out of that thing right at the base of the falls, right at the bottom of Table Rock, the lower observation deck.
但当我们从桶里出来时，我可以告诉你，我们能够从瀑布底部、桌岩底部、较低的观景台的那个东西上爬出来。
And I tell you, because you're so sealed in that thing, when those hatches were opened up, that was a nice vision seeing the crew chief's face sticking in the hatch and it was opened up.
我告诉你，因为你是如此密封在那个东西里，当那些舱口打开时，看到船员长的脸贴在舱口中并且舱口打开时，那是一个很好的景象。
And what a feeling when you climb out of that thing.
当你从那东西里爬出来时，感觉是多么美妙啊。
And of course people are applauding all around, and the crew's got big smiles on their face.
当然，周围的人们都在鼓掌，工作人员的脸上都洋溢着灿烂的笑容。
And you're literally looking straight up-- we were that close to the base-- at what you had just done and went over that magnificent beauty.
你真的是在直视——我们离基地很近——看到你刚刚所做的事情，并看到了那壮丽的美景。
After the stunt, I had never went down there.
特技表演结束后，我再也没有去过那里。
Six years, seven years.
六年，七年。
I live no more than a half a mile from it too.
我住的地方距离它也不超过半英里。
That's ironic about this, that it's hard for me to believe that I've done that, bottom line.
这很讽刺，我很难相信我已经做到了这一点，底线。
It seems like a dream, like that wasn't me that went over.
好像是一场梦，好像那人不是我过去的。
It was somebody else.
是别人。
You know, to this day, though, I don't try to act like a smart ass, like, yeah, we did the falls.
你知道，直到今天，我并没有试图表现得像个自作聪明的人，就像，是的，我们摔倒了。
Yeah, wow, super stunt men here.
是的，哇，这里有超级特技演员。
No. Not at all.
不，一点也不。
I have the admiration that, thank you for letting it happen because it let us through.
我很钦佩，谢谢你让这一切发生，因为它让我们度过了难关。
Whatever forces there were, whatever happened, I was allowed to do that.
无论有什么力量，无论发生什么，我都被允许这样做。
And she let me do it.
她让我这么做。
Well, the program was produced today by Alix Spiegel and myself, with Nancy Updike and Julie Snyder, senior editor Paul Tough, contributing editors Jack Hitt, Margy Rochlin, and consigliere Sarah Vowell.
嗯，今天的节目由我和阿利克斯·斯皮格尔、南希·厄普代克和朱莉·斯奈德、高级编辑保罗·托夫、特约编辑杰克·希特、玛吉·罗克林和顾问莎拉·沃威尔共同制作。
Production help from Laura Doggett.
劳拉·道格特 (Laura Doggett) 提供制作帮助。
Original music by Carrie Biolo and Jen Paulson.
Carrie Biolo 和 Jen Paulson 创作的原创音乐。
David Kodeski's stories were adapted from his one-man autobiographical show, Niagara .
大卫·科德斯基的故事改编自他的个人自传剧《尼亚加拉》。
He's now working on a play called, I Can't Explain the Beauty .
他现在正在创作一部名为《我无法解释之美》的戏剧。
If you'd like to buy a cassette of this or any of our shows, call us here at WBEZ in Chicago, 312-832-3380.
如果您想购买本节目或我们任何节目的磁带，请致电芝加哥的 WBEZ，电话：312-832-3380。
Or if you don't want to write down the phone number, just visit our website, thisamericanlife.org, where you can order a tape or you can listen to our programs there for absolutely free.
或者，如果您不想写下电话号码，只需访问我们的网站 thisamericanlife.org，您可以在其中订购磁带，也可以完全免费地收听我们的节目。
That's right, free.
没错，免费。
Again that's www.thisamericanlife.org.
这又是 www.thisamericanlife.org。
This American Life is distributed by Public Radio International.
《美国生活》由国际公共广播电台发行。
This American Life comes to you from the city of Chicago, Richard M.
《美国生活》来自芝加哥市，理查德·M.
Daley, Mayor.
戴利，市长。
Funding for our program comes from the listeners of WBEZ Chicago.
我们的节目的资金来自 WBEZ 芝加哥的听众。
WBEZ management oversight by Torey Malatia, who describes what it was like to listen to today's program this way.
WBEZ 的管理监督由 Torey Malatia 负责，他描述了以这种方式收听今天的节目的感受。
It was like being sealed into a metal coffin.
就像是被封印在金属棺材里一样。
I'm Ira Glass, back next week with more stories of This American Life.
我是艾拉·格拉斯，下周回来，带来更多《美国生活》的故事。
This American Life is produced in collaboration with WBEZ Chicago and delivered to stations by PRX The Public Radio Exchange.
《This American Life》与 WBEZ Chicago 合作制作，并由 PRX 公共广播电台传送到各电台。