70: Other People's Mail - 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 #70 | November 19, 1999 70: Other People's Mail 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 70 集 | 1999 年 11 月 19 日 70：其他人的邮件 注：《美国生活》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工转录员结合生成的，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 This story of voyeurism, innocent voyeurism, starts off simply enough.
序言 艾拉·格拉斯 这个关于偷窥癖的故事，天真无邪的偷窥癖，一开始就很简单。
Pete was supposed to meet a friend when she got off from work.
皮特本来应该在她下班时去见一个朋友。
He arrived two hours early.
他提前两个小时到达。
So to kill two hours, I was just wandering around in the alleys, digging through the dumpsters around there, seeing what there was.
为了消磨两个小时，我只是在小巷里闲逛，翻翻周围的垃圾箱，看看里面有什么。
And as much as I like to look through dumpsters, there's not a whole lot that I'm excited about finding.
尽管我很喜欢翻垃圾箱，但并没有找到很多令我兴奋的东西。
I'm not real big on eating food out of dumpsters.
我不太喜欢吃垃圾箱里的食物。
So the one thing that really gets me excited is finding other people's mail.
所以真正让我兴奋的一件事就是找到其他人的邮件。
I love reading other people's mail.
我喜欢阅读别人的邮件。
I actively look for it on the streets and in people's garbages, in dumpsters, at post office.
我积极地在街道上、人们的垃圾堆里、垃圾箱里、邮局里寻找它。
On this particular day, Pete found a big bag of letters, maybe 100 pieces of mail, written over a year and a half.
在这一天，皮特发现了一大袋信件，大概有 100 封邮件，写了一年半多的时间。
He's excited.
他很兴奋。
It seemed like hours of reading.
看起来像是几个小时的阅读。
They were in no chronological order, so I just had to open the first one that I could grab.
它们没有按时间顺序排列，所以我只需打开我能抓住的第一个。
And read one after another that way, which was kind of confusing at first because I jumped right into the middle of what appeared to be a relationship between a woman and a man.
以这种方式一篇又一篇地阅读，一开始有点令人困惑，因为我直接跳到了似乎是一个女人和一个男人之间的关系的中间。
But I slowly put it together as a puzzle.
但我慢慢地将它拼凑成一个拼图。
Here's the picture that emerged as he put this puzzle together.
这是他将这个拼图拼凑起来时出现的图片。
The woman lived in another country.
这位女士住在另一个国家。
The guy lived in the United States.
这家伙住在美国。
And while visiting her country, staying in a hotel there, he slept with this woman once.
在访问她的国家时，住在那里的一家酒店时，他和这个女人睡过一次。
She wanted to see him again, idealized him, wanted to come visit him.
她想再见到他，把他理想化，想来看望他。
But none of these trips ever seemed to happen.
但这些旅行似乎都没有发生过。
Pete only had the letters that she had written, her side of the story.
皮特手里只有她写的信，以及她的故事。
But sometimes in her letters, she repeated things that he said.
但有时她会在信中重复他说过的话。
And over the course of the correspondence, all sorts of things happened.
在通信过程中，发生了各种各样的事情。
This woman went to jail, and then lied about it to the guy, and then finally admitted the whole thing.
这个女人进了监狱，然后向那个男人撒了谎，最后终于承认了整件事。
She lied about a daughter of hers.
她对她的女儿撒了谎。
She actually said that a daughter of hers had died.
她居然说她的一个女儿死了。
And then finally admitted, no, no, I was just lying about that.
然后最后承认，不，不，我只是在撒谎。
And over the course of these letters, this woman slowly puts her life in order.
在这些信的过程中，这个女人慢慢地让自己的生活变得井井有条。
She goes to school, she gets a new job, often taking advice from the guy.
她去上学，找到新工作，经常听取男人的建议。
I think it is just she never had somebody to really lean on and to seek advice from or just to tell her problems to, or at least nobody who was stable.
我认为这只是她从来没有人真正可以依靠并寻求建议或只是告诉她问题，或者至少没有稳定的人。
And so he says it's going to be platonic.
所以他说这将是柏拉图式的。
And she says oh, that's fine, that's fine.
她说哦，没关系，没关系。
But when you read between the lines, she just wants to see him and maybe once they reunited then the sparks will fly again.
但当你从字里行间看出，她只是想见他，也许一旦他们重聚，火花就会再次迸发。
As he read, Pete started to feel protective of this woman.
当皮特读到时，他开始对这个女人产生保护欲。
The guy seemed to be sending mixed messages.
这家伙似乎在传递一些复杂的信息。
The guy, to him, seemed like a total jerk, really.
在他看来，这家伙简直就是个混蛋，真的。
He was always making her think that he might want to see her, but then he would always quash any plans that they had to actually get together.
他总是让她觉得他可能想见她，但随后他总是会取消他们必须真正聚在一起的任何计划。
And this is the thing about reading other people's mail, as you read you cannot help but read between the lines.
这就是阅读别人的邮件的问题，当你阅读时，你会情不自禁地阅读字里行间的内容。
Anybody with any heart, any half sense of empathy fills in the details that are missing.
任何有爱心、有半点同理心的人都可以填补缺失的细节。
You're thrown into this world that's part fiction writer and part detective.
你被扔进了这个一半是小说作家，一半是侦探的世界。
I had to keep in mind that he had just thrown these letters out apparently.
我必须记住，他显然刚刚把这些信扔掉了。
And so no matter how important she may say that he is to her, at some point he puts it behind him.
因此，无论她说他对她有多重要，在某些时候他都会把它抛在脑后。
These letters now are in the dumpster.
这些信现在在垃圾箱里。
Well, from WBEZ Chicago and Public Radio International, it is This American Life .
嗯，来自 WBEZ 芝加哥和国际公共广播电台，这是《美国生活》。
I'm Ira Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Each week on our program, of course, we choose some theme, bring you documentary stories, original fiction, radio essays, anything we can think of on that theme.
当然，每周我们的节目都会选择一些主题，为您带来纪实故事、原创小说、广播散文，以及我们能想到的有关该主题的任何内容。
Today's program, Other People's Mail, stories of people reading stuff they're not supposed to see in the first place, and how it moves their hearts, and what happens after that.
今天的节目《其他人的邮件》讲述了人们阅读他们本来不应该看到的东西的故事，以及它如何打动他们的心，以及之后发生的事情。
Act One of our program today, Dead Letters.
我们今天的节目第一幕，《死信》。
Richard Lyons walks through a car junkyard and finds in the crumpled up wrecks letters and notes of the people who once lived in these cars.
理查德·莱昂斯走过一个汽车垃圾场，在皱巴巴的残骸中发现了曾经住在这些汽车里的人的信件和笔记。
Act Two, Thief.
第二幕，小偷。
A college girl steals other people's mail.
一名女大学生偷了别人的邮件。
Mona Simpson reads an excerpt from her short story.
莫娜·辛普森读了她的短篇小说的节选。
Act Three, Saviors.
第三幕，救世主。
A visit to the only post office employees who are allowed to actually read your mail.
拜访唯一被允许实际阅读您的邮件的邮局员工。
These are the people who deal with letters whose addresses are unreadable or incorrect or nonexistent.
这些人处理的信件的地址不可读、不正确或不存在。
They open up the mail to try to get it to where it's supposed to go.
他们打开邮件，试图将其送到它应该去的地方。
Act Four, Voyeurs, in which our own Sarah Vowell picks a fight with me.
第四幕，偷窥者，我们自己的莎拉·沃威尔与我打架。
Stay with us.
留在我们身边。
Act One, Dead Letters.
第一幕，死信。
Well, Richard Lyons is in the band Negativland, which is known for using a lot of found sound in their recordings.
理查德·莱昂斯 (Richard Lyons) 是 Negativland 乐队的成员，该乐队以在录音中使用大量现成声音而闻名。
And a couple years ago he put together-- he xeroxed just a couple copies of it for a few friends.
几年前，他把它放在一起——他只为几个朋友复印了几份。
And it was made of these objects he had found, letters and notes.
它是由他发现的这些物品、信件和笔记组成的。
It's really this incredible document.
这确实是一份令人难以置信的文件。
When you open to any page, what you see is, on the right side there's a photo of some smashed up, demolished car.
当你打开任何一个页面时，你看到的是，在右侧有一张被砸坏、被拆毁的汽车的照片。
And on the left, there's a letter or a shopping list or some note found inside that totalled car.
左边有一封信、一份购物清单或在那辆报废的汽车里发现的一些纸条。
He agreed to tell the story here.
他同意在这里讲述这个故事。
All the names and certain identifying details have been changed.
所有姓名和某些识别详细信息均已更改。
The inspiration for my project came about in the spring of 1994 while visiting a local automobile wrecking establishment in Contra Costa County, California.
我的项目的灵感来自于 1994 年春天，当时我参观了加利福尼亚州康特拉科斯塔县当地的一家汽车失事机构。
While searching for a Bendix spring for Negativland's company mascot, a 1976 Mercury Monarch Ghia, I made a shocking discovery.
在为 Negativland 公司吉祥物（1976 年款 Mercury Monarch Ghia）寻找 Bendix 弹簧时，我有了一个令人震惊的发现。
I stumbled upon a metallic root beer 1971 Dodge Demon that I'd previously owned and meticulously maintained until selling it two years earlier.
我偶然发现了一辆 1971 年款道奇恶魔金属根汁啤酒，我曾拥有并精心保养过它，直到两年前将其出售。
To my horror, the car had been broadsided with great force and the occupants had been neatly extracted with the jaws of life through a perfect cut over the edge of the roof line.
令我惊恐的是，汽车被猛烈的力量从侧面击中，车内的人被生命的利爪从车顶边缘的完美切口中巧妙地救了出来。
Upon further inspection, it became obvious that the car had not only been wrecked, but trashed over a period of time beforehand.
进一步检查后发现，这辆车不仅已被撞毁，而且已经被废弃了一段时间。
Curiosity led me to search its interior for clues on what methods of torture could have brought my once beautiful car bomb to this endscape.
好奇心驱使我在它的内部寻找线索，看看是什么酷刑方法可以让我曾经美丽的汽车炸弹变成这样的结局。
And what I found was fascinating.
我的发现很有趣。
The melted plastic seats and orange carpet were littered with an assortment of paper scraps documenting the life of a 17-year-old single mother and her tumultuous relationship with an abusive 38-year-old boyfriend.
融化的塑料座椅和橙色地毯上散落着各种各样的纸片，记录了一位 17 岁单身母亲的生活，以及她与一位有虐待倾向的 38 岁男友的混乱关系。
The car smelled of sewage water and empty Pepsi containers attracted bees.
车里弥漫着污水的味道，空的百事可乐容器吸引了蜜蜂。
But I continued to collect and collate everything I could find, love notes, hate letters, personal records, receipts, photographs.
但我继续收集和整理我能找到的所有东西，情书、仇恨信、个人记录、收据、照片。
Dearest Jack, if you love me as much as you say you do, will you please spend time with me and the baby?
最亲爱的杰克，如果你像你所说的那样爱我，请你花时间陪伴我和孩子好吗？
You said you'd take care of me and I don't know what I should do to make you keep your promise.
你说你会照顾我，但我不知道我该怎么做才能让你信守诺言。
I love you, Jack, and I hope you'll forgive me for not being able do some things good enough.
我爱你，杰克，我希望你能原谅我在一些事情上做得不够好。
But I want you to at least be here for all of us.
但我希望你至少能够为我们所有人而存在。
And I hope you can see my point.
我希望你能明白我的观点。
Will you please come back?
请你回来好吗？
Love, Erica.
爱，艾丽卡。
Several days passed before I fully realized the extraordinary effect this experience had on me.
几天后，我才完全意识到这次经历对我的非凡影响。
I couldn't help wondering if she'd been killed or badly injured, and what about her infant son?
我不禁想知道她是死了还是受了重伤，那她还在襁褓中的儿子呢？
Was she even in the car?
她当时也在车里吗？
Perhaps her drunken beau, in a fit of uncontrollable rage, had taken the Demon on its fateful joy ride.
也许她醉酒的男友在无法控制的愤怒中，带着恶魔踏上了命运般的快乐旅程。
If Jack doesn't want to be with me or Max, he can do whatever he wants.
如果杰克不想和我或麦克斯在一起，他可以做任何他想做的事。
I don't care if he wants to do crank and everything else to get high.
我不在乎他是否想做曲柄和其他一切来获得兴奋。
I can find someone who will be better for me and I know will be around at least sometimes and care about me and us both.
我可以找到一个对我更好的人，我知道至少有时会在身边，关心我和我们俩。
I recalled observing similar remains in other discarded vehicles.
我记得在其他废弃车辆中也观察到过类似的残骸。
And upon further consideration, I picked up my camera and left to see what else was out there.
经过进一步考虑，我拿起相机离开，看看外面还有什么。
The older cars were the most interesting-- unpaid parking tickets, failure to appear notices, unopened mail from collection agencies, lottery receipts, losing game cards from fast food restaurants.
老旧的汽车是最有趣的——未付停车罚单、未出示通知、收债机构未打开的邮件、彩票收据、快餐店丢失的游戏卡。
Then there were the letters.
然后是信件。
I found one letter in a 1977 Buick Regal, whose roof had been completely torn off and the body was twisted in half.
我在一辆1977年的别克君威里发现了一封信，它的车顶被完全撕掉，车身被扭曲成两半。
My love, Joe.
我的爱人，乔。
Hi.
你好。
How are you doing?
你好吗？
I hope I can get through this hell hole.
我希望我能度过这个地狱。
I love you with all my heart and miss you very, very bad.
我全心全意地爱你，并且非常非常想念你。
I got four months, that's 102 days here in jail.
我被判了四个月，也就是 102 天。
Joe, if you love me like you say, will you wait for me, please?
乔，如果你像你说的那样爱我，请等我一下好吗？
Whatever you do, don't leave me.
不管你做什么，都不要离开我。
Come see me on Saturday.
星期六来见我。
Visiting hours, 2:00 to 4:00 PM.
探访时间：下午 2:00 至 4:00。
I heard you were here to see me, but I never seen you.
我听说你来见我，但我从未见过你。
What happened to you?
你怎么了？
Well, my love of my life, I won't be here too long.
好吧，我一生的挚爱，我不会在这里待太久。
I'm hurt because I never seen you in court with me.
我很伤心，因为我从未见过你和我一起出庭。
Calvin said you was here.
卡尔文说你在这里。
I'm trying to get a three-way phone so I can call you.
我想买一部三通电话，这样我就可以给你打电话。
If you can find someone with a three-way phone, please get the phone number and let me know.
如果您能找到拥有三通电话的人，请提供电话号码并告诉我。
Well, Joe, this is just a little letter to let you know what's going on.
好吧，乔，这只是一封小信，让你知道发生了什么事。
When I get more paper, I'll write you more, longer letters.
当我得到更多的纸时，我会给你写更多更长的信。
I love you, Joe, with all my heart.
我全心全意地爱你，乔。
Miss you real bad.
真的很想念你。
Forever your love, Debbie.
黛比，永远是你的爱。
Joe, Virginia said you don't want to talk to me so we are through with each other and I am getting abortion.
乔，弗吉尼亚州说你不想和我说话，所以我们已经分手了，我要堕胎了。
I don't want your baby, so leave me alone.
我不想要你的孩子，所以放开我吧。
Love, Debbie.
爱，黛比。
I photographed every car I searched and compiled the information in the form of a xeroxed book, transcribing the text exactly as it was written and positioning it next to the photo.
我拍摄了我搜索到的每辆车，并将信息整理成复印书的形式，准确地抄写文字并将其放置在照片旁边。
I pulled a list from a crushed 1987 Volkswagen Fox entitled, What I Need.
我从一辆被压坏的 1987 年大众福克斯车上拿出了一份清单，题为“我需要什么”。
Couch, love seat, chair, coffee table, dinner table, TV, radio.
沙发、双人沙发、椅子、咖啡桌、餐桌、电视、收音机。
I found a writing assignment by a local community college student in a totalled Chevy van.
我在一辆报废的雪佛兰货车里发现了一位当地社区学院学生的写作作业。
Apparently, he hadn't learned his lesson.
显然，他还没有吸取教训。
James D., English 122, November 22, 1993.
James D.，英语 122，1993 年 11 月 22 日。
One, a car accident two years ago taught me the dangers of drinking and driving.
一、两年前的一场车祸让我懂得了酒后驾车的危害。
A car accident, it's bad.
出车祸了，太惨了
Two, Who?
二、谁？
Him and his buddies.
他和他的伙伴们。
What?
什么？
Drove drunk.
醉酒驾车。
When?
什么时候？
11:30 PM, Easter eve.
晚上 11:30，复活节前夕。
Where?
在哪里？
Route 11.
11 号公路。
Why?
为什么？
Young, stupid, high on beer.
年轻、愚蠢、酗酒。
Three, Yes, he answers all questions.
三，是的，他回答了所有问题。
Four, Monte Carlo Super Sport, night before Easter, Route 11.
四、蒙特卡洛超级运动，复活节前夜，11 号公路。
Five, Yes, it all leads up to driving drunk.
五，是的，这一切都会导致醉酒驾驶。
I came upon a 1979 Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham, whose front end was so mangled that the engine was pushed through the firewall and up into the windshield.
我遇到了一辆 1979 年款凯迪拉克 Fleetwood Brougham，它的前端严重受损，发动机被推过防火墙，进入挡风玻璃。
In it was another student paper, only this one was probably passed quietly in class.
里面又是一篇学生论文，大概只有这一篇是在课堂上悄悄通过的。
Natalie baby, so how are you sweets?
娜塔莉宝贝，你怎么样，甜心？
You look so cute.
你看起来很可爱。
Say, next time you talk to Marge, tell her I hope she feels better.
比如说，下次你和玛吉说话时，告诉她我希望她感觉好点。
Why is she so sick?
她为什么病得这么厉害？
Well, how's your baby?
嗯，你的宝宝怎么样了？
I can tell it's going to be so cute just because you look so cute.
我可以说它会很可爱，因为你看起来很可爱。
Happy 25-week anniversary.
25 周周年纪念日快乐。
Yeah.
是的。
So what you been up to?
那你最近在忙什么？
Since you forgot to write me, I wrote you.
既然你忘了写信给我，我就写信给你。
Cool, huh?
很酷吧？
Well babe, pretty neat note, huh?
嗯，宝贝，笔记很简洁，是吧？
Not.
不是。
I gotta go, but you better write back to me.
我得走了，但你最好给我回信。
See ya, Audrey.
再见，奥黛丽。
Tell baby I said hi.
告诉宝贝我打招呼了。
I found a letter in a 1978 Toyota Celica Liftback.
我在 1978 年款丰田 Celica Liftback 中发现了一封信。
The car was so badly crushed on the left side that the driver's door took up the entire front seat.
这辆车的左侧被严重压坏，驾驶座的车门占据了整个前排座位。
Bill.
账单。
Hello, how are you?
你好吗？
I am OK.
我很好。
A week ago, I got burned on my right hand.
一周前，我的右手被烧伤了。
We had a grease fire in the kitchen and I received second degree burns on my hand.
我们的厨房发生了油脂火灾，我的手被二度烧伤。
We were going to make tacos.
我们本来打算做炸玉米饼。
We left for three seconds and it went up in flames.
我们离开了三秒钟，它就着火了。
That's why my writing is not that good.
这就是为什么我的文笔不太好。
It's really not as bad as it sounds.
这确实没有听起来那么糟糕。
I can't remember if I told you, but I had a miscarriage July 8.
我不记得我是否告诉过你，但我 7 月 8 日流产了。
But it's almost been a month and I'm doing a lot better.
但已经快一个月了，我的情况好多了。
I was in the hospital six hours.
我在医院呆了六个小时。
I thought I had three IRs, but my ex-roommate, Michelle, said I had five.
我以为我有三个 IR，但我的前室友米歇尔说我有五个。
I'm kind of glad I lost it since I wasn't in love with the guy.
我很高兴我失去了它，因为我不爱这个人。
I told him I was pregnant and he really seemed like he didn't care.
我告诉他我怀孕了，他似乎真的不在乎。
That's OK.
没关系。
I didn't love the guy.
我不爱这个家伙。
He was hooked on crack and the baby probably would have come out mental.
他对可卡因上瘾了，孩子可能会变得精神错乱。
Here's a picture off-guard.
这是一张猝不及防的照片。
I don't have any more pimples.
我已经没有痘痘了
And I am not that white.
而且我也不是那么白。
My hair is getting a little longer and better shaped.
我的头发变得更长了，形状也更好了。
Well, I'm going to let you go for now.
好吧，我现在就让你走吧。
My hand's starting to hurt.
我的手开始疼了
Write back, please.
请回信。
I'll enjoy it.
我会很享受的。
After you send the money order, don't write because I'll be on my way.
寄出汇票后，请不要写信，因为我马上就去。
I'll call and let you know as soon as I get it.
我一收到通知就会打电话通知你。
Love always, Ginger Joy.
永远爱，姜乔伊。
In about a month's time, I'd collected more than enough documents to complete my book.
在大约一个月的时间里，我收集了足够多的文档来完成我的书。
But the act of gathering them had become an obsession and it was difficult to know when to quit.
但收集它们的行为已经成为一种痴迷，很难知道什么时候该放弃。
I finally stopped myself after an eerie discovery in a car that had been demolished beyond recognition.
在一辆被拆得面目全非的汽车里发生了令人毛骨悚然的发现后，我终于停了下来。
It must have belonged to a member of the church choir, and strangely, it was the only thing in the car-- a single photocopy of a hymn by Dion de Marbelle, "When They Ring The Golden Bells."
它肯定属于教堂唱诗班的一名成员，奇怪的是，它是车里唯一的东西——一张迪翁·德·马贝尔的赞美诗《当他们敲响金钟声时》的复印件。
"When our days shall know their number, And in death we sweetly slumber, When the King commands the spirit to be free, Never more with anguish laden We shall reach that lovely Aiden, When they ring the golden bells for you and me."
“当我们知道自己的日子有多少时，在死亡中我们甜蜜地睡着时，当国王命令灵魂自由时，当他们为你和我敲响金钟时，我们将不再充满痛苦，我们将到达可爱的艾登。”
Drive carefully.
小心驾驶。
Ira Glass Richard Lyons is in the band Negativland.
艾拉·格拉斯·理查德·莱昂斯 (Ira Glass Richard Lyons) 是 Negativland 乐队的成员。
His xeroxed book of crashed car photos and text isn't available anywhere.
他复印的撞车照片和文字书在任何地方都找不到。
But the band is posting some of it on their website, if you're curious.
但如果你好奇的话，乐队正在他们的网站上发布了其中的一些内容。
The address of that website, www.negativland.com.
该网站的地址 www.negativland.com。
And you spell Negativland, N-E-G-A-T-I-V-- no E there-- L-A-N-D.
你拼写Negativland，N-E-G-A-T-I-V——那里没有E——L-A-N-D。
[MUSIC - "STEALING PEOPLE'S MAIL" BY DEAD KENNEDIES]
[音乐 - DEAD KNNEDIES 的“窃取人们的邮件”]
Act Two, Thief.
第二幕，小偷。
While there can be consequences to reading other people's mail, a friend of mine told me this story about his first job.
虽然阅读别人的邮件可能会产生后果，但我的一位朋友告诉我这个关于他第一份工作的故事。
In this job, he was a reporter at a small newspaper in a small town, and they had a basic office computer system.
这份工作，他是小镇一家小报社的记者，他们有一套基本的办公电脑系统。
And then one day on a whim, he tried to log in as the owner of the newspaper.
然后有一天，他突发奇想，尝试以报纸所有者的身份登录。
For the password, he just typed in the name of the guy's grandson.
对于密码，他只是输入了那家伙孙子的名字。
It worked.
它起作用了。
He suddenly had access to every file in the newspaper's computer, every story, every accounting record, every email.
突然间，他可以访问报纸计算机中的每个文件、每个故事、每个会计记录、每封电子邮件。
My friend says it was miserable.
我朋友说很惨。
Most of the mail was depressingly banal, not worth reading.
大多数邮件都是令人沮丧的平庸，不值得阅读。
The main thing that he learned was that at the beginning of the year, nearly everyone in the office had gotten a bigger raise than he had.
他了解到的主要事情是，今年年初，办公室里几乎每个人的加薪都比他多。
Reporters whose stories he thought were terrible had made much more than he did.
他认为报道很糟糕的记者赚的钱比他多得多。
When you open other people's mail, things can happen, unless you're careful.
当您打开其他人的邮件时，除非您小心，否则可能会发生一些事情。
With that in mind, we turn to Mona Simpson.
考虑到这一点，我们转向莫娜·辛普森。
She's the author of numerous books.
她是许多书籍的作者。
This is an excerpt of a short story she wrote a few years ago, called Lawns.
这是她几年前写的短篇小说《草坪》的节选。
I steal.
我偷。
I've stolen books and money and even letters.
我偷过书、钱，甚至信件。
Letters are great.
字母很棒。
I work in the mail room of my dormitory, Saturday mornings.
周六早上我在宿舍的收发室工作。
I sort mail, put the letters in these long narrow cubbyholes.
我对邮件进行分类，将信件放入这些又长又窄的小隔间里。
The insides of mailboxes.
邮箱的内部。
It's cool there when I stick in my arm.
当我贴在手臂上时，那里很凉爽。
I've stolen cash-- these crisp, crackling, brand new twenty-dollar bills that fathers and grandmothers send, sealed up in sheets of wax paper.
我偷了现金——父亲和祖母寄来的这些脆脆的、噼啪作响的全新二十美元钞票，用蜡纸密封起来。
Once I got a fifty.
有一次我得到了五十。
I've stolen presents, too.
我也偷过礼物。
I got a sweater and a football.
我有一件毛衣和一个足球。
Mostly, what I take are cookies.
大多数情况下，我吃的是饼干。
No evidence.
没有证据。
They're edible.
它们是可以食用的。
I can spot the coffee cans of chocolate chip.
我能认出装着巧克力片的咖啡罐。
You can smell it right through the wrapping.
透过包装你就能闻到它的味道。
A cool smell, like the inside of a pantry.
一股清凉的气味，就像食品储藏室里的味道。
Sometimes I eat straight through the can during my shift.
有时我在轮班期间直接吃罐头食品。
Tampering with the United States mail is a Federal Crime, I know.
我知道，篡改美国邮件属于联邦犯罪。
Listen, let me tell you, I know.
听着，让我告诉你，我知道。
I got a summons in my mailbox to go to the Employment Office next Wednesday.
我的邮箱里收到了下周三去就业办公室的传票。
Sure, I'm scared.
当然，我很害怕。
The University cops want to talk to me.
大学警察想和我说话。
Great.
伟大的。
They think, suspect is the word they use, that one of us is throwing out mail instead of sorting it.
他们认为，“怀疑”是他们使用的词，我们中的一个人正在扔掉邮件而不是对其进行分类。
Us is the others.
我们就是其他人。
I'm not the only sorter.
我不是唯一的分拣员。
I just work Saturdays, mail comes, you know, six days a week in this country.
我只在周六工作，你知道，在这个国家，每周有六天收到邮件。
They'll never guess it's me.
他们永远不会猜到是我。
They say this in the letter, they think it's out of LAZINESS.
他们在信中这么说，他们认为这是出于懒惰。
Wanting to hurry up and get done, not spend the time.
想要快点完成任务，而不是浪费时间。
But I don't hurry.
但我不着急。
I'm really patient on Saturday mornings.
周六早上我真的很有耐心。
I leave my dorm early, while Lauren's still asleep, I open the mailroom-- it's this heavy door and I have my own key.
我很早就离开了宿舍，趁劳伦还在睡觉的时候，我打开了收发室——门很重，我有自己的钥匙。
When I get there, two bags are already on the table, sagging, waiting for me.
当我到达那里时，两个袋子已经放在桌子上，垂着，等着我。
Two old ladies.
两个老太太。
One's packages, one's mail.
一个是包裹，一个是邮件。
There's a small key opens the bank of doors, the little boxes, from the inside.
有一把小钥匙可以从里面打开一排门和小盒子。
Through the glass part of every mail slot, I can see.
透过每个邮件槽的玻璃部分，我可以看到。
The AstroTurf field across the street over the parking lot, it's this light green.
停车场对面街对面的 AstroTurf 球场，是浅绿色的。
I watch the sky go from black to gray to blue, while I'm there.
当我在那里时，我看着天空从黑色变成灰色再变成蓝色。
Some days just stay foggy.
有些日子只是有雾。
Those are the best.
这些是最好的。
Once you open a letter, you can't just put it in the mailbox.
一旦你打开一封信，你就不能把它放进邮箱。
The person's going to say something.
这个人会说些什么。
So I stash them in my pack and throw them out.
所以我把它们藏在我的包里然后扔掉。
Just people I know.
只是我认识的人。
Susan Brown, I open.
苏珊·布朗，我开门。
Andy Larsen, Larry Helprin.
安迪·拉森、拉里·赫普林。
All the popular kids from my high school.
我高中的所有受欢迎的孩子。
These are kids who drove places together, took vacations.
这些孩子一起开车去很多地方，一起度假。
They all skied.
他们都滑雪了。
They went to the prom in one big group.
他们一大群人去参加舞会。
At morning nutrition-- nutrition, it's your break at 10 o'clock for doughnuts and stuff, California state law, you have to have it-- they used to meet outside on the far end of the math patio, all in one group.
早上的营养课——营养课，你十点钟休息，吃甜甜圈之类的东西，加利福尼亚州法律，你必须吃它——他们过去常常在数学露台的尽头见面，一群人在一起。
Some of them smoked.
他们中有些人抽烟。
I've seen them look at each other, concerned, at 10:00 in the morning.
我曾在早上 10:00 看到他们面面相觑。
One touched the inside of another's wrist, like grown-ups in trouble.
一个人触碰另一个人的手腕内侧，就像遇到麻烦的成年人一样。
And now I know, everything I thought those three years, worst years of my life, turns out to be true.
现在我知道，那三年，我生命中最糟糕的三年，我所想的一切都被证明是真的。
The ones here get letters.
这里的人收到信件。
Carrie's at Santa Cruz.
嘉莉在圣克鲁斯。
Lily's in San Diego.
莉莉在圣地亚哥。
Kevin's at Harvard.
凯文在哈佛大学。
Beth's at Stanford.
贝丝在斯坦福大学。
And like from families, their letters talk about problems.
就像来自家庭的信一样，他们的信谈论问题。
They're each other's main lives.
他们是彼此的主要生活。
You always knew looking at them in high school, they weren't just kids who had fun.
你在高中时就知道，他们不仅仅是一群快乐的孩子。
They cared.
他们关心。
They cared about things.
他们关心事情。
They're all worried about Lily now.
他们现在都很担心莉莉。
Larry and Annie are flying down to talk her into staying at school.
拉里和安妮正飞下来说服她留在学校。
I saw Glenn the day I came to Berkeley.
我来到伯克利的那天见到了格伦。
I took a walk through campus and I'd been walking for almost an hour.
我在校园里散步，走了将近一个小时。
And then I see Glenn coming down on a little hill by the infirmary, riding one of those lawn mowers you sit on, with grass flying out of the side.
然后我看到格伦从医务室旁边的一座小山上下来，骑着你坐的一台割草机，草从侧面飞扬。
He's smiling.
他在微笑。
Not at me, just smiling.
不是对我，只是微笑。
Clouds and sky behind his hair.
他头发后面的云彩和天空。
Half of Tamalpais gone in fog.
塔玛佩斯的一半都被雾气笼罩了。
He was wearing this bright orange vest and I thought, fall's coming.
他穿着这件亮橙色背心，我想，秋天来了。
I saw him that night again at our dorm cafeteria.
那天晚上我在宿舍食堂又见到了他。
This is the first time I've been in love.
这是我第一次恋爱。
I worry.
我担心。
I'm a bad person, but Glenn's the perfect guy.
我是个坏人，但格伦是个完美的人。
I mean, for me at least.
我的意思是，至少对我来说。
And he thinks he loves me.
而且他认为他爱我。
And I've got to keep him from finding out about me.
我必须不让他发现我的事。
I'll die before I'll tell him.
在我告诉他之前我会死。
Glenn.
格伦.
OK, Glenn.
好的，格伦。
He looks like Mick Jagger, but sweet.
他看起来像米克·贾格尔，但很可爱。
10 times sweeter.
甜10倍。
He looks like he's about 10 years old.
他看上去只有10岁左右。
His father's a doctor over at UC Med, gynecological surgeon.
他的父亲是加州大学医学院的一名妇科医生。
First time we got together, a whole bunch of us were in Glenn's room, drinking beer.
我们第一次聚在一起时，我们一大群人在格伦的房间里喝啤酒。
Glenn and his roommate collect beer cans.
格伦和他的室友收集啤酒罐。
They have them stacked up.
他们把它们堆起来。
We're watching TV and finally everybody else leaves.
我们正在看电视，最后其他人都离开了。
There's nothing on but those gray lines and Glenn turns over on his bed and asks me if I'd rub his back.
除了那些灰线之外什么都没有，格伦在床上翻了个身，问我是否可以帮他揉背。
I couldn't believe this was happening to me.
我简直不敢相信这件事发生在我身上。
I knew I didn't have to do anything.
我知道我不需要做任何事。
I just had to stay there.
我只得呆在那里。
It would happen.
它会发生的。
I was sitting on his rear end, rubbing his back, going under his shirt with my hands.
我坐在他的屁股上，揉着他的背，用手伸进他的衬衫下面。
All of a sudden I was worried about my breath and what I smelled like.
突然间，我开始担心自己的呼吸和气味。
Glenn's face was down in the pillow.
格伦的脸埋在枕头里。
I tried to sniff myself, but I couldn't tell anything.
我试着嗅了嗅自己，但什么也说不出来。
And it went all right anyway.
无论如何一切都很顺利。
I don't open Glenn's letters, but I touch them.
我没有打开格伦的信，但我摸了摸它们。
I hold them and smell them.
我抱着它们闻闻它们的味道。
None of his mail has any smell.
他的邮件没有任何气味。
He doesn't get many letters.
他收到的信不多。
His parents live across the Bay in Marin County.
他的父母住在海湾对面的马林县。
They don't write.
他们不写。
He gets letters from his grandmother in Michigan, plain, even handwriting on regular envelopes, a sticker with her return address printed on it.
他收到来自密歇根州祖母的信，信封上写着朴素的笔迹，上面印着她的寄信地址。
Rural Route Number 3, Gunn Street.
乡村路线 3 号，Gunn 街。
See, I got it memorized.
瞧，我已经记住了。
And he gets letters from Diane.
他收到了黛安的来信。
Di, they call her.
迪，他们这样称呼她。
High school girlfriend.
高中女友。
Has a pushy mother, wants her to be a scientist, but she already got a C in Chem 1A.
有一个咄咄逼人的母亲，希望她成为一名科学家，但她已经在化学 1A 中获得了 C。
I got an A+, not to brag.
我得了A+，不是吹牛。
He never slept with her, though.
但他从来没有和她睡过。
She wouldn't.
她不会。
She's still a virgin down in San Diego.
她在圣地亚哥还是处女。
With Lily, maybe they even know each other.
和莉莉在一起，也许他们甚至互相认识。
Glenn and Di were popular kids in their high school, Redwood High.
格伦和迪在他们的高中雷德伍德高中是受欢迎的孩子。
Now I'm one because of Glenn, because I'm his girlfriend.
现在我是其中之一，因为格伦，因为我是他的女朋友。
I know that's why.
我知道这就是原因。
Not because of me.
不是因为我。
I just know, OK.
我只知道，好吧。
I'm not going to start fooling myself now.
我现在不会开始欺骗自己。
Please.
请。
Her letters, I hold up to the light.
她的信，我对着光举起。
They've got fluorescent lights in there.
他们那里有荧光灯。
She's supposed to be blonde, you know, and pretty, quiet, the soft type.
她应该是金发女郎，你知道，而且漂亮、安静、温柔。
And the envelopes, she writes on these sheer cream-colored envelopes and they get transparent.
还有信封，她在这些纯粹的米色信封上写字，然后它们就变得透明了。
And I can see her writing underneath, but not enough to read what it says.
我可以看到她在下面写的字，但不足以阅读上面写的内容。
It's like those hockey lines painted under layers of ice.
就像那些画在冰层下的曲棍球线。
I run my tongue along the place where his grandmother sealed the letter.
我用舌头舔着他祖母封信的地方。
A sharp, sweet gummy taste.
一种尖锐、甜甜的软糖味道。
Once I cut my tongue.
有一次我割掉了舌头。
That's what keeps me going to the bottom of the bag.
这就是让我一直到袋子底部的原因。
I'm always wondering if there will be a letter for Glenn.
我一直想知道是否会有一封给格伦的信。
He doesn't get one every week.
他不是每周都收到一个。
It's like a treasure, Crackerjack prize.
这就像一个宝藏，神仙奖。
But I'd never open Glenn's mail.
但我永远不会打开格伦的邮件。
I kiss all four corners where his fingers will touch, before I put it in his box.
在把它放进他的盒子之前，我亲吻了他手指会碰到的所有四个角。
I brought home cookies for Lauren and me.
我给劳伦和我带了饼干回家。
Just a present.
只是一份礼物。
We'll eat them or Glenn will eat them.
我们会吃掉它们，否则格伦就会吃掉它们。
I'll throw them out, for all I care.
我会把它们扔掉，不管怎样。
They're chocolate chip with pecans.
它们是山核桃巧克力片。
This was one good mother, a lucky can.
这是一位好母亲，一个幸运的罐头。
I brought us coffee, too.
我也给我们带来了咖啡。
I bought it.
我买了。
Yeah, OK, so I'm in trouble.
是的，好吧，所以我有麻烦了。
Wednesday at 10:30 I got this notice I was supposed to appear.
周三 10:30，我收到了我应该出席的通知。
I had a class, Chem 1C, pre-med staple, your critical thing.
我上了一门课，化学 1C，医学预科的主食，你的关键点。
I never missed it before.
我以前从来没有错过过。
I told Glenn I had a doctor's appointment.
我告诉格伦我有医生的预约。
OK, so I skip it anyway.
好吧，所以我还是跳过它。
And I walk into this room and there's these two other guys, all work in the mail room, doing what I do, sorting.
当我走进这个房间时，还有另外两个人，他们都在邮件室工作，做我所做的事情，分类。
And we all sit there on chairs, on this green carpet.
我们都坐在绿色地毯上的椅子上。
I was staring at everybody's shoes.
我盯着每个人的鞋子。
And there's a cop, University cop, I don't know what's the difference.
还有一个警察，大学警察，我不知道有什么区别。
He had this sagging, pear-shaped body, like what my dad would have, if he were fat.
他的身材下垂，呈梨形，就像我父亲如果胖了就会有的那样。
But he's not.
但他不是。
He's thin.
他很瘦。
He walks slowly on the carpeting, his fingers hooked in his belt loops.
他在地毯上缓慢行走，手指勾在皮带环上。
I was watching his hips.
我看着他的臀部。
Anyway, he's accusing us all.
无论如何，他在指责我们所有人。
And he's trying to get one of us to admit we did it.
他正试图让我们中的一个人承认我们做到了。
No way.
决不。
"I hope one of you will come to me and tell the truth.
“我希望你们中的一个人能来找我并说出真相。
Not a one of you knows anything about this?
你们没人知道这件事吗？
Come on now."
现在来吧。”
I shake my head no, and stare down at the three pairs of shoes.
我摇摇头表示不，低头盯着那三双鞋。
He says they're not going to do anything to the person who did it.
他说他们不会对肇事者采取任何行动。
Right.
正确的。
Want to make a bet?
想打赌吗？
They say they just want to know.
他们说他们只是想知道。
But they'll take it back, as soon as you tell them.
但只要你告诉他们，他们就会收回它。
I don't care why I don't believe him.
我不在乎为什么我不相信他。
I know one thing for sure, and that's they're not going to do anything to me, as long as I say no, I didn't do it.
我确信一件事，那就是他们不会对我做任何事，只要我说不，我就没有做。
That's what I said, no, I didn't do it.
我就是这么说的，不，我没有这么做。
I don't know a thing about it.
我对此一无所知。
I just can't imagine where those missing packages could have gone, how letters got into garbage cans, awful.
我只是无法想象那些丢失的包裹去了哪里，信件是如何进入垃圾桶的，太糟糕了。
I just don't know.
我只是不知道。
This tall, skinny guy with a blonde mustache, Wallabees, looks kind of like a rabbit, he defended us.
这个高高瘦瘦、留着金色小胡子的小袋鼠，看起来有点像一只兔子，他为我们辩护。
He's another sorter.
他是另一个分类员。
Works Monday, Wednesdays.
周一、周三工作。
We all do our jobs, he says.
“我们都做好自己的工作，”他说。
None of us would do that.
我们谁都不会这么做。
The rabbity guy looks at me and the other girl for support.
那个兔子家伙看着我和另一个女孩寻求支持。
So we're gonna stick together.
所以我们要粘在一起。
The other girl, a dark blonde, chewing her lip, nodded.
另一个女孩，一个深金发女郎，咬着嘴唇点点头。
I loved that rabbity guy that second.
那一刻我爱上了那个兔子家伙。
I nodded, too.
我也点点头。
The cop looked down, wide hips, and the coffee-with-milk-colored pants.
警察低头一看，宽阔的臀部，还有咖啡奶色的裤子。
He sighed.
他叹了口气。
I looked up at the rabbity guy.
我抬头看着兔子家伙。
They let us all go.
他们让我们都走了。
I'm just going to keep saying no, not me, didn't do it.
我只是要一直说不，不是我，我没有这么做。
And I just won't do it again, that's all.
我不会再这样做了，仅此而已。
Won't do it anymore.
不会再这么做了
So this is Glenn's last chance for homemade cookies.
所以这是格伦吃自制饼干的最后机会。
I'm sure as hell not going to bake any.
我绝对不会烤任何东西。
I signed the form, said I didn't do it.
我在表格上签了字，说我没有这样做。
I'm OK now.
我现在没事了。
I'm safe.
我很安全。
It turned out OK after all.
结果最终还是OK的。
It always does.
总是如此。
I always think something terrible is going to happen and it doesn't.
我总觉得会发生可怕的事情，但事实并非如此。
I'm lucky.
我很幸运。
I was walking just a little while ago today, down Telegraph with Glenn.
不久前的今天，我和格伦一起沿着《电讯报》散步。
And these two policemen, not the one I'd met, other policemen, were coming in our direction.
这两名警察，不是我遇到的那个警察，而是其他警察，正朝我们的方向走来。
I started sweating a lot.
我开始出很多汗。
I was sure, until they passed us.
我很确定，直到他们经过我们身边。
I wish sure it was all over.
我希望一切都结束了。
They were there for me.
他们就在我身边。
I always think that.
我一直这么认为。
But at the same time, I know it's just my imagination.
但同时，我知道这只是我的想象。
I mean, I'm a 4.0 student.
我的意思是，我是一名 4.0 学生。
I'm a nice girl, just walking down the street with my boyfriend.
我是一个好女孩，只是和男朋友一起走在街上。
Novelist Mona Simpson, reading an excerpt from her story, Lawns.
小说家莫娜·辛普森正在阅读她的小说《草坪》的节选。
Coming up, postal employees reading your mail and bending the rules for you, yes, you.
接下来，邮政员工会阅读你的邮件并为你改变规则，是的，就是你。
That's in a minute, from Public Radio International, when our program continues.
稍后，国际公共广播电台将继续我们的节目。
Well, it's This American Life.
嗯，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 pick some theme, invite a wide variety of writers and performers and documentary producers to take a whack at that theme.
当然，在我们的节目中，我们每周都会选择一些主题，邀请各种各样的作家、表演者和纪录片制片人来探讨这个主题。
Today's show, Other People's Mail, how it grabs your heart, whether you want it to or not.
今天的节目《他人的邮件》，无论您是否愿意，它如何抓住您的心。
We have arrived at Act Three of our program, Saviors.
我们已经到了我们的节目“救世主”的第三幕。
If you work for the US Post Office, opening and reading other people's mail is actually one of the worst things you can do.
如果您在美国邮局工作，打开并阅读其他人的邮件实际上是您能做的最糟糕的事情之一。
You can be fired, investigated, imprisoned, unless you work at a Mail Recovery Center.
除非您在邮件恢复中心工作，否则您可能会被解雇、调查、监禁。
There are three Mail Recovery Centers in the United States, in Atlanta, Sacramento, and St. Paul.
美国共有三个邮件恢复中心，分别位于亚特兰大、萨克拉门托和圣保罗。
Mail that cannot be delivered through any other means ends up there.
无法通过任何其他方式投递的邮件最终会到达那里。
There it is opened for a good cause, to look for clues to get it to you.
在那里，它是为了一个好的理由而打开的，寻找线索把它交给你。
Paul Tough visited these mail saviors in St. Paul.
保罗·托夫在圣保罗拜访了这些邮件救星。
There are a lot of reasons why things end up at the Mail Recovery Center.
邮件最终被送至邮件恢复中心的原因有很多。
Someone left an address off a letter, someone moved and didn't let anybody know, someone's envelope got wet and then the ink ran.
有人在信上留下了地址，有人搬家了却没有让任何人知道，有人的信封被弄湿了，然后墨水就流了。
For whatever reason, it ends up here.
不管出于什么原因，它最终都到了这里。
And a lot of it ends up here.
其中很多都结束在这里。
There are 150,000 pieces of mail that arrive here each day.
每天有 150,000 封邮件到达这里。
And the 75 people who work here all basically have the same job, to open up the mail, look inside, and see if they can figure out where it's supposed to go.
在这里工作的 75 名员工基本上都有相同的工作，就是打开邮件，查看里面，看看他们是否能弄清楚邮件应该去哪里。
And they see some pretty strange things, things that the rest of us don't.
他们看到了一些非常奇怪的事情，而我们其他人看不到的事情。
It's sort of a postal cross-section, a random sampling of what America mails.
这有点像邮政横截面，是对美国邮件的随机抽样。
A clerk named Lauren [?
一位名叫劳伦的职员[？
Dicosad ?] told me about some of the things they find.
Dicosad ？] 告诉我他们发现的一些东西。
Sometimes there will be mice, dead mice, naturally dead mice.
有时会有老鼠，死老鼠，自然死老鼠。
Or bugs, they're sending it to somebody and telling them to bug off.
或者 bug，他们将其发送给某人并告诉他们滚开。
And they'll throw in a real bug that used to be live.
他们会引入一个曾经存在的真正的错误。
Things like that.
诸如此类的事情。
When you're scanning, you just open it.
当您扫描时，只需打开它即可。
And then you jump, because you don't know what it is.
然后你跳了起来，因为你不知道那是什么。
And then you'll dump it out and you'll find it.
然后你把它倒出来，你就会找到它。
Dog poop, we hope it's dog poop.
狗屎，我们希望是狗屎。
Cigarette butts, they'll empty their ashtrays into an envelope and send them to somebody.
烟蒂，他们会把烟灰缸里的东西倒进信封里寄给别人。
That's in letters.
那是字母。
It's amazing.
太棒了。
They'll put things in the letters that should never be there.
他们会把不该存在的东西写进信里。
Never, ever should be in a letter, but they'll put it in there.
永远、永远不应该写在信里，但他们会把它写在那里。
Tape it shut and throw it in the mailbox.
用胶带将其封住并将其扔进邮箱。
And we end up with it.
我们最终得到了它。
The goal is always to return lost mail, if it's possible.
如果可能的话，我们的目标始终是退回丢失的邮件。
Sometimes it's not too hard.
有时这并不难。
There's a check in the envelope and there's an address on the check.
信封里有一张支票，支票上有地址。
They send it back.
他们把它寄回来。
Sometimes the person's moved and left no forwarding address.
有时该人搬家了，没有留下转发地址。
In that case, there are clerks who scan through these huge computer databases of names and addresses.
在这种情况下，会有职员扫描这些巨大的计算机数据库中的姓名和地址。
And sometimes they can find a good address that way.
有时他们可以通过这种方式找到一个好的地址。
Sometimes they have to resort to real detective work, like Ken [?
有时他们必须诉诸真正的侦探工作，就像肯[？
Grolkey, ?] who's been working here for eight years.
Grolkey，？] 他已经在这里工作了八年了。
I came across a Christmas card and it had a bunch of photographs.
我偶然发现一张圣诞贺卡，上面有一堆照片。
And one of the photographs, there was a-- I know it was the person that had sent the letter.
其中一张照片上有一个——我知道这是寄信的人。
I could tell because she was showing off her house and her Christmas tree and her presents.
我看得出来，因为她正在炫耀她的房子、她的圣诞树和她的礼物。
And she was standing by the fireplace.
而她正站在壁炉旁。
And there's a whole bunch of her Christmas letters along the mantle there.
地幔上有一大堆她的圣诞信件。
So what I did was I took a magnifying glass and me and a friend were able to piece together her address from these five or six different Christmas cards that she had on her mantel piece.
所以我所做的就是拿了一个放大镜，我和一个朋友能够从她壁炉架上的五六张不同的圣诞卡中拼凑出她的地址。
And a little bit of eye strain, but we couldn't get her name, but we got her address, her street address and her city and ZIP.
眼睛有点疲劳，但我们无法得知她的名字，但我们得到了她的地址、街道地址、城市和邮政编码。
Looked up the ZIP.
查了一下邮政编码。
Then we sent back her photographs.
然后我们寄回了她的照片。
She probably never knew how we found that out.
她可能永远不知道我们是如何发现这一点的。
But I'm sure she got her photographs back.
但我确信她已经拿回了照片。
Even with all these people making all this effort, only 10% of the packages and 30% of the letters that come into the Mail Recovery Center are successfully sent on.
即使所有这些人都付出了所有努力，进入邮件恢复中心的包裹和信件中只有 10% 和 30% 能够成功发送。
With some items, there's just no way to get them to their destination.
对于某些物品，根本没有办法将它们运送到目的地。
There's no address, no return address, nothing at all.
没有地址，没有回信地址，什么都没有。
But then there are other items that maybe could be returned if you were willing to put the kind of effort into it that Ken [?
但是，如果您愿意付出 Ken [？？
Grolkey ?] did with the Christmas photos.
格罗基？]用圣诞照片做了。
The question is, is it worth it?
问题是，值得吗？
And that's when the job gets tricky, deciding what's worth sending on and what's not.
这就是工作变得棘手的时候，决定什么值得发送，什么不值得发送。
Greg Hawthorne is the acting supervisor on the day shift.
格雷格·霍桑 (Greg Hawthorne) 是白班代理主管。
He's management.
他是管理层。
He's not actually in there, dealing with the mail every day.
他实际上并不在那里，每天处理邮件。
And so, maybe a little predictably, when I ask him how you decide what gets sent back, he tells me that you go by the book.
因此，也许可以预见的是，当我问他你如何决定退回什么内容时，他告诉我你按规矩办事。
We have a-- it's called the Mail Recovery Manual.
我们有一本叫做《邮件恢复手册》的书。
And I think it's 106.
我认为是 106。
And all the regulations are in there.
所有的规定都在那里。
And we've had the same regulations for years and years and years.
我们多年来一直采用相同的规定。
So somebody, somewhere down the road came up with these.
所以有人在某个地方想出了这些。
And that's what we go by.
这就是我们所遵循的。
What that someone, somewhere decided was essentially what out of everything that we put in the mail is most valuable?
某个地方的某个人决定的本质上是我们邮寄的所有东西中最有价值的是什么？
Well, here's what the regulations say.
嗯，这就是法规的规定。
Checks, they always get sent back.
检查，他们总是被退回。
Legal papers, stock certificates, those get returned.
法律文件、股票证书，这些都会被退回。
With personal letters though, the basic rule is that if there's something worth $10 or more, that gets sent back, if it can.
不过，对于私人信件，基本规则是，如果有价值 10 美元或以上的东西，如果可以的话，就会被退回。
But everything else gets disposed of.
但其他一切都会被处理掉。
When we receive 150,000 letters a day, we don't have time to sit and read everything.
当我们每天收到 150,000 封信件时，我们没有时间坐下来阅读所有内容。
So personal letters are basically shredded.
所以私人信件基本上都被撕碎了。
That's Greg's version.
这是格雷格的版本。
But when I talk to the people who actually deal with the mail, I heard a different story.
但当我与实际处理邮件的人交谈时，我听到了不同的故事。
This is Anne [?
这是安妮[?
Zeemer.
泽默。
?]
？]
There are policies on what our limits are.
有一些政策规定了我们的限制。
But we make our own exceptions.
但我们也有例外。
If we see a piece of foreign mail, for instance, that looks important, a wedding invitation that would still be able to be returned in time, something like that, policy says no, don't return it.
例如，如果我们看到一封看起来很重要的外国邮件，一张仍然可以及时退回的结婚请柬，诸如此类的东西，政策规定不可以，不要退回。
But probably, in my judgment anyway, I would return it.
但无论如何，根据我的判断，我可能会退货。
And most of those other girls feel the same way, too.
大多数其他女孩也有同样的感觉。
The reason for this difference of opinion is pretty simple.
造成这种意见分歧的原因很简单。
It's not that Greg is a by-the-book square and Anne is a rule-bending softie.
这并不是说格雷格是一个循规蹈矩的人，而安妮则是一个不遵守规则的软弱的人。
It's not that Greg is management and Anne is labor.
并不是说格雷格是管理层，安妮是劳工。
It's that Greg doesn't read other people's mail all day.
就是格雷格整天不看别人的邮件。
And Anne, and Ken, and Lorinda, and all the other clerks I spoke to in St. Paul, they do.
安妮、肯、洛琳达，以及我在圣保罗采访过的所有其他职员，他们都是这么做的。
And that changes things.
这改变了事情。
They're face to face every day with parts of our lives whose value is hard to quantify.
他们每天都要面对我们生活中那些价值难以量化的部分。
What is important to one human being is maybe not important to another, but these people that are sending--
对一个人来说重要的事情可能对另一个人来说并不重要，但是这些人正在发送——
This is Betty Jones.
这是贝蒂·琼斯。
Betty Jones And I'll give an example.
贝蒂·琼斯 我举个例子。
And this is something that I do, which probably not a lot of people do.
这就是我所做的事情，可能没有很多人这样做。
For example, people send little angels through the mail.
例如，人们通过邮件发送小天使。
And it's a real positive thing that they're saying to someone who is in real bad-- having a really bad life or they're very depressed or they're on the verge of suicide.
他们对那些处境非常糟糕的人说的是一件非常积极的事情——生活非常糟糕，或者他们非常沮丧，或者他们处于自杀的边缘。
And you kind of scan it and see that there wasn't maybe enough postage on it, there wasn't enough whatever.
你扫描一下就会发现上面可能没有足够的邮资，什么都没有。
I send it forward to the person that they're trying to send it to.
我将其转发给他们试图将其发送给的人。
And it may seem unimportant to someone else.
对于其他人来说，这可能看起来并不重要。
And perhaps the postal service wouldn't think it was maybe important, but I feel it is.
也许邮政部门不会认为这很重要，但我觉得很重要。
And I feel it's within our realm to make that judgment.
我觉得我们有能力做出这样的判断。
The clerks here say it's a strange experience to see into all of these lives.
这里的职员说，了解这些人的生活是一种奇怪的经历。
Strange, and not always happy.
奇怪的是，并不总是快乐的。
One day after work, Betty and I sat out behind the Mail Recovery Center, at a picnic table next to the loading docks.
一天下班后，贝蒂和我坐在邮件恢复中心后面装货码头旁边的一张野餐桌旁。
And we spoke for awhile about what that experience is like.
我们讨论了一会儿这种体验是什么样的。
You see a lot that's going on, just like you see in the news.
你会看到很多正在发生的事情，就像你在新闻中看到的那样。
And you think oh, I see that in the news.
你想哦，我在新闻中看到了这一点。
I see that at work all the time.
我在工作中经常看到这一点。
This goes on or that goes on.
这样继续下去，或者那样继续下去。
These people's lives change.
这些人的生活发生了改变。
And we see it in the letters that we have to scan.
我们在必须扫描的信件中看到了这一点。
Betty actually had to fight with the post office in order to keep her job at the Mail Recovery Center.
为了保住邮件恢复中心的工作，贝蒂实际上不得不与邮局进行斗争。
She first came here in 1989, on a temporary basis after she developed carpal tunnel syndrome at her previous job sorting mail.
1989 年，她在上一份邮件分拣工作中患上了腕管综合症，因此暂时来到这里。
But after five years, she was told that she couldn't work here anymore.
但五年后，她被告知不能再在这里工作了。
They said that because of her injuries, she wasn't able to do the job.
他们说，由于她受伤，她无法完成这项工作。
And that was despite the fact that she'd been doing it successfully for years.
尽管事实上她多年来一直在成功地做到这一点。
She filed a grievance.
她提出申诉。
And after a few months in limbo, she won her job back.
经过几个月的困境后，她重新赢得了工作。
And of all the people I talked to here, she's the one who seems to be the most affected by what she sees in the mail.
在我在这里交谈过的所有人中，她似乎是受邮件内容影响最大的人。
I don't know if it's because of everything that she had to go through to stay here, but I think it might be.
我不知道这是否是因为她为了留在这里所经历的一切，但我想可能是这样。
It bothers me to see a lot of people that are in so much pain and problems and they're sending these sad letters to someone and it doesn't get to them.
看到很多人遭受如此多的痛苦和问题，他们向某人发送这些悲伤的信件，但他们却没有收到，这让我很困扰。
I've seen a couple letters that were like long lost loves, trying to contact each other.
我见过几封信，就像失散多年的恋人一样，试图联系对方。
And it was sad when you couldn't find an address to send it on to or back to.
当您找不到可以寄送或寄回的地址时，您会感到很伤心。
And then there are people in the world that are very needy.
世界上还有一些非常需要帮助的人。
They have very little in their life.
他们的生活中拥有的东西很少。
And you feel like you wish you could reach out and take all the names of all these people, which we're not allowed to do, and write down the names and addresses and go out and try to help them out.
你觉得你希望你能伸出手来，记下所有这些人的名字，这是我们不允许做的，然后写下名字和地址，然后出去尝试帮助他们。
Just take up a collection for them or something.
为他们收集一些东西什么的。
I should say at this point that all of the clerks I spoke to, especially Betty, emphasized that they're not just diving into a pile of mail and reading through people's personal letters for curiosity's sake.
我应该说，在这一点上，我采访过的所有职员，尤其是贝蒂，都强调他们不仅仅是为了好奇而潜入一堆邮件并阅读人们的私人信件。
They open first-class mail to look for items of value, things that are worth more than $10, like maybe some cash or a pin or some photos.
他们打开普通邮件寻找有价值的物品，即价值超过 10 美元的物品，例如一些现金、别针或一些照片。
And then they scan the letters.
然后他们扫描这些字母。
They don't read them, everyone told me.
每个人都告诉我，他们不读它们。
They scan them, looking for an address or a name or any information that might help get the letter to where it's supposed to go.
他们扫描信件，寻找地址、姓名或任何可能有助于将信件送达目的地的信息。
I believe everyone who told me this.
我相信所有告诉我这件事的人。
I don't think anyone at the Mail Recovery Center reads mail for any kind of voyeuristic thrill.
我不认为邮件恢复中心的任何人阅读邮件是出于任何偷窥的快感。
But I also believe that, like everything at the Center, the reality is more complicated than the regulations.
但我也相信，就像中心的一切一样，现实比规定更复杂。
And when you've just opened a letter from a child to her mother who's in prison, or from a man writing to his dead wife, the human material in front of you is so incredible that you can't help but scan a little more slowly than is perhaps absolutely necessary.
当你刚刚打开一封孩子写给她在监狱里的母亲的信，或者一个男人写给他死去的妻子的信时，你面前的人类材料是如此令人难以置信，以至于你情不自禁地浏览得比绝对必要的速度慢了一点。
Someone telling someone, it's over, I don't care for you anymore-- or gee, so-and-so died, or so-and-so got killed last year, or your daughter is dying of cancer.
有人告诉某人，一切都结束了，我不再关心你了——或者天哪，某某去世了，或者某某去年被杀了，或者你的女儿死于癌症。
People writing-- oh, they'll have maybe a birth certificate or something inside.
人们写道——哦，他们可能会有出生证明或其他东西。
And they're writing to someone, here's your daughter's birth certificate.
他们正在写信给某人，这是你女儿的出生证明。
You can take care of the kids.
你可以照顾孩子。
I'm leaving.
我要走了。
Or people breaking engagements--
或者有人违反约定——
That feeling of personal connection that the clerks get from reading other people's mail is sometimes painful.
办事员从阅读别人的邮件中获得的那种个人联系的感觉有时是痛苦的。
But it's also precisely what makes mail recovery one of the most sought-after jobs in the post office.
但这也正是使邮件恢复成为邮局最受欢迎的工作之一的原因。
I didn't quite realize how sought-after a job it is, though, until I spoke one morning to Jerry Jacobson.
不过，直到有一天早上我与杰里·雅各布森交谈时，我才完全意识到这是一份多么受欢迎的工作。
He doesn't work at the Mail Recovery Center.
他不在邮件恢复中心工作。
He works for the union in Saint Paul that represents these workers.
他为代表这些工人的圣保罗工会工作。
But before he got his union job, he spent 12 years working as a postal clerk, sorting letters.
但在获得工会工作之前，他做了 12 年的邮政职员，负责分类信件。
And he told me that about half the people who work in the post office work out of sight of the public, in warehouses, where they operate the giant machines that sort the nation's mail.
他告诉我，大约有一半在邮局工作的人在公众看不见的仓库里工作，他们在那里操作对国家邮件进行分类的巨型机器。
On the machine that we worked at, they would call them LSMs or MPLSMs, multi-position letter sorting machine.
在我们工作的机器上，他们将其称为 LSM 或 MPLSM，即多位置信件分拣机。
There's actually like 12 consoles.
实际上有大约 12 个控制台。
And it would take a crew of about 18 people to run it or operate it.
需要大约 18 名工作人员来运行或操作它。
People would be sitting at all 12 consoles.
人们会坐在所有 12 个控制台前。
We had a couple of people that were loading.
我们有几个人正在加载。
And then people that were on the back side of the machine that would sweep the mail.
然后机器后面的人会清理邮件。
We had to learn to see a letter that was on the machine, on the console.
我们必须学会看到机器上、控制台上的字母。
And it would drop the mail into a slot, basically right in front of us, one at a time.
它会将邮件投进一个投递口，基本上就在我们面前，一次投递一封。
And it would stop in front of us.
它会停在我们面前。
We had 4/10 of a second to look at the mail, read the ZIP code or the address, decide where it was to go, and then the mail would take off.
我们有 4/10 秒的时间查看邮件，读取邮政编码或地址，决定邮件的目的地，然后邮件就会起飞。
And as it was going into the machine, we had 6/10 of a second to key a series of buttons as far as a code or sequence for it.
当它进入机器时，我们有 6/10 秒的时间来敲击一系列按钮，以获得其代码或序列。
And then that was, of course, computerized.
当然，这就是计算机化的。
So it would go into the machine and the machine would drop it in a specific bin on the back side.
因此它会进入机器，机器会将其放入背面的特定垃圾箱中。
Almost everyone I interviewed that worked at the Mail Recovery Center had spent at least a few years on a letter sorting machine, punching in 60 codes a minute, eight hours a day.
我采访过的几乎每个在邮件恢复中心工作的人都至少在信件分拣机上工作过几年，每天工作八小时，每分钟输入 60 个代码。
Ken did it.
肯做到了。
Lorinda did it.
洛琳达做到了。
Betty did it.
贝蒂做到了。
That's how she got carpal tunnel syndrome.
这就是她患上腕管综合症的原因。
No one I talked to looked back on those years with much fondness.
与我交谈过的人都没有满怀喜爱地回顾那些岁月。
But the people who work at the St. Paul Mail Recovery Center may, in fact, soon have to go back to the mail sorting jobs that they escaped.
但事实上，在圣保罗邮件恢复中心工作的人们可能很快就不得不回到他们逃离的邮件分拣工作中。
When I visited, everybody was talking about this proposal that had just been floated that would shut the Center down in just a few months.
当我访问时，每个人都在谈论刚刚提出的这项提议，该提议将在短短几个月内关闭该中心。
No one's sure now whether it's really going to happen.
现在没有人确定这是否真的会发生。
Information's hard to come by, even for people that work there.
即使对于在那里工作的人来说，信息也很难获得。
But next October, the post office's board of governors is going to meet to discuss the Center's future.
但明年十月，邮局理事会将开会讨论该中心的未来。
And they might decide to shut it down for good.
他们可能会决定永久关闭它。
A lot of the people I spoke to in St. Paul saw this as a symptom of larger changes that are going on in the post office.
我在圣保罗采访过的很多人都认为这是邮局正在发生的更大变化的征兆。
A few years ago, there were seven Mail Recovery Centers around the country.
几年前，全国有七个邮件恢复中心。
Now there are three.
现在有三个。
And there's talk of closing another one soon.
有传言称很快就会关闭另一家。
The reason is that the people in charge of the post office have, over the past few years, been concentrating more and more on cost cutting, and that means automation.
原因是邮局的负责人在过去几年里越来越注重削减成本，这意味着自动化。
Every part of the post office, from letter sorting to delivery, and even to mail recovery, is becoming more automated.
邮局的每个部分，从信件分拣到投递，甚至到邮件回收，都变得更加自动化。
The result is that postal workers, the ones I spoke to anyway, feel less and less valuable to the people in charge.
结果是，邮政工作人员（无论如何我都与之交谈过）感觉对负责人来说越来越没有价值。
I think it was you, Betty, who said that if the people at the top really knew what was going on in here, knew what sort of work people were doing in here, they wouldn't be trying to close it.
我想是你，贝蒂，说过如果高层的人真的知道这里发生了什么，知道人们在这里做什么工作，他们就不会试图关闭它。
What is it that they don't know?
他们不知道的是什么？
They're in Washington.
他们在华盛顿。
And they're far away from this facility.
而且他们距离这个设施很远。
Some of them have never worked on a workroom floor.
他们中的一些人从未在工作室地板上工作过。
These people that are in charge of-- the Postmaster General, I don't believe, has ever been a postal employee.
我不相信这些负责人——邮政局长曾经是邮政雇员。
So they don't have any concept of what goes on in the system.
所以他们对系统中发生的事情没有任何概念。
The sad part is even if those people came here physically, they just-- I hate to say it, my opinion-- I don't think they would care.
可悲的是，即使那些人亲自来到这里，他们只是——我不想这么说，我的观点——我认为他们不会在意。
And that is sad for the customer and it's sad for the employee, because you take pride in your work and you want to do what's right for the customer.
这对客户来说是可悲的，对员工来说也是可悲的，因为你为自己的工作感到自豪，并且你想为客户做正确的事情。
And these people are making decisions that are so illogical.
这些人做出的决定是如此不合逻辑。
The great thing about the Mail Recovery Center is this, you've got this vast machine called the United States Postal Service, which is becoming more and more automated, less and less human.
邮件恢复中心的伟大之处在于，你拥有这台名为美国邮政服务的庞大机器，它变得越来越自动化，越来越少的人性化。
And then here in this little out-of-the-way warehouse on an access road in St. Paul, you've got 75 people who are doing work that takes brains and heart, that makes them fulfilled, and makes the people they serve happy.
在圣保罗一条道路上这个偏僻的小仓库里，有 75 名员工正在从事需要脑力和心力的工作，这让他们感到满足，也让他们所服务的人们感到高兴。
It's like the land that time forgot.
这就像被时间遗忘的土地。
One of the weird things about talking to the people at the MRC about the possibility that they might lose their jobs, was that they were upset about it.
与 MRC 的人谈论他们可能失业的可能性时，奇怪的事情之一是他们对此感到不安。
But they also seem kind of resigned to it.
但他们似乎也对此感到有些无奈。
It's like they knew that they were out of step with the new go-go, super-automated post office.
就好像他们知道自己与新的、超级自动化的邮局格格不入。
It's like they felt that they've been getting away with something by having interesting jobs, and now they've been found out.
就好像他们觉得自己通过从事有趣的工作而侥幸逃脱了惩罚，但现在他们被发现了。
On the wall of the Mail Recovery Center are posted a slew of letters, mostly handwritten, from people who have had things returned to them.
邮件恢复中心的墙上贴着大量信件，大部分是那些被退回邮件的人们手写的。
All the letters are filled with gratitude.
所有的信都充满了感激之情。
And what's more, they all have this air of amazement to them.
更何况，他们身上都带着这股惊叹之色。
None of these people knew that this service even existed.
这些人都不知道这项服务的存在。
And then suddenly, they got their insurance forms or their bank deposits or their engagement ring back.
然后突然间，他们拿回了保险单、银行存款或订婚戒指。
One letter that Greg Hawthorne showed me said, "We want to let you know how much we appreciate you taking the time to find our Christmas gifts.
格雷格·霍桑给我看的一封信中写道：“我们想让您知道，我们非常感谢您花时间寻找我们的圣诞礼物。
You've restored our faith in humanity." You have to wonder if 10 years from now, the post office will still be getting letters like that.
你恢复了我们对人性的信心。”你一定想知道10年后，邮局是否还会收到这样的信件。
[MUSIC - "THE LETTER" BY MEKONS]
[音乐 - MEKONS 的“信”]
Act Four, Golden Rule.
第四幕，黄金法则。
Sarah Vowell Hold it right there, buddy.
莎拉·沃威尔 保持住，伙计。
There is something indecent about the entire premise of this week's show.
本周演出的整个前提有些不雅。
This is Sarah Vowell, a contributing editor to This American Life.
我是莎拉·沃威尔，《美国生活》的特约编辑。
The title says it all, Other People's Mail.
标题说明了一切，“其他人的邮件”。
There's an apostrophe stuck on to that word, people.
人们，这个词上有一个撇号。
Now, I know that it's small and you could miss it pretty easily.
现在，我知道它很小，你很容易就会错过它。
But there's a world of meaning packed into that teensy little mark.
但这个小小的标记中蕴藏着丰富的意义。
It connotes the possessive case.
它表示所有格。
And maybe I'm being too literal, but the apostrophe draws a line between your stuff and someone else's.
也许我说得太直白了，但是撇号在你的东西和别人的东西之间划出了一条界线。
Alternative titles I've considered for this, the Other People's Mail show, are None Of Your Bee's Wax, or I Got One Word For You, Gestapo, or Hey You, Get Out Of My Trash.
我为此考虑过的替代标题是“其他人的邮件节目”，“没有你的蜂蜡”，“盖世太保，我有一句话要告诉你”，或者“嘿，你，滚出我的垃圾箱”。
I don't mean to sound self-righteous.
我并不是要显得自以为是。
Sure, what human being can resist reading over her neighbor's shoulder in the subway or looking in someone's window, if it's all lit up.
当然，谁能抗拒在地铁里越过邻居的肩膀看书，或者在别人的窗户都亮着的情况下往里看呢？
But I'd like to think that in a democracy, in This American Life , Mr. Glass, the words personal and private still mean something.
但我想认为，在民主国家，在《美国生活》中，格拉斯先生，“个人”和“私人”这两个词仍然有意义。
Still, I have a job to do.
尽管如此，我还有工作要做。
And my job is not to prejudge, but to evaluate fair and square.
而我的工作不是预先判断，而是公平公正地评估。
So I went to Boston, as assigned, to visit Phil Milstein.
于是我按照指派去波士顿拜访菲尔·米尔斯坦。
He works as a graphic designer and lives in a normal apartment, filled with an abnormal number of shelves.
他是一名平面设计师，住在一间普通的公寓里，里面摆满了异常数量的架子。
He's a serious collector of other people's stuff, not just their mail-- crumpled notes he finds on the street, pieces of gum chewed by minor celebrities, and grocery shopping lists, which he scoops off the supermarket floor and pastes into scrapbooks.
他是一个认真的收集者，不仅收集他们的邮件，还收集别人的东西——他在街上发现的皱巴巴的纸条、小名人嚼过的口香糖，以及他从超市地板上捡起的杂货购物清单，然后将其粘贴到剪贴簿中。
Here is one of my very favorites, a typed shopping list.
这是我最喜欢的一个，打印的购物清单。
And best yet, they have cheese twice in a row.
最棒的是，他们连续两次提供奶酪。
They really want cheese-- garbage bags, beans, cheese, cheese, lysol, rug cleaner, sponge, and bread.
他们真的想要奶酪——垃圾袋、豆子、奶酪、奶酪、来苏尔、地毯清洁剂、海绵和面包。
And they forgot to capitalize Lysol, because that is a proper name.
他们忘记了 Lysol 大写，因为那是一个专有名称。
But they don't capitalize anything.
但他们不利用任何东西。
So maybe they just were too lazy to hit the caps lock key on there.
所以也许他们只是懒得按那里的大写锁定键。
It's a manual typewriter, you'll notice.
您会注意到，这是一台手动打字机。
And so I can forgive them, not bothering with the caps-- those caps locks are heavy on those manuals.
所以我可以原谅他们，不用担心大写字母——那些大写锁对那些手册来说很重。
As voyeurism goes, the shopping lists are harmless.
就偷窥癖而言，购物清单是无害的。
All Phil is doing is trying to catch a glimpse of another human being in the most mundane series of nouns.
菲尔所做的一切就是试图在最平凡的一系列名词中瞥见另一个人。
There is an element of strangeness that this reveals.
这揭示了一种奇怪的因素。
I think that you're really getting down into a person's real inner psyche when they draw up a shopping list.
我认为当一个人列出购物清单时，你真正了解了一个人的真实内心。
I mean there's something very raw about the way people write these things.
我的意思是人们写这些东西的方式非常原始。
And that's part of what I'm after.
这就是我所追求的一部分。
Phil also collects those little pieces of paper you doodle on in art supply stores to try out the pens.
菲尔还收集了你在美术用品商店涂鸦的小纸片来试用钢笔。
And he claims that they, too, tell him something about the inner life of random strangers.
他声称他们也告诉他一些关于随机陌生人的内心生活。
But this collection is altogether more magical.
但这个系列更加神奇。
Even though these scribblings were created by people trying to decide between BIC or Pilot Precise, they're done in very striking colors.
尽管这些涂鸦是由试图在 BIC 或 Pilot Precise 之间做出选择的人们创作的，但它们的颜色非常醒目。
And many of them look like fairly acceptable abstract art.
其中许多看起来像是相当可接受的抽象艺术。
Some of them really do kind of reveal a person's subconscious, because when you're just testing the marker you're not really thinking about what you're writing.
其中一些确实揭示了一个人的潜意识，因为当你只是测试标记时，你并没有真正考虑你在写什么。
And so perhaps some truth might emerge that you're not really in control of.
因此，也许会出现一些你无法真正控制的真相。
This person made some nice drawings of pirates or something using different colored pens and some markers.
这个人用不同颜色的笔和一些记号笔画了一些漂亮的海盗图画或其他东西。
They're very colorful.
它们色彩缤纷。
And I think they're really pretty just to look at.
我认为它们真的很漂亮。
This person drew a lot of music notes.
这个人画了很多音符。
We're kind of skating on the edge of something that some people devote their professional lives to.
我们正处于一些人奉献其职业生涯的事物的边缘。
And I'm flipping through this book.
我正在翻阅这本书。
I mean, especially the abstract-- like you said the abstract ones are kind of the most beautiful.
我的意思是，尤其是抽象的——就像你说的，抽象的是最美丽的。
And flipping through, I think oh, there's Kandinsky, and there's Cy Twombly, and there is Jackson Pollock, and there is Helen Frankenthaler, or whatever.
翻阅一下，我想哦，有康定斯基，有赛·托姆布雷，有杰克逊·波洛克，还有海伦·弗兰肯塔勒，或者其他什么。
But it's not-- I mean, how has looking at these changed the way that you look at real art?
但这并不是——我的意思是，观看这些作品如何改变了你看待真正艺术的方式？
I'm not sure that I do look at real art.
我不确定我是否看过真正的艺术。
I mean, I'm a sucker for these clashing, garish colors.
我的意思是，我很喜欢这些冲突的、花哨的颜色。
Like hypnotizing a chicken, it's just not that hard to get art that appeals to me.
就像催眠一只鸡一样，获得吸引我的艺术并不难。
Just put a lot of nice colors in and I'll be there.
只需添加很多漂亮的颜色，我就会在那里。
If I could, I'd like to just get a plug in here for Western civilization as we know it.
如果可以的话，我想在这里插上我们所知道的西方文明的插头。
I've always been more interested in the things you need card catalogs to find than the stuff you just come across willy-nilly on the street.
我一直对那些需要卡片目录才能找到的东西比你在街上随意遇到的东西更感兴趣。
I like James Baldwin and Pablo Picasso and Sonic Youth.
我喜欢詹姆斯·鲍德温、巴勃罗·毕加索和索尼克青年。
Is that it with you?
你也是这样吗？
I mean do you really think you just have low standards?
我的意思是你真的认为你的标准很低吗？
I mean, what do you see as the common theme of the things you collect?
我的意思是，你认为你收集的东西的共同主题是什么？
I think what interests me-- and this is almost in direct contrast to classical literature and art that you refer to-- I enjoy the snapshot of a moment of an average person's real life.
我认为我感兴趣的是——这几乎与你提到的古典文学和艺术形成鲜明对比——我喜欢普通人现实生活瞬间的快照。
I find it more interesting and more revealing than classical art or self-conscious art, art created as art.
我发现它比古典艺术或自我意识艺术、作为艺术而创造的艺术更有趣、更有启发性。
It's hard.
这很难。
You have to really think.
你必须认真思考。
And I just find the average person's work more interesting.
我只是发现普通人的工作更有趣。
Maybe it's a matter of, as a person of limited ability myself, I relate to that more.
也许这是一个问题，作为一个能力有限的人，我对此更感兴趣。
It's intimidating.
这很吓人。
I can't relate to it.
我无法理解它。
It's beyond my abilities.
这超出了我的能力范围。
And it makes me-- because deep down I want to be able to do great things, but I've never really been able to.
这让我——因为在内心深处，我希望能够做出伟大的事情，但我从来没有真正做到过。
So there is an unfulfilled desire that I'm forced to confront every time I see something great.
因此，每当我看到一些伟大的东西时，我就不得不面对一种未实现的愿望。
In myself I just say, wow, that's above anything I could ever do.
我心里只是说，哇，这超出了我能做的一切。
And it makes me realize all over again my own ordinariness.
这让我重新认识到自己的平凡。
But, I mean, we're sitting in this room next to your record collection, and I'm looking at it, and I'm like, there are the Stooges, who I think are great.
但是，我的意思是，我们坐在你的唱片收藏旁边的这个房间里，我看着它，我想，那里有傀儡乐队，我认为他们很棒。
There's Little Richard, whom some days is my favorite singer.
还有小理查德，有时他是我最喜欢的歌手。
I mean, this room is wall-to-wall greatness.
我的意思是，这个房间从墙到墙都很伟大。
Yeah.
是的。
But a lot of that comes from the period of my life where I was striving for that myself.
但其中很大一部分来自于我一生中为之奋斗的时期。
And much of the more recent acquisitions is from the period in my life where I resigned myself to never being great, and switched my interests instead to documenting the abilities of everyday people.
最近的许多收购都来自我一生中的那个时期，当时我放弃了自己，不再伟大，而是将我的兴趣转向记录普通人的能力。
[MUSIC - "ELVIS" BY PAULINE D.
[音乐 - PAULINE D. 的《猫王》
WASSILCHAK]
瓦西尔查克]
These are the kinds of records Phil listens to these days.
这些就是菲尔最近听的唱片类型。
They're called song poems.
它们被称为歌诗。
They're written by amateurs who answered ads in magazines asking for song lyrics, and studio hacks set their words to music for a fee.
它们是由业余爱好者创作的，他们回答杂志上的广告索取歌词，而工作室黑客则将他们的歌词改编成音乐，并收取一定费用。
Phil doesn't just collect them.
菲尔不只是收集它们。
He's compiled four CDs of them and is writing a book about the phenomenon.
他已经制作了四张 CD，并正在写一本关于这一现象的书。
This particular one is called "Elvis," by someone named Pauleen D.
这个特别的人被称为“猫王”，被一个名叫 Pauleen D. 的人称为“Elvis”。
Wassilchak.
瓦西尔恰克。
And while it has its charms, I don't think Iggy Popp has anything to worry about.
虽然它有其魅力，但我认为 Iggy Popp 没有什么可担心的。
[MUSIC - "ELVIS" BY PAULINE D.
[音乐 - PAULINE D. 的《猫王》
WASSILCHAK]
瓦西尔查克]
Phil's most morally questionable collection is the bag full of a college student's love letters to her boyfriend.
菲尔最有道德问题的收藏是装满一名大学生写给男友的情书的袋子。
Not only has Phil read her letters, he's published them in a zine called Rollerderby , and put them up on the World Wide Web.
菲尔不仅读了她的信，还把它们发表在一本名为《Rollerderby》的杂志上，并将它们发布到万维网上。
Most of the letters are pretty saccharin, beyond banal.
大多数字母都非常糖精，超出了平庸。
Many of them are written on cutesy, teddy-bear greeting cards.
其中许多都写在可爱的泰迪熊贺卡上。
And no, because of that apostrophe I mentioned earlier, you won't be hearing this woman's secret thoughts on the air.
不，因为我之前提到的那个撇号，你不会在广播中听到这个女人的秘密想法。
This is a private correspondence.
这是一封私人信件。
And even Phil can't justify his claims on it.
甚至菲尔也无法证明他的主张是正确的。
Ethically, this makes me scum.
从道德上讲，这让我很渣。
She certainly comes across as vapid.
她确实给人一种乏味的感觉。
And inane as she comes across-- ethically, morally, she's clearly superior.
她给人的印象是愚蠢的——在伦理、道德上，她显然是优越的。
She's trying hard to be a decent person.
她正在努力做一个正派的人。
And you get that sense through her letters.
你可以从她的信中感受到这种感觉。
And I, in a sense, am a total scumbag for picking apart her private life and making fun of it.
而我，从某种意义上来说，就是一个彻头彻尾的渣男，对她的私生活进行拆解和取笑。
It was at this moment that I noticed that all the shades in Phil's apartment were drawn.
就在这时，我注意到菲尔公寓里所有的窗帘都拉上了。
He doesn't want other people, people like him, to look in.
他不想让其他人，比如他这样的人看到。
I tried to make light of it.
我试图淡化它。
But every time I asked him a question as a joke, he responded point-blank, for real.
但每次我开玩笑地问他一个问题时，他都会直截了当、实话实说。
Yes, he has binoculars.
是的，他有双筒望远镜。
Yes, he uses them to peep into windows.
是的，他用它们来窥视窗户。
Yes, he'd watch you having sex and better yet, getting killed.
是的，他会看着你做爱，更好的是，他会看着你被杀。
And yes, he's seen Rear Window , six times.
是的，他看过《后窗》六次。
And no, he doesn't want other people, people like him, to read his mail.
不，他不希望其他人，像他这样的人，阅读他的邮件。
So he's considering buying a paper shredder.
所以他正在考虑购买一台碎纸机。
They're coming down in price, you know.
你知道，它们的价格正在下降。
Every time I go into the office supply store, I look at the shredders.
每次我走进办公用品商店，我都会看到碎纸机。
And when they get cheap enough, I probably will get one because I do have personal things that I throw out.
当它们足够便宜时，我可能会买一个，因为我确实有一些我扔掉的私人物品。
And I hope no one ever does to me what I do to them.
我希望没有人会像我对他们那样对待我。
Sarah Vowell enforces her moral vision of the world as a columnist in the online magazine Salon , and here on This American Life.
莎拉·沃威尔（Sarah Vowell）作为在线杂志《沙龙》和《美国生活》的专栏作家，强化了她对世界的道德愿景。
Well, our program was produced today by Julie Snyder and myself, with Paul Tough, Alix Spiegel, and Nancy Updike.
嗯，我们今天的节目是由朱莉·斯奈德和我本人以及保罗·托夫、阿利克斯·斯皮格尔和南希·厄普代克制作的。
Contributing editors Sarah Vowell, Jack Hitt, and Margy Rochlin.
特约编辑莎拉·沃威尔、杰克·希特和玛吉·罗克林。
Our current staff includes Alex Blumberg, Susan Burton, Blue Chevigny, Starlee Kine, and Todd Bachmann.
我们目前的员工包括 Alex Blumberg、Susan Burton、Blue Chevigny、Starlee Kine 和 Todd Bachmann。
[ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS] To buy a cassette of this program, call us here at WBEZ in Chicago, 312-832-3380.
[鸣谢] 要购买该节目的磁带，请致电我们芝加哥的 WBEZ，电话：312-832-3380。
Or you know you can listen to most of our programs for free, absolutely free, on the internet at our website, where you can also find all sorts of stuff that we don't put onto the radio show, www.thislife.org.
或者您知道您可以在我们的网站上免费、完全免费地收听我们的大部分节目，您还可以在我们的网站 www.thislife.org 上找到我们未放入广播节目中的各种内容。
Thanks Elizabeth Meister, who runs the site.
感谢该网站的运营者伊丽莎白·梅斯特 (Elizabeth Meister)。
This American Life distributed by Public Radio International.
《美国生活》由国际公共广播电台发行。
[FUNDING CREDITS] WBEZ management oversight by Torey Malatia, who insists--
[资金来源] WBEZ 管理由 Torey Malatia 负责监督，他坚持认为——
I don't have any more pimples.
我已经没有痘痘了
And I am not that white.
而且我也不是那么白。
I'm IRA Glass.
我是艾拉·格拉斯。
Back next week, with more stories of This American Life.
下周将带来更多《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。