2021年1月23日发(作者：执着)
男人背负的重担

When I was a boy growing up off the grid in the Commonwealth of
Virginia, the men I knew labored with their bodies from the first
rooster
crow
in
the
morning
to
sundown.
They
were
marginal
farmers,
shepherds,
just
scraping
by,
or
welders,
steelworkers,
carpenters;
they
built
cabinets,
dug
ditches,
mined
coal,
or
drove
trucks,
their
forearms
thick
with
muscle.
They
trained
horses,
stocked
furnaces,
made tires, stood on assembly lines, welding parts onto
refrigerators or lubricating car engines. In the evenings and on
weekends, they labored equally hard, working on their own small
tract of land, fixing broken-down cars, repairing broken shutters
and drafty windows. In their little free time, they drowned their
livers
in
beer
from
cheap
copper
mugs
at
a
bar
near
the
local
brewery
or racecourse.
当我还是个小男孩时，我住在弗吉 尼亚州一个偏远的地
区，那时我所认识的男人们从清晨的第一声公鸡啼鸣一直劳作到日落。他
们 都是些不起眼的农民、
牧羊人，
勉强度日，
或是焊接工、
钢铁工或木匠；他们制作橱柜、挖掘沟渠、开采煤炭，或驾驶卡车，这使他们拥有肌肉结
实的上臂。他们训练马匹、 填塞炉膛、制造轮胎，站在装配线上将零件焊
接到冰箱，或是给汽车发动机上润滑剂。到了傍晚或周末， 他们也要同样
辛苦地劳作，在自己的一小片土地上耕作，修理出了问题的汽车，修复坏
掉的百叶 窗和漏风的窗户。在仅剩的闲暇时间里，他们会在当地的啤酒作
坊或赛马场附近的酒馆里用盛在廉价铜杯 中的啤酒将自己灌得烂醉。

The bodies of the men I knew were twisted and wounded in ways
visible and invisible. Heavy lifting had given many of them spinal
problems and appalling injuries. Some had broken ribs and lost
fingers.
Racing
against
conveyor
belts
had
given
some
ulcers.
Their
ankles
and
knees
ached
from
years
of
standing
on
concrete.
Some
had
partial vision loss as the glow of the welding flame damaged their
optic receptors. There were times, studying them, when I dreaded
growing
up.
All
around
us,
the
fathers
always
seemed
older
than
the
mothers. Men wore out sooner, being martyrs of constant work. Only
women lived into old age.

我所认识的那些男人的身躯 遭受着种种看得见或看不也的扭曲和伤
痛。搬运沉重的物品给他们很多人造成了脊柱病和可怕的伤痛。有 些人断
了肋骨，掉了手指。在传输带上不停地工作使他们有些人患了溃疡。他们
的脚踝和膝盖由 于经年累月站立在水泥地上疼痛不已。有些人由于焊接火
光损伤视觉感官而遭受部分视觉缺失的折磨。有 些时候，打量着他们，我
会害怕长大。在我们周围的人中，父亲们看上去总是比母亲们要老。男人
衰老得更早，长期遭受着因持续劳作带来的病痛。只有女人才活到年老。

There were also soldiers, and so far as I could tell, they
scarcely
worked
at
all.
But
when
the
shooting
started,
many
of
them
would die for their patriotism in fields and forts of foreign
outposts. This was what soldiers were for - they were tools like
a wrench, a hammer or a screw.

还有士兵也是男人的工作。据我所知，他们几乎不工作，但当战争一
打 响，他们很多人都会出于爱国热情而战死在疆场或异域前哨的堡垒前。
这就是士兵的作用——他们就像工 具，
如同扳钳、
锤子或螺丝一样。
These
weren't the only destinies of men, as I learned from having a few
male
teachers,
from
reading
books
and
from
watching
television.
But
the men on television - the news commentators, the lawyers, the
doctors, the politicians who levied the taxes and the bosses who
gave orders - seemed as remote and unreal to me as the figures in
old paintings. I could no more imagine growing up to become one of
these
sophisticated
people
than
I
could
imagine
becoming
a
sovereign
prince.
< br>这些并非男人们唯一的归宿，我从曾经有过的几位男教师、从看书及
看电视中认识到了这一点。但 是，那些上电视的男人们——新闻评论员、
律师、医生、课征税款的政治家及发号施令的老板们——在我 看来就像古
老绘画上的人像，遥远而不真实。我不能想象自己长大会变成这些精明世
故的人中的 一员，就像我无法想象自己能变成一个权力至高无上的国君一
样。

A scholarship enabled me not only to attend college, a rare
enough feat in my social circle, but even to traverse the halls of
a historic university meant for the children of the rich. Here for
the
first
time
I
met
women
who
told
me
that
men
were
guilty
of
having
kept
all
the
joys
and
privileges
of
the
earth
for
themselves.
I
was