The Ninth Tuesday

第九个星期二

We Talk About How Love Goes On

我们聊了聊爱如何继续

The leaves had begun to change color, turning the ride through West Newton into a portrait of gold and rust.

树叶开始变色，把通往西牛顿的路变成一条金棕色的大道。

Back in Detroit, the labor war had stagnated, with each side accusing the other of failing to communicate.

说回底特律，伴随着双方互相指责对方的无效沟通，罢工大战陷入停滞。

The stories on the TV news were just as depressing.

电视新闻上的事情也同样令人沮丧。

In rural Kentucky, three men threw pieces of a tombstone off a bridge, smashing the windshield of a passing car, killing a teenage girl who was traveling with her family on a religious pilgrimage.

在肯塔基州的某个郊区，三个男人把墓碑碎片扔到了桥下，砸碎了一辆路过汽车的挡风玻璃，砸死了车里的一个少女，而她正在和家人去往朝圣的路上。

In California, the O. J. Simpson trial was heading toward a conclusion, and the whole country seemed to be obsessed.

在加利福尼亚州，O.J. 辛普森一案的审判正走向结尾，全国上下都对这一案件痴迷了。

Even in airports, there were hanging TV sets tuned to CNN so that you could get an O.J. update as you made your way to a gate.

甚至在机场，吊顶电视也被设置到CNN电视台以便于你在走出机场大门的那几步都能看到O.J.辛普森案的最新进展。

I had tried calling my brother in Spain several times.

我试着给我在西班牙的弟弟打了好几次电话。

I left messages saying that I really wanted to talk to him, that I had been doing a lot of thinking about us.

我给他留言说我真的很想跟他聊聊，因为思考了很多关于我们的事情。

A few weeks later, I got back a short message saying everything was okay, but he was sorry, he really didn't feel like talking about being sick.

几个星期以后，我收到了一条简短的消息说他一切都好，但是很抱歉他真的感觉不想聊他生病的事情。

For my old professor, it was not the talk of being sick but the being sick itself that was sinking him.

对于我那老教授来说，倒不是谈论生病这件事让他颓丧，而是生病这件事本身。

Since my last visit, a nurse had inserted a catheter into his penis, which drew the urine out through a tube and into a bag that sat at the foot of his chair.

在我上次拜访之后，护士给莫瑞的生殖器插了导尿管，把尿液通过一个导管引流到放在莫瑞轮椅脚边的一个袋子里。

His legs needed constant tending (he could still feel pain, even though he could not move them, another one of ALS's cruel little ironies), and unless his feet dangled just the right number of inches off the foam pads, it felt as if someone were poking him with a fork.

他的腿也需要不断的照料（即便双腿无法动弹，他却仍然能感觉到疼痛，又一个渐冻症残酷的小小嘲讽），并且除非他的腿正确的垂放在泡沫垫旁边刚好那几英寸的位置，否则就会感觉像是有人在拿餐叉戳他一样。

In the middle of conversations, Morrie would have to ask visitors to lift his foot and move it just an inch, or to adjust his head so that it fit more easily into the palm of the colored pillows.

在谈话中途，莫瑞得时不时请求来访者把他的腿抬起来挪动那刚刚好的一英寸，或者把他的头调整一下使他能更容易嵌进彩色枕头的中心。

Can you imagine being unable to move your own head?

你能想象连头都无法动弹吗？</stron