丢失的助听器

华中师范大学 石斯琳 选译

丢失的助听器

华中师范大学 石斯琳 选译

With my hands and knees on the floor of the airplane,I was searching for an old lady’s missing hearing aid during the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles.It happened to me that this may not be the mostdignified1posture for aBuddhist nun2.

一位老妇人的助听器在从悉尼飞往洛杉矶的航班上丢失了。飞机飞行途中，我全身匍匐在机舱地板上帮她寻找这个助听器。我忽然意识到这个动作对于一个尼姑来说可能有些许不雅。

I had seen the old lady from the seat in front of me as she walked up and down the passage with aflashlight3.I asked a few times what was wrong,but she didn’t answer at first—she couldn’t hear me.She was wearing a woolen coat.Judging from her accent,she came from Eastern Europe.

我看到坐在我前面座位的这位老妇人拿着手电筒在飞机通道来回走动。我询问过她几次发生了什么事，但一开始她没有回答我（事实上她是听不到）。她穿着一件毛呢外套。听她的口音，她应该来自东欧。

Do you know what hearing aids cost?Thousands,especially for the new tiny hidden-in-theear type she described.It takes a long time for an appointment to make new one and many doctor visits to get the thingadjusted4right.Therefore,my dignity seemed less important than finding that hearing aid.But how does one find a tiny black object in ashadowy5jet cabin?

你知道助听器有多贵吗？（每个）价格要好几千，特别是老妇人口中提到的她佩戴的那种新微型入耳式助听器。定制一个需要提前很久预定，医生也需要多次反复为之调试好。因此，比起找到这个助听器，我的尊严显得并不那么重要了。但是要怎么在昏暗的客舱中找到这么小的黑色物体呢？

The lady wasn’t even sure where or when she had lost it.At one point,a couple of flightattendants6did a careless search around the lady’s seat;I wasn’t impressed.They left suggesting that she search the seat of her last flight!My flashlight turned up all kinds of small objects,bits of plastic,broken pieces of headphones.The old lady said that she gave up.Yet I couldn’t.After we landed,as passengers walked past us,Iinsisted7that the lady move aside while waiting for her wheelchair.Then I got into a real down and dirty search among the dust under her seat and on the floor.

老妇人甚至不清楚她是什么时候在哪儿弄丢的。两个乘务员一度在老妇人座位周遭乱翻一气，我并不待见这种做法。他们离开的时候竟然还建议老妇人去她之前的班机座位找找看。我打开手电筒，找到了许多（之前丢失的）小物件（塑料块儿，坏耳机碎片）。老妇人宣布放弃寻找，但是我不想放弃。我们的飞机着陆之后，旅客们蜂拥而下，而我坚持让老妇人坐在一旁等待她的轮椅。然后我一头扎进满是灰尘的座位底下，趴在地上寻找着助听器。

Look!A little peanutsized shiny black object caught the light of my flashlight in a floorcrack8near her seat.“I found it!”I shouted.With great surprise,the old lady said to me thankfully,“I haven’t the words to express my thanks! ”

看！顺着手电筒的光源，在离老妇人座位不远的一处底板缝隙中有一个花生般大小的反着光的黑色小物件。“我找到了！”我大喊一声。老妇人惊喜之余，感激地对我说：“我对你的感激无以言表！”

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