The Sounds of Silence寂静之声

Carol McCollister 张宁

Late one evening， my unrelenting1 yawns2 made me retire for the night. I puton a comfortable cotton gown， turned the lights low， and crawled3 into bed betweenthe cool， crisp sheets. To get a good nights rest， I called out to the kitchen，“Alexa， play sounds to sleep by.”I felt at peace with my cat Bella snuggled upbeside me.

一天深夜，不停的呵欠讓我不得不就寝。我穿上一件舒适的棉袍，把灯调暗，爬进铺着凉快、清爽的床单的床上。为了保证晚上休息得好，我向厨房喊道：“亚历克莎，播放睡眠背景声音。”我的猫贝拉依偎在我身边，让我感到很平静。

During the night， a heavy object landed on my stomach， causing me to shriek4and sit up—only to discover that it was Bella. She had a habit of waking me up toget her a snack， but the hands on the clock said 3：00 a.m.， and I was annoyed shehad interrupted5 a happy dream. I fell back against the pillow and promised Idfeed her in the morning. That wasnt acceptable to her， so she continued to walk ontop of me while pressing her paws into my body.

晚上，一个重物落在我的肚子上，我尖叫着坐了起来——结果我发现是贝拉。她有叫我起床给她喂零食的习惯，但钟上的指针显示是凌晨3 点，我很生气她打断了一个美梦。我靠回枕头上，答应早上给她喂饭。这是她无法接受的，所以她继续在我身上爬，同时用爪子摁我的身体。

Because that proved to be unsuccessful， she jumped over to the bedside tableand deliberately6 used her paw to knock things onto the floor， one at a time， tokeep me from going back to sleep. Her efforts paid off as I looked over in thedimly7 lit room and knew the smug8 look on her face conveyed9 a serious demand.“Get up， human. Im ready for my nightly treat.”

因为这证明是不成功的，于是她跳到床头柜前，故意用爪子一次一个把东西拍到地板上，以防止我再次入睡。当我在灯光昏暗的房间里看了看，知道她脸上得意的表情传达了一种严肃的要求时，她的努力得到了回报。“起来吧，人类。我已经准备好享用每晚的晚餐了。”

Knowing she would keep pestering10 me until she got her snack， I took a fewminutes to focus my eyes and heard what sounded like running water or someonepressure-washing a wall. I couldnt imagine our apartment staff doing main -tenance11 in the middle of the night， so I assumed12 I had left on a faucet13. I wouldregret the large water bill it would generate， so I grudgingly14 got up and movedinto the kitchen. I found nothing out of the ordinary so I continued to search，with Bella still hot on my heels. The other logical place to check was thebathroom， where I found no running water. Could I be wrong？ Could I be hearingsomething outside？

我知道她会一直缠着我，直到她吃到零食，我花了几分钟的时间集中注意力，听到了什么声音，像是流水或是有人在用高压水清洗墙。我无法想象我们的公寓工作人员会在半夜做维护，所以我认为我没关水龙头。我会后悔它将产生的高额水费，于是我不情愿地站起来，挪进厨房。我没有发现什么异常，于是继续寻找，而贝拉仍然紧追着我的脚后跟。另一个合乎逻辑要检查的地点是浴室，在那里我没有发现正在流的自来水。我可能弄错了吗？我听到的会是外面的声音吗？

Since the sound was still evident15， I realized the gravity16 of the situation andthe need to solve the mystery. I returned to the kitchen， and stood like a statue17trying my best to identify18 the sound. Despite Bellas loud yowling objection19 tobeing ignored， I was still able to hear the strange noise， which seemed to be comingfrom inside the wall between my apartment and the unit next door. I could feel myhands shake because now I was certain that a pipe had burst， and water could beflooding the apartment next door.

由于声音仍然很明显，我意识到了事态的严重和解开谜团的必要。我回到厨房，站在那里像一尊雕像一样尽力辨别声音。尽管贝拉大声嚎叫着反对被忽视，但我仍然能听到奇怪的声音，似乎是从我的公寓和隔壁单元之间的墙里传来的。我能感觉到我双手颤抖，因为现在我确信水管爆裂了，水可能会淹没隔壁的公寓。

Ive always had a false sense of responsibility to help solve other peoplesproblems， so I thought it wise to think over the situation before doing anythinghasty20. If it wasnt an emergency， the last thing I wanted to do was drag someoneout of bed in the middle of the night. However， if water was running somewhere， Iknew I had no other choice but to wake up the maintenance men to avoid a flood.

我总是有一种错误的责任感去帮助解决别人的问题，所以我认为在做任何草率的事情之前仔细考虑一下情况是明智的。如果不是紧急情况，我最不想做的事就是半夜把某人从床上拖下来。然而，如果水在某处流淌着，我知道我别无选择，只能唤醒维修人员以避免淹水。

I walked to the end of the kitchen bar closest to the wall in question， pickedup my phone， and was about to make a call. In an instant21， the fact of what washappening became clear to me， and I identified where the mysterious noise camefrom. All I had to do to solve the mystery was to say，“Alexa， stop！ ”

我走到廚房吧台尽头最靠近可疑墙壁的地方，拿起手机，正要打个电话。这一瞬间，我想清楚了正在发生的事情，确定了神秘噪音的来源。要解开谜团，我只需要说一句：“亚历克莎，停下！”

（英语原文选自院chickensoup.com）