他叫爱迪，八十三岁生日那天，为了拯救身处险境的女孩而殒命游乐场。醒来时，爱迪已身处天堂，这才发现：那里并不是牧歌萦绕的伊甸园，而是地球上生活片断的交叠重现。五个被爱迪或铭记或忽略或遗忘的人，轮流登场，引领他寻找逝去的时光，追问人生的谜底。本文描述了爱迪遇见的第一个人——陌生的蓝皮人，他让爱迪懂得：天地间仿佛有一条巨大的锁链串联着每个生命，每一个人都会影响到另一个人，世界上各式各样的故事，说到底都是同一个。
“Let me begin with my real name,” the Blue Man said. “I was 1)christened Joseph Corvelzchik, the son of a 2)tailor in a small 3)Polish village. We came to America in 1894. I was only a boy. My mother held me over the 4)railing of the ship and this became my earliest childhood memory, my mother swinging me in the breezes of a new world.
“让我先来告诉你我的真实姓名吧，”蓝皮人说道。“我洗礼时被命名为约瑟夫·克韦奇克，是波兰一个小村庄里一个裁缝的儿子。我们一家在1894年来到美国。我当时还是一个小孩子。我的母亲抱着我，把我举到船舷栏杆外面，让我在新世界的微风里晃荡，这情景成为了我最初的童年记忆。
“Like most immigrants, we had no money. We slept on a mattress in my uncle’s kitchen. My father was forced to take a job in a 5)sweatshop, sewing buttons on coats. When I was ten, he took me from school and I joined him.”
“像大部分移民一样，我们没有钱。我们睡在我叔叔的厨房里的一张床垫上。我的父亲不得不在一家工厂里缝大衣纽扣，赚血汗钱。当我十岁的时候，父亲让我辍学，开始跟他一起干活儿。”
Eddie watched the Blue Man’s 6)pitted face, his thin lips, his 7)sagging chest. Why is he telling me this? Eddie thought.
爱迪望着蓝皮人的麻子脸，薄嘴唇和松松垮垮的胸脯，心想：他告诉我这些干什么？
“I was a nervous child by nature. Once, I stumbled and dropped a sack of buttons, which spilled over the floor. The 8)foreman screamed that I was worthless, a worthless child, that I must go. I can still see that moment, my father pleading with him like a street beggar, the foreman 9)sneering, wiping his nose with the back of his hand. I felt my stomach twist in pain. Then I felt something wet on my leg. I looked down. The foreman pointed at my soiled pants and laughed, and the other workers laughed, too.
“我天生胆小怯弱。有一次，我绊了一跤，碰落一大袋纽扣，扣子撒了一地。工头大骂我没用，一个没用的孩子，必须被解雇。我现在还能清晰地记得那一刻的情形，我父亲像街上的乞丐一样苦苦哀求，工头用手背抹着鼻涕，嘴角挂着一丝冷笑。我感到心中一阵绞痛。然后，我觉得腿上湿漉漉的。我低头看去。工头指着我尿湿的裤子，大笑起来，其他工人也跟着哄笑起来。
“After that, my father refused to speak to me. He felt I had shamed him, and I suppose, in his world, I had. But fathers can ruin their sons, and I was, in a fashion, ruined after that. I was a nervous child, and when I grew, I was a nervous young man. Worst of all, at night, I still wet the bed. In the mornings I would sneak the soiled sheets to the washbasin and soak them. One morning, I looked up to see my father. He saw the dirty sheets, then 10)glared at me with eyes that I will never forget, as if he wished he could snap the cord of life between us.”
“打那以后，我父亲拒绝跟我说话。他觉得我给他带来了耻辱，在他的世界里，我想，我是给他带来了耻辱。但是，做父亲的，是可以毁掉自己的儿子的。从某种意义上讲，打那以后，我被毁了。我从小胆小怯弱，长大了，仍是一个胆怯的年轻人。最糟糕的是，我晚上还尿床。早晨起来，我偷偷地把尿湿的被单放到脸盆里浸上。一天早晨，我抬起头来，看到了我的父亲。他望了一眼脏被单，然后，怒视着我，他那眼神，我永远无法忘记，他好像恨不得与我断绝血缘关系，从此一刀两断。”
The Blue Man paused. His skin, which seemed to be soaked in blue 11)fluid, folded in small 12)fatty layers around his belt. Eddie couldn’t help staring.
蓝皮人沉默了一下。他的皮肤好像在蓝色液体里浸过，一小层一小层的肥肉耷拉在皮带上。爱迪忍不住盯着他看。
“I was not always a freak, Edward,” he said. “But back then, medicine was rather primitive. I went to a chemist, seeking something for my nerves. He gave me a bottle of 13)silver nitrate and told me to mix it with water and take it every night. Silver nitrate. It was later considered poison. But it was all I had, and when it failed to work, I could only assume I was not 14)ingesting enough. So I took more. I swallowed two gulps and sometimes three, with no water.
“我过去并非一直是这副怪模样，爱德华，”他说道。“但是，那时候，医药相当落后。我去见一位药剂师，想找些药控制我的神经紧张。他给了我一瓶硝酸银，告诉我用水调开，每天晚上服用。硝酸银，后来人们认定那是毒药。但是，当时我别无选择，所以当它没有效果的时候，我只能认为我喝得不够。于是，我加大剂量，喝两大口，有时甚至三大口，还不搀水。
“Soon, people were looking at me strangely. My skin was turning the color of ash. ”
“不久，人们开始用异样的眼光看我。我的皮肤变成了灰色。”
“I was ashamed and 15)agitated. I swallowed even more silver nitrate, until my skin went from gray to blue, a side effect of the poison.”
“我感到羞耻，焦虑不安。我吞下更多的硝酸银，直到我的皮肤从灰色变成了蓝色，这是那毒药的副作用。”
The Blue Man paused. His voice dropped. “The factory dismissed me. The foreman said I scared the other workers. Without work, how would I eat? Where would I live?
蓝皮人又顿了一下，声音低沉下来。“工厂把我解雇了。工头说我把其他工人吓着了。没有工作，我怎么吃饭呢？我到哪里住呢？
“I found a 16)saloon, a dark place where I could hide beneath a hat and coat. One night, a group of 17)carnival men were in the back. They smoked cigars. They laughed. One of them, a rather small fellow with a wooden leg, kept looking at me. Finally, he approached.
“我在一家酒吧里找到了一份工作，酒吧里很昏暗，我把自己藏在帽子和外套里面。一天晚上，酒吧最里面坐了一伙巡回游艺团的人。他们抽着雪茄，大声说笑。其中一个装着一条木腿的小个子，一直看着我。终于，他走过来。
“By the end of the night, I had agreed to join their carnival. And my life as a commodity had begun.”
“晚上收工的时候，我已经同意加入他们的巡回游艺团了。我将自己当作商品出售的日子开始了。”
Eddie noticed the 18)resigned look on the Blue Man’s face. He had often wondered where the 19)sideshow cast came from. He assumed there was a sad story behind every one of them.
爱迪注意到蓝皮人脸上无可奈何的表情。他过去常常好奇，杂耍团里的那些演员是从哪里来的。他相信，他们每个人背后都有一个悲惨的故事。
“One winter, I came to this pier. Ruby Pier. They were starting a sideshow called The Curious Citizens. I liked the idea of being in one place, escaping the bumpy horse carts of carnival life.
“一年冬天，我来到了这里，‘红宝石码头’。他们正开始上演一场名为‘怪异人物’的杂耍戏。能在一个地方住下来，不用再跟随巡回游艺团在马车上四处颠簸，这主意不错。
“This became my home. I lived in a room above a sausage shop. I played cards at night with the other sideshow workers, with the 20)tinsmiths, sometimes even with your father. In the early mornings, if I wore long shirts and draped my head in a towel, I could walk along this beach without scaring people. It may not sound like much, but for me, it was a freedom I had rarely known.”
“这里便成了我的家。我住在香肠店楼上的一个房间里。晚上，我跟其他杂耍演员、白铁工，有时还跟你的父亲一起玩纸牌。清晨，我穿上长袖衫，头上蒙住毛巾之后，就可以沿着这海边散步，而不会吓着别人。对别人来说这可能算不了什么，但是，对我来说，这是一种不寻常的自由。”
He stopped. He looked at Eddie.
他收住话头，望着爱迪。
“Do you understand? Why we’re here? This is not your heaven. It’s mine.”
“你明白了吗？我们为什么会在这里？这里不是你的天堂。这是我的天堂。”
Take one story, viewed from two different angles.
取一个故事，从两个不同的角度来看。
Take a rainy Sunday morning in July, in the late 1920s, when Eddie and his friends are tossing a baseball. Take a moment when that ball flies over Eddie’s head and out into the street. Eddie, wearing 21)tawny pants and a wool cap, chases after it, and runs in front of an automobile, a Ford Model A. The car 22)screeches, 23)veers, and just misses him. He shivers, exhales, gets the ball, and races back to his friends.
那是二十年代末，七月里的一个星期天，在这个阴雨天的早晨，爱迪和他的朋友们正在玩棒球。突然，棒球从爱迪的头顶飞过，落到了街上。身穿黄褐色裤子、头戴绒线帽子的爱迪跑去捡球，冲到了一辆汽车前面，那是一辆福特A型车。汽车发出一阵刺耳的刹车声，掉转了方向，从他身边擦过。他浑身一颤，舒了口气，捡起球，跑回到他的朋友们那里。
Now take that same story from a different angle. A man is behind the wheel of a Ford Model A, which he has borrowed from a friend to practice his driving. The road is wet from the morning rain. Suddenly, a baseball bounces across the street, and a boy comes racing after it. The driver 24)slams on the brakes and 25)yanks the wheel. The car skids, the tires screech.
现在，我们从另一个角度来看同一个故事。一个男人正坐在一辆福特A型车的驾驶盘后面，这车是他从一个朋友那里借来练习驾驶的。由于早晨下过雨，路很滑。突然，一个棒球从街上横着弹过，一个男孩子跟在球后冲了过来。司机猛踩刹车，扭转方向盘。汽车打滑了，车轮发出刺耳的声音。
The man somehow regains control, and the Model A rolls on. The child has disappeared in the rearview mirror, but the man’s body is still affected, thinking of how close he came to tragedy. The jolt of 26)adrenalin has forced his heart to pump furiously and this heart is not a strong one and the pumping leaves him drained. The man feels 27)dizzy and his head drops 28)momentarily. His automobile nearly collides with another. The second driver honks, the man veers again, spinning the wheel, pushing on the 29)brake pedal. He skids along an avenue then turns down an alley. His vehicle rolls until it collides with the rear of a parked truck. There is a small crashing noise. The headlights 30)shatter. The impact smacks the man into the steering wheel. His forehead bleeds. He steps from the Model A, sees the damage, then collapses onto the wet pavement. His arm throbs. His chest hurts. It is Sunday morning. The alley is empty. He remains there, unnoticed, slumped against the side of the car. The blood from his 31)coronary arteries no longer flows to his heart. An hour passes. A policeman finds him. A medical examiner pronounces him dead. The cause of death is listed as “heart attack.” There are no known relatives.
那个男人终于把车控制住了，A型车继续向前驶去。那个男孩从他的后视镜里消失了，但是，他的身体还没有平复下来，心想险些闯了大祸。肾上腺素的突然变化，使他的心脏急速跳动。他的心脏本来就不健康，这样剧烈的跳动使他感到精疲力竭。他感到一阵眩晕，头立即垂了下来。顷刻之间，他的车差一点撞到了另一辆车上。另一辆车的司机按起喇叭，他赶紧掉转方向盘，脚踩刹车。他的车在大街上滑了一段路，然后拐上了一条岔道。车继续向前滑去，直到车头撞在一辆停泊的卡车车尾上，随即发出了一阵轻微的撞击声。车前灯粉碎了。冲力使他扑倒在方向盘上。他的前额流血了。他从A型车里走出来，看了一眼车撞坏的地方，然后，整个人瘫倒在湿漉漉的人行道上。他胳膊抽搐，胸口绞痛不已。这是星期天早晨。街上空无一人。他一直斜靠在车身上，没有人注意到他。冠状动脉里的血再也流不到他的心脏里了。一个小时过去了。一名警察发现了他。医务检查员宣布了他的死亡。死亡原因是“心脏病”。没有可以通知的亲属。
In a city 32)morgue, one worker calls another worker over to marvel at the blue skin of the newest arrival.
在市陈尸所里，一个工人把另一个工人叫过来看看刚被抬进来的尸体，他们对这尸体的蓝色皮肤惊叹不已。
“You see?” the Blue Man whispered, having finished the story from his point of view. “Little boy?”
“明白了吗？小男孩？”蓝皮人轻声说道，他的故事讲完了。
Eddie felt a shiver.
爱迪浑身一颤。
“Oh no,” he whispered.
“噢，不，”他低声说道。
“Please Mister . . .” Eddie pleaded. “I didn’t know. Believe me . . . God help me, I didn’t know.”
“求求你，先生……”爱迪辩解道。“我不知道。相信我……愿上帝帮助我，我真的不知道。”
The Blue Man nodded. “You couldn’t know. You were too young.”
蓝皮人点点头，说：“你不可能知道。你当时还太小。”
Eddie stepped back. He squared his body as if 33)bracing for a fight.
爱迪退后几步，两肩端平，摆出一付迎战的架势。
“But now I gotta pay,” he said.
“但是，现在我得还债了，”他说。
“To pay?”
“还债？”
“For my sin. That’s why I’m here, right? Justice?”
“为我的罪孽。这就是为什么我来到这里，对吗？为了公道？”
The Blue Man smiled. “No, Edward. You are here so I can teach you something. All the people you meet here have one thing to teach you.”
蓝皮人笑了。“不，爱德华。你来这里，是因为我可以教你一些东西。你在这里遇见的所有的人都会教你一件事情。”
Eddie was skeptical. His fists stayed clenched.
爱迪仍然非常怀疑，拳头攥得紧紧的。
“What?” he said.
“教我什么？”他说。
“That there are no random acts. That we are all connected. That you can no more separate one life from another than you can separate a breeze from the wind.”
“世上没有偶然的行为。我们都是联系在一起的。你无法将一个生命和另一个生命分割开来，所有生命都像风和微风一样紧密相连。”
1) christen [5krisn] v. 在洗礼中命名
2) tailor [5teilE] n. 裁缝
3) Polish [5pEuliF] adj. 波兰(Poland)的
4) railing [5reiliN] n. 栏杆, 扶手
5) sweatshop [5swetFCp] n. 血汗工厂
6) pitted [5pitid] adj. 有凹痕的
7) sagging [5sA^iN] adj. 下垂的
8) foreman [5fC:mEn] n. 工头
9) sneer [sniE] v. 冷笑
10) glare [^lZE] v. 怒目而视
11) fluid [5fluid] n. 流体
12) fatty [5fAti] adj. 脂肪的
13) silver nitrate [化]硝酸银
14) ingest [in5dVest] v. 吸收
15) agitated [5AdViteitid] adj. 焦虑不安的
16) saloon [sE5lu:n] n. 酒吧间
17) carnival [5kB:nivEl] n. (巡回演出的)游艺团
18) resigned [ri5zaind] adj. 屈从的
19) sideshow [5saidFEu] n. 杂耍
20) tinsmith [5tin7smiP] n. 白铁匠
21) tawny [5tC:ni] adj. 黄褐色的
22) screech [skri:tF] v. 发出尖锐的声音
23) veer [viE] v. 转向
24) slam [slAm] v. 猛力踩
25) yank [jANk] v. 猛拉
26) adrenalin [E5drenElin] n. 肾上腺素
27) dizzy [5dizi] adj. 晕眩的
28) momentarily [5mEumEntErili] adv. 即刻
29) brake pedal n. 刹车踏板
30) shatter [5FAtE] v. 粉碎
31) coronary artery [5kCrEnEri5B:tEri] n. 冠状动脉
32) morgue [mC:^] n. 太平间
33) brace [breis] v. 振奋
小资料
米奇·阿尔博姆及其作品
米奇·阿尔博姆（Mitch Albom），美国著名作家、电台主持、电视评论员，他的经典作品《相约星期二》（Tuesdays with Morrie）和《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》曾高踞美国畅销书排行榜榜首。《相约星期二》的中译本已经在中国畅销了6年，发行了40万册，而2003年面世的《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》迄今已在全球热销400万册，被译成多国文字，占据美国畅销书排行榜前五位超过40周。与《相约星期二》一样，《你在天堂里遇见的五个人》也是都市人的心灵良药，让读者换一种全新的视角思索人生的价值。
温馨小提示：
本文特色之一是从两个角度描述同一件事。作者先用“Take one story, viewed from two different angles”这句话来开启下文，提醒读者以下故事将以不同的两种方式叙述。紧接着的两段开头分别用了“Take a rainy...”和“Now take that same story ...”这两句话承上启下，连接以不同角度描述的片断。试试把这种写作手法运用到作文中吧！
单词小锦囊
汽车部件
accelerator (pedal) 油门（踏板）
brake (pedal) 刹车（踏板）
headlight 车前灯
honk 喇叭
rearview mirror 后视镜
seat belt 安全带
steering wheel 方向盘
tyre 轮胎
windscreen 挡风玻璃