文字难度：★★★
I first noticed Anita—really noticed her—at a Valentine’s Day dance.
Me, and every other guy in the building.
She was amazing, and not just because she was beautiful, with her shoulder-length blonde hair, her 1)larger-than-life eyes and her 2)stunning smile. She was also an amazing dancer. It was the late 1970s, and disco was king. That meant you couldn’t get away with just standing in the middle of the floor and shaking like we had always done during the 3)hay-day of rock and roll. You had to know steps and moves, and you had to have a partner who could do them with you.
Oh, and you had to wear 4)polyester. Lots and lots of polyester.
Which is why Anita attracted so much attention at that Valentine’s Day dance. She was a Dancing Queen. She knew all the steps, and she had all the right moves. And 5)boy, did she make polyester look good.
I, on the other hand, was a dancing fool. It wasn’t that I couldn’t dance well. I couldn’t dance—6)period. While I had learned to more or less 7)bluff my way through the tribal 8)ambiguity of rockin’ and rollin’, there was no bluffing the Latin9)Hustle. Or even the Disco Duck. Either you knew it, or you didn’t. And if you didn’t...well, you looked pretty foolish out there.
Or in my case, more foolish than usual.
我第一次注意到安尼塔——我是说真正注意到她——是在情人节的一场舞会上。
我和舞厅里的其他人,个个都注意到了她。
她惊为天人,这不仅由于她很 美——金发齐肩,双眸晶亮过人,笑容倾倒众生,还因为,她的舞姿惊为天人。那时处于20世纪70年代末,迪斯科舞称王称霸的日子。那意味着你不能只是站在舞池中央,像过去摇滚乐风行的日子那样抖动摇摆就行了。你得懂得舞步动作,你还得有个能配合你跳的舞伴。
噢,你还得穿上涤纶料子的服装,大量的涤纶。
这就是安尼塔在情人节的舞会上如此吸引人眼球的原因所在。她是个舞后。她熟知所有的舞步,每一次移动都准确无误。还有,噢,她穿上涤纶舞衣真好看。
而另一方面,我却是个对迪斯科舞一窍不通的傻子。不是我跳不好,而是我不会跳——就这样。虽然在一堆人中跳着谁也不确定的摇摆舞时,我多少懂得如何装模作样,蒙混过关,但在跳拉丁哈斯尔舞,甚至是播放《迪斯科伯爵》这种舞曲的时候,你就没法装了。你要不就是会跳,要不就是不会跳。而如果你不会跳……噢,你在那就会看起来很傻。
或者像我这种情况,比平时表现得还傻。
Still, I was determined to have a dance with Anita even though, to tell the truth, I wasn’t exactly sure who she was. I had seen her at church, and admired her, but on the dance floor she was 10)in her element. Dancing was in her heart and soul, and the joy of it radiated from her with every slide and11)stomp and 12)shuffle. It was absolutely 13)mesmerizing. I couldn’t take my eyes off of her. But every time I tried to move toward her to ask her to dance, some adolescent 14)John Travolta would cut in front of me, 15)resplendent in his artificial fabrics, and busting disco moves like 16)Arthur Murray in gold chains and 17)stacked heels.
It wasn’t until the evening’s second-to-last dance that I was finally able to catch my turn with the Dancing Queen, and I tried to make the most of it. I summoned every bit of dancing know-how I could muster, 18)gleaned from watching 19)Saturday Night Live and 20)American Bandstand. Although my Hustle was more 21)Roamin’ than Latin, we somehow managed to make it through to the end of the dance in the same place, at the same time, and with all our toes22)intact.
Less than six months later, we were married.
I won’t bore you with all of the details about how we got from those first 23)stumbling, 24)bumbling steps on the dance floor to joyful and 25)light-hearted steps down the 26)matrimonial aisle. It doesn’t really matter. What matters is those first steps were taken. No matter how insecure and awkward and 27)clumsy they were, they were significant first steps towards something remarkable.
That’s usually the way it is with first steps. Whether we’re learning to walk or learning to run a business, starting a new habit or breaking an old one, taking a weekend 28)get-away or the journey of a lifetime, no steps are more important than the first steps. They may be embarrassingly weak, or even painful. But they are steps that must be taken.
Especially if you hope to catch a Queen.
尽管这样,我仍决定要和安尼塔跳一支舞。老实说,我并不十分了解她。我只在教堂见过她,心生倾慕,原来她在舞池里,竟如此如鱼得水。她跳起舞来身心投入,每一个滑步、跺步、曳步都透出喜悦。这简直让人着迷。我无法把视线从她身上移开。但每一次当我试图走向她,邀请她跳一支舞时,总有个像约翰·特拉沃尔塔那样的小子出现在我面前,穿着一身华丽的人工舞衣,戴着金链,穿着粗跟鞋,像亚瑟·默里那般跳起迪斯科舞。
直到晚上,舞会的倒数第二支舞,才最终轮到我和舞后跳。我努力跳出自己的最佳状态。我发挥能想起的一切舞技,从《周六夜现场》和 《美国音乐台》收集学到的。虽然在跳哈斯尔舞时,我跳得散漫,就像散步一样,缺了些拉丁风,但我们毕竟在同一个时空脚趾无损地跳完了一曲。
后来不到6个月,我们就结婚了。
我不会跟你啰嗦我们如何从舞厅那蹒跚踉跄的第一步发展到欢欣快步走进婚姻殿堂这其中的细节。那一切并不重要。重要的是迈出的第一步。不论这一步迈出时有多么不安,多么难看,多么笨拙,那却是迈向非凡成就的重要第一步。
迈出第一步通常不容易。无论是当我们学走路、学习经营一盘生意、开始养成一个新习惯或是改掉一个旧习惯、某个周末出行抑或开始一生的旅程,没有哪一步比第一步更重要了。它们也许笨拙得让人难堪,甚至让人痛苦,但它们非常必要。
特别是当你想追求一位舞后时。
