男人背负的重担(1)

[00:00.00]The weight men carry#
男人背负的重担#

[00:01.74]When I was a boy growing up off the grid in the Commonwealth of Virginia,#
当我还是个小男孩时，我住在弗吉尼亚州一个偏远的地区，#

[00:07.87]the men I knew labored with their bodies from the first rooster crow in the morning to sundown.#
那时我所认识的男人们从清晨的第一声公鸡啼鸣一直劳作到日落。#

[00:14.10]They were marginal farmers, shepherds, just scraping by, or welders, steelworkers, carpenters;#
他们都是些不起眼的农民、牧羊人，勉强度日，或是焊接工、钢铁工或木匠；#

[00:22.10]they built cabinets, dug ditches, mined coal, or drove trucks, their forearms thick with muscle.#
他们制作橱柜、挖掘沟渠、开采煤炭，或驾驶卡车，这使他们拥有肌肉结实的上臂。#

[00:29.71]They trained horses, stocked furnaces, made tires, stood on assembly lines, welding parts onto refrigerators or lubricating car engines.#
他们训练马匹、填塞炉膛、制造轮胎，站在装配线上将零件焊接到冰箱，或是给汽车发动机上润滑剂。#

[00:40.56]In the evenings and on weekends, they labored equally hard, working on their own small tract of land,#
到了傍晚或周末，他们也要同样辛苦地劳作，在自己的一小片土地上耕作，#

[00:47.21]fixing broken-down cars, repairing broken shutters and drafty windows.#
修理出了问题的汽车，修复坏掉的百叶窗和漏风的窗户。#

[00:52.19]In their little free time,#
在仅剩的闲暇时间里，#

[00:54.08]they drowned their livers in beer from cheap copper mugs at a bar near the local brewery or racecourse.#
他们会在当地的啤酒作坊或赛马场附近的酒馆里用盛在廉价铜杯中的啤酒将自己灌得烂醉。#

[01:00.94]The bodies of the men I knew were twisted and wounded in ways visible and invisible.#
我所认识的那些男人的身躯遭受着种种看得见或看不也的扭曲和伤痛。#

[01:07.60]Heavy lifting had given many of them spinal problems and appalling injuries.#
搬运沉重的物品给他们很多人造成了脊柱病和可怕的伤痛。#

[01:13.17]Some had broken ribs and lost fingers. Racing against conveyor belts had given some ulcers.#
有些人断了肋骨，掉了手指。在传输带上不停地工作使他们有些人患了溃疡。#

[01:20.87]Their ankles and knees ached from years of standing on concrete.#
他们的脚踝和膝盖由于经年累月站立在水泥地上疼痛不已。#

[01:25.73]Some had partial vision loss as the glow of the welding flame damaged their optic receptors.#
有些人由于焊接火光损伤视觉感官而遭受部分视觉缺失的折磨。#

[01:32.88]There were times, studying them, when I dreaded growing up.#
有些时候，打量着他们，我会害怕长大。#

[01:37.84]All around us, the fathers always seemed older than the mothers.#
在我们周围的人中，父亲们看上去总是比母亲们要老。#

[01:42.56]Men wore out sooner, being martyrs of constant work. Only women lived into old age.#
男人衰老得更早，长期遭受着因持续劳作带来的病痛。只有女人才活到年老。#

[01:50.04]There were also soldiers, and so far as I could tell, they scarcely worked at all.#
还有士兵也是男人的工作。据我所知，他们几乎不工作，#

[01:55.75]But when the shooting started, many of them would die for their patriotism in fields and forts of foreign outposts.#
但当战争一打响，他们很多人都会出于爱国热情而战死在疆场或异域前哨的堡垒前。#

[02:04.26]This was what soldiers were for, they were tools like a wrench, a hammer or a screw.#
这就是士兵的作用，他们就像工具，如同扳钳、锤子或螺丝一样。