您现在的位置: 快乐英语网 >> 阅读天地 >> 名著摘选 >> 正文

被天堂遗忘的孩子 Enrique's Journey

  《被天堂遗忘的孩子》是美国记者索尼娅·纳扎里奥写的一部书稿,讲述的是洪都拉斯17岁少年恩里克因为思念母亲,靠攀爬载货火车,横穿整个墨西哥偷渡进入美国的真实故事。恩里克乘坐的列车被称为“死亡列车”,在穿越墨西哥的过程中,需要面临饥寒交迫、黑帮追杀、腐败警察敲诈等等的危险,进入美国后还有可能被收押遣返。
  作为美国阿根廷裔的《洛杉矶时报》记者纳扎里奥在听说过男孩恩里克历尽辛酸偷渡到美国寻母的真实故事后,毅然决定亲历一趟危险旅程,而后写出了这部对逃往美国的中美洲偷渡客充满悲悯关注的长篇纪实报道。此书稿部分内容于2002年发表在《洛杉矶时报》上,纳扎里奥因此获得美国新闻界最高奖——普利策奖、乔治·波尔克国际报导奖、罗伯特·肯尼迪新闻奖首奖等十几项大奖。此报道结集成书出版后,即登上《纽约时报》等各大畅销书榜,并且被美国多所大中院校定为推荐阅读图书。现此书已经被翻译成多种文字在全世界发行。


美式发音 适合泛听
  
  Chapter One: The Boy Left Behind
  第一章:被抛下的孩子

  
索尼娅·纳扎里奥 Sonia Nazario  They live on the outskirts of 1)Tegucigalpa, in Honduras. She can barely afford food for him and his sister, Belky, who is seven. She's never been able to buy them a toy or a birthday cake. Lourdes, twenty-four, scrubs other people's laundry in a muddy river. She goes door to door, selling 2)tortillas, used clothes, and 3)plantains.
  他们住在洪都拉斯首都特古西加尔巴市郊。她(洛德丝)几乎没钱为他(恩里克)和他7岁的妹妹贝尔姬买食物。她也从未给他们买过玩具或者生日蛋糕。24岁的洛德丝,成天在混浊的河水中替别人刷洗衣物,挨家挨户兜售玉米饼、二手衣服和大蕉。
 
  She fills a wooden box with gum and 4)crackers and cigarettes, and she finds a spot where she can squat on a dusty sidewalk next to the downtown Pizza Hut and sell the items to passersby. The sidewalk is Enrique's playground.
  她在一个木头箱子里装满口香糖、饼干和香烟,在市区必胜客旁边尘土飞扬的人行道上找到一块地方蹲下来,向路人兜售那些东西。于是人行道就成了恩里克的游戏场。
 
  They have a 5)bleak future. He and Belky are not likely to finish grade school. Lourdes cannot afford uniforms or pencils. Her husband is gone. A good job is out of the question.
  他们的前路黯淡。恩里克和贝尔姬多半都不能上完小学。洛德丝买不起校服或者铅笔。她被丈夫抛弃了。她也不可能找到好工作。
 
  Lourdes knows of only one place that offers hope. As a seven-year-old child, delivering tortillas her mother made to wealthy homes, she glimpsed this place on other people's television screens. The flickering images were a far cry from Lourdes's childhood home: a two-room 6)shack made of wooden 7)slats, its flimsy tin roof weighted down with rocks, the only bathroom—a 8)clump of bushes outside. On television, she saw New York City's spectacular skyline, Las Vegas's shimmering lights, Disneyland's magic castle.
  洛德丝知道,只有一个地方能给她希望。7岁的时候,她到富人家去送她母亲做的玉米饼时,曾在别人的电视屏幕上瞥见过那个地方。那些闪烁的图像不可能出现在她童年时代的家里:一座由木板钉成的两室小棚屋,薄薄的锡皮屋顶上压着岩石块,屋外的一丛灌木权当唯一的厕所。她在电视上看到过天空下壮观的纽约市高楼大厦、拉斯维加斯闪烁的灯光以及迪斯尼乐园的神秘城堡。
 
  Lourdes has decided: She will leave. She will go to the United States and make money and send it home. She will be gone for one year—less, with luck—or she will bring her children to be with her. It is for them she is leaving, she tells herself, but still she feels guilty.
  洛德丝已经决定:她要离开。她要去美国赚钱,并把钱寄回家来。她要去一年——如果运气好的话,时间还可以更短一些——不然,她会把孩子们一起带上。她安慰自己说,她是为了孩子们才离开家的,不过她心里仍然感到很内疚。
 
  She 9)kneels and kisses Belky and hugs her tightly. Then she turns to her own sister. If she watches over Belky, she will get a set of gold fingernails from el Norte.
  她蹲下来,吻吻贝尔姬,并且紧紧地把她抱住。然后,她转身看着自己的姐姐。如果她能够把贝尔姬照看好,洛德丝将从北方给她带回一套金指甲。
 
  But Lourdes cannot face Enrique. He will remember only one thing that she says to him: “Don't forget to go to church this afternoon.”
  但洛德丝无法面对恩里克。他将只能记住她对他说过的这一句话:“今天下午别忘记去教堂。”
 
  It is January 29, 1989. His mother steps off the porch.
  那是1989年1月29日。他的妈妈从门廊里走了出去。
 
  She walks away.
  她向远处走去。
 
  “Donde esta mi mami?” Enrique cries, over and over. “Where is my mom?”
  恩里克一遍又一遍地哭喊道:“我妈妈哪去了?”

[1] [2] 下一页

回到顶部