Fast Living in the 1)Ethiopian Highland Town of Bekoji 百克基儿女——“跑”进梦想
文字难度：★★★☆
人们运动的目的各不相同，有的纯粹为了娱乐，有的为有一副好体格，还有的——为脱贫致富。地球上有这么一个隶属埃塞俄比亚，位于东非大裂谷周边，人口仅有33000的贫困的农牧民聚居小村镇，这里的很多孩子很小就开始光脚苦练长跑，他们希望在大赛事中获胜，赢得高额奖金，过上梦想中的生活。扭转命运的渴望、从小就进行的高海拔训练，加上当地人独特的体形，一批批中长跑项目的世界纪录保持者就此造就。
这是一篇让人揪心又让人感动的文章，值得细细品味。——Lavender
It is half an hour before dawn in the Ethiopian highlands, and most of the town of Bekoji still 2)slumbers in the shadows of a 4,300-meter-high volcano. On the streets, though, a silent army is on the move. More than a hundred boys and girls—many in bare feet, some no taller than the goats feeding by the roadside—3)gravitate toward a vast, grassy 4)plateau on Bekoji’s outskirts. There, a man with a 5)stopwatch, local running coach Santayehu Eshetu, is waiting. So intense is the hunger here for running—and its rewards—that Eshetu’s 6)workouts, initially meant for 25 athletes, now draw 150 or more. Focused and serious, the runners listen to his words of guidance before taking off across the plateau, their feet slapping the earth in thunderous unison. “I have no doubt,” says Eshetu, “that one of these kids will be world champion.”
还有半个小时，埃塞俄比亚高地才天亮，百克基镇的大部分地方仍在海拔4300米的火山那阴影下沉睡。然而，在街道上，一支沉默的大军已经在行动了。100多名男孩女孩——很多赤着脚，有些长得还没有路边吃着草的山羊那么高——正向百克基外围的一片长满野草的开阔高地移动。一个戴着秒表的男人在那里等着，他是当地长跑教练山塔耶胡．厄舍图。他原本只是计划培训25名运动员，但这儿的人对跑步以及跑步所带来的奖励有着强烈的渴望，结果来了大概150人，甚至更多。跑手们聚精会神地听厄舍图的指导，然后开始在高地上拉练。他们跑着，脚板齐刷刷地踏着地面，发出雷鸣般的响声。“毫无疑问，”厄舍图说道，“在这些孩子中肯定会诞生一位世界冠军。”
Anywhere else, that comment might be an 7)idle boast. In Bekoji, it is a virtual guarantee. By an improbable 8)quirk of history, this small community of farmers and herders along the 9)Great Rift Valley (10)pop. 33,000) has become the world’s leading producer of distance runners. Many of the fastest male and female middle-distance runners on the planet 11)hail from this patch of red earth 170 miles south of the capital, Addis Ababa; the athletes attended the same primary school, trained with the same childhood coach, and in two cases grew up in the same 12)thatched-roof hut.
如果是在别处说这种话，人们会说他在吹牛。但在百克基，这话的确不假。这个位于东非大裂谷周边，人口仅有33000的农牧民聚居小村镇，随着那让人难以置信的命途扭转，现在已摇身变成优秀长跑选手的一大产地。世界上许多跑得最快的男女中长跑选手都来自这片位于埃塞俄比亚首都亚的斯亚贝巴以南约170英里（约273.6公里）的红土地。这些获奖运动员往往出自同一所小学，师从同一位教练，更有两位甚至曾住在同一茅草屋檐下。
Bekoji ranks as one of sport’s great 13)anomalies. Here, after all, is a rural African town in which time almost stands still, where horse-drawn carts outnumber motor vehicles and neighbors greet each other by asking after their herds or crops. And yet its most famous products are 14)Tirunesh Dibaba, a 23-year-old 15)blur who smashed the women’s 5,000-meter world record in June, 2008 by five seconds, and 16)Kenenisa Bekele, 26, who has run the fastest times in human history at 5,000 and 10,000 meters. And they are just the beginning. Dibaba’s sisters, Ejegayehu and Ginzebe, are also world-class runners. Several other Bekoji natives are 17)close on their heels, while hundreds of others—that silent army on the plateau—are striving to join them.
百克基是运动界其中一个奇异至极的奇迹。毕竟，它只是非洲的一个小村镇，在这里，时间几乎停滞，摩托车没有马车多，邻里们相互问候的内容都是关于羊群或庄稼。然而，这里最著名的“产品”包括有23岁的幻影跑手特鲁纳什．迪巴巴，她在2008年6月打破了女子5000米长跑的世界纪录，将原纪录缩短了5秒。还有26岁的科内尼萨．贝克勒，他是迄今5000米和10000米长跑项目跑得最快的人。而他们只是个“序曲”。迪巴巴的姐妹埃耶加耶胡和津耶别也都是世界级长跑选手。另外，百克基多名当地跑手相当接近他们的水平，还有几百人——高地上的那支大军——正努力加入他们的阵营。
The town sits on the 18)flank of a volcano nearly 3,000 meters above sea level, making daily life itself a kind of high-altitude training. Children in this region often start running at an early age, covering great distances to fetch water and firewood or to reach the nearest school. “Our natural talent begins at the age of two,” says two-time Olympic gold medalist Haile Gebrselassie, 35, who grew up in a village about 30 miles north of Bekoji. Gebrselassie remembers running over six miles to and from school every day carrying his books, leaving him with extraordinary 19)stamina. Add to this early training the physique shared by many members of the 20)Oromo ethnic group that predominates in the region—a short 21)torso on disproportionately long legs—and you have the perfectly 22)engineered distance runner.
这个小镇位于一座海拔近3000英里（约4828公里）的火山旁，使得本地人的日常生活变成了一种高海拔训练。这里的孩子常常很小就开始跑步，跋涉到远处取水、拾柴，或者到最近的一间学校上学。“我们的天赋在两岁时凸显，”35岁的海勒．格布雷希拉希耶说，他在百克基以北约30英里（约48.3公里）处的一个村庄长大，曾两次夺得奥运金牌。他还记得自己很小时，每天上学都得背着书来回奔跑超过6英里（约9.7公里），这练就了他那非凡的耐力。这种早期训练，加上当地的主要部族奥罗莫族成员大多拥有独特的体形——上身较短，而下身则长得和上身不成比例——造就了完美的长跑运动员。
No formula, however, can conjure up the desire that burns inside Bekoji’s young runners. Take the case of Million Abate, an 18-year-old who caught Eshetu’s attention last year when he sprinted to the finish of a 12-mile training run with his bare feet bleeding profusely. The coach took off his own Nikes and handed them to the young runner. Today, Abate is still wearing the coach’s shoes. They are his only pair, though he confesses a preference for running in bare feet. “Shoes affect my speed,” he says. And speed may be his only salvation. Forced to quit school in fifth grade after his father died, Abate worked as a shoeshine boy before getting the motel job, which pays $9 a month. All along, he has never stopped running, chasing the dream of prosperity his mother 23)imprinted on him shortly after his father’s death.
然而,百克基年轻跑手内心炽烧的激情,则不能轻易如法炮制而成。以米里昂·阿巴特为例,这个18岁的青年去年赤脚参加了一次12英里(约19.3公里)的训练,跑完全程后他的双脚流了很多血,引起了教练厄舍图的注意。厄舍图脱下自己的耐克鞋送给了他。今天,他仍穿着教练的那双鞋,那是他拥有的唯一一双鞋,尽管他说自己更喜欢光着脚跑,“鞋子影响我的速度,”他说。而速度可能是唯一能帮他脱贫的希望。父亲死后,当时正念五年级的他被迫退学,先是当擦鞋童,然后找到了汽车旅馆这份每月9美元工资的工作。在此过程中,他从未停止过跑步,从未停止追寻在父亲死后,母亲寄予自己的致富梦。
By Ethiopian standards, Bekoji is not a desperately poor town. The famine and malnutrition that 24)stalk other parts of the country have bypassed this region of potato and barley farms. Still, families in Bekoji’s 25)outlying villages often 26)live hand to mouth, and distance running offers the younger generation one of the few ways out. Bekoji’s 27)trailblazer was Tirunesh Dibaba’s aunt, Derartu Tulu, who left home to avoid an early, arranged marriage and ended up a national hero, winning the 10,000-meter Olympic gold medals in 1992 and 2000. As a reward, the government gave her a lovely house.
按照埃塞俄比亚的标准,百克基不算赤贫之地。这里盛产土豆和大麦,没有国内别的地方经常遭受的饥荒和营养不良这些问题。但百克基边远山区的人们仍只是勉强能糊口,而长跑是年青一代为数不多的出路之一。百克基的长跑先驱是特鲁纳什·迪巴巴的姨妈德拉图·图鲁,她为逃避年少时的包办婚姻而离家出走,最后成了国家英雄,于1992和2000年两度赢得10000米长跑奥运金牌。作为奖励,当地政府送给她一套漂亮的房子。
Motivated by such signs of success, thousands of kids from the villages surrounding Bekoji have moved into town in the past several years. Many of them rent dingy rooms for a few dollars a month and fill their bellies with what they call“28)counterfeit 29)pasta”—rolled-up wheat 30)paste eaten with a 31)pinch of salt. Some, like Million Abate, work long hours at regular jobs. Others crowd the classrooms at Bekoji Elementary School, where both Dibaba and Bekele attended. Enrollment at the school has tripled over the past 15 years, and many of the runners are too exhausted to concentrate. “It’s difficult to teach kids under these conditions,” says the principal. “But in terms of running,” he adds, with a 32)rueful smile, “we could beat any school in the world.”
在这类成功标志的激励之下,过去几年里,百克基周边村庄有数千名孩子迁居到镇上。他们中的很多人以每月几美元的价格租下黑暗邋遢的房间,用他们称之为“假面条(一种大麦面糊卷)”的东西就着盐填饱肚子。一些人像米里昂·阿巴特一样找了份工时相当长的固定工作,另外一些人则涌进百克基小学就读,迪巴巴和贝克勒都曾在这所学校就读。过去15年来,在这所小学注册就读的学生人数上升到原来的三倍,很多长跑选手都因为疲惫的训练而无法集中精神听课。“在这种情况下很难教授课程,”校长说道。“但在跑步方面,”他苦笑着补充道,“我们可以击败世界上任何一所学校。”
It is 33)make-or-break time for Million Abate. Though he is now the third-fastest 1,500-meter runner in town, Abate knows, at age 18, that he needs to win a big race soon to get noticed by the powers that be in Addis Ababa. The brutal calculation of success and failure in Bekoji leaves very little room for error: he either makes it into Ethiopia’s elite, where he can finally live up to the promise of his name, or he returns to a life of subsistence farming. “I have so much stress,” Abate says, his eyes tearing up. “Coach tells me not to beat myself up so much. But I want to lift myself up in life, and I get very angry when I’m overtaken by a single step.” Pushed by anxiety and desire, Abate gets up extra early these days so that he can be the first to arrive on the plateau, before any hint of light has touched the morning sky.
对米里昂·阿巴特而言,现在是成败与否的关键时期。尽管他现在在镇上的1500米跑中排名第三,但他知道,已18岁的自己需要在大赛事中胜出才能吸引亚的斯亚贝巴的“大人物”的注意。在百克基的激烈竞争中,他没有多少失败的余地:要么成为埃塞俄比亚的精英,最后过上与其名字寄望相符的生活;要么只能回家,种地糊口。“我压力很大,”阿巴特眼泛泪光地说道,“教练让我不要把自己逼得这么紧,但我希望改善自己的生活。每当有人追上我一步,我就会觉得很生气。”在焦虑和欲望的推动下,这些天,阿巴特起得特别早,以便第一个到达那片高地训练场,那时天上还没有一丝亮光。
1) Ethiopian [i:WI5EJpIEn] adj. 埃塞俄比亚的
2) slumber [5slQmbE] v. 安睡
3) gravitate [5^rAvIteIt] v. 移动
4) plateau [5plAtEJ] n. 高地，高原
5) stopwatch [5stɒpwɒtF] n. 秒表
6) workout [5w\:kaJt] n. 训练7) idle [5aIdl] adj. 无价值的
8) quirk [kw\:k] n. 急转
9) Great Rift Valley 东非大裂谷，世界上最大的裂谷带
10) pop. abbr. population，人口
11) hail from 来自
12) thatch [WAtF] v. 用茅草盖屋顶
13) anomaly [E5nɒmElI] n. 异常的人或物
14) Tirunesh Dibaba 特鲁纳什．迪巴巴（1985— ），埃塞俄比亚著名长跑运动员，2008年北京奥运会女子10000米比赛的冠军得主。在5000米项目和10000米项目中，她曾经获得四次世界锦标赛的冠军15) blur [bl\:] n. 模糊不清的事物，此代指motion blur，表“幻影”
16) Kenenisa Bekele 科内尼萨．贝克勒（1982— ），埃塞俄比亚著名长跑运动员，是5000米和10000米项目上的世界纪录保持者。在2008年北京奥运会上，他夺得了男子5000米和10000米两枚金牌
17) close on one’s heels 紧跟在某人后面
18) flank [flANk] n. 侧面
19) stamina [5stAmInE] n. 耐力
20) Oromo [EJ5rEJmEJ] adj. （居住在埃塞俄比亚南部及临近地区的）奥罗莫人
21) torso [5tC:sEJ] n. （人体的）躯干
22) engineer [endVI5nIE] v. 设计
