Making a living as a door-to-door salesman demands a thick skin, both to protect against the weather and against constantly having the door shut in your face. Bill Porter puts up with all this and much, much more.
干挨家挨戶上門推銷這一營生得臉皮厚，這是因為干這一行不僅要經受風吹日曬，還要承受一次又一次的閉門羹。比爾 · 波特忍受著這一切，以及別的種種折磨。

Life of a Salesman

Tom Hallman Jr.

1 The alarm rings. It's 5:45. He could linger under the covers, listening to the radio and a weatherman who predicts rain. People would understand. He knows that.
一個推銷員的生活

小湯姆 · 霍爾曼

鬧鐘響了。是清晨5：45。他可以在被子里再躺一會兒，聽聽無線電廣播。天氣預報員預報有雨。人們會理解的。這點他清楚。

　
2 A surgeon's scar cuts across his lower back. The fingers on his right hand are so twisted that he can't tie his shoes. Some days, he feels like surrendering. But his dead mother's challenge echoes in his soul. So, too, do the voices of those who believed him stupid, incapable of living independently. All his life he's struggled to prove them wrong. He will not quit.

3 And so Bill Porter rises.
他的下背有一道手術疤痕。他右手的手指嚴重扭曲，連鞋帶都沒法系。有時，他真想放棄不干了。可在他內心深處，一直回響著已故老母的激勵, 還有那些說他蠢，說他不能獨立生活的人的聲音。他一生都在拚命去證明他們錯了。他決不能放棄不干。
于是比爾·波特起身了。


4 He takes the first unsteady steps on a journey to Portland's streets, the battlefield where he fights alone for his independence and dignity. He's a door-to-door salesman. Sixty-three years old. And his enemies -- a crippled body that betrays him and a changing world that no longer needs him -- are gaining on him.
他搖搖晃晃邁出了去波特蘭大街的頭幾步，波特蘭大街是他為獨立與尊嚴而孤身搏殺的戰場。他是個挨家挨戶上門推銷的推銷員，今年63歲。他的敵人――辜負他的殘疾的身體和一個不再需要他的變化著的世界――正一步一步把他逼向絕境。


5 With trembling hands he assembles his weapons: dark slacks, blue shirt and matching jacket, brown tie, tan raincoat and hat. Image, he believes, is everything.
他用顫抖的雙手收拾行裝：深色寬松褲，藍襯衣和與之相配的茄克衫，褐色領帶，土褐色雨衣和帽子。在他看來，形象就是一切。

6 He stops in the entryway, picks up his briefcase and steps outside. A fall wind has kicked up. The weatherman was right. He pulls his raincoat tighter.

7 He tilts his hat just so. 他在門口停了一下，提起公文包，走了出去。秋風驟起，冷颼颼的。天氣預報員說得沒錯。他將雨衣裹裹緊。
他把帽子往一側微微一斜。

8 On the 7:45 bus that stops across the street, he leaves his briefcase next to the driver and finds a seat in the middle of a pack of bored teenagers.

9 He leans forward, stares toward the driver, sits back, then repeats the process. His nervousness makes him laugh uncontrollably. The teenagers stare at him. They don't realize Porter's afraid someone will steal his briefcase, with the glasses, brochures, order forms and clip-on tie that he needs to survive.
在街對面停靠的7：45那班公共汽車上，他把公文包放在司機身旁，在一群沒精打采的十幾歲的孩子當中找了個位子坐下。
他身子往前一傾，盯著司機那兒望，然后靠著椅背坐下，接著他又反復這個過程。他心情緊張，控制不住自己而笑出聲來。那些孩子望著他。他們不明白，波特是擔心有人偷他的包，包里有他生存不可缺少的眼鏡，宣傳小冊子，定單，以及可用別針別上的領帶。

10 Porter senses the stares. He looks at the floor.

11 His face reveals nothing. In his heart, though, he knows he should have been like these kids, like everyone on this bus. He's not angry. But he knows. His mother explained how the delivery had been difficult, how the doctor had used an instrument that crushed a section of his brain and caused cerebral palsy, a disorder of the nervous system that affects his speech, hands and walk.
波特意識到了小孩子在盯著他看。他把目光轉向車廂地板。
他臉上沒有流露出任何神情。但在他心里，他知道自己本該和這些孩子一樣，和車上其他所有人一樣。他并不生氣。但他心里明白。他母親解釋說生他時難產，醫生使用了某種器械，損壞了他大腦的一部分，導致了大腦性麻痹，一種影響他說話，手部活動以及行走的神經系統的紊亂。

12 Porter came to Portland when he was 13 after his father, a salesman, was transferred here. He attended a school for the disabled and then Lincoln High School, where he was placed in a class for slow kids.

13 But he wasn't slow.
波特13歲那年隨著當推銷員的父親工作調動來到波特蘭。他上了一個殘疾人學校，后來就讀林肯高級中學，在那兒他被編入慢班。
但他并不笨。

14 His mind was trapped in a body that didn't work. Speaking was difficult and took time. People were impatient and didn't listen. He felt different -- was different -- from the kids who rushed about in the halls and planned dances he would never attend.
他由于身體不能正常運行而使腦子不能充分發揮其功能。他說話困難，而且慢。別人不耐煩，不聽他說。他覺得自己不同于――事實上也確實不同于――那些在過道里東奔西跑的孩子，那些孩子安排的舞會他永遠也不可能參加。