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The Horror That Won't Stop Happening
無法掙脫的噩夢
By Haley Sweetland Edwards
文/哈利·斯威特蘭德·愛德華茲
IT HAS BECOME A WAKING NATIONAL NIGHTMARE,
那場悲劇已經變成了整個國家的一場白日噩夢，
a recurring horror that we can't explain or defend but that we are condemned to repeat.
一場我們難以解釋也難以辯白，卻注定永遠無法擺脫的驚魂一夢。
We know it will happen again.
我們知道，那樣的悲劇還會重演。
We seem helpless to stop it.
但我們還是束手無策。
The latest nightmare began on May 18 with the news: there had been another school shooting.
最近一次噩夢起源于5月18日的新聞：又一起校園槍擊案發生了。
This time, it unfolded at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas,
這一次，悲劇發生在了德克薩斯州圣菲的圣菲高中，
a town of about 12,000 people clustered around a sun-soaked highway southeast of Houston.
這是聚集在休斯頓東南邊一條艷陽高照的高速公路周圍的一個小鎮，人口約1.2萬。
As the reports came in from law enforcement and medical personnel, it became clear that this had been a deadly event.
執法部門和醫務人員的報告顯示，這次的槍擊案明顯屬于致命事件。
Ten people were killed, including eight students and two teachers:
事件造成了10人死亡，包括8名學生和兩名老師：
Jared Black, 17; Shana Fisher, 16; Christian Riley Garcia, 15; Aaron Kyle McLeod, 15;
17歲的杰瑞德·布萊克，16歲的夏娜·費希爾，15歲的克里斯蒂安·賴利·加西亞，15歲的艾倫·凱爾·麥克勞德，
Angelique Ramirez, 15; Sabika Sheikh, 17; Christopher Jake Stone, 17;
15歲的安吉麗·拉米雷斯，17歲的薩比卡·謝赫，17歲的克里斯托弗·杰克·斯通，
Kimberly Vaughan, 14; Glenda Ann Perkins, 64; and Cynthia Tisdale, 63.
14歲的金伯利·沃恩；64歲的格倫達·安·帕金斯以及63歲的辛西婭·提斯戴爾。
The sense of inevitability was most powerful, and most disturbing, at the scene itself.
這種無能為力，身在現場時感受最為強烈也最容易引起恐慌。
Paige Curry, a student at the school, was interviewed by a local TV reporter.
該校學生佩奇·庫里接受了當地電視臺記者的采訪。
"Was there a part of you that was like, 'This isn't real. This would not happen at my school?'" the reporter asked.
“你有沒有一瞬間覺得，‘這不是真的，這種事不會發生在我們學校’？”記者問到。
Curry looked up and almost laughed.
庫里抬起頭，差點笑出聲來。
"No," she said. "It didn't feel unreal at all."
“沒有，”她說。“我一點兒也不覺得虛幻。”
"It's been happening everywhere," she said.
“這種悲劇到處都在發生，”她說。
"I've always kind of felt eventually it would happen here too."
“我一直都覺得，終有一天也會發生在我自己身邊。”
By May 19, we had learned about the victims, read their bios and seen the photos they had posted on social media.
截至5月19日，我們已經了解了受害者的情況，他們的經歷，也看到了他們在社交媒體上發布的照片。
In many pictures, the dead kids are smiling,
很多照片中遇難的孩子們臉上都帶著微笑，
posing with Snapchat filters or dressed up for a dance, beautiful and awkward in that teenage way.
還加上了P圖軟件里的一些擺拍姿勢或是為了表演跳舞打扮得既漂亮又有些蹩腳，透露著青少年特有的打扮模樣。
They didn't know they were about to die.
他們并不知道自己已經踏進了鬼門關。
We also learned about the killer.
我們也了解了兇手的情況。
This time, he was a 17-year-old student at the school.
這一次的兇手是該校的一名17歲的學生。
He'd gotten ahold of his father's guns.
他設法弄到了他父親的槍。
On the day of the attack, he'd reportedly worn a T-shirt emblazoned with the words BORN TO KILL.
據報道，襲擊當天，他穿著一件T恤，上面印有“為殺而生”的字樣。
One of the victim's mothers said her daughter had rebuffed his advances.
一位受害者的一位母親說，她的女兒拒絕過他的求愛。
But who knows why someone murders his peers.
但誰知道一個人為什么會殺害自己的同齡人呢？
The sense of entrapment truly sets in when our chosen leaders step onto the public stage.
我們自己選舉出來的領導人走上公共舞臺時，那種圍困之感便會真切地涌上心頭。
It's as if they are all reading of the same teleprompter.
臺上的他們就好像在念同一個提詞器上的內容。
Tweeting from their iPhones, elected officials offer their deepest condolences.
被我們推選出來的這些官員在手機上發表推文，表達他們最深切的哀悼。
They send their thoughts and prayers.
表達他們的所思所感，同時向受害者致禱。
If their words feel familiar,
如果你覺得他們的那些話聽著耳熟，
it is perhaps because the same public figures spoke and tweeted nearly the same sentences in February,
那可能是因為今年2月份，佛羅里達州帕克蘭市馬喬里斯通曼道格拉斯高中發生槍擊案后，
in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
這群公眾人物曾在推特上說過幾乎一模一樣的話。
That time, 17 died: 14 students and three staff members.
那場悲劇帶走了17個人的性命；其中有14名學生外加3名工作人員。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
