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Peggy Noonan lives in New York and writes a weekly column for The Wall Street Journal. This piece is taken from one of them. In it she reflects on her week and on life in the city. Writing less than a year away from the destruction of the World Trade Center, her thoughts are inevitably affected by that terrible event.
佩吉·諾南住在紐約，每周為《華爾街時報》撰寫專欄文章。本文即其中一篇。她在文章中反思了自己的一周以及這個城市的生活。撰寫此文時，離世貿中心被毀還不到一周年，她的思考不可避免地帶有這一可怕事件的陰影。
The Nightmare and the Dreams
夢魘與夢想
-- How has Sept. 11 affected our national unconscious?
――9·11事件如何影響了國民的潛意識？
PEGGY NOONAN
佩吉·諾南
It is hot in New York. It is so hot that once when I had a fever a friend called and asked me how I felt and I said, "You know how dry and hot paper feels when it's been faxed? That's how I feel." And how I felt all day yesterday. It is hot. We feel as if we've been faxed.
紐約真熱。天氣如此炎熱，因此，有一次我發高燒，朋友打電話來問候我感覺如何時，我就說，“你知道發傳真時紙張有多干燥多燙手嗎？那就是我的感覺。”昨天整整一天我都是這種感覺。太熱了。我們覺得自己被傳真過似的。
I found myself fully awake at 5 a.m. yesterday and went for a walk on the Brooklyn Bridge. Now more than ever the bridge seems like a great gift to my city. It spans. In the changed landscape of downtown it is our undisturbed beauty, grown ever more stately each year. People seem to love it more now, or at least mention it more or notice it more. So do I. It's always full of tourists but always full of New Yorkers, too.
昨天清晨5點我就完全醒了，便去布魯克林大橋散步。如今這座大橋越發像是賜予我們這個城市的一件貴重禮物。它跨河而立。在業已改變的市區景觀中，它依舊是一道美麗的景致，年復一年，越發顯得氣勢非凡。如今，人們似乎更喜歡它，至少是更多地提到它、注意到它。本人也一樣。橋上總是擠滿游客，也總是擠滿紐約居民。
I am struck, as I always am when I'm on it, that I am walking on one of the engineering wonders of the world. And I was struck yesterday that I was looking at one of the greatest views in the history of man's creation, Manhattan at sunrise.
我在這座橋上行走時總是深感驕傲，因為自己漫步在世界工程技術一大奇跡之上；今天踏上這座橋，我同樣深感驕傲。昨天我深受感動，因為我在觀看有人類創造史以來最輝煌的景象之一：曼哈頓日出。
And all of it was free. A billionaire would pay billions to own this bridge and keep this view, but I and my jogging, biking and hiking companions have it for nothing. We inherited it. Now all we do is pay maintenance, in the form of taxes. We are lucky.
而且那是分文不花的。億萬富翁要想擁有這座橋，將這一景致占為己有，那得付出億萬錢財，而我以及那些或慢跑、或騎車、或徒步的同行者卻能免費享用。我們繼承了這座大橋。如今我們所要做的只是以納稅的方式支付維修費用。我輩實屬有幸。
As I rounded the entrance to the bridge on the Brooklyn side, a small moment added to my happiness. It was dawn, traffic was light, I passed a black van with smoked windows. In the driver's seat with the window down was a black man of 30 or so, a cap low on his brow, wearing thick black sunglasses. I was on the walkway that leads to the bridge; he was less than two feet away; we were the only people there. We made eye contact. "Good morning!" he said. "Good morning to you," I answered, and for no reason at all we started to laugh, and moved on into the day. Nothing significant in it except it may or may not have happened that way 30 or 40 years ago. I'm not sure the full charge of friendliness would have been assumed or answered.
我從布魯克林一邊上橋時，一件小事更增添了我的快樂。天剛亮，車輛稀少，我與一輛車窗熏黑的黑色面包車擦肩而過。窗開著的駕駛座里坐著一個30歲左右的黑人，帽子低低地壓在眉檐上，戴著一副厚厚的黑色太陽鏡。我走在通往大橋的人行道上，他距我不到兩英尺；周圍只有我們兩個人。我們目光對視。“早上好！”他說。“早上好，”我回答著，兩人隨即無緣無故地大笑起來，笑罷各人繼續各人的生活。這事并沒有什么特別的意義，只是30年或40年前是不是會發生這樣的事。我不知道那時會不會有這種完全友好的表示，又會不會得到回應。
It made me think of something I saw Monday night on TV. They were showing the 1967 movie "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?" with Katharine Hepburn, Sidney Poitier and Spencer Tracy, about a young white woman and a young black man who fall in love, hope to marry and must contend with disapproving parents on both sides. It's held up well, and parts of it seemed moving in a way I didn't remember, and pertinent.
這讓我想起星期一晚上看的電視節目。他們播放的是1967年的影片《猜猜誰來赴晚餐》，由凱瑟琳·赫本、辛尼·普瓦提艾和斯潘塞·特雷西主演，講的是一個白人姑娘與一個黑人小伙子相愛，想要結婚，不得不與持反對態度的雙方父母做斗爭。影片拍得不錯，故事的部分細節似乎很感人，如何感人我記不清楚了，反正很切題。
There was a bit of dialogue that packed a wallop. Spencer Tracy as the father of the would-be bride is pressing Mr. Poitier on whether he has considered the sufferings their mixed-race children might have to endure in America. Has he thought about this? Has his fiancée? "She is optimistic," says Mr. Poitier. "She thinks every one of them will grow up to become president of the United States. I on the other hand would settle for secretary of state." Those words, written 35 years ago may have seemed dreamy then. But in its audience when the movie came out would likely have been a young, film-loving Army lieutenant named Colin Powell who, that year, was preparing for a second tour of duty in Vietnam. And now he is secretary of state. This is the land dreams are made of. Does that strike you as a corny thing to say and talk about? It is. That's another great thing.
有幾段對話讓人為之震動。飾演未來新娘父親的斯潘塞·特雷西質問普瓦提艾先生，他是否想過他們混血的孩子在美國將會承受多少痛苦。他考慮過這點嗎？他的未婚妻考慮過這點嗎？“她很樂觀，”普瓦提艾先生說。“她認為他們每個人都能長大成人當上美國總統。而我則覺得他們能當國務卿也就可以了。”這些寫于35年前的話當時聽上去或許就像是癡人說夢。但影片上映時，觀眾中可能就有愛看電影的年輕的陸軍中尉科林·鮑威爾，當年他正準備第二次到越南去服役。如今他正擔任著國務卿一職。這是個夢想成真的國度。這么說你是否覺得有點老生常談？這又是一件美妙的事情。
Late Tuesday, on a subway ride from Brooklyn to the north of Manhattan, I resaw something I'd noticed and forgotten about. It is that more and more, on the streets and on the train, I see people wearing ID tags. We all wear IDs now. We didn't use to. They hang from thick cotton string or an aluminum chain; they're worn one at a time or three at a time, but they're there.
星期二晚些時候，在從布魯克林開往曼哈頓北部的地鐵上，我又看到一個我注意過，可后來又忘了的現象。那就是大街上，地鐵里，我越來越經常地發現人們掛著表明身份的胸卡。如今人人都佩帶胸卡。過去我們是不帶的。胸卡吊在粗棉線或鋁制鏈上；有的佩帶一張，有的同時佩帶三張，反正胸卡處處可見。
I ponder the implications. What does it mean that we wear IDs? What are we saying, or do we think we're saying? I mean aside from the obvious.
我思索著這一現象意味著什么。大家隨身攜帶身份證件，這意味著什么？我們是在表明什么？或者說我們自以為是在表明什么？我指的是表象之外的意義。
I imagined yesterday the row of people across from me on the train, looking up all of a sudden from their newspaper and answering one after another:
假設昨天地鐵車廂里我對面的那排人一下子放下報紙抬起頭來，逐個回答道：
"It means I know who I am," says the man in blue shirt and suspenders.
“這意味著我知道自己是誰，”穿藍襯衫和吊褲帶的那個男子說。
"It means I can get into the building," says the woman in gray.
“這意味著我能進辦公樓，”那個灰衣女子說。
"It means I am a solid citizen with a job."
“這表明我是個有職業的體面公民。”
"I am known to others in my workplace."
“在工作場所別人知道我是誰。”
"I'm not just blowing through life, I'm integrated into it. I belong to something. I receive a regular paycheck."
“我不是在混日子，我融入了生活。我有所歸屬。我有固定的工資。”
"I have had a background check done by security and have been found to be a Safe Person. Have you?"
“安檢部門對我的背景來歷核查過，認定我為人可靠。你呢？”
I wonder if unemployed people on the train look at the tags around the other peoples' necks and think. Soon I hope I'll have one too. I wonder if kids just getting their first job at 17 will ever know that in America we didn't all use to be ID'd. Used to be only for people who worked in nuclear power plants or great halls of government. Otherwise you could be pretty obscure. Which isn't a bad way to be.
我不知道車上那些失業的人看著別人頭頸里吊著的胸卡，會不會有什么想法。我希望不久我也有張胸卡。我不知道那些剛剛開始工作的17歲的小伙子們會不會知曉，以前在美國，我們并不是人人攜帶身份證的。過去只有在核電站或政府辦公大樓里工作的人才用。在別處，沒人會知道你是誰。這可不是件壞事。
A month ago there were news reports of a post-Sept. 11 baby boom. Everyone was so rocked by news of their mortality that they realized there will never be a perfect time to have kids but we're here now so let's have a family. I believed the baby boom story and waited for the babies.
一個月前，有關于9·11事件之后出現生育高峰的新聞報道。大家為那些關于死亡的報道所震驚，意識到決沒有什么生養孩子的最佳時機，現在我們既然活著，就該生兒育女。我相信關于生育高峰報道的真實性，期待著這些孩子的出生。
Then came the stories saying: Nah, there is no baby boom, it's all anecdotal, there's no statistical evidence to back it up. And I believed that too. But I've been noticing something for weeks now. In my neighborhood there is a baby boom. There are babies all over in Brooklyn. It is full of newborns, of pink soft-limbed infants in cotton carriers on daddy's chest. It is full of strollers, not only regular strollers but the kind that carry two children -- double-wides. And triple-wides. I don't care what anyone says, there have got to be data that back up what I'm seeing: that after Sept. 11, there was at least a Brooklyn baby boom.
后來又有報道說，不對，沒有什么生育高峰，那完全是道聽途說，并沒有統計數據加以證實。我也相信這一報道的真實性。但好幾個星期以來我一直關注著一個情況。我家附近出現了生育高峰。布魯克林到處都是嬰兒。處處可見新生嬰兒，處處可見粉嘟嘟的、小手小腳軟軟的嬰兒，他們蜷伏在父親胸前的棉兜里。處處可見嬰兒小推車，不僅是普通的小推車，還有那種可放兩個嬰兒的小推車。甚至還有可放三個嬰兒的小推車。別人怎么說我不管，應該有數據證實我目睹的情況：9·11事件之后，至少在布魯克林出現了生育高峰。
A dream boom, too. The other day I spoke with a friend I hadn't seen since the world changed. He was two blocks away when the towers fell, and he saw everything. We have all seen the extraordinary footage of that day, seen it over and over, but few of us have seen what my friend described: how in the office buildings near the World Trade Center they stood at the windows and suddenly darkness enveloped them as the towers collapsed and the demonic cloud swept through. Did you see those forced to jump? I asked.
夜夢也激增。一天我跟事件發生后一直沒見過面的一位朋友交談。世貿大樓倒下時，他就在兩個街區之外，目睹了一切。我們都看過當日那令人震驚的電視鏡頭，看過一遍又一遍，但很少有人看到過我朋友所描述的情景：在世貿中心近旁的辦公大樓里，他們站在窗邊，突然黑暗將他們籠罩，那兩幢樓倒塌了，可怕的濃煙迅速蔓延。你有沒有看到那些被迫往下跳的人？我問。
"Yes," he said, and looked away.
“看到，”他說著移開了視線。
Have you had bad dreams?
你有沒有做噩夢？
"Yes," he said, and looked away.
“做的，”他說著，仍看著別處。
I thought about this for a few days. My friend is brilliant and by nature a describer of things felt and seen. But not this time. I spoke to a friend who is a therapist. Are your patients getting extraordinary dreams? I asked.
我好幾天都想著這事。我的這位朋友才華橫溢，天生擅長描述自己的感受與見聞。但這次卻例外。我跟一位當治療專家的朋友交談。你的病人是不是都做些稀奇古怪的夢？我問。
"Always," he laughs.
“總是做那樣的夢，”他笑了起來。
Sept.11-related?
都跟9·11事件有關？
"Yes," he says, "mostly among adolescents. "
“是的，”他說，“主要都是青少年。”
I asked if he was saving them, writing them down. He shook his head no.
我問他有沒有把這些夢收集好記下來。他搖了搖頭。
So: The Sept. 11 Dream Project. We should begin it. I want to, though I'm not sure why. I think maybe down the road I will try to write about them. Maybe not. I am certain, however, that dreams can be an expression of a nation's unconscious, if there can be said to be such a thing, and deserve respect. (Carl Jung thought so.)
是啊：9·11夢錄項目。我們應該著手進行了。本人有意去做，雖說我自己也不太清楚到底為什么。我想，以后也許我會試著把那些夢寫下來。也許不會。但我相信，夢可以反映國民的潛意識――如果真有所謂潛意識――而且值得把夢當一回事。（卡爾·榮格持肯定態度。）
To respect is to record. Send in your Sept. 11 related dream -- recurring, unusual, striking, whatever. I will read them, and appreciate them and possibly weave them into a piece on what Sept. 11 has done to our dream lives and to our imaginations, when our imaginations are operating on their own, unfettered, unstopped, spanning.
既然值得當回事就要記錄下來。請把你做的與9·11事件有關的夢寄給我――一再重復的，不同尋常的，驚人的，等等。我會閱讀你們的來函，會理解，可能的話會將它們編成一篇文章，反映9·11事件對我們的夢幻生活和想象力――即當我們的想象力獨立地、無拘無束地、毫無牽絆地持續發揮時――產生了什么影響。
