評論
打印
The Kindness of Strangers
陌生人的善心
Mike Mclntyre
邁克·麥金泰爾
One summer I was driving from my home town of Tahoe City, California, to New Orleans. In the middle of the desert, I came upon a young man standing by the roadside. He had his thumb out and held a gas can in his other hand. I drove right by him. There was a time in the country when you'd be considered a jerk if you passed by somebody in need. Now you are a fool for helping. With gangs, drug addicts, murderers, rapists, thieves lurking everywhere, "I don't want to get involved" has become a national motto.
一年夏天，我正驅車從我的家鄉加利福尼亞州的塔霍城前往新奧爾良。行駛到沙漠中部時，我遇到了一個站在路邊的年輕人。他一手伸出拇指請求搭車,另一只手里握著一個汽油罐我徑直從他身邊開了過去。曾經有一個時期在這個國家，如果你對一個需要幫助的人置之不理，那你就會被認為是一個混蛋。而現在如果你幫助了別人你就是一個傻瓜。由于到處都隱藏著歹徒、癖君子、殺人犯、強奸犯和小偷，“我不想惹麻煩”就成了民族箴言。
Several states later I was still thinking about the hitchhiker. Leaving him stranded in the desert did not bother me so much. What bothered me was how easily I had reached the decision. I never even lifted my foot off the accelerator.
駛過了幾個州后，我仍然在想著那個搭便車的旅行者。把他束手無策地留在沙漠里并沒有讓我太煩擾。讓我心煩的是，我是多么輕易地就下了這個決定。我甚至都沒有把腳從油門上抬起來。
Does anyone stop any more? I wondered. I recalled Blanche DuBois's famous line: "I have always depended on the kindness of strangers." Could anybody rely on the kindness of strangers these days? One way to test this would be for a person to journey from coast to coast without any money, relying solely on the goodwill of his fellow Americans. What kind of Americans would he find? Who would feed him, shelter him, carry him down the road?
如今還會有人停下來嗎？我很想知道。我想起了布蘭奇?杜波依斯的著名臺詞：“我總是依賴陌生人的善心。”如今還會有人依賴陌生人的善心嗎？檢驗此事的一個方法就是讓一個人不帶錢,只依靠美國同胞的好心，從一個海岸橫穿大陸旅行到另一個海岸。他將遇見什么樣的美國人呢？誰將會給他食物、提供住處、載他一路？
