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She remembered when he had opened his palms on the table and said, "I went on a trip to Mecca." There had been pride in his voice.
她記得他曾經在桌子上攤開他的手掌說，“我去過麥加旅行。”聲音中充滿著驕傲。
I should have gone somewhere else for the course, he went on. "A new place, somewhere down south."
“我應該為課程去一些其他的地方，”他繼續說“一個新的地方，南部的某個地方。”
He was on a plateau, not like her. She was fighting and struggling for a piece of paper that would say she was awarded an M.Sc. from British university. For him, the course was continuation.
他情緒很穩定，不像她。她在為一張能證明她獲得了英國大學的科學碩士學位的紙而苦苦掙扎。而對他而言，課程僅僅是一個附加的東西。
Come and see, he said, and he held her arm. No one had touched her before, not since she had hugged her mother goodbye. Months now in this country and no one had touched her.
“到這邊來看看，”他說，他挽著她的手臂。自從上次她和媽媽擁抱說再見以后，就再也沒有有人碰過她。現在在這個國家，已經有好幾個月沒有人碰過她了。
She pulled her arm away. She walked away. She ran up the stairs to the next floor. Guns, a row of guns aiming at her. They had been waiting to blow her away. Scottish arms of centuries ago, gunfire in service of the empire.
她把手臂抽了出來。徑直走開了。她上了一層樓。槍，一排的槍對著她。它們曾等待著將她趕走。幾百年前蘇格蘭的武器，為部隊服務的軍火。
Silver muzzles, dirty grey now. They must have shone prettily once, under a sun far away. She shivered in spite of the wool she was wearing, layers of clothes. Hell is not only blazing fire, a part of it is freezing cold, torturous ice and snow. In Scotland's winter you have a glimpse of this unseen world, feel the breath of it in your bones.
銀色的槍口，現在是一種骯臟的灰色。它們曾經在太陽下閃閃發亮。盡管她穿著羊毛衫，好幾層的衣服，她依舊忍不住地顫抖。地獄不僅是焰焰烈火，地獄的一部分是徹骨的寒冷，是令人遭罪的冰與雪。蘇格蘭的冬天，你看一眼這個模糊的世界，就能感覺到它在你骨骼中的呼吸。
There was a bench and she sat down. There was no one here on this floor. She was alone with sketches of jungle animals, words on the wall. A diplomat away from home, in Ethiopia in 1903:
她坐在一張長椅上。這層沒有其他人。她和叢林中動物的骨骼，還有墻上的那些話單獨待在一起。一名遠離家鄉，在埃塞俄比亞的外交官于1903年寫道：
It is difficult to imagine anything more satisfactory or better worth taking part in than a lion drive. We rode back to camp feeling very well indeed. Archie was quite right when he said that this was the first time since we have started that we have really been in Africa-the real Africa of jungle inhabited only by game, and plains where herds of antelope meet your eye in every direction.
很難想象還有什么事可以比圍追阻截獅子群更令人滿足和更值得參與的了。我們返回營地的時候感覺確實非常棒。阿奇說得對，這是我們自從開始這個活動以來第一次真正體驗到非洲——真正的非洲就是只有野禽棲息的原始叢林以及一望無際的、到處都是羚羊的大平原。
"Shadiya, don't cry." He still pronounced her name wrongly because she had not told him how to say it properly.
“莎迪雅拉，你不要哭。”他還是叫錯她的名字，因為她沒有告訴過他如何正確地發音。
He sat next to her on the bench the blur of his navy jacket blocking the guns, the wall-length pattern of antelope herds. She should explain that she cried easily, there was no need for the alarm on his face. His awkward voice: "Why are you crying?"
他坐在她旁邊的長椅上，深藍色的夾克衫讓她面前的槍支以及羚羊群變得模糊。她應該告訴他為什么哭，這樣他臉上的表情就不會如此驚恐。他緊張地問她：“你為什么哭？”
He didn't know, he didn't understand. He was all wrong, not a substitute…
他不知道，他不會理解。他完全是個錯誤，他不能替換她的未婚夫……”
"They are telling lies in this museum," she said. "Don't believe them. It's all wrong. It's not jungle and antelopes, it's people. We have things like computers and cars. We have 7UP in Africa, and some people, a few people, have bathrooms with golden taps… I shouldn't be here with you. You shouldn't talk to me…"
“這個博物館在撒謊，”她說。“不要相信他們。全都是錯的。不是只有叢林和羚羊，我們還有人。我們也有像計算機和汽車一樣的東西。在非洲我們有七喜，一些人，少量的一些人，他們的衛生間里有金子做的馬桶座圈……我不應該在這里和你在一起。你不應該和我說話……”
He said, "Museums change, I can change…"
他說，“博物館可以改變，我也可以改變……”
He didn't know it was a steep path she had no strength for. He didn't understand. Many things, years and landscapes, gulfs. If she had been strong she would have explained, and not tired of explaining. She would have patiently taught him another language, letters curved like the epsilon and gamma he knew from mathematics. She would have shown him that words could be read from right to left. If she had not been small in the museum, if she had been really strong, she would have made his trip to Mecca real, not only in a book.
布萊恩不了解克服他們兩個人之間存在的文化障礙是一個極其困難艱巨的任務，甚至莎迪雅都沒有勇氣去觸碰。他不理解許多的事情，時代、景色和分歧。假如她足夠堅強，她會為他解釋，而不是像現在這樣懶得解釋。假如她足夠堅強，她就會耐心地教他一種字母像他數學中遇到的彎彎曲曲的希臘字母一樣的新的語言。她應該向他展示如何從左到右地閱讀這些文字。假如在博物館里她不覺得是那么微不足道、無能為力；假如她真的堅強有力，她就會使他的麥加之行成為現實，而不僅在書本上。
