This made him useful as a fixer, though he was a driver first, and ran the same risks the journalists did when he strayed into presidential compounds or, as in the 1990s, into riots. But he and the car, as its bashes showed, would drive through anything. He had to get his journalists, first, to where they wanted to go and, second, safely back again. If bad stuff happened, and they ended up hauled from the car or in jail, he would stay until he had rescued them—sometimes because he knew the right person, often by shoving and shouting.
這使他成為一個有用的調停者，盡管他首先是一名出租車司機，當他誤入總統官邸，或者像上世紀90年代那樣闖入騷亂時，他和記者們冒著同樣的風險。但是他和那輛車，就像它的底盤所顯示的那樣，可以向任何事情開過去。首先，他得載上那些記者，把他們拉到他們想去的地方，然后，安全返回。如果不好的事情發生了，他們要么被從車里拖出來，要么被關進監獄，他會一直呆到把他們救出來——有時是因為他認識對的人，通常是通過推搡和叫喊。
He became their protector and friend. In return they gave him money to buy a better car, but he preferred to get a cheap one and, in his chaotic style, fritter the rest away. At times he found he was thinking like a journalist himself, pushing his charges to get closer to the action when something newsworthy occurred. He wanted to be there in the sweat of it when history happened. Yet history seemed to have slowed almost to a stop in Congo. Nothing changed, and nothing would. Its leaders were idiots. The economy was bust.
他成為了他們的保護者和朋友。作為回報，他們給他錢去買一輛更好的汽車，但他更喜歡買一個便宜的，然后以他混亂的風格，把其余的揮霍掉。有時他會發現他像一個記者一樣思考，當有新聞價值的事情發生時，他會向事發地點飛速趕去。當歷史發生的時候，他想在那里汗流浹背。然而，歷史似乎已經放緩到幾乎止步于剛果。沒有什么改變，也不會改變。剛果的領導人是白癡。經濟崩潰了。
Some parts were given over to constant war. Fewer journalists came to cover it, so it was hardly worth waiting even outside the Grand. Il n'y a rien, il n'y a rien, he would mutter down the phone to his journalist friends who had gone home. In response they sent him clothes and money for the hospital where eventually he had to go; they had not forgotten Congo. Sadly, it seemed to him that the rest of the world had.
有些地區陷入了持續不斷的戰爭。前來報道的記者越來越少，所以即使在大飯店外也不值得等待。他會在電話里小聲對回家的記者朋友們說：“什么都沒有，什么都沒有?！弊鳛榛貞麄兘o了他衣服和去醫院要花的錢，他最終不得不去那里；他們沒有忘記剛果。不幸的是，在他看來，世界上其他地方已經忘記了剛果。
譯文由可可原創，僅供學習交流使用，未經許可請勿轉載。
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