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On a cool night recently,a woman was murdered in front of my apartment in Chelsea.She was sleeping in her car when someone-evidently trying to steal her car radio-was surprised by her,and slashed her throat with a knife.
The woman killed was only a few years older than I,and her photograph in the papers was familiar.Many neighbors had seen her coming and going from the Buddhist temple next door,and so she was one of us-another daily face you'd pass,unknown but still part of the surroundings.That she slept in her car was not even surprising,just another thing people do in Naw York.We regarded it with the silence with which one sees everything in this city-the silence of blasé acceptance.
Here is the core of the tragedy.An upstairs neighbor,wakened by her car horn,watched from his window as the stabbed woman staggered from her car,made her way up the steps of the temple and rattled the doorknob in vain.In the darkness,he could not see her profuse bleeding,but he could hear her speaking strangely,asking for what sounded like her mother.She was drunk,he assumed,or high,and he watched her make her way back to the car and drive away quickly.She died a few moments later.
Even at 4 o'clock in the morning,on a deserted block in Chelsea,what our neighbor saw did not seem unusual.He had the New York reaction of the 1980's,and assumed she was just another one of the city's huge corps of the deranged,the homeless,the addicted,the drunk.He didn't even consider going downstairs to help her;after all,how many dozens didn't he help just that day?To do so would have taken hours and dollars that cannot be spared,so my neighbor did what any of us would have done.He went back to sleep.
I cannot say I blame him.I was sitting in my living room while the murder took place right in front of my windows.In my sleeplessness,I was drinking hot milk and flipping through a travel magazine,steadfastly ignoring the weird murmuring of the girl outside.In fact,I didn't even think of getting up to see what might be wrong.Years of living in New York City had trained me:The distress you hear is nothing serious.It's only a drunk or a bum.
A few hours later,when the detectives questioned me,I was ashamed to admit what I had heard.Perhaps it wasn't her,but it probably was.If only I hadn't been so smug,if only I'd gone to the window,perhaps I could have done something.The doctor next door said no one could have saved her,but I tell myself I could have held her,or reassured her,or even tried to get a description of the assailant.At least she wouldn't have died so pitifully,ignored by her neighbors because they thought she was a drunk,when in fact,she was looking for help.
That this should be a normal reaction says something about our life here.What begins as compassion,when you first arrive,gets ground to dust by the daily barrage of people dressed in garbage bags,passed out in doorways,making loud,plaintive pitches on the subway or displaying their mutilated limbs in an attempt to get some change.The sheer numbers of these people exhaust the soul.To live here at all,you have to be callous.
The morning after the murder,I washed away the vicim's bloodstains that covered the sidewalk;as I did,a stream of people in business clothes walked by,neatly picking their way past the stains,papers and briefcases tucked under their arms.No one seemed to notice or care what I was doing.No one asked what had happened.They averted their eyes-avoiding the pain--keeping their mind on more important things.That someone died here was just another incident to file away,another fact of this strange place.
这是一篇文笔犀利、语言流畅、条理清晰的短文。作者Suzanne Falter-Barnes是美国当代作家，著有小说Doin' the Box Step。这篇讲述发生于纽约曼哈顿切尔西区一桩凶杀案的短文刊登在1989年11月25日的《时代》周刊杂志上，全文不足700字。作者在如此短小的篇幅内，用冷静客观的文笔，描述了人们在耳闻目睹了一桩凶杀案后如何若无其事地重新坠入梦乡，并借此揭示了这样一个事实：光怪陆离的大都市销蚀了人们的同情心，使人们变得麻木而冷漠。
文章的第一段开门见山引入了这样一个事实：On a cool night recently,a woman was murdered in front of my apartment in Chelsea.Chelsea是纽约曼哈顿的一个区。而这名妇女被杀的原因非常简单，She was sleeping in her car when someone-evidently trying to steal her car radio-was surprised by her,and slashed her throat with a knife。歹徒没料到车中有人，反被吓了一跳，慌乱中用刀切断了她的喉管。slash是“make long cuts with sweeping strokes”的意思，引申义有“严厉批评”之意，如slash a new book；用于口语中常指“大幅地减少”，如：slash prices/taxes/salaries。
在第二段中出现了see somebody doing something的用法，意思是“看见某人正在做某事”。somebody的后面也可接不定式，但表示的意思略有不同，后者通常指看见了整个动作。如I saw the boy cross the road，意思是“我看见那个男孩过了马路（从一边走到另一边）”。而I saw the boy crossing the road是“我看见那个男孩正在过马路（正在路中间走着）”。类似的感知动词还有hear,watch,feel,observe等。在文章中还有几例，如第三段中的he could hear her speaking strangely和he watched her make her way back to the car and drive away。第二段下一句That she slept in her car was not even surprising的意思是“甚至连她在车中睡觉这件事也不令人惊奇”。此处that引导的是一个主语从句，也可改写为the fact that，只是前一种用法更为正式。该段的最后出现了一个较为生僻的词blasé。Longman Dictionary of Contemporary.English（《朗文当代英语辞典》）的解释是：not worried or excited about things that most people think are important,impressive etc;Random House Webster's Dictionary of American English（《兰登书屋韦氏美语学习词典》）的解释是：indifferent to or bored with life.可以参考这两种解释，理解为“漠不关心的、无动于衷的”。而the silence of blasé acceptance可以理解为“一种无动于衷的默认”。作者并没有指出这位妇女姓甚名谁，只是强调她不过是居住在该区的芸芸众生中的一员。
从第三段开始，作者笔锋一转，开始反思这场悲剧的原因。她引用了两个例子，一个是楼上的邻居，另一个是I，可以理解为笔者自己。楼上的一位邻居被汽车喇叭声惊醒后，从窗口看见了那位受伤的妇女。stagger形容这名妇女受伤后走路摇摇晃晃的样子。英文中表示走路姿势的词还有shuffle,trudge,totter等。shuffle是“拖曳着脚走路”；trudge是“因为劳累而脚步沉重地走”；totter是指“蹒跚，跌跌撞撞”，常形容小孩蹒跚学步的样子。另外还有creep（蹑手蹑脚地走）和tiptoe（踮起脚尖走）等。这一段中还有一个表示走路姿势的动词词组make her way(up the steps)，和make her way(back to the car)，意思是“艰难地、吃力地行走”。rattle the doorknob是指扭动门把手时发出咔哒咔哒的声音，rattle在此处是象声词。这一段中还有一个词high,Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English的解释是：a feeling of pleasure or excitement produced by some drugs，即“吸毒后的兴奋状态”。
第四段，作者对邻居的这种反应作了进一步的分析。她提到了上世纪八十年代的纽约，治安状况恶劣，人们经常在街上看到huge corps of the deranged,the homeless,the addicted,the drunk（成群结队的精神病患者、无家可归者、瘾君子、酒鬼）。corps原意是“兵团、团体”，在此处可理解为“成群结队”的意思。the deranged这种定冠词后接形容词的用法，指具有某种特征的人，如the rich（富人），the poor（穷人），the disabled（残疾人）。正因为有如此数量庞大的各色人等，这位邻居才对所看到的一切熟视无睹。毕竟，那天他没有帮助过的人何止这一个，犯不着为此搭上金钱和时间。因此他又回到床上，坠入了梦乡。此处he went back to sleep呼应了文章的题目。人们的冷漠和这起血腥案件的残酷形成了强烈的对比，从而进一步揭示了文章的主题。
第五段作者由人及己，谈到了自己的感受。首先点明当窗外这桩凶杀案发生的时候，“我”正坐在起居室内drinking hot milk and flipping through a travel magazine。flip through是“快速地翻阅”，其后的steadfastly（坚定地）指作者坚定地毫不理会外面那个女孩奇怪的喃喃声。接着作者进一步剖析了自己的内心活动。1 didn't even think of getting up to see what might be wrong.身居纽约数年把“我”训练成了一个事不关己、高高挂起的人。这一部分有一个词distress，它的意思很多，有“痛苦”、“贫穷”、“困难”等。要决定distress在这句话中的意思，必须考虑定语从句中的动词，要能和hear搭配上，因此可理解为“痛苦的呻吟”。bum是流浪汉。作者认为那个人不过是一个醉鬼或流浪汉，表明她当时对此事的态度是充耳不闻。
但作者毕竟是一个有良知的人。在接下来警察对她的盘问中，她感到了内疚。她连续用了几个含有虚拟语气的句子来表示自责。If only是常见的一种用法，后面通常用过去时或过去完成时，表示强烈的愿望或遗憾。此处If only I hadn't been so smug,if only I'd gone to the window意思是“如果当时我没有那么自以为是，如果当时我到窗口去看一下，我也许能做些什么”。reassure的意思是make someone feel calmer and less worried，此处是“安慰”的意思。最后一句中的when作连词，意思是although/despite the fact that，因此原文应理解为“他们认为她喝醉了，但事实上，她是在寻求帮助”。
第七段以两个主语从句开头，文体正式而庄重。What begins as compassion,when you first arrive,gets ground to dust…，（初到纽约时的同情心被迅速地碾为齑粉）。ground是grind的过去分词，get ground to dust是“被碾成尘埃、化为齑粉”的意思。接下来的几个并列的定语成分描绘了纽约这个大都会中的怪现状。要正确理解这一部分，必须搞清所有词的含义。barrage是“数量庞大”的意思。pass out是俚语，意思是faint。plaintive用来形容声音，意思是high,like someone crying and sounds sad。mutilate是“使断肢、使残废”。这一部分的意思是“垃圾袋裹身的穷人，醉卧门前的酒鬼，在地铁上狂呼乱叫的人，为索要几个小钱而把自己伤残的肢体暴露在外的乞丐”。寥寥数笔，写尽了纽约的怪现状。最后两句中的exhaust是“耗尽”的意思，callous是“冷淡的、无感觉的”，at all起强调作用。作者的结论是：生活在这里，你不得不变得麻木不仁。
结尾一段，作者用pick their way,avert their eyes,file away这几个动词描述了路人对此事的反应。pick one's way through/across是move slowly and carefully,choosing exactly where to put your feet down;aven your eyes是look away from something you do not want to see。第二天早上，当“我”冲洗人行道上的血迹时，行人们只是小心翼翼地绕开路上的血迹，对这一切视而不见，不闻不问。file away是“归档”的意思，这里指人们对这种事已习以为常，只把它当作一件平常事归档而已。
文章篇幅虽短，但内容丰富，语言流畅。作者并没有运用大量感情色彩浓厚的词语，而是如摄像机般客观地摄下人们的反应。这种客观后面是一种冷静、一种深思、一种悲叹，那就是悲叹人们面对残酷选择了逃避，选择了视而不见、听而不闻；室外血溅，室内鼾声依旧。
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