美女与英雄(3)

We never know what a hero will look like. Sometimes a world changing hero is a tiny little teenage girl creeping through the freezing Gobi desert in the dark of night. 💪

我们无从知晓一个英雄外表看起来像什么。有时改变世界的英雄就是一个十几岁的小女孩，在黑漆漆的夜晚穿越冰冷的戈壁滩。

Source
下面是美女英雄的自传小说“In order to live为了活下去”的节选部分。

On the cold, black night of March 31, 2007, my mother and I scrambled down the steep, rocky bank of the frozen Yalu River that divides North Korea and China. There were patrols above us and below, and guard posts one hundred yards on either side of us manned by soldiers ready to shoot anyone attempting to cross the border. We had no idea what would come next, but we were desperate to get to China, where there might be a chance to survive.

2007年3月31日一个黑黑的寒冷夜晚，母亲和我爬下了鸭绿江－中国和北朝鲜的分水岭－陡峭多石的河岸。我们上上下下都是巡逻，100米远的两边哨所都配备了准备随时射杀越界偷渡者的士兵们。我们不知道接下来会怎样，但是我们迫切地想要到达中国，因为那里或许还有活下来的机会。

I was thirteen years old and weighed only sixty pounds. Just a week earlier, I’d been in a hospital in my hometown of Hyesan along the Chinese border, suffering from a severe intestinal infection that the doctors had mistakenly diagnosed as appendicitis. I was still in terrible pain from the incision, and was so weak I could barely walk.

我只有13岁，体重仅仅60磅。就在一周前，我还躺在中国边境惠山市家乡的一家医院里。我患上了严重的肠道感染，医生却误诊为阑尾炎。现在我仍承受着切除阑尾可怕的疼痛，虚弱得几乎无法行走。

The young North Korean smuggler who was guiding us across the border insisted we had to go that night. He had paid some guards to look the other way, but he couldn’t bribe all the soldiers in the area, so we had to be extremely cautious. I followed him in the darkness, but I was so unsteady that I had to scoot down the bank on my bottom, sending small avalanches of rocks crashing ahead of me. He turned and whispered angrily for me to stop making so much noise. But it was too late. We could see the silhouette of a North Korean soldier climbing up from the riverbed. If this was one of the bribed border guards, he didn’t seem to recognize us.

引领我们越界的北朝鲜蛇头坚持我们必须夜晚行动。他已经贿赂了一些警卫故意朝别处看，但他毕竟无法贿赂所有的警卫。所以我们仍然必须异常小心。我在黑暗中跟随着他，脚步踉踉跄跄，只跌撞到身下的岸堤，引得脚前的石头发出轰的声响。他转过身来，怒冲冲地低语我说不要出声。但是太迟了。我们能看到一名北朝鲜士兵的身影正从河床上浮现出来。如果他就是我们曾贿赂过的边境守卫之一，看上去他似乎并没认出我们来。

“Go back!” the soldier shouted. “Get out of here!”

“回去！滚出去！”士兵喊道。

Our guide scrambled down to meet him and we could hear them talking in hushed voices. Our guide returned alone.

我们的向导爬下河岸去会见他了，我们能听到他们在私语。然后，向导独自返回来了。

“Let’s go,” he said. “Hurry!”

“我们走，快！”他说。

It was early spring, and the weather was getting warmer, melting patches of the frozen river. The place where we crossed was steep and narrow, protected from the sun during the day so it was still solid enough to hold our weight—we hoped. Our guide made a cell phone call to someone on the other side, the Chinese side, and then whispered, “Run!”

这是初春，天气回暖，冰封的河面上有些地方已开始融化了。所幸我们穿越的地方又陡又窄，免于白天阳光的照射。我们暗自希望河面的冰足够坚硬，坚硬到撑得住我们的体重。向导给对面中国区的某人手机联系了一下，随后低声说，“快跑！”

注：在翻译的过程中，尤喜一句：but I was so unsteady that I had to scoot down the bank on my bottom, sending small avalanches of rocks crashing ahead of me. 只是苦于找不出适当的中文来描述，但我却有过这样的切身体会。比如走在崎岖的山路上，一不小心被脚前的石块绊住了，那些土里的碎石松动起来就会四处迸溅，真的像avalanche雪崩一样。作者神来之笔，让人身临其境，感同身受越界的那种箭在弦上不得不发的紧张恐慌，难怪In order to live成为亚马逊国际网站上最畅销最火爆小说之一(除了不同寻常的内容)。