美女与英雄(4)

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。

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上接美女与英雄(3)

The guide started running, but my feet would not move and I clung to my mother. I was so scared that I was completely paralyzed. The guide ran back for us, grabbed my hands, and dragged me across the ice. When we reached solid ground, we started running and didn’t stop until we were out of sight of the border guards.

向导开始跑了。可我的脚步不能动弹，我紧紧拽住母亲，恐惧得完全瘫痪了。向导又折回去，一把抓住我的手，把我拖过了冰冻的江面上。当我们一踏上坚实的泥土地，又开始一溜烟地跑了，直跑得远远的，远到越过了边境卫兵们的视线。

The riverbank was dark, but the lights of Chaingbai, China, glowed just ahead of us. I turned to take a quick glance back at the place where I was born. The electric power grid was down, as usual, and all I could see was a black, lifeless horizon. I felt my heart pounding out of my chest as we arrived at a small shack on the edge of some flat, vacant fields.

江岸黑黑的，但中国长白县的灯光在我们眼前闪烁。我转回去快速瞥了一眼我出生的地方。那里总是电网不足，我所能看到的只是一片毫无生机黑乎乎的地平线。当我们到达一些平整空旷土地的边缘时，我的心怦怦地快要从胸膛里跳出来。

I wasn’t dreaming of freedom when I escaped from North Korea. I didn’t even know what it meant to be free. All I knew was that if my family stayed behind, we would probably die—from starvation, from disease, from the inhuman conditions of a prison labor camp. The hunger had become unbearable; I was willing to risk my life for the promise of a bowl of rice.

我逃离北朝鲜时，并没期望自由。事实上，我甚至不知自由是什么概念。我只知道，如果我的家庭继续留在北朝鲜，我们很可能会死于饥饿，疾病和监狱劳动营的恶劣非人环境。饥饿如此难耐，我愿意冒着生命危险去换取一碗米饭的希望。

But there was more to our journey than our own survival. My mother and I were searching for my older sister, Eunmi, who had left for China a few days earlier and had not been heard from since. We hoped that she would be there waiting for us when we crossed the river. Instead the only person to greet us was a bald, middle-aged Chinese man, an ethnic North Korean like many of the people living in this border area. The man said something to my mother, and then led her around the side of the building. From where I waited I could hear my mother pleading, “Aniyo! Aniyo!” No! No!

但我们的旅途除了为生计外，也为了找寻我姐姐Eunmi。她已先于我们几天前动身到中国，自此了无音讯。我们好希望一跨越鸭绿江面，她能在那边等我们。但我们迎面遇到的是一位中年秃头男子－－边境地区的朝鲜族中国人。那人对我母亲说了些什么，随后带她到建筑物边上。从那里我听到母亲在哀恳，“哦，不，不”。

I knew then that something was terribly wrong. We had come to a bad place, maybe even worse than the one we had left.

我知道有可怕的坏事。我们来到了一个坏地方，也许比我们离开的地方更坏。