中國日報雙語新聞
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圖：中國日報 Erik Nilsson
My nightmares have mostly stopped.
我已經漸漸不會再做噩夢了。
I don’t know if theirs have.
不知道其他人的情況怎麼樣。
Everything convulses and buries me.
2008年中國“汶川大地震”的一切，都讓我震撼又為之心痛。
convulses vt. 震撼；使劇烈震動
I snap up in bed like a mousetrap. I soon realize it never actually happened — at least to me, in real, waking life.
我躺著床上，感覺就像掉進了捕鼠夾。不久後我就意識到，這一切彷彿做夢一樣，至少對我來說是這樣，因為在我的真實生活裡沒有發生過這樣的事情。
It did to them.
但是這樣的災難卻真實地存在於一些人的命運裡。
Many were buried alive. About 90,000 didn’t survive.
在那次地震中，有很多人是被壓在廢墟下活活埋死的。大約有九萬人罹難。
Survivors awoke to a living nightmare every morning then. But some of their life dreams have come true since.
而那些倖存者們，雖然得以獲救，可是在他們接下來的生活裡，每一天都像活在噩夢中一樣。不過他們中也有一些人，實現了自己的夢想。
I spent about eight months in total making 15 journeys through the Wenchuan earthquake zone to chronicle Sichuan province’s recovery after the 8.0-magnitude temblor unleashed its seismic violence May 12, 2008.
2008年5月12日，中國四川省汶川縣發生了8.0級地震。此後，我總共花了大概八個月的時間，十五次前往汶川地震災區，記錄震後災區重建情況。
Ten years ago, the Longmen Mountains slung off their stone skins to blast flash floods of rock that inundated those below. Tectonic vehemence simultaneously warped buildings into real-life M.C. Escher paintings.
在2008年，龍門山爆發洪水般的泥石流。建築物劇烈搖晃，帶來的畫面感就像埃舍爾（M. C. Escher）的畫作呈現的一樣。
圖：中國日報 Erik Nilsson
Many people were interred.
有許多人都被掩埋在了泥石流中。
Five of my birthdays were spent at the Cave of 10,000 Dead in Sichuan province’s Yingxiu, since the date tends to fall around China’s Tomb Sweeping Day.
我在四川省映秀鎮的“汶川地震遇難者公墓”度過了五個生日，因為我的生日就在清明節前後。
Few experiences make you think about meaning like entering into another year of life surrounded by death. That is, while watching parents claw at the earth and scream at the sky, since their children will never celebrate another birthday.
很少有經歷會讓你思考何為“意義”，這就像進入生命的另一個空間，而這裡只有逝去的生命。也就是說，悲痛欲絕的父母們哭天搶地，而他們的孩子永遠也無法慶祝人生的下一段歲月了。
Over the years, more of the women I met had babies after losing their only children. Now, these kids have birthdays.
多年以來，我在地震區遇到過的很多女性，她們在地震中失去了唯一的孩子，不過在震後數年裡又有了新的孩子。
圖：中國日報 Erik Nilsson
Yu Zhengyin spent 20 hours fighting to survive after she was buried. She wanted to die once rescued since her legs were lost.
於正茵（音）被壓在廢墟下面堅持了20個小時後最終獲救。但當她得知自己失去了雙腿後，萬念俱灰，她也曾有過輕生的念頭。
Yu learned to love life again.
但如今，她學會了重新擁抱生活。
Many people with spinal injuries wondered how they’d cope without walking.
許多脊椎受傷的人，不知道在無法走路的情況下他們應該如何處理日常生活。
They did.
但最後，他們都做到了。
Then, they told me, they wondered how they’d make love with their spouses.
他們還告訴我，他們無法再與配偶行房事。
Nobody among this group in Mianyang city, at least, divorced. Some say their relationships grew.
但就算如此，在綿陽市，也沒有夫妻因為這個原因而離婚。此外，還有一些人表示自己與配偶之間的感情日漸深厚。
圖：中國日報 Erik Nilsson
I recall driving into the mountains beyond the miles and miles of tents and rubble until these improvised settlements were replaced with miles and miles of landslides that eventually clogged the bone-clattering road.
我回想起我開車進入山區看到的景象：先是路過綿延數英里的瓦礫以及作為臨時安置點的帳篷，直到這條顛簸不平的道路最後被泥石流堵塞無法前行。
We’d seen nothing for hours but the fan-shaped ejections of rock and sand that erupted from the mountaintops. Buildings’ top floors sometimes poked out like periscopes with widows for lenses. Other buildings’ bottom floors spat waterfalls from cliffs that had suddenly appeared.
幾個小時裡我們都沒有看到其他的事物，只有一些從山頂滑落的岩石和砂礫。建築物也全部坍塌，只剩下頂端在這片廢墟景象裡，孤零零的像海面上的潛望鏡。還有其他一些建築物的底部樓層，通過山崖間的瀑布，出現在我們的視野中。
We stepped out of the car.
我們停下車，從車裡出來。
Thickets of incense sticks commemorated those buried beneath like exclamation points punctuating their deaths.
一束又一束的香，是對這些埋在地下的亡靈的紀念，它們就像一個個感嘆號一樣，表達了對逝者的惋惜。
Tiny green question marks wriggled in a puddle.
綠色的“小問號”在水坑裡扭動。
圖：中國日報 Erik Nilsson
Tadpoles.
那是蝌蚪。
“Look,” my colleague, a local, said. “Life.”
我的一位當地同事衝我們叫了一聲，“看！是一條生命”。
We laughed. And cried.
我們心酸地笑了笑，然後大家又都紅了眼眶。
That was shortly after I met Xue Chen.
那次是在我遇到薛晨不久後發生的事情。
I’d volunteered at his prefabricated middle school school half a year after the disaster.
在地震後，我在薛晨創辦的預備中學當志願者，工作了半年。
He said his goal was to master English and become a tour guide to meet people from around the world and travel.
薛晨說過，他的夢想是可以學好英語然後成為一名導遊，這樣可以去世界各地旅行還能認識很多不同的人。
Today, he leads foreigners along the ancient Silk Road.
現在，他可以帶領外國遊客，介紹中國古代的“絲綢之路”。
“I had a dream,” he recently texted me.
他最近給我發短信，他說“我有一個夢想”。
“I studied and worked hard … I love my job.”
“我努力學習和工作，而且我熱愛我的職業。”
He invited me to his wedding.
Indeed, his story is one of the nightmares of a decade ago that’ve turned into dreams come true today.
其實，薛晨也只是十年前那場災難中諸多幸存者中的一位，如今，他也終於如願以償的實現了自己的夢想。
譯者：餘桐欣
About the author & broadcaster
Erik Nilsson is an American journalist who has worked in China for over 10 years. His work has won various honors, including the Chinese Government Friendship Award — the highest honor the country bestows on foreigners. He has traveled to every provincial-level jurisdiction except Chongqing, covering such stories as the Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes, nomadic communities’ development and civil society.
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