TED演讲:大爱无疆 爱本无条件(13)

 And yet, I knew from the work I had done that if he had any of the things we were about to start testing for, 我的工作经验让我得知，如果经过哪些检查，发现他有什么问题，

that those would ultimately be his identity,and if they were his identity they would become my identity,that that illness was going to take a very different shape as it unfolded. 那将永久成为他的特性，如果这是他的特性，也将会是我的特性，这将不同于病症最初呈现的那样。

We took him to the MRI machine, we took him to the CAT scanner,we took this day-old child and gave him over for an arterial blood draw. 我们带他做核磁共振，带他做计算机化X射线轴向分层造影，我们带着这个出生仅一天的孩子做动脉抽血。

We felt helpless. 我们感到无助。

And at the end of five hours, 五个小时后，

they said that his brain was completely clear and that he was by then extending his legs correctly. 医生们说他的大脑完全没问题，也可以完全正常伸展他的双腿。

And when I asked the pediatrician what had been going on,she said she thought in the morning he had probably had a cramp¹. 当我问儿科医生这是怎么回事，她说，她觉得早上他可能抽筋了。

But I thought how my mother was right. 我认为我的母亲是正确的。

I thought, the love you have for your children is unlike any other feeling in the world, 我以为你对自己孩子的爱是不同于世界上任何其他感觉的，

and until you have children, you don't know what it feels like. 直到你有孩子，你才知道那是什么样的感觉。

I think children had ensnared me the moment I connected fatherhood with loss. 我想是孩子让我，认为自己不是个称职的父亲。

But I'm not sure I would have noticed that if I hadn't been so in the thick of this research project of mine. 但我不确定自己会注意到，要不是我做了这么繁复的研究项目，

I'd encountered so much strange love,and I fell very naturally into its bewitching patterns. 我遇到了太多奇怪的爱，然后我很自然地陷入其迷人的模式。

And I saw how splendor² can illuminate³ even the most abject⁴ vulnerabilities. 我看到光彩如何照亮最不幸的脆弱之处。

During these 10 years, I had witnessed and learned the terrifying joy of unbearable⁵ responsibility, 在这 10 年期间，我曾目睹和了解到，那些难以承受的责任，

and I had come to see how it conquers everything else. 我也看到了它如何克服一切苦难。

And while I had sometimes thought the parents I was interviewing were fools, 我曾经有时会想，我正在采访的父母是傻瓜，

enslaving themselves to a lifetime's journey with their thankless children and trying to breed identity out of misery⁶, 让自己踏上给不知感恩的孩子们一生为奴的旅程，试图从痛苦中获得身份认同，我意识到，从研究开始那天起，我已建造了一块踏板，

I realized that day that my research had built me a plank⁷ and that I was ready to join them on their ship.Thank you. 随时准备着与他们同舟共济。谢谢。

1 cramp   

n.痉挛；[pl.](腹)绞痛；vt.限制，束缚

参考例句：

• Winston stopped writing,partly because he was suffering from cramp.温斯顿驻了笔，手指也写麻了。
• The swimmer was seized with a cramp and had to be helped out of the water.那个在游泳的人突然抽起筋来，让别人帮着上了岸。

2 splendor   

n.光彩；壮丽，华丽；显赫，辉煌

参考例句：

• Never in his life had he gazed on such splendor.他生平从没有见过如此辉煌壮丽的场面。
• All the splendor in the world is not worth a good friend.人世间所有的荣华富贵不如一个好朋友。

3 illuminate   

vt.照亮，照明；用灯光装饰；说明，阐释

参考例句：

• Dreams kindle a flame to illuminate our dark roads.梦想点燃火炬照亮我们黑暗的道路。
• They use games and drawings to illuminate their subject.他们用游戏和图画来阐明他们的主题。

4 abject   

adj.极可怜的，卑屈的

参考例句：

• This policy has turned out to be an abject failure.这一政策最后以惨败而告终。
• He had been obliged to offer an abject apology to Mr.Alleyne for his impertinence.他不得不低声下气，为他的无礼举动向艾莱恩先生请罪。

5 unbearable   

adj.不能容忍的；忍受不住的

参考例句：

• It is unbearable to be always on thorns.老是处于焦虑不安的情况中是受不了的。
• The more he thought of it the more unbearable it became.他越想越觉得无法忍受。

6 misery   

n.痛苦，苦恼，苦难；悲惨的境遇，贫苦

参考例句：

• Business depression usually causes misery among the working class.商业不景气常使工薪阶层受苦。
• He has rescued me from the mire of misery.他把我从苦海里救了出来。

7 plank   

n.板条，木板，政策要点，政纲条目

参考例句：

• The plank was set against the wall.木板靠着墙壁。
• They intend to win the next election on the plank of developing trade.他们想以发展贸易的纲领来赢得下次选举。