英语PK台 第380期:看脸的社会,没有颜值,也可以活得精彩

 　　1. When I was seven years old, I would put my school book bag on both my shoulders and had it sit plumb¹ in the middle of my back, as backpacks were made to do.

　　在我七岁那年，我会用双肩背书包，让它处在我背部的正中央，感觉双肩包就应该这么背。

　　One morning, when it was so frigid² outside you could barely muster³ getting out of bed, my older brother joined me at the bus stop, and told me I was wearing my backpack wrong. He grabbed it, tossed it over my right shoulder with both straps⁴ on the same side and said, “There, that's better.”

　　某天早晨，外面寒风萧瑟，冷到你根本不想起床，我的哥哥跟我一同在车站等车，他告诉我我的双肩包背错了。他一把抓过来，将书包和两侧的背带甩至我的右肩，然后说：“看，这就好多了。”

　　Then he said, “You're not pretty, so you have to try harder. OK?”

　　然后他说：“你不漂亮，所以你要更加努力，明白吗？”

　　I stayed smiling because even at a young age, I understood the importance of pretending to not have emotions. In my household, it was a matter of survival. But what he said crushed me.

　　我的笑容凝固了，因为即便在青少年时期，我也知道假装不露声色的重要性。在我家里，这是一种生存技能。但是他说的让我感到崩塌。

　　2. Soon thereafter, I started picking up on the signs one receives when they aren't attractive. This was made more complicated because I had a lot of friends and people who, for the most part, liked me. I was good at sports. I had various musical talents and up until life completely fell apart at home, I was a good student. I was also a fighter so people didn't dare make fun of me overtly⁵, at least before growth spurts⁶ kicked in and the playing field was still even.

　　此后，我开始关注人们对于低颜值人的反应。这可是比较浩大的工程，因为我有许多朋友和家人，他们大部分时候还是挺喜欢我的。我擅长体育，具有各式的音乐天赋，而且直到我的家庭生活彻底支离破碎前，我也是个好学生。我同时也很好强，所以人们不太敢公然地开我玩笑。至少，在发育高峰之前，生活还是比较公平的。

　　3. Mostly, I paid for not being conventionally attractive by being ignored or not included in “moments”—the many moments attractive people experience.

　　很多时候，我因为没有高颜值而被人忽略或无法经历“某些时刻”——那些具有高颜值的人所经历的时刻。

　　Many times, I walked into a room with all of my friends and witnessed them receiving compliments—everyone except me. It's not that people look at you say, “My god, you're incredibly ugly. Tell me, how do you not kill yourself?” It's how you can stand next to an attractive person and the people around you, even the unattractive ones themselves, will say, “Wow, your friend is pretty. Look at her, have you ever seen a girl so pretty?”

　　不知多少次我和我朋友一起走进教室然后看着她们接受别人的赞美，除了我之外每个人都有。也并非人们看着你说：“天哪，你真是丑啊，你为什么还活着呢？”，而是你站在美女或帅哥旁边，人们围着你，甚至毫不起眼的人他们都会说：“噢，你的朋友真漂亮。看看她，还有谁能美过她呢？”

　　4. It took me being observant and honest to see I didn't belong. It took studying the aesthetics⁷ in photos taken by my friends and knowing something wasn't quite right. It's a lack of pride you know would be there if you were just prettier, or sexier. It's that you simply know that no matter what you do, sans literal plastic surgery, you will never belong to a certain club.

　　我善于察言观色，而且很诚实，所以我知道我注定不合主流。我仔细研究我朋友照片中的美学，然后发现某些东西并非是真理。如果你仅仅是姿色更上一层或性感尤物，你却缺乏油然而生的自豪感。你明白无论你怎改变，除非整形，你永远不会属于高颜值的团体。

　　But here is where I throw you a curve ball: my being unattractive hasn't stopped me from living the other side's life. Most people never figure out how to navigate⁸ this world I live in. I will just tell you I rejected the rules of the beautiful, and learned how to make them work for me.

　　但是现在我给你一剂药方：我的不出众的相貌并不能阻止我拥有自己的生活。许多人在处于和我一样的境地时都不知道如何掌控他们自己的方向。我想告诉你的是：我打破了颜值定律并让他们变得有利于自己。

　　5. I decided⁹ I would shoot out of my league. I made friends and dated people I shouldn't be allowed to date. I stepped over the line. I surrounded myself with individuals who are more educated, prettier or smarter than me, even in the face of people saying, quite literally¹⁰, “They are out of your league.”

　　我决定扩展我的圈子，我和以前觉得不能交朋友的人交朋友，和以前觉得不能约的人约会。我越过了那条线，周围全是比我更有学识、更漂亮的人，甚至人们告诉我，非常实事求是地说：“他们可不是你圈子里的人啊。”

　　I may not technically¹¹ be the smartest or most beautiful person, but I run with those who are. I become by association, even a touch of such, even at a lower rank—beautiful. I buck¹² the system.

　　我也许不会是最聪明最漂亮的人，但是我和这些人一同奋斗，哪怕仅有一点点提升，哪怕仍然没那么漂亮，我踢爆了这个固有的规则。

　　6. To do so, yes, means you may be painfully aware of what you are and will never be. You will be defined by what you have the nerve to aim at being. In doing so, you will challenge and question what smart is. You will not be generic¹³, or predictable. Attractive is only what we define it to be. Don't pigeonhole¹⁴ yourself so quickly. Live the life you want to live—even if you didn't win the genetic¹⁵ lottery¹⁶.

　　是的，这样做你也许会痛苦的发现自己的真相并再也不可能成为“漂亮”的人。你前进的目标将定义你自己。如此一来，你会挑战和质疑“聪慧”。你将成为个例或非等闲之辈。美丽仅仅是我们给的定义。别那么快的给自己归类，即使你没有天赋，也要活出自己的精彩。

1 plumb   

adv.精确地，完全地；v.了解意义，测水深

参考例句：

• No one could plumb the mystery.没人能看破这秘密。
• It was unprofitable to plumb that sort of thing.这种事弄个水落石出没有什么好处。

2 frigid   

adj.寒冷的，凛冽的；冷淡的；拘禁的

参考例句：

• The water was too frigid to allow him to remain submerged for long.水冰冷彻骨，他在下面呆不了太长时间。
• She returned his smile with a frigid glance.对他的微笑她报以冷冷的一瞥。

3 muster   

v.集合，收集，鼓起，激起；n.集合，检阅，集合人员，点名册

参考例句：

• Go and muster all the men you can find.去集合所有你能找到的人。
• I had to muster my courage up to ask him that question.我必须鼓起勇气向他问那个问题。

4 straps   

n.带子( strap的名词复数 )；挎带；肩带；背带v.用皮带捆扎( strap的第三人称单数 )；用皮带抽打；包扎；给…打绷带

参考例句：

• the shoulder straps of her dress 她连衣裙上的肩带
• The straps can be adjusted to suit the wearer. 这些背带可进行调整以适合使用者。

5 overtly   

ad.公开地

参考例句：

• There were some overtly erotic scenes in the film. 影片中有一些公开色情场面。
• Nietzsche rejected God's law and wrote some overtly blasphemous things. 尼采拒绝上帝的律法，并且写了一些渎神的作品。

6 spurts   

短暂而突然的活动或努力( spurt的名词复数 )； 突然奋起

参考例句：

• Great spurts of gas shoot out of the sun. 太阳气体射出形成大爆发。
• Spurts of warm rain blew fitfully against their faces. 阵阵温热的雨点拍打在他们脸上。

7 aesthetics   

n.(尤指艺术方面之)美学，审美学

参考例句：

• Sometimes, of course, our markings may be simply a matter of aesthetics. 当然，有时我们的标点符号也许只是个审美的问题。 来自名作英译部分
• The field of aesthetics presents an especially difficult problem to the historian. 美学领域向历史学家提出了一个格外困难的问题。

8 navigate   

v.航行，飞行；导航，领航

参考例句：

• He was the first man to navigate the Atlantic by air.他是第一个飞越大西洋的人。
• Such boats can navigate on the Nile.这种船可以在尼罗河上航行。

9 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

10 literally   

adv.照字面意义，逐字地；确实

参考例句：

• He translated the passage literally.他逐字逐句地翻译这段文字。
• Sometimes she would not sit down till she was literally faint.有时候，她不走到真正要昏厥了，决不肯坐下来。

11 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

12 buck   

n.雄鹿，雄兔；v.马离地跳跃

参考例句：

• The boy bent curiously to the skeleton of the buck.这个男孩好奇地弯下身去看鹿的骸骨。
• The female deer attracts the buck with high-pitched sounds.雌鹿以尖声吸引雄鹿。

13 generic   

adj.一般的，普通的，共有的

参考例句：

• I usually buy generic clothes instead of name brands.我通常买普通的衣服，不买名牌。
• The generic woman appears to have an extraordinary faculty for swallowing the individual.一般妇女在婚后似乎有特别突出的抑制个性的能力。

14 pigeonhole   

n.鸽舍出入口；v.把...归类

参考例句：

• The pigeonhole principle is an important principle in combinatorics.鸽巢原理是组合学中一个非常重要的原理。
• I don't want to be pigeonholed as a kids' presenter.我不想被归类为儿童节目主持人。

15 genetic   

adj.遗传的，遗传学的

参考例句：

• It's very difficult to treat genetic diseases.遗传性疾病治疗起来很困难。
• Each daughter cell can receive a full complement of the genetic information.每个子细胞可以收到遗传信息的一个完全补偿物。

16 lottery   

n.抽彩；碰运气的事，难于算计的事

参考例句：

• He won no less than ￡5000 in the lottery.他居然中了5000英镑的奖券。
• They thought themselves lucky in the lottery of life.他们认为自己是变幻莫测的人生中的幸运者。