英国卫报:西班牙小镇为何成疫情重灾区(7)（在线收听）

But this was no idyll. The internet kept me, and the rest of the town, hooked on the minute-by-minute narrative of death.

但这不是田园生活。互联网让我和镇上的其他人时刻关注着每分钟关于死亡的记述。

There were still loved ones to fret about. The countryside was strangely still and hushed.

仍然有亲人在烦恼。乡间出奇地寂静无声。

There were no clanking tractors, petrol-powered bush-cutters, jangling goat bells, braying mules or cussing herdsmen.

没有铿锵作响的拖拉机，没有汽油驱动的割草机，没有丁当作响的山羊铃铛，没有嘶叫的骡子，也没有说脏话的牧民。

Most of the local farmers live in town, and could only leave to feed livestock.

当地的农民大多住在城里，只能离开去喂牲畜。

I even missed things that normally bothered me.

我甚至想念那些通常会困扰我的事情。

Distant traffic and overhead flights– tiny pinpricks of moving light in the night sky – disappeared.

远处的车辆和头顶的飞机——夜空中移动的光点——消失了。

I was too far away from town to share the evening applause for health workers that boosted morale and upheld the sense of community.

我当时离市区太远，无法与大家分享晚上为鼓舞士气和维护社区意识的卫生工作者们鼓掌的掌声。

Just like in cities, loneliness hit people hard. My closest neighbour, Santi, is a self-sufficient countryman in his mid-70s.

就像在城市中一样，孤单沉重打击了人们。离我最近的邻居桑蒂是一位70多岁的自给自足的乡下人。

He moved in near to me a decade ago, doing up his small barn. Santi is a man who needs to talk.

十年前，他搬到我附近，整理他的小谷仓。桑蒂是一个需要聊天的人。

Before lockdown, most days he would have coffee at the petrol station cafe and, later, take a walk up the river with friends.

在禁闭之前，多数时候，他会在加油站的咖啡馆里喝咖啡，然后和朋友们沿河散步。

Now these were forbidden. “If you don’t speak, you start forgetting how,” he said after finding another reason to appear at my gate.

现在这些被禁止了。“如果不说话，你就会忘记怎么说话。”他找了另一个理由出现在我的门口后说。

Sometimes he sat on a nearby rock for an hour, waiting for some company.

有时他会在附近的石头上坐上一个小时，就为了等人来陪。

Santi has a fine sense of humour and I was grateful for his easy laugh, even as I fretted about how far a virus might travel on the wind.

桑蒂很有幽默感，我很感激他轻松的笑声，尽管我担心病毒会随着风传播多远。

Whenever we spoke of someone dying, he shrugged. “People have always died,” he said.

不论何时我们聊到死去的人时，他都会耸肩。他说，“总是有人死去。”

But his health isn’t good and he was also scared.

但是他身体不好，他也很害怕。

On his visits into town, the grocer and baker made him stay in his car while they put his food in the boot.

他进城时，杂货店老板和面包师让他呆在车里，而他们把食物放在后备箱里。

There was no chatting. Isolation is isolation, wherever you are.

没有人聊天。隔离就是隔离，无论你在哪里。

In Santo Domingo de La Calzada, the dead included Gregorio Saez, a well-known figure in a town where the Catholic church plays a central role.

在圣多明戈·德拉卡尔扎达，死者包括格雷戈里奥·萨斯，一个在天主教会发挥中心作用的城镇里的知名人物。

The 83-year-old was prior of the lay Brotherhood of Saint Isidore the Farmer, which parades an image of their saint around town during its May fiestas.

这位83岁的老人是圣伊西多尔世俗兄弟会的长老，该组织在5月的节日期间在城镇各处游行展示他们的圣人的形象。

Santo Domingo’s five brotherhoods, or cofradias, are an essential part of local life.

圣多明各的五个兄弟团体是当地生活的重要组成部分。

Some date back almost to the town’s founding by the 11th century shepherd-hermit, Saint Dominic of the Causeway, after whom the town is named.

其中一些可以追溯到11世纪的牧师隐士，圣道明创建小镇的时候，小镇就是以他的名字命名的。