VOA慢速英语2016 通过明信片与陌生人分享秘密

AS IT IS 2016-05-16 Strangers Share Secrets Through Postcards 通过明信片与陌生人分享秘密

More than a million people around the world have told Frank¹ Warren their deepest secrets.

世界各地有超过一百万的人把他们藏得最深的秘密告诉给弗兰克·沃伦。

People have mailed him confessions², disappointments, and their hopes for the future. They do not tell Warren who they are.

人们发邮件告诉他自己的忏悔、失望和他们对未来的希望。但是他们不告诉沃伦他们是谁。

Warren shows his favorite postcards online and in exhibits⁴. And he shares them with people in popular presentations.

沃伦在网上和展览上展示出他最喜欢的明信片。他还在受欢迎的演讲中与人们分享这些明信片。

“Dear birth mother: I have great parents. I found love. I'm happy.”

“亲爱的生身母亲：我拥有伟大的父母。我获得了爱。我很幸福。”

“I give decaf to customers who are rude to me.”

“我把脱因咖啡给对我无礼的顾客。”

“Everyone who knew me before 9/11 believes I'm dead.”

“在9.11事件发生前认识我的人都认为我已经死了。”

Ten years ago Warren began what he thought would be a small social experiment.

十年前，沃伦开始了一个他认为将会是小型的社会实验。

“I wanted to find out if people had secrets and if they did, if they'd share them with me. So I printed up 3,000 self-addressed postcards with my home address on one side and a blank space for them to write down a secret -- something they'd never told anyone before -- and decorate the card with artwork and mail it to my home.”

“我想知道人们是否都有秘密，如果他们有秘密，他们是否会愿意与我分享。所以，我打印了3000张明信片。这些明信片一面印有我家的地址，另一面留下一片空白给人们写下他们以前从未告诉过任何人的秘密，并装饰有艺术插画和把它寄到我家这句话。”

Many people wrote their secrets on the card and mailed them to him.

有很多人在卡片上写下他们的秘密并把卡片寄给他。

Warren put some of them on his website and published some of them in books.

沃伦把其中一些明信片放到他的网站上并且把一些明信片发表到书里。

Soon, people from Ireland, Japan, South Africa, the United Kingdom, Greenland and Australia were writing their secrets on their own postcards and mailing them to him in different languages.

不久，爱尔兰人、日本人、南非人、英国人、格陵兰岛人和澳大利亚人纷纷用各自的语言把他们的秘密写在自己的明信片上寄给他。

“Ten years later I've received over a million and they keep coming -- six days a week.”

“十年里我收到了超过一百万张明信片，并且现在一周里有六天能不断收到明信片。”

Warren reads -- and keeps -- every single postcard.

沃伦阅读并保存着每一张明信片。

“I believed that if I could create a safe, non-judgmental place where people could share these hidden fantasies and fears and hopes, desires, humiliations and funny stories, hidden acts of kindness, it could really be something special.”

“我相信，如果我能创造出一个安全的、中立的地方给人们分享那些隐藏的幻想、恐惧和希望；愿望、屈辱和有趣的故事还有隐藏的善举，这可能真的很特别。”

He calls his project “PostSecret.”

他把自己的项目叫做“寄出秘密”。

More than half a million postcards from the project are shown at the Smithsonian National Postal⁵ Museum in Washington. Emily Murgia works⁶ at the museum.

项目中的明信片有超过50万张在华盛顿史密森国家邮政博物馆里展出。艾米丽·穆尔贾在那个博物馆工作。

“People love this exhibit³. We'll come in, and it's just full of people who will stay here for hours even, going postcard to postcard, having these conversations one-on-one. People will smile at some, laugh, we see people crying. They find a piece of themselves inside these secrets.”

“人们很喜欢这个展览。我们将要进到里面了，这里挤满了人。人们在这里呆上几个小时，游览这些明信片，和明信片进行一对一的交流。人们会对一些明信片微笑、大笑，我们还看见有人哭了。他们在这些秘密里看到了某方面的自己。”

“I told him my deepest secret, and he still loves me.”

“我告诉他我藏得最深的秘密，但他仍然爱我。”

“Seems like no matter what continent, no matter what language, the secrets are sharing the same fears, the same hopes, the same desires. And for me it's a privilege⁷ that so many people -- hundreds of thousands -- from around the world have trusted me with their deepest and true secrets.”

“好像不管什么大陆，无论什么语言，秘密共享着同样的恐惧、同样的希望、同样的愿望。对我来说，这是一项特权，成千上万的来自世界各地的人们信任我、告诉我他们藏得最深的、真实的秘密的特权。”

“Jail isn't anything like the movies.”

“监狱像电影一样什么都不是。”

“Inside this envelope is the ripped-up remains⁸ of a suicide⁹ note I didn't use. I feel like the happiest person on earth now.”

“在这个信封里是我没有使用的被撕毁的遗书。我觉得我现在是地球上最幸福的人。”

This is one of his favorites ...

这是他最喜欢的东西之一···

“When people I love leave voicemails on my phone I always save them in case they die tomorrow, and I have no other way of hearing their voice ever again.”

“当我爱的人在我的电话里留言，我总是保存起来，以防他们明天就去世，使得我再没有其他方式可以再次听到他们的声音。”

Words in This Story

decaf – n. coffee that does not contain caffeine; decaffeinated coffee

fantasy – n. something that is produced by the imagination

privilege – n. a special opportunity to do something that makes you proud

1 frank   

adj.坦白的，直率的，真诚的

参考例句：

• A frank discussion can help to clear the air.坦率的谈论有助于消除隔阂。
• She is frank and outgoing.她很爽朗。

2 confessions   

n.承认( confession的名词复数 )；自首；声明；（向神父的）忏悔

参考例句：

• It is strictly forbidden to obtain confessions and to give them credence. 严禁逼供信。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》
• Neither trickery nor coercion is used to secure confessions. 既不诱供也不逼供。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

3 exhibit   

vt.展览，展出，陈列；n.展览品；陈列品

参考例句：

• Next week those goods will exhibit in that shop. 下个星期，这些货物将在那家商店展出。
• The economy continued to exhibit signs of decline in September.9月份，经济继续呈现出衰退的迹象。

4 exhibits   

v.陈列，展览( exhibit的第三人称单数 )；表现；显示；[法律]当庭出示（证件、物证等）

参考例句：

• Many exhibits with characteristics of the Chinese art are on display. 许多具有中国艺术特色的展品陈列出来。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• One is dazzled by the endless array of beautiful exhibits. 展品琳琅满目，美不胜收。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

5 postal   

adj.邮政的，邮局的

参考例句：

• A postal network now covers the whole country.邮路遍及全国。
• Remember to use postal code.勿忘使用邮政编码。

6 works   

n.作品，著作；工厂，活动部件，机件

参考例句：

• We expect writers to produce more and better works.我们期望作家们写出更多更好的作品。
• The novel is regarded as one of the classic works.这篇小说被公认为是最优秀的作品之一。

7 privilege   

n.特权，优惠，特许；v.给予优惠，给予特权

参考例句：

• Of course,no country has the privilege of fishing in our coastal water.当然，在我国的领海内没有一个国家有捕鱼的特权。
• He never abuses his privilege.他从不滥用特权。

8 remains   

n.剩余物，残留物；遗体，遗迹

参考例句：

• He ate the remains of food hungrily.他狼吞虎咽地吃剩余的食物。
• The remains of the meal were fed to the dog.残羹剩饭喂狗了。

9 suicide   

n.自杀，自毁，自杀性行为

参考例句：

• The number of suicide has increased.自杀案件的数量增加了。
• The death was adjudged a suicide by sleeping pills.该死亡事件被判定为服用安眠药自杀。