His instinct was to reach for his cane. He had kept it by his bed the last few years, because there were mornings when he no longer had the strength to get up without it. This embarrassed Eddie, who used to punch men in the shoulders when he greeted them.
爱迪下意识地伸手去抓他的拐杖。最近几年，他总把它放在床边，早晨起床的时候，他有时一定要依赖拐杖才能站起来。爱迪感到难堪，他过去跟人打招呼的时候，可是用手捶对方肩膀的。
Eddie awoke in a teacup.
爱迪在一个茶杯里醒了过来。
It was a part of some old amusement park ride -- a large teacup, made of dark, polished wood, with a cushioned seat and a steel-hinged door. Eddie's arms and legs dangled over the edges. The sky continued to change colors, from a shoe-leather brown to a deep scarlet.
这是一座老式游乐车——一个硕大的茶杯，用乌黑发亮的木头做成，有一个贴着坐垫的椅子和一扇带钢折叶的门。爱迪的胳膊和腿搭在茶杯沿上。天空不断地变幻着色调，从皮鞋的棕色，变成了殷红色。
First, he felt wonderful.
第一，他感觉好极了。
But now there was no cane, so Eddie exhaled and tried to pull himself up. Surprisingly, his back did not hurt. His leg did not throb. He yanked harder and hoisted himself easily over the edge of the teacup, landing awkwardly on the ground, where he was struck by three quick thoughts.
但是，这会儿，拐杖不见了，爱迪嘘了口气，试着站起身来。令人吃惊的是，他的背不痛了，腿也不痛了。他再一使劲，结果，他轻松地翻过了茶杯沿，脚跟不稳地站到了地上。他脑子里忽然闪过三个念头。
Second, he was all alone.
第二，他独自一人。
But it was a different Ruby Pier now. There were canvas tents and vacant grassy sections and so few obstructions you could see the mossy breakwater out in the ocean. The colors of the attractions were firehouse reds and creamy whites -- no teals or maroons -- and each ride had its own wooden ticket booth. The teacup he had awoken in was part of a primitive attraction called Spin-O-Rama. Its sign was plywood, as were the other low-slung signs, hinged on storefronts that lined the promenade: El Tiempo Cigars! Now, That's a Smoke!
但是，这是一个截然不同的“红宝石码头”。帆布帐篷，宽阔的草坪，你几乎可以眼无遮蔽地看到海里长满青苔的防浪堤。游乐设施是消防站的红色和乳白色——没有蓝绿或棕紫——而且，每座游乐设施都有自己用木板搭成的售票厅。爱迪醒来时坐的茶杯，是一座很原始的游乐车，叫做“旋转茶杯”。游乐车招牌是用胶合板做成的，红宝石码头大街两旁的铺面前，都低低地挂着这样的招牌：阿尔典雪茄！货真价实！
Third, he was still on Ruby Pier.
第三，他还在“红宝石码头”。
Eddie blinked hard. This was the Ruby Pier of his childhood, some 75 years ago, only everything was new, freshly scrubbed. Over there was the Loop-the-Loop ride -- which had been torn down decades ago -- and over there the bathhouses and the saltwater swimming pools that had been razed in the 1950s. Over there, jutting into the sky, was the original Ferris wheel -- in its pristine white paint -- and beyond that, the streets of his old neighborhood and the rooftops of the crowded brick tenements, with laundry lines hanging from the windows. Eddie tried to yell, but his voice was raspy air. He mouthed a "Hey!" but nothing came from his throat.
爱迪使劲地眨了眨眼睛。这是他童年时代的“红宝石码头”，大约七十五年前，惟一不同的是，一切都是崭新的，刚被刷过。那边是“螺旋滑行车”——几十年前已被拆除了的——那边是公共澡堂和海水游泳池，五十年代那会儿已经夷为平地了。再往那边，那高耸入云的，是最早的“阜氏摩天巨轮”——仍然涂着原先的白漆——再过去，便是他童年时的老街区和拥挤的砖结构出租公寓的房顶，窗前扯着一道道晒衣服的绳子。爱迪想喊，但是他的声音只是一团粗糙的气息。他用嘴做成一个“嘿”的形状，喉咙里却没有发出任何声音。
Chowder, 10 cents!
海鲜浓汤，十美分！
He grabbed at his arms and legs. Aside from his lack of voice, he felt incredible. He walked in a circle. He jumped. No pain. In the last ten years, he had forgotten what it was like to walk without wincing or to sit without struggling to find comfort for his lower back. On the outside, he looked the same as he had that morning: a squat barrel-chested old man in a cap and shorts and a brown maintenance jersey. But he was limber. So limber, in fact, he could touch behind his ankles, and raise a leg to his belly. He explored his body like an infant, fascinated by the new mechanics, a rubber man doing a rubber man stretch.
他抓了抓自己的胳膊和腿。除了发不出声音之外，他感觉好极了。他走了一圈。他跳了跳。不觉得痛。在过去的十年里，他已经忘记了走路不痛是什么滋味，每次坐下时都要选好角度避免腰背痛。从外表看去，他同那天早晨没什么两样：胖墩墩的阔胸老人，戴了顶帽子，穿着短裤和棕色工作衫。但是，他现在灵敏多了。实际上，他灵敏得可以伸手够到脚踝骨后面，可以把一条腿抬到腹部。他像婴儿一样探索着自己的身体，被身体的新功能给迷住了，就像一个橡胶人在做伸展表演。
Ride the Whipper -- The Sensation of the Age!
乘坐轰动本世纪的“风驰电掣”！
He ran down the heart of the old midway, where the weight guessers, fortune-tellers, and dancing gypsies had once worked. He lowered his chin and held his arms out like a glider, and every few steps he would jump, the way children do, hoping running will turn to flying. It might have seemed ridiculous to anyone watching, this white-haired maintenaance worker, all alone, making like an airplane. But the running boy is inside every man, no matter how old he gets.
他从旧游艺场的中心跑过，这里过去曾经是猜体重的人，算命的人和跳舞的吉普赛人工作的地方。他像一架滑翔机那样，收拢下颏，伸出双臂，每跑几步便跳一下，像孩子那样，仿佛跑着跑着就能飞起来了。若是有人看见，可能会觉得滑稽，这个白发苍苍的维修工，独自一人，模仿着飞机在滑翔。话说回来，每一个男人身上都有一个正在奔跑的男孩子，不管他变得多么苍老。
Ha-ha! Running! Eddie had not truly run in more than 60 years, not since the war, but he was running now, starting with a few gingerly steps, then accelerating into a full gait, faster, faster, like the running boy of his youth. He ran along the boardwalk, past a bait-and-tackle stand for fishermen (five cents) and a bathing suit rental stand for swimmers (three cents). He ran past a chute ride called The Dipsy Doodle. He ran along the Ruby Pier Promenade, beneath magnificent buildings of moorish design with spires and minarets and onion-shaped domes. He ran past the Parisian Carousel, with its carved wooden horses, glass mirrors, and Wurlitzer organ, all shiny and new. Only an hour ago, it seemed, he had been scraping rust from its pieces in the shop.
哈——哈！跑哇！六十多年了，自从战争结束以后，爱迪就没有真正地跑过，但是，他现在跑起了，先是战战兢兢地试探了几步，然后，大踏步加速，快了，更快了，就像他年轻时那个奔跑的小伙子。他沿着海滨走道一路奔跑，经过玩钓鱼游戏的摊位（五分钱）和出租游泳衣的摊位（三分钱）。他跑过一架叫做“悠悠滑”的大滑梯。他沿着红宝石码头大街奔跑，头顶上是摩尔式的雄伟建筑，有尖尖的塔顶和洋葱形的圆屋顶。他跑过“巴黎式旋转木马”，一匹匹雕刻出的木马，玻璃镜子和乌力册风琴，全部簇新锃亮。似乎仅在一个小时之前，他还在车间里从旋转木马的零配件上刮铁锈来着。
Then he ran.
然后，他跑了起来。
Eddie was standing by an empty ticket kiosk in front of a large theater. The sign above read:
爱迪正站在一个大戏院前空寂的售票厅旁。头顶的招牌上写着：
And then Eddie stopped running. He heard something. A voice, tinny, as if coming through a megaphone.
然后，爱迪停下不跑了。他听到了什么。一个细微的声音，好像从喇叭筒里传出来的。
The World's most Curious Citizens.
举世无双的怪异人物。
How about him, ladies and gentlemen? Have you ever seen such a horrible sight?…"
“女士们、先生们，这位怎么样啊？你们见过这么可怕的景象吗…”
The sideshow. The freak house. The ballyhoo hall. Eddie recalled them shutting this down at least 50 years ago, about the time television became popular and people didn't need sideshows to tickle their imagination.
杂耍表演。怪异表演厅。喧闹的走廊。爱迪记得至少五十前这些地方就被关闭了，时逢电视流行起来，人们不再需要杂耍表演来刺激他们的想像力。
Ruby pier's Sideshow!
红宝石码头杂耍表演！
Holy Smoke! They're Fat! They're Skinny!
天哪！他们胖得出奇！他们瘦得出奇！
See the Wild Man!
再看野人奇观！
Eddie peered into the entrance. He had encountered some odd people here. There was Jolly Jane, who weighed over 500 pounds and needed two men to push her up the stairs. There were conjoined twin sisters, who shared a spine and played musical instruments. There were men who swallowed swords, women with beards, and a pair of Indian brothers whose skin went rubbery from being stretched and soaked in oils, until it hung in bunches from their limbs.
爱迪朝门里望去。他在这里遇见过一些怪人。有乔丽·简，五百多磅重，要两个男人才能把她推上阶梯。有一对连体姐妹，两人一根脊柱，能演奏乐器。有能吞剑的男人，长着络腮胡子的女人，还有一对印度兄弟，皮肤由于长年拉扯且浸在油里，已经变得像橡胶一样，一堆堆地耷拉在他们的肢体上。
"Look well upon this savage, born into a most peculiar handicap…"
“好好看一看这个怪物，生下来就这么奇形怪状…”
Eddie pulled aside the curtain.
爱迪拉开帷幕。
There, sitting in a chair, alone on the stage, was a middle-aged man with narrow, stooped shoulders, naked from the waist up. His belly sagged over his belt. His hair was closely cropped. His lips were thin and his face was long and drawn. Eddie would have long since forgotten him, were it not for one distinctive feature.
那里，一个中年男子，独自坐在舞台上的一把椅子上，上身赤裸，佝偻着瘦削的肩膀。他的肚皮松松地垂在皮带上。他梳着小平头。他长着两片薄嘴唇和一张瘦长憔悴的脸。要不是他身上一个明显的特征，爱迪可能早把他忘了。
It was coming from the other side of a stage.
声音是从舞台另一端传过来的。
Eddie, as a child, had felt sorry for the sideshow cast. They were forced to sit in booths or on stages, sometimes behind bars, as patrons walked past them, leering and pointing. A barker would ballyhoo the oddity, and it was a barker's voice that Eddie heard now.
爱迪小的时候，曾经为那些杂耍演员感到难过。他们被迫坐在小棚子里或者舞台上，有时还被关在铁笼里，人们打旁边走过，斜着眼睛，又是指点又是嘲弄。一个喊场人还会大吹大擂，指出这些人的怪异之处，爱迪这会儿听到的正是喊场人的声音。
"This tragic soul has endured a perversion of nature --"
“这个悲惨的灵魂已经承受了自然的作弄…”
"Only a terrible twist of fate could leave a man in such a pitiful condition! From the farthest corner of the world, we have brought him for your examination --"
“一定是命运的残酷安排，才叫人落得如此惨状。我们把他从世界最遥远的角落带来，请大家观赏…”
"Only here, at the World's Most Curious Citizens, can you draw this near…"
“只有在这里，在这举世无双的怪异人物表演中，你才能从近处领略到…”
"Feast your eyes upon the most unus --"
“大家来大饱眼福吧，这最不寻常的…”
The barker's voice vanished. And Eddie stepped back in disbelief.
喊场人的声音消失了，爱迪诧异地退后一步。
"Hello, Edward," he said. "I have been waiting for you."
“你好，爱德华，”他说道，“我一直在等你。”
Eddie entered the darkened hall. The voice grew louder.
爱迪走进昏暗的大厅，声音变得更加响亮。
His skin was blue.
他的皮肤是蓝色的。