For a man who once weighed 980 pounds and had already lost 650 of them, the loss of 50 more — the amount that vanished after Paul Mason's nine-and-a-half-hour operation last month — might not seem like a big deal.
对于一个曾重达980磅（约为445公斤），并已经减掉650磅（约为295公斤）的人来说，再减掉50磅好像根本不算什么。保罗·梅森就是这样，他上个月刚刚通过9个半小时的手术减掉了50磅（23公斤）。
But Mr. Mason, who at his heaviest was known informally as the world's fattest man, had been all but crippled by those 50 pounds, loose skin that hung over his body like melted wax over a candlestick. And so its absence has made all the difference.
但是对于梅森——这个体重最重时被民间传为世界上最胖的人来说， 身上50磅松松垮垮的皮肤就像融化的烛蜡堪堪挂在烛台上一样，这50磅消失后，一切都不一样了。
It means he can get out of his wheelchair and go for a walk. It means he can take a shower standing up. It means that his knees no longer ache, that he can slip easily in and out of bed without feeling like he has anvils strapped to his thighs, that he has sensation in his feet, and that when he puts his pants on he does not have to contend with an apron of extra flesh flopping from his waist to his thighs.
现在的他可以甩掉轮椅独立行走；可以站着洗澡。现在的他膝盖不再疼痛；上下床时不再像大腿绑着铁砧一样；双脚也有了知觉；穿裤子时也不用再和从腰上耷拉到大腿的一圈肉做斗争。

"It seems a bit weird," Mr. Mason said recently. "I'd got so used to maneuvering my excess skin out of the way."
"感觉有点诡异，"梅森最近说道。"毕竟我已经习惯随时把我多余的皮肤想办法拨开了。"
It took a lot of planning and a great deal of good fortune for Mr. Mason, who is 54 and comes from Ipswich, England, to have the operation at all. Lenox Hill Hospital on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, where it was performed, waived all its fees. So did the four plastic surgeons who operated, and so did the general surgeon, the anesthesiologist and the nurses who took part.
来自英国伊普斯维奇现年54岁的梅森做足了准备才终于完成了这项手术。进行手术的曼哈顿上东区勒诺克斯山医院免去了一切手术费用。同时，执刀的四名整形外科医生、普通外科医生、麻醉师和参加手术的护士都没收取任何费用。
Mr. Mason's bills would probably have exceeded $250,000, said Dr. Jennifer Capla, the surgeon who led the team at Lenox Hill.
据勒诺克斯山医院领导这支手术队伍的医师珍妮弗·卡普拉说，梅森的账单大概会超出25万美元（约合155.2万元）。
It took Mr. Mason a long time to get as fat as he was, and it has taken him a long time to try to shed all that weight and find a life approaching normalcy. Bullied, sexually abused and unloved as a child, he said he dulled his feelings with more and more food. Eventually he got into bed and kept eating until he became too heavy to get out. Finally, spurred by a sympathetic therapist, he had gastric bypass surgery, in England, overhauled his diet and dropped to 350 pounds.
梅森经历了很长时间才变得这么胖，又花了很长时间瘦下来，过上正常人的生活。幼年时期遭遇的欺凌、性虐待、失宠让他依赖越来越多地进食来发泄情绪。结果他躺到床上，一直不停地吃，吃到胖得没法下床。最终，在一名同情他的临床医师的鼓励下，他在英国进行了胃分流手术，彻底改变了饮食，把体重减到了350磅。
Back at home now in Orange, Mass., where Mr. Mason has moved to be with Ms. Mountain, the couple still faces many obstacles.
如今梅森已经回到家乡马萨诸塞州的奥兰治市，并和蒙特恩住在了一起。然而这对眷侣面前的路途依旧坎坷。
Though her cat-furniture business is beginning to take off, Ms. Mountain said, she does all the work herself and she struggles to keep up with orders. Money is very tight, and there are issues surrounding Mr. Mason's immigration status.
蒙特恩说，尽管她的猫家具事业正有所起色，但她要独立负担所有工作，疲于及时处理接到的订单。家里财政紧缺，同时梅森的移民身份也有些问题。
His visa is scheduled to run out in a few months. He and Ms. Mountain cannot get married and live together in the United States until she can prove to the authorities that she has the means to support him as well as herself, she said.
梅森的签证还有几个月就到期了。如果蒙特恩不能证明自己有能力同时养活他和自己，他们就不能在美国结婚生活，她解释道。
"Somehow or other he will find a way to stay, and then he can maybe take a part-time job in town," she said.
"总有办法能留下的，到时候他大概可以在城里做份兼职吧，"她说。
"Stacking shelves, whatever I can do," Mr. Mason said. "I don't mind."
"摆架子，只要是我能做的就行，"梅森说。"我不在意具体是什么工作。"
Down the line, he hopes to have at least one more operation, to remove the flesh that still hangs from his upper arms. But that is in the future. At the moment Mr. Mason is just adjusting to his new self, emerging into a different life; one with more possibility.
梅森希望将来至少能再进行一次手术，切除他耷拉在上臂的肉。但这些都是后话，现在的梅森还在适应全新的自己，步入完全不同的人生，感受新人生的万千可能。
He does not get as tired as he did just after the operation and is now walking his dog, Duke, in the garden every morning, something that was unthinkable before. He and Ms. Mountain have done some gardening, and are starting to make plans to grow vegetables and fruit.
梅森觉得和术后初期相比已经没那么累了。现在他每天早上在花园里遛他的狗，杜克(Duke)，这在以前想都不敢想。他和蒙特恩一起修建了花园，并筹划着种上蔬菜水果。
The other day, they went to the movies. It seems like a small thing, but it wasn't.
前几天他们还一起去看了场电影。听上去没什么但实际上却很特别。
"I was able to sit in a cinema seat for the first time in 30 years and hold hands and cuddle, like couples do," he said.
"这是我人生三十年来第一次能坐在电影院座位里，还能像情侣一样牵手拥抱，"他说。