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In Chelsea, Back to Sleep Suzanne Falter-Barns

（Suzanne Falter-Barns is a novelist and essayist. Her novel, Doin' the Box Step, was published in 1992. Her essays have appeared in The New York Times, Adweek, and other periodicals. Her essay on a murder on the street outside her apartment in the Chelsea district of Manhattan appeared in the Times on November 25, 1989. ）

On a cool night recently, a woman was murdered in front of my apartment in Chelsea. She was sleeping in her car when someone—evidently trying to steal her car radio—was surprised by her, and slashed her throat with a knife.

The woman killed was only a few years older than I, and her photograph in the papers was familiar. Many neighbors had seen her coming and going from the Buddhist temple next door, and so she was one of us—another daily face you'd pass, unknown but still part of the surroundings. That she slept in her car was not even surprising, just another thing people do in New York. We regard it with the silence with which one sees everything in this city—the silence of blase acceptance.

Here is the core of the tragedy. An upstairs neighbor, wakened by her car horn, watched from his window as the stabbed woman staggered from her car, made her way up the steps of the temple and rattled the doorknob in vain. In the darkness, he could not see her profuse bleeding, but he could hear her speaking strangely, asking for what sounded like her mother. She was drunk, he assumed, or high, and he watched her make her way back to the car and drive away quickly. She died a few moments later.

参考译文

在切尔西，回去睡觉吧--Suzanne Falter-Barns

在切尔西，不久前的一个凉爽的夜晚，一个妇女在我的公寓前被杀了。有人--显然是试图偷她的汽车无线电时--发现她睡在汽车里，并用刀子将她的喉咙砍伤。

死者只比我大几岁，对于报纸上刊登的她的照片，我是熟悉的。许多邻居看着她来来去去的，到隔壁的佛教寺庙，所以，她是我们中的一个---每天你从她身边经过的另一张面孔，默默无闻，但仍是这个环境的一部分。她睡在汽车里也不稀奇，纽约有很多人也这样。我们在沉默--容忍厌于享乐的沉默--中接受这件事，就像接受这个城市发生的一切事情那样。

这个悲剧的核心在这里。楼上的一个邻居被她的汽车喇叭声惊醒，他从自己的窗子向外看去，这时这位被刺的妇女摇晃着从车里走出来，向寺庙的楼梯走去，徒然地拍着门把手。黑暗中，他看不到她在大量出血，只是听到她说着奇怪的话，听起来像是在叫母亲。她喝醉了，他想，或是神经很兴奋，他看到她回到自己的车里，很快就开走了。一会儿后她就死了。

词汇释义

1.evidently adv. 明显地,显著地,必以为是

例句：
The cat was evidently incurable and the old couple had to get it put away.
这只猫的病显然没法治好了，老夫妇只得请人把它杀掉。

2.blase adj.[法]厌倦于享乐的

例句：
The pop star is blase about money now.
那位流行歌星现在对钱已经厌烦了。

3.horn n. 喇叭

例句：
The driver blew his horn when the child stepped in front of the car.
当小男孩走到汽车前面时，汽车司机按响了喇叭。

4.stab vt. 刺, 戳, 刺入, 刺痛, 直入, 使伤心 vi. 刺, 刺伤

例句：
Dare you stab at any attackers with knife?
你敢用刀刺袭击你的人吗？

5.stagger n. 蹒跚,踌躇 v. 蹒跚,使...摇摆,踌躇

例句：
The drunk man staggered across the room.
那个醉汉摇摇晃晃地穿过房间。

6.rattle v. 使...嘎嘎响,喋喋不休地说,急促地谈

例句：
One coin in a box rattle loud.
一瓶不响，半瓶晃当。

7.in vain adv.徒然

例句：
We tried in vain to make him change his mind.
我们想使他改变主意，结果是白费心机。

难句解析

1.She was sleeping in her car when someone—evidently trying to steal her car radio—was surprised by her, and slashed her throat with a knife.

【 参考译文】有人--显然是试图偷她的汽车无线电时--发现她睡在汽车里，并用刀子将她的喉咙砍伤。

【结构解析】句子的主干是“She was sleeping...when someone...was surprised...and slashed...”。

2.We regard it with the silence with which one sees everything in this city—the silence of blase acceptance.

【参考译文】我们在沉默--容忍厌于享乐的沉默--中接受这件事，就像接受这个城市发生的一切事情那样。

【结构解析】句中的"which"指“silence”，“the silence of blase acceptance”做补充说明，修饰“silence”。