那些无法抗拒的名篇18:Vive La Paris我是女生，我叫巴黎(节选)

18 我是女生，我叫巴黎

When I came to school the next day, I no longer cared about being a polite person. It' s just like Django and Debergerac say:

第二天去学校的时候，我再也不关心自己是不是一个有教养的人了。就像迪金格和德贝拉克说的那样:

1. If you're likely to get in trouble for doing nothing you might as well get in trouble for doing something.

1.如果你什么都没做也会惹来麻烦的话，那么最好还是做点什么吧。

2. When a fight's coming, throw the first punch because then no matter what happens at least you'll know you got a good one in, and

2.打架的时候，一定要先出第一拳，不管怎么样，你至少知道自己还是打出了一拳的。

3. Don't put your thumb inside your fist when you fight, because you can break it that way.

3.打架的时候千万不要把大拇指缩在拳头里，那样很容易受伤。

So when there were only a couple of minutes until recess, I said to Tanaeja，"Guess what, I hope you got some nice ones in on my brother yesterday, because that's the last day you're going to get to do that."

离课间休息还有几分钟的时候，我对塔娜佳说:“你昨天打我哥哥的时候打得很痛快吧，不过你以后再也没机会这么做了。”

"You and your brother," hissed Tanaeja. "You always flaunting him，walking with all your brothers around town. You think you all that."

“你和你哥哥，”塔娜佳不屑地说，“你就只会拉着他到处炫耀，你就只会拉着你所有的哥哥们到处走来走去。”

What she is saying to me doesn't make sense, but I am wise now, I know things don’t have to make sense, just that I have to take her down because This Cannot Continue. "Why do you beat on my brother?"

我弄不明白她到底在说什么，不过我现在变聪明了，我知道有些事情没必要搞明白，我只知道我必须打倒她，因为我不会允许这样的事情再发生了。“你为什么要打我哥哥?”

"What's it to you? He can defend hisself," she said. "Why he gotta be like that? It's wrong."

“这跟你有什么关系?他自己可以还手，”她说，“他为什么要那么做?是他不对。”

"Like what? He never did anything to anybody. He wouldn't even know your name if you weren’t up in his face." I felt myself winding up, like one of Debergerac's toy cars that has a little coil that twists tighter and tighter before it spins so fast it smells like metal melting. "That's not right, Tanaeja, he can't hit you back because you're a girl."

“他做什么了?他从来没有对任何人做过任何不好的事。你要是不欺负他的话，他甚至连你叫什么都不知道。”我感到自己气得快爆炸了，就像德贝拉克的玩具车上的小转盘转得越来越紧，几乎都能闻到金属融化的味道了。“这不公平，塔娜佳，就因为你是女孩他才不还手的。”

"So is he," said Tanaeja. "He keep acting like that, he going to die."

“他才是女孩，”塔娜佳说，“他如果还是这样的话，死了活该。”

I didn’t even feel myself leave my seat. All I hear is the screech of desks sliding and girls screaming.}feel my fingernails digging into the braids against her head. I feel her teeth wet against my cheek, trying to bite down. I feel people pulling us apart, but we're like Velcro, little barbs of along，long anger hooked into each other. "Stop it, stop it!”Miss Pointy was shouting. Luz ran to the intercom button, chest heaving and big worried eyes, looking for Miss Pointy to tell her to buzz the office. But the recess bell had rung.

我觉得自己好像并没有离开座位，但是我听到课桌倒地的声音、女孩子们尖叫的声音我感觉到我的指甲嵌进她的辫子里我感觉到她的牙齿抵着我的脸颊，很显然她想咬我;我感觉到其他人在把我们拉开，可是我们像维可牢尼龙搭扣一样，这么长时间以来的愤怒像鱼钩一样咬得紧紧的，谁也没法拉开。“住手，住手!”波迪小姐大叫道。露兹跑到内部电话机旁，胸部一起一伏的，焦急地等待波迪小姐示意她给办公室打电话。这时下课铃响了。

"You want to tell me what’s going on?”Miss Pointy demanded，checking my cheek for cuts, checking Tanaeja's scalp for blood.

“你们想告诉我到底出了什么事吗?”波迪小姐边问边察看我脸上有没有伤口，塔娜佳头上有没有出血。

"Not really." Tanaeja crossed her arms.

“没事。”塔娜佳双手抱在胸前说道。

"I’II tell you," said Darrell. "Tanaeja's been pushing Paris's brother around at recess."

“让我告诉你吧，”德里说，“塔娜佳在课间休息的时候老是欺负巴黎的哥哥。”

"Be quiet," warned Tanaeja. "You—all better mind your business."

“安静一点。”塔娜佳警告他。“你最好别管闲事。”

"Oh，yeah? What you gone do about it?" asked Darrell, "Bring it, Miss Dark and Lovely, just don't expect me to stand here and take it. I'm the man."

“哦，是吗?你想怎么样?”德里问道。“出手吧，塔娜佳小姐，不过你可别指望我一动不动地站在这儿。我可不是那么好欺负的。”

"Oh, don't start up, Darrell." Miss Pointy rolled her eyes.

“噢，德里，你就别挑事了。”波迪小姐瞪着他说。

"It's true! My brother has bruises all over his back, Miss Pointy? I told. I told!"

“他说的是实话!波迪小姐，我哥的背上被撞得青一块紫一块的。”我终于说出来了!我说出来了!

"No he doesn't!" Tanaeja exploded.

“不，他没有受伤!”塔娜佳大叫道。

"How would you know?" I felt my head reel around on my neck in a nasty way. "You think it's not gone come around, well I got news for you."

“你怎么知道?”我感觉我的脑袋用一种想要恐吓人的方式转了转。“你以为你能一直这么下去吗?我会给你点颜色瞧瞧的。”

"I'll take you right here, Minnie Mouse." Tanaeja faced me.

“我现在就可以把你打趴下，米妮鼠。”塔娜佳对着我嚷道。

"Ooo," said the class.

"Oooooooo”同学们炸开了锅。

"What are you people still doing here?" Miss Pointy's voice rose. "Usually you can't get to recess fast enough. Trust me, nobody's bringing anything or taking anybody" The class gave us a wide berth as they filed out.

“你们还待在这儿做什么?”波迪小姐抬高声音说，“课间休息的时候，你们不是希望跑得越远越好吗?相信我，谁也不会给谁颜色看，谁也不会把谁打趴下的。”他们离开以后，教室里空出了一大块。

Miss Pointy looked back and forth between Tanaeja and me. “I'm very disappointed in you both. How do you expect there to be peace in the world if we can’t even have peace in this classroom?"

波迪小姐看看塔娜佳，又看看我。“我对你们两个感到很失望。如果连教室里都找不到和平的话，你们还指望在这个世界的哪个地方能找到和平?”

"I don’t expect it," I blurted.

“我一点都不指望世界上能有和平。”我大声说。

For the second time, Miss Pointy looked at me and didn't seem to recognize who I was. It took her a beat or two before she could speak."You think your mother needs this right now?" Miss Pointy asked Tanaeja.

这是第二次，波迪小姐用一种好像根本就不认识我的表情看着我了。她半天说不出一句话来。“你认为你妈妈现在需要知道这件事吗?”波迪小姐问塔娜佳。

"No,ma'am" said Tanaeja，rubbing her head with her forearm.I tried to hide my wondering about what Momma would do if she were called in a second time, but Miss Pointy didn't seem to wonder if my mother needed this. Tanaeja started looking that same miserable way she uses in church. You're kid-ding, right? Girl, you have got to be kidding.

“不，波迪小姐。”塔娜佳边说边揉着她的额头。我不想让她们看出我的担忧，我很担心要是我妈第二次被叫到学校来她会怎么样，可是波迪小姐并没有问我。塔娜佳又开始表现出在教堂里的那副悲惨样子来。你在开玩笑，是吗?你一定是在开玩笑。

Then Miss Pointy told Tanaeja to go and cool off in the art teacher's room, and Tanaeja didn't need to be asked twice. Not fair, not fair!

波迪小姐要塔娜佳去美术老师的办公室冷静一下，老师只问了她一次要不要请家长。这太不公平啦!

“How come she gets to go?" I demanded，but then politeness set in. "I mean, you don't have to work on me first."

“她怎么能先走呢?”我追问道，我感到自己有点太不礼貌了。“我的意思是，你不一定先要从我开始问起。”

"I think I do." Miss Pointy pulled up a chair so I would sit right beside her. Then there was a long minute with just me and Miss Pointy. "This has been going on a while, huh? A lot going on," she said, finally.

“我想先和你谈谈。”波迪小姐拉过一张椅子让我坐在她的对面。接下来是一段长时间的沉默。“这件事有一段时间了，是吗?发生了很多事是吗?”她最后开口道。

My mouth was doing a crazy twitchy thing, turning down at the corners, and}could not look at her at all for what seemed like forever, but when I looked up, there she was, looking at me with the most concerned，sad expression I have ever seen. I burst out crying so hard that I put my head down on her desk. I could feel her patting me on the place where if I had wings, they would sprout.

我低下头看着角落，不想回答。可是当我抬起头，看到她用最关注最悲伤的眼神看着我时，我忍不住趴在桌子上放声大哭起来。我感觉到她在轻轻拍着我的肩膀，如果我有翅膀的话，那里就是长出翅膀的地方。

"I’m trying to be brave," I finally said. I wanted her to say,

“我一直想勇敢一些的。”我最后开口说。我希望她能这么回答我:

1. Poor Paris,

1.可怜的巴黎，

2. You are brave,

2.你很勇敢，

3. I know you are a polite person and that you would never behave this way if you weren' t pushed.

3.我知道你是个有教养的孩子，如果不是忍无可忍的话，你是绝对不会动手的。

Instead, she said, "So is Tanaeja."

可是，她却说:“塔娜佳也是这样。”

"Who cares about Tanaeja?"I snorted

“我才不管塔娜佳呢!”我不屑地说。

"I want to tell you something,"said Miss Pointy, "and even though you are angry, I hope you will hear me. Sometimes people become our enemies not because they are so different, but because there is something in them that is so much the same, it hurts us to look at it."

“我想告诉你一些事，”波迪小姐说，“虽然你现在很生气，我还是希望你能听我说下去。有时候有些人成为我们的敌人，并不是因为他们和我们不同，而是因为他们有些地方和我们太一样了，只是我们不想看到这些罢了。”

"There's nothing about me that is the same as Tanaeja," I insisted

“我和塔娜佳没有任何相同的地方。”我坚持道。

"Maybe there's something about Tanaeja that is the same as you. Maybe you have something that she also has. Maybe you have something she is about to lose."

“也许塔娜佳身上有些东西和你一样。也许你也有些东西和她一样。也许你有一些她就要失去的东西。”

"What?"!asked.

“什么?”我问。

Miss Pointy looked a little torn, like there was something she wanted to tell me but she couldn't. "Let's just say maybe there's something that you share that you don't know you share. That's not to say she can beat on your brother." Miss Pointy straightened. "That's going to stop."

波迪小姐看起来欲言又止的样子。“这么说吧，也许你拥有一些连你自己都没有意识到的东西。不过，那并不代表她就可以欺负你哥哥。”波迪小姐坚定地说，“这件事不会再发生了。”

"Miss Pointy, it can't seem like I was the one to stop it，”It was so hard to explain. "He's got to stand up for himself."

“波迪小姐，这件事不应该由我来插手的。”这件事解释起来实在太困难了。“我哥哥应该靠他自己来解决。”

"It's hard to stand up when someone is beating you down," said Miss Pointy. "Sometimes a person needs a little help. I'd even say usually, Paris. There's no shame in that."

“一个人被别人打倒时，很难靠自己的力量站起来。”波迪小姐说，“有时候，人们需要其他人的帮助才能站起来，其实我想说的是，大多数情况下人们都需要其他人的帮助才能站起来。人们不应该为此感到羞耻。”

"There isn't?"!asked, because

“不会感到羞耻吗?”我这么问的原因是:

1.I felt ashamed so there must be some shame in it, and

1.我感到很羞耻，所以这里一定有让人感到羞耻的地方。

2. Louis says some teachers were never kids and maybe she is one

of them.

2.路易斯说有些老师永远都是小孩，也许她就是那些老师中的一个。

"But don't worry. it will look like I'm stopping it, because I’m the one who is. Got that?0 I nodded. "Paris, I’II tell you something else. My best friend when I was a little girl started out as my enemy.

“不过别担心，看起来我已经解决这件事了。这是我应该做的，你明白吗?”我点点头。“巴黎，我想告诉你一些别的事情。当我还是个小女孩的时候，我最好的朋友一开始却是我的敌人。”

Luz is already my best friend, I thought, 1 don't need Goliath for a friend. But I just said, "Really?"

我心想，露兹已经是我最好的朋友了，我可不想再有一个魔鬼做我的好朋友。可我嘴上只说了句“真的吗?”

"It's true. She used to try to copy from my math test in class. I thought, She's sneaky, she's a cheat, she's going to get me in trouble, and I didn't want to have anything to do with her. In time, though，I saw that she wanted to do well in school, just like me, and I started helping her with her math before the test. She still calls me, Paris, we're still friends, twenty years later But I haven't really learned my lesson. Even now, there are women I meet, and I' m still so quick to think, Oh, we don't have anything in common，but it always turns out we have something in common, or they have something about them that is interesting. Maybe not enough to be the best of friends, but it's enough to have a really good time together. But I wouldn't know that if I didn’t push the doubts and prejudices aside so there is a little space in my heart for them."

“是真的，她经常在班上抄我的数学试卷。我当时想，她太卑鄙了，她是个骗子，她想把我拖下水，我不想和她有任何关系。后来我看到她其实只是想做个好学生，就像我一样，所以我开始在考试之前教她数学。她现在经常给我打电话，巴黎，我们仍然是好朋友，二十多年的好朋友了。但是我并没有吸取经验，直到现在，当我遇到一些女人的时候，我第一感觉还是不好，我想我们不会有任何相同的地方，可是后来我发现其实我们也有相同的地方，她们也有很多优点。我们之间可能不一定成为最好的朋友，但彼此之间相处得很愉快就已经足够了。我不知道，如果我不把疑问和偏见扔掉的话，我心里是否还有地方能接受和容纳她们。”

The bell rang. Miss Pointy looked at the clock and sighed. "That space is where peace lives, Paris. That little spot in our hearts that has room for other people, that place where we try to find our common ground. Maybe it's all the peace we can expect, Paris. But let' s try to keep expecting that much."

上课铃响了。波迪小姐看了眼钟表，叹了口气说:“巴黎，那个地方就是和平居住的地方。我们心里那个小小的空间可以包容很多人，在那里我们将尽力找到与其他人的相同之处。巴黎，也许这就是我们能够期待的和平，让我们期待这样的和平尽快出现好吗?

"Yes ma' am." I gulped. "I'II try."

“好的，波迪小姐。”我抽噎着说。“我会试试看的。”

I felt like I needed to wash my face. But I didn't want to go into the bathroom by myself. I still wasn't prepared to expect that much peace.

我觉得自己该去洗洗脸，但是我不想一个人去卫生间。我还没准备好去迎接和平的到来。

作者介绍:

爱斯米·科德尔，曾做过老师、图书管理员、小说家，现正在经营一个点击率极高的儿童网站www.planetesme.com。她狂爱收集闪亮的贴纸，还有，她是个滑旱冰的好手!她住在美国芝加哥，在那里写了很多有意思的故事:《特别的女生萨哈拉》获2004年国际读者协会儿童图书奖;《新老师的新日记》赢得“美国最佳青少年读物”奖。《我是女生，我叫巴黎》获2007年希得妮·泰勒书奖。

巴黎，是一个很普通的小女孩。和其他小女孩一样，她善良、无知、任性、虚荣，想要快点长大，对世界充满好奇。她在学钢琴的时候，遇到了诺森太太。诺森太太为她打开了一扇真实世界的窗户，让她意识到什么是真正的勇气，应该怎样用自己的眼睛来看待这个真实的世界。怎样学会相处，学会宽容。