| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
|
| 双语新闻 Bilingual News | 双语对照阅读 分级系列阅读 智能辅助阅读 在线英语学习 |
| [英文] [中文] [双语对照] [双语交替] [] |
| PATTAPUR, India — In a small, colorfully painted house on India’s eastern coast, G. Sonali Reddy cooks meals and feeds her younger siblings by day and rocks them to sleep at night, hoping to assuage their fears, just as her mother would. | 印度帕塔普尔——在印度东海岸一座色彩缤纷的小房子里，G·索纳利·雷迪(G.Sonali Reddy)白天给弟弟妹妹做饭，晚上哄他们入睡，希望能像她的母亲一样减轻他们的恐惧。 |
| Sonali, still a child at 14, is her family’s caretaker. Several years ago, her father took his own life after the failure of the family’s business selling spare trolley parts. Then in May, her mother, Sabita, contracted Covid-19 as a calamitous wave of infections swept across India. | 索纳利承担了照料家庭的角色，而她还只是个14岁的孩子。几年前，她的父亲在销售手推车备件的家族生意失败后自杀。然后在5月，灾难性的感染浪潮席卷了印度，她的母亲萨比塔(Sabita)感染了新冠病毒。 |
| Within hours of reaching the closest city hospital with medical oxygen, Ms. Reddy was dead. | 在抵达最近的有氧气瓶的城市医院几个小时后，雷迪女士就去世了。 |
| “My mother kept us safe like an umbrella does, from the heat and rain of life,” said Sonali, holding back tears. “I imagine her being close to me. That’s what keeps me going.” | “母亲就像雨伞一样，为我们遮挡生活的风雨，”索纳利忍住泪水说道。“我想象她就在身边。这是我坚持下去的动力。” |
| Sonali and her siblings are among more than 3,000 Indian children who have been orphaned during the pandemic, according to state governments. They are a heart-rending testament to the devastation wrought on families as the coronavirus has erased hundreds of thousands of lives across the country. | 据邦政府称，索纳利和她的弟弟妹妹是在大流行期间成为孤儿的3000多名印度儿童之一。新冠病毒在全国范围内夺走了数十万人的生命，这些孤儿是家庭惨遭悲剧的令人心碎的见证。 |
| Even with all that has been lost, the orphans’ plight has punctured the public consciousness, an acknowledgment of the profound challenges facing a country already full of vulnerable children. | 即使人们经历了如此多的失去，孤儿的困境仍然刺痛了公众，让人们看到了一个本就充满众多弱势儿童的国家所面临的深刻挑战。 |
| Indian states have announced compensation of about $7 to $68 per month for each orphan, along with promises of food and free education. Prime Minister Narendra Modi vowed in a tweet to “ensure a life of dignity and opportunity” for the children. | 印度各邦已宣布为每个孤儿提供每月约7至68美元的补偿，并承诺提供食物和免费教育。总理纳伦德拉·莫迪(Narendra Modi)在一条推文中誓言要“确保孩子们过上有尊严和机会的生活”。 |
| But advocates fear that when the attention inevitably fades, the orphans will be left susceptible to neglect and exploitation. | 但倡导人士担心，当人们的关注不可避免地消退时，孤儿将会很容易受到忽视和剥削。 |
| Already, the children, shellshocked in some cases from the loss of their entire families, have found it difficult to obtain death certificates to qualify for government benefits. Some will also find it hard to return to school. | 已经有一些失去全家、惊魂未定的孩子发现，他们很难开具死亡证明以获得接收政府福利的资格。有些孩子还发现自己很难回到学校。 |
| In the longer term, the many orphans from poor families in remote areas face the risk of human trafficking and child marriage. Trafficking of children is rampant in India, where they are enslaved for work or sex. And the country has the largest number of child brides in the world, according to Unicef. | 从长远来看，许多来自偏远地区贫困家庭的孤儿面临着人口贩卖和童婚的风险。贩卖儿童在印度十分猖獗，他们被奴役，成为童工或遭到性剥削。据联合国儿童基金会(Unicef)称，该国的童婚新娘数量居世界之首。 |
| Adoption is not an option for many of the orphans, given cultural taboos against the practice. Older children, in particular, often cannot be matched with adoptive families. | 由于收养属于文化禁忌，许多孤儿无法被收养。尤其是年龄较大的儿童，往往无法与收养家庭配对。 |
| “The government is trying to save its face as the catastrophic tragedy ravaged India,” said Medha Pande, a law student at Delhi University who has written about sociolegal issues arising from the pandemic. | “随着灾难性的悲剧席卷印度，政府正试图挽回颜面，”德里大学法学生梅达·潘德(Medha Pande)说，她撰写了有关大流行引起的社会法律问题的文章。 |
| “They came out looking unprepared,” she added. “They are just creating a subgroup out of a larger group of vulnerable children, saying they can easily look after them.” | “政府出面时看起来毫无准备，”她还说。“他们只是在更大的弱势儿童群体中创建了一个子群体，说他们可以轻松照顾这些孩子。” |
| On a recent morning, officials in the village of Pattapur, in Odisha state, arrived at Sonali’s home, where her maternal grandmother moved in after her daughter’s death. | 最近的一个早晨，奥里萨邦帕塔普尔村的官员来到了索纳利的家，她的外祖母在女儿去世后搬进了那里。 |
| They had come to deliver an “orphan pension” to the children, enough money to last for the summer. Bank accounts were opened in their names. The officials dropped off large bags of rice. | 他们是来给孩子们提供“孤儿抚恤金”的，这笔钱可以维持一个夏天。银行账户是以他们的名义开设的。官员们放下大袋的大米。 |
| Saucer-eyed, Sonali listened carefully as they rattled off a list of instructions for using her bank account. Her siblings — Jagabalia, 8, and Bhabana, 5 — looked on listlessly, clutching their sister’s blue dress. | 索纳利惊讶地看着，仔细听他们滔滔不绝地念出一连串银行账户的使用说明。她的弟弟妹妹——八岁的雅加巴利亚(Jagabalia)和五岁的巴巴那(Bhabana)——抓着姐姐的蓝色连衣裙，无精打采地看着。 |
| Even before her mother’s death, the family had a meager existence. Newly widowed, Ms. Reddy opened a small snack shop in the front room of their home. She spent what little money she had to provide after-school study for Sonali. | 甚至在母亲去世之前，这个家庭就过着贫困的生活。刚丧偶的雷迪在他们家的前厅开了一家小点心店。她用仅有的钱让索纳利参加课后补习。 |
| With her father gone, Sonali was especially close to her mother. | 父亲去世后，索纳利与母亲的关系特别亲密。 |
| “My siblings beg me: ‘We want to go to mummy,’” Sonali said as she fiddled with her thumbs. “When our father passed away, we thought, ‘At least mummy is there.’ Now, the virus has taken her away too.” | “弟弟妹妹求我说：‘我们要去见妈妈，’”索纳利摆弄着拇指说。“父亲去世时，我们想，‘至少妈妈还在。’现在，病毒把她也带走了。” |
| Hundreds of miles away in the southern city of Hyderabad, G. Sathwik Reddy, 13 — no relation to Sonali — hears similar pleas from his sister after their parents died during the peak of India’s recent wave of infections. | 在数百英里外的南部城市海得拉巴，13岁的G·萨斯维克·雷迪（G. Sathwik Reddy，与索纳利没有亲属关系）也听到了妹妹相似的请求，他们的父母在印度最近的感染高峰中去世。 |
| When his sister, Haanvi, 3, asks for “mummy” and “daddy,” he tells her simply, “They will come home tomorrow.” | 三岁的妹妹哈安维(Haanvi)要“妈妈”和“爸爸”的时候，他只告诉她，“他们明天就回家了。” |
| Their father, Gopal, had a small business making iron fences for farms. Like millions of middle-class Indian families, they saved as much as they could to send their children to a private school. Their mother, Deepa, cooked special chicken dishes for her children every Sunday and helped Sathwik with his homework. | 他们的父亲戈帕尔(Gopal)有个小生意，为农场制作铁栅栏。和印度的无数中产阶级家庭一样，他们尽可能多存钱，把孩子送进私立学校。母亲迪帕(Deepa)每周都会为孩子们做特殊的鸡肉菜肴，还辅导萨斯维克写作业。 |
| In April, Mr. Reddy, Ms. Reddy and the children’s grandmother contracted the virus within days of each other. With chronic oxygen shortages in India and hospitals turning away patients, the family worried about their chances. | 4月，雷迪夫妇和孩子们的祖母在几天之内相继感染了病毒。由于印度长期缺少氧气，医院拒绝接收病人，这家人担心他们将失去救治机会。 |
| Once at a hospital, Ms. Reddy became gravely ill. She remained intubated for two weeks, unconscious. Mr. Reddy’s lungs, too, rapidly deteriorated. By early May, all three were dead. | 有一次在医院里，雷迪夫人病得很重。她插管两周，昏迷不醒。雷迪的肺部病情也迅速恶化。到5月初，三人全部去世。 |
| At the crematory, Sathwik saw his father’s face for a brief moment from behind a plastic sheet. He became numb with shock. Now, he often cries himself to sleep. | 在火葬场，萨斯维克透过塑料布看了一眼父亲的脸。他已经震惊到麻木了。现在，他经常哭着入睡。 |
| “I must stay strong for my sister,” he said. | “为了妹妹，我必须坚强起来，”他说。 |
| In the dusty plains of northern India, Shawez Saifi, 18, also finds himself sniffing back tears in the dark of night, when his sister jolts awake, screaming out for their mother. | 在印度北部尘土飞扬的平原上，听到惊醒的妹妹尖叫着寻找母亲，18岁的沙韦兹·赛非(Shawez Saifi)也在黑夜中难忍抽泣。 |
| Their parents, Shamshad and Shabnam, became sick in April, and Shawez took them to a local doctor, who recommended a coronavirus test. But with little money to go around from the dwindling work that father and son did on construction sites, Shabnam suggested that they return to their home in Murad Nagar to recuperate. | 他们的双亲沙姆沙德(Shamshad)和沙南(Shabnam)今年4月生了病，沙韦兹带他们去看当地医生，医生让他们做新冠检测。但因为这对父子在建筑工地的活路少了，日子过得紧巴巴，沙南建议他们回到穆拉德纳加尔的家中休养。 |
| The children slept on the veranda outside their one-room shack while the parents locked themselves inside. After their condition quickly worsened, they moved to a relative’s house. A few days later, Shabnam was dead. Her husband died a few days after that. | 他们家只有一间屋，孩子们睡在屋外的阳台上，父母将自己锁在里面。病情迅速恶化之后，他们搬到了亲戚家里。几天后，沙南死了。那之后几天，她的丈夫也去世了。 |
| When Shawez, who had given up his studies to work with his father, returned home without his parents, the landlord had locked them out, saying he would give them the key only after the rent was paid. His uncle borrowed money to cover some of the debt so that Shawez and his siblings could collect their belongings. | 双亲去世后，放弃学业和父亲一起打工的沙韦兹返回家中，房东将他们锁在门外，说要等他交了房租才把钥匙给他们。他的叔叔借钱还掉了部分债务，沙韦兹和弟弟妹妹才有机会进门收拾行李。 |
| Shawez’s younger sister, Kahkashan, 9, has been hit the hardest. Nearly every day, she picks up the phone and dials her mother, talking to her as if she were on the other end. | 沙韦兹九岁的妹妹卡哈珊(Kahkashan)受到的打击最大。她几乎每天都要给母亲打电话聊天，仿佛她真的在电话的另一端。 |
| “Mother, when will you come? I miss you,” she says. | “妈妈，你什么时候回来？我想你了，”她说。 |
| “My only dream is to educate my siblings,” Shawez said. “My mother would call me when I would be out for work and ask, ‘Son, it is getting late. When will you come home?’ Now no one will call me anymore,” he said. | “我唯一的愿望就是教导弟弟妹妹，”沙韦兹说，“妈妈总在我外出工作的时候打电话问我，‘儿子，时候不早了。你什么时候回家？’现在没人再给我打电话了，”他说。 |
| In Pattapur, Sonali, too, feels as if she has lost her most powerful protector. | 在帕塔普尔，索纳利也感觉好像失去了自己最强大的守护者。 |
| In a thick diary, on the page next to the one on which she has noted the dates of her parents’ deaths, Sonali jotted a poem dedicated to her mother. | 她在一本厚厚的日记中写下双亲去世的日期，而在旁边的一页里，索纳利草草写下了一首献给母亲的诗。 |
| On a recent day, she read it aloud to her siblings. | 最近的一天，她对弟弟妹妹朗读了这首诗。 |
| Undergoing the ups and downs of life, our mother brings us up. | 人生起落茫茫，母亲将我们抚养。 |
| Our mother is the tallest in this world, she is the one who can keep us well. | 母亲有最高大的身躯，是她守护我们的幸福。 |
| This world is barren without mother, this world is not the same place without her. | 没有母亲，世界都是荒芜，没有她，世界不再相同。 |
| Mother bears the pain on our behalf, but we fail to bear the pain on mother’s behalf. | 母亲替我们承受苦痛，可我们却无法替她分担。 |
OK阅读网 版权所有(C)2017 | 联系我们