So, a smaller brain.[qh]
因此,她的大脑偏小
It was only when I met her 16 years later that I understood the physical implications of this: a markedly smaller head.[qh]
直到16年后我见到她时,我才明白了大脑偏小的物理意义:一个明显偏小的脑袋
It was staggering to meet someone who looked just like my mother, but with red hair and a much smaller head.[qh]
她的模样与母亲相似,只是头发是红色的,脑袋也小得多,这让我很吃惊
My grandmother told my mother that she instantly knew something was different when Adele was born.[qh]
我的祖母告诉母亲,当阿黛尔出生时,她立刻意识到有些异样
Her cry wasn’t like other babies’. [qh]
她的哭声和其他婴儿不一样
She was inconsolable, had to be carried everywhere. [qh]
她悲痛欲绝,走到哪儿都得抱着
Her family doctor said nonsense, Adele was fine. [qh]
家庭医生胡说八道,说阿黛尔身体很好
For an entire year, he maintained that she was fine, even though, at the age of 1, she couldn’t hold a bottle and didn’t respond to the stimuli that other toddlers do. [qh]
整整一年,家庭医生都坚称阿黛尔身体很好,尽管阿黛尔在1岁时无法握住瓶子,也不像其他幼儿那样可以对刺激做出反应
I can’t imagine what this casual brush-off must have done to my grandmother, who knew, in some back cavern of her heart, that her daughter was not the same as other children.[qh]
我无法想象这种随意对待、冷漠处理会对祖母产生什么影响
But it was 1952, the summer that Adele turned 1. [qh]
1952年夏天,阿黛尔刚满1岁
What male doctor took a working-class woman without a college education seriously in 1952?[qh]
在1952年,哪位男医生会认真对待一个没有受过大学教育的工人阶级妇女的话?[qh]
Only when my mother and her family went to the Catskills that same summer did a doctor finally offer a very different diagnosis.[qh]
同年夏天,当母亲与家人前往卡茨基尔时,医生终于给出了一个截然不同的诊断
My grandmother had gone to see this local fellow not because Adele was sick, but because she was; Adele had merely come along.[qh]
我祖母去当地见这个医生,不是因为阿黛尔生病,而是因为她自己病了;阿黛勒只是跟着来了
But whatever ailed my grandmother didn’t capture this man’s attention. [qh]
但是,我祖母的病痛并没有引起这个人的注意
Her daughter did. He took one look at her and demanded to know whether my aunt was getting the care she required.[qh]
他注意到了祖母女儿的病痛
What did he mean?[qh]
他是什么意思? [qh]
“That child is a microcephalic idiot.”[qh]
“那孩子是个小头畸形的弱智儿
My grandmother told this story to my mother, word for word, more than four decades later.[qh]
四十多年后,祖母把这个故事一字不差地告诉了母亲
In March of 1953, my grandparents took Adele, all of 21 months, to Willowbrook State School. [qh]
1953年3月,祖父母把21个月大的阿黛尔送进了威洛布鲁克州立学校
It would be many years before I learned exactly what that name meant, years before I learned what kind of gothic mansion of horrors it was. [qh]
过了很多年,我才明白这个学校名字的确切含义,才知道这是一座什么样的哥特式恐怖大楼
And my mother, who didn’t know how to explain what on earth had happened, began telling people that she was an only child.[qh]
我母亲不知道如何解释到底发生了什么,她开始告诉人们她是独生女
It is the fall of 2021. [qh]
现在是2021年的秋天
My aunt lives in a uniquely unlovely part of upstate New York, a dreary grayscape of strip malls and Pizza Huts and liquor stores.[qh]
我姨妈住在纽约州北部一个不起眼的特别之地,那里是一片沉闷的灰色景象--布满单排商业街、必胜客和酒类商店