英文自修80：把每天当做生命中的最后一天

本系列内容英文原文取自BBC Thought for the Day节目网站，朋友们也可以下载节目录音收听。

译者：Young

审读：武太白

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Thought for the Day 20140516 Bishop Tom Butler

The terrible coal mining disaster in Turkey is a reminder of just what a dangerous profession coal mining is. The death toll is already over 300 with dozens of miners remaining missing.

土耳其可怕的矿难事故提醒我们，采矿是一份多么危险的职业。目前死亡人数已超过三百，几十名矿工失踪。

Coal mining used to be a major industry in West Yorkshire and the National Coal Mining Museum for England is located a few miles away from where I live. Some years ago I joined a party of people going underground, led by a former miner. As the mine is no longer operational it’s without the coal dust and the heat which would’ve been the everyday lot of working miners, but even today, walking bent double through some of the tunnels, relying on the light of the lamps on our helmets-it wasn’t easy. I don’t normally suffer from claustrophobia 幽闭恐惧症, but even so, after an hour or so, I was pleased to get back to the surface and breath in fresh air.

过去采矿业曾是西约克郡的主要产业。英国国家采矿博物馆离我的住处就几英里。几年前，我和几个人一起下矿，领头的那位以前是位矿工。由于那座煤矿停止开采，那里并没有过去他们每天逃不掉的煤尘和高温。即便如此，他们靠安全帽上的头灯、弯着腰穿过地道，也并不容易。 正常情况下，我并没有幽闭恐惧症，但过了一个小时左右，返回地上呼吸道新鲜的空气时，我感到很高兴。

I think of that experience every time I hear of another mining disaster, whether from New Zealand, Chile or now Turkey. It seems that the mine in Turkey was privatized in 2005 and there are accusations that there’s being a skimping on safety, and the prime minister was booed and jostled by angry protesters when he visited.

每次听说矿难，不管发生在英国、智利或是这次的土耳其，我就会想到那次经历。土耳其的煤矿好像在2005年就已经归私人所有。人们谴责对煤矿安全的关注少。土耳其总理到现场察看灾情时，愤怒的抗议人群喝倒彩并推攘总理。

But it’s too soon for blame, now is the time for grief and hope and our prayers go out to the bereaved and the brave rescuers hoping against hope to still rescue miners who may by trapped in an air pocket. We often don’t realize how deep our faith is until we’re faced with a desperate situation. And this tragedy has released both anger and prayer, with one rescuer reporting a note found in the hand of a dead miner which read, “Please give me your blessings son”.

但是责备还为时过早，此时我们应该满怀悲痛和希望，为那些在事故中丧失亲人的人们祈祷。英勇的救援人员依然在抱着一线希望搜救那些可能被困在气穴中的矿工。我们常常是身陷绝望时，才意识到信念有多强大。这次灾难让人们看到愤怒和祈祷，一个救援人员报告，一名遇难矿工手里握着一张纸条，上面写着“儿子，请祝福我吧。”

Death sneaks up on most of us. From those who are spared a few moments to communicate a final message we learn something of the true priorities of life. In the few moments left to those in the crashing planes and falling building of 9/11 there was one common message the victims chose to send to their wives, husbands, parents and children: I love you. Here was a man who wanted to be at peace with his son.

死亡会悄悄降临在每个人身上。从那些遇难者生前最后几分钟写下的遗言中，我们了解到生命中真正重要的东西。在911事件中，那些飞机相撞时机上的人员还有倒塌的大楼中的人们，在最后的几分钟，选择留下了相同的信息：向妻子、丈夫、父母和孩子们说“我爱你。”这个矿工要表达的是与儿子和解。

There’s a lesson too from those who do have a sense of the approach of death. We saw that in Stephen Sutton who died on Wednesday after final weeks and months of uplifting optimism about the goodness of life which so touched the nation that more than 3 million pounds was given in his name to the Teenage Cancer Trust. Stephen made every minute of the last year of his life count, filling them with meaning and hope as he worked to help others. There is in that a fulfillment of the Easter message that out of death comes hope. The challenge for the rest of us is that we too should live every day as if it might be our last and fill it with what is most precious to us.

对那些感到死亡临近的人来说，这同样是一次教训。周三斯蒂芬·萨顿去世，他在最后的岁月里，对美好的生命抱着乐观向上的态度。全国人民为之动容，并以他的名义向青少年癌症信托基金捐赠300多万英镑。在人生的最后一年斯蒂芬致力于帮助他人，他的每一分钟过得都有价值，充满意义和希望。这也应验了复活节所传达的信息：希望源于死亡。我们的挑战是，我们应该把每天都当做生命中的最后一天来过，做自己最珍视的事。