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The Horror That Won't Stop Happening
无法挣脱的噩梦
By Haley Sweetland Edwards
文/哈利·斯威特兰德·爱德华兹
IT HAS BECOME A WAKING NATIONAL NIGHTMARE,
那场悲剧已经变成了整个国家的一场白日噩梦，
a recurring horror that we can't explain or defend but that we are condemned to repeat.
一场我们难以解释也难以辩白，却注定永远无法摆脱的惊魂一梦。
We know it will happen again.
我们知道，那样的悲剧还会重演。
We seem helpless to stop it.
但我们还是束手无策。
The latest nightmare began on May 18 with the news: there had been another school shooting.
最近一次噩梦起源于5月18日的新闻：又一起校园枪击案发生了。
This time, it unfolded at Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas,
这一次，悲剧发生在了德克萨斯州圣菲的圣菲高中，
a town of about 12,000 people clustered around a sun-soaked highway southeast of Houston.
这是聚集在休斯顿东南边一条艳阳高照的高速公路周围的一个小镇，人口约1.2万。
As the reports came in from law enforcement and medical personnel, it became clear that this had been a deadly event.
执法部门和医务人员的报告显示，这次的枪击案明显属于致命事件。
Ten people were killed, including eight students and two teachers:
事件造成了10人死亡，包括8名学生和两名老师：
Jared Black, 17; Shana Fisher, 16; Christian Riley Garcia, 15; Aaron Kyle McLeod, 15;
17岁的杰瑞德·布莱克，16岁的夏娜·费希尔，15岁的克里斯蒂安·赖利·加西亚，15岁的艾伦·凯尔·麦克劳德，
Angelique Ramirez, 15; Sabika Sheikh, 17; Christopher Jake Stone, 17;
15岁的安吉丽·拉米雷斯，17岁的萨比卡·谢赫，17岁的克里斯托弗·杰克·斯通，
Kimberly Vaughan, 14; Glenda Ann Perkins, 64; and Cynthia Tisdale, 63.
14岁的金伯利·沃恩；64岁的格伦达·安·帕金斯以及63岁的辛西娅·提斯戴尔。
The sense of inevitability was most powerful, and most disturbing, at the scene itself.
这种无能为力，身在现场时感受最为强烈也最容易引起恐慌。
Paige Curry, a student at the school, was interviewed by a local TV reporter.
该校学生佩奇·库里接受了当地电视台记者的采访。
"Was there a part of you that was like, 'This isn't real. This would not happen at my school?'" the reporter asked.
“你有没有一瞬间觉得，‘这不是真的，这种事不会发生在我们学校’？”记者问到。
Curry looked up and almost laughed.
库里抬起头，差点笑出声来。
"No," she said. "It didn't feel unreal at all."
“没有，”她说。“我一点儿也不觉得虚幻。”
"It's been happening everywhere," she said.
“这种悲剧到处都在发生，”她说。
"I've always kind of felt eventually it would happen here too."
“我一直都觉得，终有一天也会发生在我自己身边。”
By May 19, we had learned about the victims, read their bios and seen the photos they had posted on social media.
截至5月19日，我们已经了解了受害者的情况，他们的经历，也看到了他们在社交媒体上发布的照片。
In many pictures, the dead kids are smiling,
很多照片中遇难的孩子们脸上都带着微笑，
posing with Snapchat filters or dressed up for a dance, beautiful and awkward in that teenage way.
还加上了P图软件里的一些摆拍姿势或是为了表演跳舞打扮得既漂亮又有些蹩脚，透露着青少年特有的打扮模样。
They didn't know they were about to die.
他们并不知道自己已经踏进了鬼门关。
We also learned about the killer.
我们也了解了凶手的情况。
This time, he was a 17-year-old student at the school.
这一次的凶手是该校的一名17岁的学生。
He'd gotten ahold of his father's guns.
他设法弄到了他父亲的枪。
On the day of the attack, he'd reportedly worn a T-shirt emblazoned with the words BORN TO KILL.
据报道，袭击当天，他穿着一件T恤，上面印有“为杀而生”的字样。
One of the victim's mothers said her daughter had rebuffed his advances.
一位受害者的一位母亲说，她的女儿拒绝过他的求爱。
But who knows why someone murders his peers.
但谁知道一个人为什么会杀害自己的同龄人呢？
The sense of entrapment truly sets in when our chosen leaders step onto the public stage.
我们自己选举出来的领导人走上公共舞台时，那种围困之感便会真切地涌上心头。
It's as if they are all reading of the same teleprompter.
台上的他们就好像在念同一个提词器上的内容。
Tweeting from their iPhones, elected officials offer their deepest condolences.
被我们推选出来的这些官员在手机上发表推文，表达他们最深切的哀悼。
They send their thoughts and prayers.
表达他们的所思所感，同时向受害者致祷。
If their words feel familiar,
如果你觉得他们的那些话听着耳熟，
it is perhaps because the same public figures spoke and tweeted nearly the same sentences in February,
那可能是因为今年2月份，佛罗里达州帕克兰市马乔里斯通曼道格拉斯高中发生枪击案后，
in the wake of the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla.
这群公众人物曾在推特上说过几乎一模一样的话。
That time, 17 died: 14 students and three staff members.
那场悲剧带走了17个人的性命；其中有14名学生外加3名工作人员。
译文由可可原创，仅供学习交流使用，未经许可请勿转载。
