年轻的心，今晚自由的飞翔 "Young Hearts, Be Free Tonight" by Yuan

原文链接 https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/4VeMMQN2x9CmP5VIi-AW0Q

背景音乐 Luke Faulkner - Clouds, Rod Steward- Young Turks

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It was a typically tropical raining day in Chiangmai. Humid, unpredictable, yet soothing to most sweaty foreheads and anxious homebound souls.

这一天是一个典型的清迈热带雨天。潮湿、且无法预知，但对于大多汗流浃背和焦躁的返乡之魂来说，它是一种抚慰。

COVID really did a number on Chiangmai, an old city frequented by many tourists from all over the world. Many shops along the street and inside the alleys ran out of business; the once ubiquitous red tuk-tuk trucks were hard to spot now; the vroom vroom of the motorcycles seemed less noisy now; few foreign tourists wandered in the quiet old town. Fortunately and unfortunately, I was one of them.

清迈本来是一个许多世界各地游客经常会光顾的老城，但COVID 疫情对清迈产生了蛮大的影响。沿街和小巷内的不少商店都停业了；曾经无处不在的红色嘟嘟车现在也是不见踪影；摩托车的嗡嗡声现在好像也没那么吵了；这安静的老城里闲逛的外国游客也没有几个了。幸运而又不幸的是，我是其中之一。

Somehow, I was quite content with the status quo, even though such a feeling seems to lack of compassion to the local businesses and a lack of consideration of those who've been longing for traveling, yet cannot. But I don't want to lie. The last place I wanted to be then is a noisy overcrowded city. What I had at Chiangmai was perfect for me. I could hop to different places while still enjoying a peaceful and safe bicycle ride.

不知怎么，我对现在这种情况很满意，尽管这种感觉似乎对当地的商铺缺乏同情心，也没考虑到那些渴望旅行却又无法出行人们的心情。但我不想撒谎，我最不想去的地方就是一个嘈杂拥挤的城市，清迈的一切对我来说是完美的。我可以去到不同的地方，同时也享受着平静安全的自行车骑行。

Unlike my past months in mainland US and Hawaii, I didn't know anyone in the city, which is both a blessing and a curse. To make it even more so, my basic Thai didn't allow me to hold down a deep conversation. So the blessing is that no one would bother my existence when I wanted to be shy; the curse is that I did miss another witty mind and new pair of listening ears. But believe me, I tried to make the most of the blessing part. Keywords here, I tried.

与我呆在美国大陆和夏威夷的过去几个月不同，在这座城市我一个人都不认识，这是福也是祸。更加是福也是祸的是我的半吊子泰语是没法让我和别人有一个深入的交谈的。所以“福”是，当我想害羞的时候，没人能打扰我的存在；“祸”是我的的确确想念有趣的人和一对能够倾听的耳朵。但请相信我，我已尝试去享受那份祝福了。关键词是，我已经尝试过了。

After eating at a Japanese restaurant, I joined the waitresses to draw food cartoons on their souvenir bags. Through body language and the most amazing language of the human mind--a smile, I managed to blend in. The girls were talking and giggling. Maybe about me, a weird customer who decided to get a free "art therapy session" at the vestibule of a restaurant.

在一家日本餐厅吃完饭后，我和服务员们一起在她们的纪念品袋上画着食物的卡通画。通过肢体语言和人类思维中最神奇的语言——一个微笑，我融入其中。女孩儿们有说有笑，也许她们在笑我这样一位奇怪的顾客，在餐厅前厅接受免费的“艺术疗愈课程”。

Also, I forgot to mention. This was my second "art therapy session" at the same place. The reason why I came back is to pick up a notebook I left there for the girls to write something on. It was a lime green notebook with a Chinese character on it, Wen, meaning "kiss". I carried it everywhere. I carried it because I'd been seeking strangers' answers to a very important question to myself, "what is love?" I enjoyed my first "session" so much, so I left it here the night before for the girls to write their answers in the notebook.

另外，我忘了说，这是我在这个地方的第二次“艺术疗愈课程”。我回来的原因是要拿起我留在那儿的笔记本，让女孩们在上面写点东西。那是一本青绿色的笔记本，上面写着一个汉字“吻”，我到处带着它。我带着它是因为我一直在寻找陌生人关于一个对我自己来说非常重要的问题的答案，“什么是爱？”我非常喜欢我在这儿的第一个“疗程”，所以前一天晚上我把它留在这里，让女孩们在笔记本上写下他们的答案。

With enough "art sessions", my treasure retrieving task accomplished, and ominous weather in the sky, I was ready to hit the road home. After a simple goodbye and thank-you to my fellow "artists", I started to pedal hard on my bike. Yet, within seconds, the rain was pouring down. I couldn't risk getting my lime green answer book wet. I knew I had to find a shelter for it and me. So I went to a beer pub nearby.

“疗愈课”上的差不多了，也完成了我的寻宝任务，伴着天空中的不祥天气，我准备踏上回家的路。在向和我一起工作的“艺术家”简单道别和感谢之后，我开始狂蹬我的自行车。然而，就几秒钟之内，大雨倾盆而下。我不能冒险弄湿我的青绿色答案簿，我知道我必须为它和我找到一个庇护所。于是我去了附近的一家啤酒吧。

"Sawade krap!" a young boy said hi to me in Thai while joining his palms.

“萨卡迪卡！”一个男生双手合十，用泰语向我打招呼。

"Sawade krap." My voice didn't sound as confident as his. Wanting to change the conversation in the language I felt comfortable with, I posed my request in a hurry.

“萨卡迪卡。”我的声音听起来不像他那么自信。我想用觉得舒服的语言来对话，就急忙提出了我的要求。

"Phut pa sa angrit dai ma krap?"

“普帕萨昂格里歹买卡？”

"Krap!" He replied with a big smile, not as big as mine, I believed.

“卡！”他笑着回答，他的笑容肯定没有我的那么大，我猜测。

"Mm, is the golden ale good?" asked me while browsing the menu on the brick wall.

“嗯，这个金色艾尔啤酒好喝吗？”一边扫着砖墙上的酒单，我一边问他。

"Yeah. It's a locally brewed craft beer."

“当然。是当地酿造的精酿啤酒。”

"OK, let me have one of that for now." I sat at the bar.

“好啊，先给我一杯。”我坐在吧台边。

The boy said something in Thai to a girl standing close to him. The girl smiled and went away with a nonic pint in her hand. Even under her mask, I could tell she had a beautiful smile and I could also tell that I was not the primary target of that smile. The boy who greeted me in the first place was having a similar smile in his eyes and under the mask.

男孩用泰语对站在他身边的女孩说了些什么，女孩笑了笑，拿着一个品脱杯走开了。即使她戴着口罩，也能看出她的笑容很美，我也能看出我并不是那个笑容的主要对象。最先与我打招呼的男孩眼中和他口罩的背后也带着相似的笑容。

Even though it was a bit nippy because of the rain, the temperature inside the bar warmed my whole being. Suddenly, an idea, a familiar idea, dawned on me. "I should ask them to write something in my notebook. They make a very cute couple, if they are a couple. If not, maybe I could be a match-maker by teasing them a bit." An innocent evil laugh echoed in my cranium.

尽管下雨有点冷，但酒吧里的温度却温暖了我全身。忽然，一个念头，一个熟悉的念头，浮现在我的脑海。 “我应该让他们在我的笔记本上写点东西。如果他们是一对，他们真的是一对可爱的恋人。如果不是，也许我可以逗逗他们，做个媒人。”一种天真又邪恶的笑声在我的脑中回荡。

"Here's your golden ale." said the girl as she put my adult coke cola in front of me across the counter.

“这是你点的金色艾尔啤酒。”那个女孩一边说，一边把我的成人可乐放坐在柜台对面的我的面前。

"Hi, I have another request." I couldn't hide my shyness.

“嗨，我还有一个请求。”我无法掩饰我的害羞。

"Yes?"

“什么呢？”

"Mmh. I'm doing a project. I ask strangers to write 'what is love?' on this notebook. Do you guys want to write something?" I handed them my answer book.

“嗯。我正在做一个项目，邀请陌生人写下‘什么是爱？’，在这个笔记本上。你们想写点什么吗？”我把我的答案簿递给他们。

"Wow. That's so interesting." Their eyes lit up as they were browsing through the notebooks. They stood even closer. Closer than the distance of colleagues or normal friends.

“哇，这太有趣了。”在翻阅笔记本时，他们的眼睛里闪烁着光亮。他们站得更近了，比同事或普通朋友的距离更近。

"So?"

“所以？”

"Of course. We'd love to! This project is so romantic. These answers gave me goosebumps." The boy couldn't hide his big smile. His right hand naturally reached to hold the girl's waist. So I'd guessed it right.

“当然。我们很愿意！这个项目太浪漫了，这些答案让我起鸡皮疙瘩。”男孩掩饰不住他灿烂的笑容，他的右手自然而然的伸到了女孩的腰间，所以我是猜对了。

Seeing my curious satisfaction on my face, the boy revealed, "Oh, by the way, we're a couple."

男孩见我脸上带着好奇的满足，解释道：“哦，对了，我们是情侣。”

"I know."

“显而易见。”

"How?"

“怎么呢？”

"The chemistry between you guys. And the way she looks at you."

“你们之间的化学反应。还有她看你的眼神。”

Now that big smile turned into a bigger one with a trace of shyness and loads of happiness in it. When I looked at the girl's face, it was the same smile.

现在，那灿烂的笑容变成了更大的笑容，带着一丝害羞和幸福。当我看着女孩的脸时，也是同样的笑容。

As the night kicked in, we three talked for hours. I learned that they were part-timers here at night with a day-time internship and they were about to graduate from college (that definitely deserves some adult drinks to celebrate. So I bought us a round of beers). They'd been together for almost 3 years. Their love story was simple yet never short of depth in connections and richness. Young love like theirs always brought me in tears of joy and a tad of jealousy, I had to admit.

夜幕降临，我们仨聊了几个小时。我了解到他们白天做实习，晚上来着打工。他们也即将从大学毕业（这绝对值得一些成人饮料来庆祝，所以我给我们买了一轮啤酒）。他们在一起快三年了，他们的爱情故事很简单，但从不缺乏深度的链接和丰富的感情。我不得不承认，像他们这样的年轻爱情故事总能让我流下喜悦的泪水，同时也感到一丝嫉妒。

At this point of the story, I don't think my words are sincere enough to tell how much they are in love. So I have to borrow theirs. Now you be the judge while I'm beginning to reminisce about the smiles of this young couple, my newest friends--Tiw and Sine.

故事进行到这个阶段，我的词汇已经不够真诚，不足以说明他们有多相爱，所以我不得不挪借他们的词语。现在，你是评委，而我则已经开始回忆这对年轻情侣——我的新朋友Tiw和 Sine——的笑容。

"Love is like a fuel for our universe. It keeps us moving. Love can break a person, but it can also heal a person. Love creates questions, but love can be answered as well. I already found my love, but if you can't find one. Don't worry. There's always love within you."

--Tiw

“爱就像我们宇宙的燃料，它助力我们前行。爱可以伤害一个人，但它也可以治愈一个人。爱会制造问题，但爱也可以回答问题。我已经找到了我的爱，但如果你找不到，别担心，在你的心中总是能找到爱。”

——Tiw

"I'm a spoiled child. I hate when people don't think about me... I don't know how to think about other people, too. One day, my love came in my life, taught me how to think about other people. Now, I think about other people more.

and ... I think about him, my love, more than myself.

To make me be the better version of me, is this love?

Well....

I think it's LOVE! "

--Sine

“我是个被宠坏的孩子，我讨厌别人不为我着想……但我也不知道如何为别人着想。有一天，我的爱走进了我的生活，教会了我如何考虑其他人。现在，我更多地思考着其他人。

还有……我想着他，我的爱人，比我自己还多。

让我成为更好的自己，这就是爱吗？

好吧....

我认为这就是爱！”

——Sine

After writing this story, Rod Stewart's "Young Turks" was playing in my head. He is singing this love song to Tiw and Sine.

写完这个故事后，我脑中响起了Rod Stewart的“Young Turks”的旋律，他正在为 Tiw 和 Sine 唱这首情歌。

"Young hearts, be free tonight

Time is on your side

Don't let 'em put you down

Don't let 'em push you around

Don't let 'em ever change your point of view"

“年轻的心，今夜自由

时间是你的朋友

不要让他们把你打倒

不要让他们左右你

不要让他们改变你的立场”

Written in Chiangmai, Thailand

Feburary, 22nd, 2022

作于泰国清迈

2022年2月22日

012 睡前英文 | 年轻的心，今晚自由的飞翔 by Yuan #泰国