失物招领（2010）

迷失之物
你想听个故事吗
So you wanna hear a story?
我曾经知道很多有趣的故事
Well, I used to know a hell lot of pretty interesting ones,
有些很有意思 会让你笑到不省人事
Some of them so funny, you’ll laugh yourself unconscious,
有些 很糟糕 你都不愿意再提
Others, so terrible you never wanna repeat them.
但现在我一个也记不起来了
But now I can’t remember any of those.
那我就给你讲
So maybe I’ll just tell
那次我发现一个迷失之物的故事吧
you about the time I found that lost thing.
这故事发生在很多个夏天以前
This all happened many summers ago,
在沙滩上
down on the beach.
我照常兴致勃勃地进行着我的瓶盖收集
I was as usual working tirelessly on my bottle top collection,
然后我看见了那个东西
at least until I saw the thing.
它无所事事
It sure wasn’t doing much.
就坐在那
It just sat there,
表情很奇怪
with the really weird look about it.
就那种 悲伤的 迷失的表情
You know, a sad, lost, sort of look.
别人好像都没注意到它的存在
Nobody else seemed to notice it was there.
他们都忙着别的事吧 我猜想
They are all busy doing other stuff, I guess.
你好
Hello?
原来它很友善
It turned out to be really friendly,
我跟这个东西玩了大半个下午
and I played with the thing the most of the afternoon.
非常开心
It was quite fun.
可这整个过程中
Yet the whole time
我不知为何觉得有些不对劲
I couldn’t help feeling that something wasn’t quite right.
时间慢慢过去
As the hours slashed by,
看来越来越不大可能
it seemed less and less likely
会有人带着这东西回家
that anyone was coming to take the thing home.
很快这让人不太愉悦的事实成真了
Soon there was no denying the unhappy truth,
它迷失了
it was lost.
我问了一些人 是否知道些关于它的事
I asked a few people if they knew anything about it.
我带着这迷失的东西去了皮特家
I took the lost thing over to Pete’s place
皮特对所有事都有他的看法
Pete has an opinion on just about everything.
酷 他说
Cool. He said.
皮特并不知道这东西到底是什么
Pete didn’t know what the thing was exactly,
但他说 通常是这样
But he said Well it always does,
一切物理上存在的东西
that all physical manifestations
都能通过实证的方法来辨认
could be identified empirically
通过细心观察
through careful observation,
精准的测量 以及良好控制的实验来完成
calibrated measurement and controlled experimentation.
最后 皮特耸耸肩
In the end, Pete just shrugged.
他认为这迷失之物既不明来处
He didn’t think the lost thing came from anywhere,
也不属于任何地方
it didn’t belong anywhere either.
有些东西就是这样 他说
Somethings are like that, he said.
它们就是迷失了
They are just plain lost.
没有别的办法 我只好带着这东西回家
There was nothing left to do but take the thing home with me.
至于我的父母
As for my parent,
我已经知道我母亲
well I already knew that mom
会心里想着它的脸那么脏
would be concerned about how filthy its face were,
而我爸则会担心各种奇怪的疾病
that dad would be worried about all sorts of strange diseases.
他们俩只想让我把它带回当初发现它的地方
They both just want me to take it back to where I found it.
可它迷失了 我说
But it’s lost, I said.
可说了也没什么用
Not that made any difference.
我决定把它藏在后面的小屋里
I decided to hide the thing in the back shed,
至少得等到我想清楚接下来该怎么办
at least until I figure out what to do next.
我可不能就把它丢到大街上晃悠
I mean I couldn’t just leave it wondering on the streets.
当时那迷失之物看来很开心
The lost thing seemed happy then,
但我肯定无法永远把它藏在小屋里
But I sure couldn’t keep it in the shed forever.
爸爸妈妈总会发现它的
Mom and dad would eventually notice it
比如出来找个锤子或者什么东西的时候
when they came out looking for a hammer or something.
这可真让我进退两难
It was a real delimma.
你是不是发现
Are you finding that the order
你有序的日常生活被莫名其妙扰乱了
of day to day life is unexpectively disrupted?
你是不是受着无主之物的困扰
Do you suffer from unclaimed property?
无名物体
Objects without name.
麻烦又来源不明的人工物品
Troublesome artifacts of unknown origin.
不属于任何人的东西
Things that just don’t belong?
别慌
Don’t panic!
我们有小鸽子笼能用来存放
We’ve got a pigeon hole to stick it in.
联邦什物部门
The federal department of odds and ends.
第二天早晨我们搭电车去了市里
The next morning we caught a tram all the way into the city.
我们到了那栋没有窗户的灰色大楼
We arrived to the tall gray building with no windows.
闻起来有消毒剂的味道
It smelled like disinfectant.
我这有个迷失的东西
Um… I have a lost thing.
我对接待员说道
I called to the receptionist.
填好表格 她说
Fill in the forms, she said.
我四处张望想找张桌子
I was looking around for a desk,
突然间感到有东西碰了碰我的手肘
when I suddenly felt something touch my elbow.
然后有很小的声音
And then there was a tiny voice.
如果你真的在乎那东西
If you really care about that thing,
你不该把它留在这
you shouldn’t leave it here.
这是遗忘与抛弃之地
This is a place for forgetting, and leaving behind.
来 拿着这个
Here, take this.
谢了 我说
Ah, geez, I said.
你不该把它留在这
You shouldn’t leave it here.
那是个路标什么的 我猜
It was some kind of sign, I guess.
看起来无足轻重
Not very important looking.
不过看来确实是指向某个地方的
But it did seem to point somewhere.
最终我们找到了看来是正确的地方
Eventually we found what seem to be the right place,
在某条无名小街的一个小黑口里
In a dark little gap of some anonymous little street.
除非刻意寻找
The kind of place you’d never know existed
否则你压根不会注意到这种地方的存在
unless you are actually looking for it.
我仍时常想起那迷失之物
I still think about that lost thing from time to time.
尤其是当我余光瞥见
Expecially when I see something out of the corner of my eye
一些格格不入的东西
that doesn’t seem quite fit.
那些有着奇怪的悲伤的
You know, something with a weird, sad,
迷失的表情的东西
lost sort of look.
最近我越来越少看见这类东西了
I see the kind of thing less and less these days.
也许是周围的迷失之物变少了
Maybe there aren’t many lost thing around any more.
又也许 也许是我不再留意了
Or maybe, maybe I just stop noticing.
忙着干别的事吧 我想
Too busy doing other stuff, I guess.