75：陌生人的善意

当你对陌生人施以善意时，它可能带来怎样的结果？

When you commit an act of kindness for a stranger, where can it lead?

1940年，杰克·盖格14岁，和父母关系不好。

In 1940, Jack Geiger was 14 years old, not getting along with his parents.

由于当时纽约市学校的特殊规定，他其实已经完成了高中学业，但没有大学愿意接收这么年轻的学生。

Because of the odd rules of the New York City schools at that time, he had actually finished high school, but no college will gun him in so young.

他和父母关系紧张，经常争吵，后来他去看了一场戏。

He wasn't getting along with his parents, fought with them all the time, and then he went to see a play.

《土生子》，奥森·威尔斯的水星剧团根据理查德·赖特小说改编的剧作

Native Son, Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre production of the Richard Wright novel

是的。

Mhmm.

主演是一位名叫加拿大·李的黑人演员。

Which starred a black actor named Canada Lee.

我被深深打动了。

And I was very moved by that.

带着一个14岁少年的莽撞，我后来去了后台，找到了加拿大·李，待在那里和他聊了一会儿。

And with the brashness of a 14 year old, I went backstage afterwards and found Canada Lee and hung around and talked with him a while.

我非常喜欢这种感觉，于是又这样做了三四次。

And I liked that so much that I did that three or four more times.

你还记得当时你和他聊了些什么吗？你当时想和他谈什么？

Do do you recall what it is that that you were talking to him about, what you wanted to talk to him about?

我们一开始聊的是这部剧、理查德·赖特以及主角比格·托马斯，还有美国的种族关系。

Well, we started out talking about the play and Richard Wright and the main character, Bigger Thomas, and race relations in The United States.

很快，至少在第二次或第三次交谈时，话题就转到了我自己的生活、我想做什么，以及我的种种矛盾上。

And pretty soon, we got around to, by the second or third conversation at least, what was going on in my life and what I wanted to do and my conflicts and so on.

在那些对话中，我觉得他对我了解得比我对他的了解要多得多。

He learned a lot more about me than I did about him, I think, at that point in those conversations.

后来有一天，家里的冲突变得愈发激烈，我等到一个周日，知道那天《土生子》没有演出。

And then one day when the conflict at home just got a lot tougher, I waited till a Sunday when I knew there was no performance of Native Son.

等父母出门后，我收拾了一个包，坐地铁来到哈莱姆区糖山的最高处——埃奇科姆大道555号，我知道加拿大在那里有一间顶层公寓。

And my folks were out and I packed a bag and I took a subway up to the top of Sugar Hill in Harlem, 555 Edgecombe Avenue, where I knew that Canada had a penthouse.

我上去按了门铃，他在家，开了门。

And I went up and rang the doorbell, and he was home and opened the door.

我对他说：李先生，家里的情况实在越来越糟，我想也许可以在这里住一阵子。

And I said, Lee, the stuff at home is just getting too much, and I thought maybe I could stay here for a while.

就这么冷不丁地提了出来。

Cold, just like that.

他环顾了一下，指着客厅里的一张沙发说：嗯，你可以在那儿过夜。

And he kinda looked around and pointed to a couch in the living room and said, Well, I guess you could sleep over there.

那天晚上我睡着后，他给我的父母打了电话，说：我会在早上送他回去，但你们为什么不让他留下来呢？我也不确定他下次会去哪儿。

After I had gone to sleep that evening, he called my folks and said, Look, I'll send him back in the morning, but why don't you let him stay here because I'm not sure where he's going to land the next time?

我的父母大概已经被这一切折磨得精疲力尽，于是勉强同意了。

And my parents must have been so exhausted by all of this that they agreed, at least tentatively.

那成了我真正住在那里的一整年，也是我人生中最重要的教育经历之一。

And that was the beginning of a whole year that I really lived there and had one of the great educational experiences of my life.

在那一年里，通过那套公寓，我见到了哈莱姆地区戏剧界、体育界、民权运动、政界和知识界的顶尖人物。

Through that apartment, over that year that I remember, came the kind of the cream of the Harlem theatrical, sporting, civil rights, political, and intellectual world.

我有机会在无数个夜晚和周末，坐在那里听兰斯顿·休斯、威廉·萨罗扬、亚当·克莱顿·鲍威尔、比利·斯特雷霍恩（杜克·艾灵顿的编曲家）、理查德·赖特——他从流亡中归来，曾短暂停留。

And I had the chance to sit around evening after evening, many weekends, listening to Langston Hughes, William Saroyan, Adam Clayton Powell, Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's arranger, Richard Wright, who came back once from exile and stopped in.

我最记得的是倾听人们的对话，谈论二战、种族与民主、军队中的种族隔离、南方正在发生的事，以及纽约市的情况。

And what I remember most is listening to people, listening to the conversations about World War two and race and democracy, segregation in the armed forces, what was happening in the South, what was happening in New York City.

让我问你一下，你认为你父母接到加拿大李的第一次电话时，反应如何？他们突然得知自己白人、犹太、中产阶级的儿子，要和一位黑人住在哈莱姆，而那时他们自己才四十出头。

Let me ask you to assess what what you think your parents' reaction was when they got this first call from Canada Lee, to have to have their white Jewish middle class son suddenly up living with a black man in Harlem in their early forties.

我想他们已经精疲力尽了。

Well, I think they were exhausted.

我们经历了太多的挣扎。

We had had so much struggle.

再后来，我记得有一次我们又聊天时，李正在办派对，邀请了我的父母，他们怀着极大的忐忑，在晚上来到了哈莱姆。

A little later, I remember further on, when we were talking to each other again, Lee was giving a party and invited my parents, who, with great trepidation, came up to Harlem at night.

我想他们以前从未这么做过。

I don't think they had ever done that before.

是的。

Mhmm.

然后他们来参加了这个派对。

And came to this party.

我记得，加拿大人转向我母亲说，嘿。

And Canada, I remember, turned to my mother and said, hey.

我是单身。

I'm a bachelor.

你觉得你能帮帮我们吗？

Do you think you could help us out?

在厨房里，派对规模很大，我母亲说，当然可以。

In the kitchen it was a big party and my mother said, Sure.

第二天我打电话给母亲，她说她度过了极其愉快的时光，在厨房里和这位了不起的人聊了几个小时，谈了很多。

Next day I talked to my mother on the phone and she said she had had the most wonderful time, had spent a couple of hours in the kitchen with this wonderful man and they'd had all this conversation.

我说，他是谁？

I said, Who was it?

她说，嗯，她不知道。

She said, Well, she didn't know.

她从来没问过他的名字。

She'd never gotten the name.

我说：那你描述一下他吧。

And I said, Well, describe him.

她这才发现，自己竟然和兰斯顿·休斯聊了两个小时，却从未意识到他的身份，感到非常羞愧。

And she discovered that she had spent two hours chatting with Langston Hughes and was mortified that she had never realized it.

他们聊了些什么？

What did they talk about?

你必须见过兰斯顿·休斯，才能明白他有多随和自在。

You had to have met Langston Hughes to know he was as comfortable as an old shoe.

是的。

Yeah.

我敢肯定他们聊了烹饪，也肯定聊了正义。

And I'm sure they talked about cooking, and I'm sure they talked about Right.

还有我母亲想聊的任何其他话题。

Whatever else my mother wanted to talk about.

她始终没能放下这件事，至今仍会回忆起。

And she never quite got over it and still recalled it.

那一年，他某种程度上成了我的非正式养父。

During that year, he was kind of an informal surrogate father.

那时我正处于叛逆期，不愿接受父母的任何帮助。

And I was in that stage where I wasn't gonna take anything from the parents I was fighting with.

所以他资助了我大学第一年的开销，当时我终于找到了愿意接收我的学校。

So he staked me to a good bit of my first year at college when I found a place that would finally let me in.

所以他为你支付了学费？

And So he paid for your school?

嗯，他借给了我

Well, he loaned me

这笔钱。

the money.

而不是你的父母？

Instead of your parents?

是的

Yeah.

直到后来我才意识到，也许无意识中我做出那个选择的原因。

It wasn't until a little later that I figured out why unconsciously maybe I had made the choice that I did.

结果发现，虽然我当时并不知道，加拿大·李本人是在一个相当严格的中产阶级西印度家庭中长大的。

It turned out, although I didn't know it at the time, that Canada Lee himself had grown up in a pretty strict middle class West Indian family.

他告诉我，他对我与家人之间的关系以及我想做什么所感到的不满和困惑，和我有着相似的感受。

And he had, he told me, the same kind of dissatisfactions and mixed up feelings that I'd had about his relationship with his family and what he wanted to do.

他离家出走了。

And he ran away.

我想，这段经历可能与他愿意收留这个陌生的孩子、为他营造一个类似第二个家的环境有关。

And I think that experience may have had something to do with his kindness in taking this strange kid in and making a sort of second home for him.

我常常思考一个问题，却始终找不到答案：我当时有哪些线索让我觉得，这个瘦弱的孩子，提着一个行李箱，在星期天的晚上，就能以这种方式接近他，并有机会被收留？

The thing I thought about is a lot without ever really finding an answer is what kind of clues did I have that said, hey, this is a guy that I can approach in this way, a scrawny kid with a suitcase on a Sunday night, and have some kind of shot at getting taken in.

我要么非常有洞察力，要么非常幸运，我认为那主要是运气。

I was either very insightful or very lucky, and I think it was mostly luck.

你

Do you

你觉得你当时收到过一些线索吗？

think there were clues that you were given, though?

我认为一定有一些线索，毕竟那是一位百老汇明星，却在后台与一个孩子谈论生活和他的烦恼。

I think there must have been clues just in the fact that here was a Broadway Star who was hanging around backstage talking with a kid about life and about his troubles.

这显然是一个任何人都不可能忽略的信号。

That's a signal that I don't think anybody could have missed.

杰克和加拿大·李一起住了一年。

Jack lived with Canada Lee for a year.

有时李的青少年儿子也会在那里。

Sometimes Lee's teenage son would be there too.

杰克上了大学，二战期间加入商船队，服役于唯一一艘由黑人船长和混合种族军官团队运营的船——SS布克·T·华盛顿号。

Jack went to college, enlisted in the Merchant Marines during World War II, serving on the only ship with a black captain and integrated crew of officers, the SS Booker T Washington.

每当杰克在学校假期或从商船队回家时，他都会住在加拿大·李那里。

When Jack would come home to New York on school break or from the Merchant Marines, he would stay with Canada Lee.

后来，在杰克一次回家时，加拿大·李告诉杰克他手头紧，问他能不能借一千美元。

Then, on one of Jack's trips home, Canada Lee told Jack that he was pressed for cash, asked if he could borrow a thousand dollars.

我说，当然可以。

And I said, sure.

我就借给他了，等我下次回来时，他就还给了我。

And I loaned it to him, and I came back for the next trip, and he paid me back.

事后回想了很久，我才明白他其实并不需要这一千美元。

And it took me a while, in retrospect, to figure out that he didn't need the thousand dollars.

他只是想改变我们之间的关系，说：嘿，你现在长大了，是个成年人了，我不再是你的父亲了。

He was just changing the nature of the relationship between us and saying, hey, now you're grown up, and now you're an adult, And I'm not your dad anymore.

我们现在是伙伴。

We're partners.

我可以像你当初向我借钱一样，向你借钱。

I can borrow money from you just the way you borrowed money from me.

这是一种平衡关系的方式。

There's a way of evening the scales.

是的

Yeah.

随着年龄增长，杰克成为了一名记者，后来又当了医生，积极参与民权运动，六十年代初与民权工作者一同前往密西西比州，是“医生促进社会责任”组织的创始人之一，后来又参与创建了“医生促进人权”组织，还在密西西比州和南非建立了社区医疗中心，这些努力最终促成了全美超过1200个社区医疗中心的诞生。

As he got older, Jack became a journalist, then a doctor, active in the civil rights movement, went to Mississippi with the civil rights workers in the early sixties, was a founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility and later Physicians for Human Rights, started community health centers in Mississippi and in South Africa, in this country that eventually led to more than 1,200 community health centers.

如今，这些中心为全美超过两千两百万低收入人群提供初级医疗服务。

They now provide primary care for more than 22,000,000 low income people across the country.

查克·盖格说，如果没有与加拿大·李的这段经历，他不可能这么快就如此深入地涉足这些领域。

Chuck Geiger says he'd never have moved so deeply into these worlds so quickly, if not for his experience with Canada Lee.

这显然是一段从那以后一直伴随着我的关系。

It's a relationship, very obviously, that has stayed with me ever since.

我一生中的大部分时间和工作，都以某种方式与民权和人权相关。

Most of my life and work has, in one way or another, involved civil rights and human rights.

这或许正是我选择成为医生的原因之一——想要照顾那些身处困境的人。

Must be one of the reasons why I became a physician, of wanting to look out for people who are in trouble.

你有没有觉得，曾经也有人对他伸出过类似的善意之手，而他后来将这份善意传递给了你？

Was it your impression that other people had extended this kind of act of kindness to him that he then extended to you?

或者他曾经渴望有人能像他接纳你那样接纳他？

Or that he had yearned for for some that someone would have taken him in the way that he took you in?

你知道吗，我现在想到的是，这是我从哈莱姆社区和许多其他工作中学到的。

I you know, what what occurs to me now is that it's something I learned in the Harlem community and in a lot of other work.

黑人社区中，大家庭的经历要多得多。

There was a lot more experience in the black community of extended families.

是的。

Yeah.

在那种背景下，从那个角度来说，这并不觉得是什么了不起的事。

And I don't think in that context from that side of the divide, it felt like such a big deal.

嗯，你是在说

Well, you're saying in a

那种情况下，当时黑人文化比白人文化更愿意对陌生人伸出援手。

way that that that black culture at that time was more conducive to extending kindness to strangers than white culture.

我觉得是这样，

I think so,

也许现在仍然是。

and maybe still.

医生。

Doctor.

纽约的杰克·盖格。

Jack Geiger in New York.

他于2020年去世，享年95岁。

He died in 2020 at the age of 95.

这个故事有一个有趣的注脚：1949年，在他结识杰克·盖格几年后，加拿大·李出演了一部电影，做了差不多同样的事。

An interesting footnote to this story, in 1949, just a few years after he befriended Jack Geiger, Canada Lee was in a movie where he did more or less the same thing.

这部电影叫《失落的界限》。

The film was Lost Boundaries.

他饰演一位非裔美国警察，结识了一位迷茫的白人少年，收留他、教导他，向他展现陌生人的善意。

He played an African American police officer who befriends a confused white teenager, takes him under his wing, shows him the kindness of strangers.

接下来，同一个社区里的好邻居和坏邻居，一群暴民，一位踢踏舞者，一个扩音器，还有董事会主席。

Coming up, good neighbors and bad neighbors in the same neighborhood, a street mob, a tap dancer, a PA system, and the chairman of the board.

稍后，当我们的节目继续时，我们会讲到这一点。

That's in a minute when our program continues.

这是美国生活。

This is American Life.

我是艾拉·格拉斯。

I'm Ira Glass.

每周在我们的节目中，当然，我们会选定一个主题，围绕这个主题呈现各种不同类型的故事。

Each week in our program, of course, we choose a theme, bringing a variety of different kinds of stories on that theme.

今天的节目是我们节目早期的一期重播，主题是《陌生人的善意》，

Today's show is a rerun from the early years of our program, The Kindness of Strangers,

以及善意可能带来的结果。

and Where the Kindness might lead.

今天节目中所有的故事都来自美国最不友善的城市——纽约市，我们现在进入节目的第三幕。

All our stories in today's show are from the supposedly least kind city in America, New York City, and we have arrived at act three of our program.

对于这一幕，我们想的是：好，好，好，好，好。

And for this act, we figured nice, nice, nice, nice, nice.

我们觉得，在经历了这么多善意和假装的善意之后，需要换换节奏了，这是一个关于陌生人赤裸裸的恶意的故事，这种恶意能让两个互不相识的人变得对彼此着迷。

We figured we would need a change of pace after all this kindness and attempted kindness, and this is a story about the flat out unkindness of strangers and how it could take two people who do not know each other and make them completely obsessed with each other.

我们的资深编辑保罗·塔夫报道说，这个故事中的某些名字已被更改。

Our senior editor Paul Tough reports some names in this story have been changed.

赫尔加的社区过去完全是乌克兰人的聚居地，体面而宁静，有东正教教堂和社区中心。

Helga's neighborhood used to be entirely Ukrainian, respectable, with an Orthodox church and a community center.

但后来情况变了。

And then things changed.

年轻人开始搬来，现在这里到处都是唱片店、咖啡馆和穿孔店。

Young people started arriving, and now the place is full of record stores and cafes and body piercing parlors.

斯塔莉是新搬来的居民之一。

Starley is one of the newcomers.

她两年前搬来，就住在赫尔加隔壁，她们之间的矛盾从一开始就爆发了。

She moved in two years ago, right next door to Helga, and the trouble between them started right away.

斯塔莉说，起初，这只是一些普通的纽约公寓生活琐事。

Starley says that at first, it was just regular New York apartment stuff.

她会过来，有点儿告诉我别在公寓里制造噪音。

She would come and kinda tell me that, like, not to, like, make noise in the apartment.

她说她晚上穿拖鞋，所以我也应该穿拖鞋。

And she was like, I wear slippers at night, so, you should be wearing slippers too.

她会直接来敲你的门告诉你吗？

And she'd come and just knock on your door and tell you?

不会。

No.

她会在楼道里跟我说。

She would tell me, like, downstairs in the hall.

比如我路过时碰到她，她其实特别平静地跟我说。

Like, I'd see her, like, in passing, and she was actually really calm about it.

她那时候看起来像个无助的老太太，我因此试着 quieter 一点，甚至有一次我还帮她提过 groceries 上楼。

And she and she looked like a helpless old woman back then and I tried to like be quieter because of it and then and I think I even helped her carry like her groceries up the stairs once.

我想我确实这么做过。

I think I actually did do that.

从Starly的角度看，她努力保持安静，也尽量表现得友善，但那时她还是个大学生，有很多朋友，晚上常有人来访。

From Starly's point of view she tried to be quiet, she tried to be nice but she was a college student at the time and she had a lot of friends and people would drop by late at night.

所以一直保持安静真的很困难。

So it was hard to be quiet all the time.

从Helga的角度看，Starley是个糟糕的邻居，最差劲的那种，而Helga确保Starley清楚地知道她的感受。

From Helga's point of view, Starley was a terrible neighbor, the worst, and Helga made sure that Starley knew exactly how she felt.

她偶尔会坐在走廊里跟人谈论我们，但那里根本没人可聊。

Like she would occasionally sit in a hallway and talk to people about us, but there would not be anyone out there to talk to.

她只是随便编些对话，背后议论我们，但每当我们开门，她那些虚构的‘听众’就立刻跑上楼了。

She would just kinda like make up conversations and gossip about us, but we'd like open the door and she'd like, they all went up they all ran upstairs really quick.

然后她就不跟任何人谈论我们了，就是想让我们知道她不喜欢我们。

And then she wasn't talking to anyone about us, just so we'd know that she didn't like us.

那么她都说了些什么呢？

And so what sorts of things

那时候她都在说些什么？

was she saying at that point?

就说我们很吵，是坏孩子。

Just said we were we were loud, bad kids.

就说我们吵闹、不负责任，她根本不信我们有人去上学。

Like, just so we were loud and irresponsible, she didn't know she didn't believe any of us ever went to school.

就是不肯相信，我想她是不喜欢我们这么年轻。

Like, refused to believe that so she just didn't like I think she didn't like that we were young.

海格希望大楼里的其他人都看到她眼中的斯塔莉。

Helga wanted everyone else in the building to see the Starley that she saw.

于是她开始把垃圾扔到他们共用的小平台上。

So she started throwing garbage out onto the little landing that they shared.

显然是想让大家都以为是斯塔莉公寓（3号）的人干的。

Apparently, to try to make everyone think that it was people in Starley's apartment, Number 3, who were responsible.

烟头、揉皱的纸片、橙汁纸盒之类的。

Cigarette butts and like just crumpled piece of paper and like orange juice cartons like that.

一开始只是很少一点，后来越积越多，到处都是垃圾。

And it started off really small and it just got huge and just like, it just became like so much trash in all the way.

而且这里有人抽烟，所以看起来像是我们在这么做。

And people smoke here, so it looked like we were doing it.

而且她挑的那种垃圾，她特意去找那种小孩才会丢的垃圾，比如好时蛋糕的包装纸、糖果棒之类的。

And also like her, the type of, the type of trash she picked, she like tried to got her way to find like kid trash, like Hostess donut wrappers and like candy bar things.

简直是见过最富创意的垃圾了。

And just like the most creative garbage you've ever seen.

于是，人们一开始以为是我们干的，就来跟我们说，别把垃圾扔在走廊里。

And so then, so people first thought we were doing it and they would come and talk to us and be like, put the trash.

我说：我才不会扔垃圾呢。

I'm like, I'm not putting the trash.

杰克·布罗恩斯坦，当时是斯塔莉的室友——我该说，她在那两年里换了九个室友。

Jake Bronstein, Starley's roommate at the time, she's had nine roommates I should say, nine in the two years she's lived there.

杰克决定采取点行动。

Jake decided to do something.

杰克写了一张便条，上面说：请不要把垃圾扔在走廊里。

Jake wrote a note saying, please don't put trash in the hallway.

我把垃圾放在了我们走廊外面。

And I put it outside in our hallway.

我们有个小方形走廊，他就把纸条贴在墙上。

We have like a little square hallway and he just taped it on the wall.

然后我们听到她出来，透过钥匙孔看，发现她贴了个新告示，出来一看，上面写着：请不要在走廊卖毒品。

And then we like hear her come out and we look through the keyhole and we see that she's put a sign up and we come out there and it says, then please don't sell drugs.

那是我们第一次听说这件事。

And that's the first time we'd ever heard of it.

我们当时就惊呆了。

We were just like, woah.

我们根本没想到，完全出乎意料，简直不敢相信。

Like we can't, like we hadn't, it was so out of the blue we couldn't believe it.

从那天起，也就是六个月前开始，Helco每天都会贴至少一张关于Starley的便条，有时多达七八张。

Ever since that day, more than six months ago, Helco has put up at least one note about Starley every single day, sometimes as many as seven or eight.

这些便条大多很小，大概两英寸乘三英寸。

They're mostly pretty small, maybe two inches by three inches.

这些便条是用记号笔写的，字体是大写的印刷体。

The notes are written in marker and block letters.

赫尔加把便条贴在前门、邮箱上方、窗户上、她自己的门上，以及斯塔利的门上。

Helga puts notes in the front door, over the mailboxes inside, on the window, on her own door, on Starley's door.

措辞各不相同，但信息始终一致。

The wording varies, but the message is always the same.

斯塔利是个大毒贩。

Starley is a big time drug dealer.

她正在3号公寓里卖毒品，应该停止或搬走。

She's selling drugs out of Apartment Number 3, and she should stop or move out.

斯塔利实际上会收集赫尔加贴出的这些便条。

Starley actually collects the notes that Helga puts up.

她公寓里的一面墙都贴满了这些便条。

One whole wall of her apartment is covered with them.

斯塔利给我看了几条她特别挑出来的。

Starley shows me a few choice ones.

你看，她写的是三号在卖毒品，照常营业。

See, she puts she had Number three selling drugs, business as usual.

在逾越节期间，也写着在逾越节卖毒品真丢脸。

On Passover, put shame selling drugs on Passover.

她说可以。

She has okay.

她有，让我看看。

She's got let's see.

凯南·布罗斯坦，毒贩，靠卖毒进监狱。

Kynan Bronstein drug dealer selling their way to the jailhouse.

凯南·布罗斯坦，毒贩，像寄生虫一样在这里卖非法毒品。

Kynan Bronstein drug dealer selling illegal drugs here like parasites.

斯塔莉说，事实上她并没有卖毒品。

Starley says that in fact she's not selling drugs.

她从未卖过毒品。

She's never sold drugs.

她公寓里没人卖过毒品。

No one in her apartment has ever sold drugs.

这全是谎言。

It's all a big lie.

我让她进公寓，我也进了公寓，你想看哪里都行。

I I asked her to come into the apartment and I come in the apartment, look anywhere you want.

说实话，我们可以一起去见警察。

Like, honestly, like, we'll go to the cops together.

我完全不介意。

I don't mind that at all.

海格拉不只是贴告示。

Helga doesn't just put up signs.

每当有人来看斯塔莉时，她都会从门后偷看。

She peers out her door whenever anyone comes to visit Starley.

她骚扰斯塔莉的朋友，在走廊里拦住斯塔莉，骂她是骗子，还有这回事。

She harasses Starley's friends, accosts Starley in the hallway, calls her a liar, and then there's this.

不做了，亲爱的。

Not doing it, love.

看到了吗？

See?

你看，它在动。

Like, it moves.

我们凌晨一点左右在Starley的公寓里。

We're inside Starley's apartment about one in the morning.

Helga就坐在她隔壁的公寓里，紧挨着那面薄墙，她敲着地板，只是为了让Starley知道她在那里。

Helga is sitting in her apartment right next to the thin wall that separates the two of them, and she's tapping on the floor just to let Starley know she's there.

她总是在监视。

She's always watching.

我抬头看着墙。

I look up at the wall.

对我来说，这是一个非常令人毛骨悚然的时刻。

For me, it's a very creepy moment.

Starley已经习惯了。

Starley is used to it.

我得说，这真是

It's I I gotta say, it's the

她只是想引起我们的注意。

It's just she's it's just to get our attention.

只是为了提醒我们，即使她没有贴告示，她也清楚我们的非法活动。

Just to remind us that she's even when she's not putting the sign up, that she's aware of of our illegal activities.

我们就像被监视一样，去了PBS的iClaudia，从第一个片头到最后一个片尾整整三个小时。

We were like watched, we got to iClaudia's on PBS and it was three hours from this first credit to last credit.

我们一直能听到她持续敲击的声音。

Were able to continue tapping the entire time.

她就坐在门口，整晚都用拐杖敲打地面。

She just sat in her door and banged her cane the entire time.

她就会这么做。

And she'll do it.

我的意思是，她从不觉得累。

I mean, she does not get tired.

这就是她每天做的事。

And that's what she does with her day.

她不吃东西，只是不停地敲她的拐杖。

Instead of eating, she just bangs her cane.

这有点让人难过。

That's kinda sad.

确实很让人难过。

It is sad.

我知道这很让人难过。

I know it's sad.

但这真的很难。

It's hard though.

这很难，因为你很难知道该怎么做，还要面对如此刻薄的行为。

It's hard because it's hard to know what the right thing to do is and to be confronted by, like, such meanness.

所以有时候，你刚回到家，就会想，天啊，这个女人真是世界上最可怜的人。

So because, like, the more like, sometimes you'll just be, like, coming home and you'll like, god, this woman is the saddest woman in the world.

你经过她家门口时，会感到同情和怜爱，可她一开门就会对你大喊大叫，你就会想，天啊，你根本没法做对的事，她让当个好人变得太难了。

You'll pass by her door and get, like, like feelings of like pity and affection and then she'll open it and she'll yell at you and you're just like, man, like you can't it's she try she makes it so hard to do the right to just be like a good person about it.

几年前，这栋楼的顶层确实有个毒贩。

A couple of years ago, there actually was a drug dealer in the building up on the Top Floor.

那场面可真糟。

It was a bad scene.

有人被拖下楼，扔到前门台阶上，还有人睡在屋顶上，但楼里的其他居民团结起来，上法庭，最终把毒贩赶了出去。

Jockeys being dragged downstairs and out to the front stoop, people sleeping on the roof, and everyone else in the building banded together and went to court and actually got the drug dealers kicked out.

海拉是当时作证的人之一，斯塔尔·李认为这可能和现在发生的事有关。

Helga was one of the people who testified and Star Lee thinks that that might be connected to what's happening now.

海拉在那次运动中获得了大量关注和支持，所以现在她又想效仿斯塔尔·李再搞一次。

Helga got a lot of attention and support from that campaign and so now she's trying to do it again with Star Lee.

我试图跟海拉聊聊这些事，听听她的说法，但并不容易。

I tried to speak to Helga about all of this to get her side of the story but it wasn't easy.

星李对她的描述是，她对陌生人很警惕。

The way Star Lee described her, she's suspicious of strangers.

她从不让人进她的公寓。

She never lets anyone into her apartment.

她不接门铃。

She doesn't answer her buzzer.

所以我决定在街上试着和她搭话。

So I decided that I'd try to speak to her out on the street.

有一天晚上，我在大楼外等了一个小时，她终于出来了。

One night I waited outside the building for about an hour and finally she came out.

不好意思。

Excuse me.

您住在这栋楼里吗？

Do you live in this building here?

我正在努力

I'm trying

去找到

to find

了解—这

out- It

这是一次非常奇怪的访谈。

was a very strange interview.

她和我想象的不一样。

She wasn't what I expected.

她看起来完全正常。

She seemed completely normal.

我告诉她我听说3号公寓出了点事，问她是否知道是什么情况。

I told her that I'd heard something was going on with Apartment Number 3, and I asked her if she knew what it was.

是的，她告诉我了。

Yes, she told me.

你在卖毒品。

You're selling drugs.

我问她是否愿意和我谈谈这件事，她说愿意，但不希望我在广播中使用她的声音。

I asked her if she'd talk to me about it, and she said that she would, but she didn't want me to use her voice on the radio.

她说这太危险了。

Too dangerous, she said.

她带我穿过马路，到一辆货车后面，说那里谈话更安全。

She led me across the street behind a van where she said it would be safer to talk.

她非常认真，情绪十分紧张。

She was deadly serious, very intense.

她明显觉得自己处于危险之中。

She clearly felt that she was in a dangerous situation.

她愿意告诉我一些细节，但其余的她说需要我自己去挖掘。

She was willing to give me a few details, but the rest she told me I'd have to dig up myself.

她说了这些：这栋楼里住满了学生。

Here's what she said, the building is full of students.

3号公寓的人把东西卖给楼里的学生。

The people in Apartment 3 sell to the students in the building.

他们还让这些学生当信差，去附近酒吧贩售毒品。

They also use the students as couriers to sell drugs in the bars all around the neighborhood.

这是一场大规模的行动，全由那个矮个子女孩负责，她说，指的是斯塔·李。

It's a big operation and it's all being run by that short girl, she said, meaning Star Lee.

如果赫尔加在收音机里听到这个故事，她会告诉你我全搞错了。

If Helga were to hear the story on the radio, she would tell you that I've got it all wrong.

我被欺骗了。

That I've been duped.

斯塔莉告诉我的一切都是谎言。

That everything Starley told me is a lie.

赫尔加说的某些话很有道理。

And some of what Helga says makes perfect sense.

她说经常有人进出斯塔莉的公寓，这确实是真的。

She says that people are coming and going all the time from Starley's apartment, which is in fact true.

她说电话整夜不停地响，确实如此。

She says the phone rings at all hours of the night, and it does.

对海格拉来说，这说明了一件事：毒品。

For Helga, that points to one thing, drugs.

对斯塔利来说，这只是因为她是个学生，熬夜，朋友很多。

For Starley, it's just that she's a student, she stays up late, she's got a lot of friends.

在斯塔利和海格拉之间没有中间地带。

There's no middle ground for Starley and Helga.

她们对一切的看法截然不同。

They see absolutely everything differently.

从斯塔利的角度看，一开始这段经历有点好笑，只是一个有趣的故事。

From Starley's point of view, there was a period at the beginning where this whole thing was sort of funny, where it was just a good story.

但随着时间推移，情况变了，斯塔·李变得和海格拉一样认真。

But as time went on, things changed, and Star Lee became as serious as Helga.

有时候我真想抓住她，表现得特别糟糕，因为我从没抓到过她那么快，你根本抓不住她贴告示的瞬间。

There would be times when I wanted to catch her and act so badly, because I never caught she's so quick, and you could never catch her putting the sign up.

我太想打开它了，以至于我就是不肯走，一待就是一小时。

I wanted to just open it so badly that I just, like, wouldn't leave for, like, an hour.

别管了，你们先去拍电影吧。

Be like, no, you guys go ahead and do the movie.

我就在这儿，再在门口等一会儿。

I'm just gonna stay here and and just wait by the door for a little longer.

这很难熬。

And it was hard.

有一种方式，尤其是在

There's a way, especially at

在那段时期，你们俩可以说是密不可分，她坐在公寓里等你，而你坐在这里。

that at that period, where the two of you were sort of, you know, inextricably linked, that she's sitting there waiting in her apartment for you and you're sitting here.

对。

Right.

就是这样。

That's what it was.

就像我潜伏着，等她也在等我。

It was like me lying in wait of her lying in wait for me.

当然。

Absolutely.

我们，是的。

We we yeah.

我们的纽带非常牢固。

We're we're the bond was strong.

大多数时候，陌生人的冷漠是一种几乎无意识的行为。

Most of the time, the unkindness of strangers is a barely conscious thing.

你在路上插车。

You cut someone off in traffic.

你拿走最后一个甜甜圈，或者在赶火车时撞到别人，你根本不会多想。

You take the last donut, you bump into someone running for a train, you don't even think about it.

对于海加和斯塔尔·李来说，情况却不同。

With Helga and Star Lee, things are different.

他们彼此冷漠相待。

They're unkind to each other.

他们互相监视，争吵，还在走廊里对彼此大喊大叫。

They spy on each other, they bicker, they yell at each other in the hallway.

但对于他们每个人来说，这些不友善的行为都是更大图景的一部分。

But for each of them, those unkindnesses are part of a bigger picture.

他们之所以刻薄，是因为不得不如此。

They're mean because they have to be.

Star Lee 正在努力洗清自己的名声。

Star Lee's trying to clear her name.

Helga 正在努力整治这个街区。

Helga's trying to clean up the neighborhood.

我的意思是，如果有人先去采访了她，而你正在写这个村庄或这栋建筑的历史，那么记录下来的就是：这位英勇的女士试图把毒品窝点清除掉。

Really I mean, someone had gone to her first and you were if you're writing a history of this village or writing a history of this building and then someone just interviewed her, it it would go down that, like, this heroical lady tried to get the drug doors out.

她会成为烈士之类的角色。

She'd be the martyr or whatever.

而我想，那时它就可能变成事实了。

And, I guess it could become fact then.

我跟你说过了。

I told you.

我的意思是，有时候这几乎就成了事实。

I mean, it almost is fact sometimes.

我有时候会对自己产生怀疑。

I'm I'm questioning myself sometimes about it.

我以前是的。

I used to.

我想是吧。

I guess

你以前怀疑过自己是不是毒贩吗？

You used to question whether or not you were a drug dealer?

不是。

No.

但我只是想确认一下，我这么说对吗？

But I just, am I right?

我是不是做错了什么？

Am I am I doing something wrong?

我是不是做了什么不对的事，像那样？

Is there something is there something wrong I'm doing like that?

她是不是有点对？

Is she a little bit right?

我不是毒贩，但我会不会是

Not that I'm a drug dealer, but am I

你是坏邻居吗？

Like, are you a bad neighbor?

是的。

Yeah.

如果是个坏邻居、坏人，我是不是在虐待她？

If a bad neighbor, bad person, am I abusing her?

斯塔尔一直认为自己是个善良且乐于助人的邻居。

Star always thought of herself as a basically good and neighborly person.

她从未想过自己会是那种在走廊里对一位老太太大喊大叫的人。

She never thought she was the kind of person who would do something like yell at an old woman in the hall.

但她确实这么做了。

And yet she does.

不友善会滋生不友善。

Unkindness breeds unkindness.

尽管如此，斯塔莉仍忍不住希望事情能以某种方式变得不同。

Still, Starley can't help wishing that things could somehow be different.

我最近一直做这些梦，非常清晰，像是漫长而宏大的梦境。

I've been having these dreams where we've become, very, very clear dreams, like long epic dreams.

想象一下，她过来坐在床上，我们聊天，梦里还笑个不停。

Think where she's come over and we've chatted on the bed and we've, like, been giggling in the dreams.

我还做过一些梦，梦见我们终于化解了很多心结。

And, like, I've had dreams where I've seen made her like, we've come to terms with a lot of things.

我已经把一切都解释清楚了。

I've explained it.

而且就像，今年夏天，以前她们总是，我做过一些梦，那些梦里她们只是，像，很暴力，或者我只是在参加她的葬礼，你知道吗，那时候我有点难过，但我当时正在探监。

And it's like, this summer, like, before they used to be, I've had, like they were only, like, violent or just, like, I was at her funeral, you know, I was a little sad at that point, but I was visiting her in jail.

但这次，整个夏天我都在做这些关于友谊的梦。

But this time, I've had these, like, friendship dreams all summer long.

因为它们真的非常真实。

And because they're really realistic.

比如，她就像她自己一样，然后我说，我说出那些我本该说的、但我清醒时却想不出来的话。

Like, she's, like, acts like herself, then, like, I say I say, like, the thing I'm supposed to like, I can't figure out what I'm supposed to say when I'm awake.

然后我说出来，突然间，她的眼睛里就出现了理智的光芒。

And I say it, and, and, like, all of sudden, like, like, really, like, logic comes into her eyes.

她坐到了我的床上，我们开始笑啊，聊啊，互相开玩笑。

And she, like, has sat down on my bed, we've, like, started to, like, giggle and, like, just talk about things and, like, make jokes to each other.

而且

And

你所说的‘你本该说却想不出来的话’，是指什么？

What do you mean the thing that you're you're you're supposed to say that you can't figure out?

不管我现实中该对她说什么，才能让她明白过来。

Whatever I'm supposed to be saying whatever I could possibly say to her in real life to make her, like, see the light.

你知道的。

You know?

你觉得如果鼻子突然有一天就停止了，你会有什么感觉？

What do you think how do you think you'd feel if they just if the nose just suddenly stopped one day?

我不知道。

I don't know.

我可能会等几天再看看，但我真的不知道。

I'd probably I'd wait a couple days and then see, and I I I don't know.

我无法想象日子会停止。

I I can't imagine day would stop though.

那当时是

So what was the

你最后一次和她说话是什么时候？

last time you talked to her?

我昨天跟她谈过了。

Talked her yesterday.

她正在变成一个病态的说谎者。

She's becoming a pathological liar.

保罗·塔夫与斯塔莉·基恩。

Paul Tough with Starley Kine.

保罗最新的一本书名为《不平等机器》。

Paul's latest book is called The Inequality Machine.

在我们首次播出这个故事多年后，斯塔莉制作了一档传奇而精彩的播客，名为《神秘秀》。

Years after we first broadcast this story, Starley went on to make a legendary and wonderful podcast called Mystery Show.

如果你从未听过这个节目，真的建议你去听听。

If you have never heard the show, seriously, check it out.

我现在再把名字说一遍。

I'm gonna say the name again now.

《神秘秀》。

Mystery Show.

我喜欢被你惹恼。

I love to be annoyed by you.

第四幕，街区主席。

Act four, Chairman of the Block.

这个故事发生在距离斯塔利公寓楼几乎就在拐角处，仅隔几个街区的地方。

This story takes place almost around the corner from Starley's apartment building, just a few blocks away.

这是一个关于一个小小的善举引发完全意想不到后果的故事。

It's about one small act of kindness leading somewhere completely unexpected.

这个故事由社区居民布莱克·埃斯金讲述。

A resident of the neighborhood, Blake Eskin, tells the story.

大约一个月前，一个周五晚上，我和朋友去了我们俩都住的东村。

About a month ago, I went out one Friday evening with a friend in the East Village where we both live.

在街上，我们听到弗兰克·辛纳屈的音乐响得足以吵醒邻居。

On the street, we heard Frank Sinatra music blasting loud enough to wake the neighbors.

当

As

我们走到第四街时，看到一百多人聚集在一栋六层公寓的台阶前。

we reached 4th Street, Street, I saw a 100 people huddled around the stoop of a 6th Floor tenement.

他们中的大多数是刚毕业、尚未生育的年轻人。

Most of them were post college, pre childbearing types.

此外，还有一些年纪较大的人，可能是住在这一街区的居民。

Plus, there were some older people who probably lived on the block.

每个人都似乎忘记了自己原本要去哪里，无论是去派对、另一家酒吧，还是回家

Everyone seemed to have forgotten where they were headed, whether to a party or to another bar or back to

睡觉。

bed.

一个

A

一个穿着西装、短发黝黑的男子站在台阶顶端，手持话筒。

short dark haired guy in a suit stood at the top of the stoop holding microphone.

起初，我以为这家伙在对口型，因为他的声音和辛纳屈一模一样。

At first, I thought maybe the guy was lip syncing because he sounded exactly like Sinatra.

但几秒钟后，我意识到他是在自己亲自演唱。

But after a few seconds, I realized he was doing the crooning himself.

这人长得有点像辛纳屈，动作也和他一模一样。

The guy looked a little like Sinatra, and he moved like him too.

但这绝不是一个普通的辛纳屈模仿者。

But this was no run of the mill Sinatra impersonator.

就好像他被辛纳屈的灵魂附体了，仿佛那位董事会主席本人从退休中归来，重新染黑头发，此刻就站在第四街与我们同在。

It was as if he was possessed by the spirit of Sinatra, channeling the chairman of the board, that Frank himself had emerged from retirement, dyed his hair black again, and was with us on 4th Street.

八点吃饭时太饿了。

Gets too hungry for dinner at eight.

她热爱这家剧院，但从不迟到。

She adores this theater, but she never arrives late.

苏珊，到这边来。

Come over here, Susan.

楼梯底部站着的那个人，你平常根本不会觉得他会和弗兰克·辛纳屈扯上关系。

The bottom of the stoop was someone you would not ordinarily see with Frank Sinatra.

一位头发花白竖立、穿着豹纹背心的年长女性，正在她拖到人行道上的一块木板上热情地跳着踢踏舞，尽管动作略显笨拙。

An older woman with spiky salt and pepper hair and a leopard print vest was doing a spirited, if slightly awkward tap dance on a piece of wood she had dragged out onto the sidewalk.

她不喜欢跟男爵和伯爵玩赌博游戏。

She doesn't like crap games with barons and earls.

她不会穿着别人的珍珠去参加派对。

Won't go dressed to a party all up in some other girl's pearls.

她从不传播流言蜚语。

She won't dish the dirt.

其他那些女孩都那样，这就是为什么这姑娘是真正的高手。

Where the rest of those girls, that's why this chick is a champ.

在我最初的困惑和随后的陶醉之后，我的下一个反应是疑惑这怎么可能发生。

After my initial confusion and my subsequent bliss, my next reaction was to wonder how this was possible.

警察去哪儿了？

Where were the cops?

第九警区就在一个街区之外，而纽约人对噪音总是很快就会投诉。

The 9th Precinct is a block away, and New Yorkers are quick to complain about noise.

市长鲁道夫·朱利安尼已将打击他所谓的这些影响生活质量的违规行为列为警方的优先事项，比如噪音、人群聚集、堵塞交通和街头表演。

And mayor Rudolph Giuliani has made it a priority for the police to crack down on what he calls quality of life violations like these, noise, crowds, blocking traffic, tricking in the street.

但在第四街，一切都很和谐，至今依然如此。

But on 4th Street, everything was copacetic, and it still is.

不知为何，出于命运的某种巧合，位于东第四街124号外的这场表演已经连续五个星期五如期举行。

Somehow, by some quirk of fate, the show outside 124 East 4th Street has happened five Fridays in a row.

歌手尼克·特罗基迪斯住在该建筑的一楼，而踢踏舞者洛林·古德曼则住在四楼。

The singer, Nick Trokidis, lives on the 1st Floor of the building, and the tap dancer Lorraine Goodman lives on 4.

经营地下室旧货店的加里和旺达，把他们的商品——椅子和宽大的沙发——摆到人行道上，方便观众坐下观看。

Gary and Wanda, who run the garden level thrift shop, put their merchandise, the chairs and overstuffed couches, on the sidewalk for the audience's comfort.

尼克·特罗基迪斯和洛林·古德曼是邻居。

Nick Trokides and Lorraine Goodman are neighbors.

而且，像大多数住在同一栋楼里的人一样，他们彼此并不太了解。

And, like most people who live in the same building, they didn't know much about each other.

不过，洛林知道尼克拥有大量的爵士乐唱片收藏。

Lorraine did know, however, that Nick had a big jazz record collection.

五周前，Lorraine决定在大楼前跳踢踏舞，她说这是一种疗愈方式。

Five weeks ago, Lorraine decided she wanted to tap dance in front of the building as a sort of therapy, she says.

于是她联系了Nick，邀请他在这个周末为她的踢踏舞伴奏。

And she reached out to Nick, asking him to play some tunes while she tap danced that weekend.

因为发生的事情是，我正回家，让我告诉你具体发生了什么。

Because what happened was I was coming home I'll tell you exactly what happened.

那天周五晚上大约九点，我正往家走，但我忘了她的名字。

Well, I was coming home that Friday evening around 09:00, and I forgot her name.

我沿着第四街从第二大道走过来。

And I'm walking down 4th Street from 2nd Avenue.

我看到她在跳舞，心想：哦，又是她，我真不想这样。

I'm like, oh, there she is tapping and I don't wanna do this.

我太累了。

I'm tired.

然后我不得不在口袋里翻找她的名字，那个东西是什么来着？

I'm like and then I had to reach for her name in my little in my pocket, my what's this thing?

口袋里的日程本。

Pocket day timer.

然后我想，哦，是洛林。

And I'm like, okay, it's Lorraine.

于是我沿着街道走过去，对她说：嗨，洛林，你好吗？

Then I walked down the street and I said, hi Lorraine, how are you?

她说：快出来吧，尼克，来陪我一起吧，诸如此类的话。

And she goes, oh, come on out Nick and join me blah blah blah.

我觉得她以为我会带些音乐过来。

And I think she assumed I'll bring out some music.

就这样结束了。

That was it.

我当时并没有

I wasn't I don't

她大概没料到我会带着西装、麦克风架、音响、CD、磁带，全套设备出场。

think she was expecting, you know, a suit and microphone stand and and and the PA, the CD, the cassettes, the whole number.

感谢洛林·古德曼。

Thanks to Lorraine Goodman.

她是这场精彩活动背后的智囊。

This is the brains behind this wonderful event here.

跟大家打个招呼吧，洛林。

Say good evening, Lorraine.

晚上好，洛林。

Good evening, Lorraine.

尼克对洛林——这位几乎还是陌生人的善意举动，让她成了本地名人，也让尼克自己成了更大的名人。

Nick's initial gesture of kindness to Lorraine, a near stranger, made her into a local celebrity and made himself into an even bigger one.

我记得你。

I remember you.

当尼克带着他的即兴辛纳特拉套装走出去时，只有寥寥数人正在观看洛林跳踢踏舞，这个套装包括几首来自《口袋歌曲》系列的CD。

There were only a handful of people watching Lorraine tap dance when Nick went outside with his instant Synatra kit, which includes a few CDs from a series called Pocket Songs.

这些光盘包含了完整的辛纳特拉编曲，但没有人声。

The discs have the full Sinatra arrangements without a vocalist.

口号是你们来演唱热门歌曲。

The slogan is you sing the hits.

尼克一开始唱的是《我拥有了整个世界》。

Nick began with I've got the world on a string.

人群逐渐聚集，尼克立刻让全场为之倾倒。

The crowd built steadily, and right away Nick had the crowd on a string.

他站在门廊上，绳子绕在手指上。

Standing on the stoop, had the string around his finger.

多么精彩的世界。

What a world.

多么精彩的世界。

What a world.

多么精彩的人生。

What life

我坠入爱河了。

I'm in love.

我有一首歌要唱。

I've got a song that I sing.

尼克给我看了一张他15岁时拍的照片。

Nick showed me a picture taken when he was 15.

他穿着燕尾服，头发向一侧分开，站在麦克风前，指向相机。

He's wearing a tuxedo, his hair parted to the side, standing at a microphone, and pointing back at the camera.

这是一张来自纽约波基普西的15岁男孩装扮成弗兰克·辛纳屈的照片。

It is a picture of a 15 year old boy from Poughkeepsie, New York in Frank Sinatra drag.

我目前所做的一切，其实从我十岁起就一直是我热衷的事情。

I'm I'm basically what I'm doing right now, I had been into since I was a kid, since I was 10 years old.

尼克在波士顿伯克利音乐学院接受过爵士声乐训练，后来搬到纽约，过了一段时间，他找到了一份在星光管弦乐队的工作，这是一支由16人组成的乐队，专门为上流社会婚礼和企业活动演出。

Nick trained as a jazz vocalist at Boston's Berkley College of Music, moved to New York, and after a while, he found a job with the Starlight Orchestra, a 16 piece band that performs at high society weddings and corporate events.

星光管弦乐队有五位歌手，而尼克是他们的辛纳屈专家。

The Starlight Orchestra has five vocalists, and Nick is their Sinatra specialist.

我们每位观众都被这种不可思议的情境吸引而来，但尼克的舞台魅力让我们留了下来。

Each of us in the audience had been lured by the improbability of the situation, but Nick's stage presence kept us there.

纽约的大多数街头艺人会去游客聚集的地方，因为我们本地人太忙了，没空停下来听。

Most street performers in New York go where the tourists go since most of us natives are too busy to stop and listen.

然而，尼克在他的门廊上唱歌，却是送给他自己社区的一份礼物。

Nick singing from his stoop, however, was a gift to his own neighborhood.

即使不是在室内，尼克也真的很懂得如何调动气氛。

Nick really knows how to work a room even when it's not a room.

他会把邻居们的名字编进歌词里。

He weaves his neighbors' names into the lyrics.

他为加里和旺达的二手店做宣传，并感谢他们的帮助。

He plugs Gary and Wanda's thrift shop and thanks them for their help.

他向一对在附近防火梯上观看的情侣致意。

He salutes a couple watching from a nearby fire escape.

他把一首关于巫术的歌献给站在后排的金发美女，并在歌曲结束时向她调情。

He dedicates witchcraft to a pretty blonde standing in the back row and flirts with her at the end of the song.

七个，你。

Seven you.

哦，我也对你有好感呢，宝贝。

Oh, I got a crush on you too, baby.

哦，你真是个厉害的女巫。

Oh, you're a fine witch.

就像弗兰克会做的那样。

Just like Frank would have done.

现在可以肯定的是，如果尼克和洛林在跳霹雳舞或敲康加鼓，警察早就把他们赶走了，最多二十分钟。

Now it's a safe bet that if Nick and Lorraine had been breakdancing or playing conga drums, the police would have shut them down in twenty minutes tops.

但第九警区的警官们和我们其他人一样，也被施了魔法，他们实在不忍心从巡逻车里下来执行市长的宜居政策。

But the officers of the ninth precinct fell under the same spell as the rest of us, and they couldn't bring themselves to get out of the patrol car to enforce the mayor's quality of life rules.

第一周，他们会绕着街区转圈，你知道的，用扩音器喊话。

The first week, they would circle around the block, you know, speak through their megaphone.

你知道，他们会说，大家请别堵住街道。

You know, they they they would then say, you know, people, please don't block the streets.

你知道吗？

You know?

请保持街道畅通，就这样。

Please keep the streets clear, and that was it.

那只是第一周的情况。

That was like the first week.

第二周，他们要求播放《夏日之风》。

The second week, they requested summer wind.

他们要求播放夏日

They requested summer

之风

wind

通过扩音器？

through the megaphone?

通过扩音器，

Through the

当警车经过时，第三周，警察停下车，拦住交通，然后说：‘好了，播放《夏日之风》。’

megaphone, as they were passing, the third week, the the third week the police came and they stopped their car, held up traffic and they said, Okay, summer wind.

他们想听《夏日微风》。

They wanted to hear summer wind.

所以我昼夜不停地工作，放上了《夏日微风》，然后走上台阶。

So I finished night and day, I put summer wind on and I went up on the steps.

他们在顶部操控灯光，打下一束白色聚光灯在我身上，我开始演唱《夏日微风》。

They manipulated their lights on the top and threw a white spotlight on me and I started singing Summer Wind.

人群沸腾了。

The crowd went crazy.

你知道，他们疯了，真的沉浸其中。

You know, they went nuts and they were like really into it.

显然，这涉及到整个纽约那种粗犷的意大利裔、警察和爱尔兰街头文化。

Evidently it's it's I mean, it's it's that it is it's that whole New York macho Italian police Irish street.

就是这样，老兄。

It's it is, man.

而且，显然，我所做的一切，他们都能产生共鸣。

And, like, evidently, what I'm doing, they connect with that.

当然，他们确实如此。

Of course, they do.

所以那些留着脏辫的黑人男子，穿着武当帮T恤的年轻白人，沉迷于摇摆爵士场景的青少年，中年发福的意大利男人抽着雪茄，还有前排正中央穿着五彩缤纷穆穆裙的尼克隔壁邻居珍——她已经在东4街124号住了整整四十八年。

So do the black men with dreadlocks, the young white guys in Wu Tang Clan t shirts, the teenagers immersed in the swing lounge scene, the pot bellied Italian men of a certain age smoking cigars, And sitting front row center wearing a party colored muumuu, Nick's next door neighbor, Jean, who has lived at 124 East 4th Street for the last forty eight years.

对他们所有人，也对我而言，弗兰克·辛纳屈，以及尼克·特罗基德斯诠释弗兰克·辛纳屈的方式，有一种魔力，深深打动了我们。

For all of them and for me, there is something about Frank Sinatra and something about how Nick Trokides interprets Frank Sinatra that bewitches us, that touches us.

我说过，那些日子和夜晚，就像彩绘的风筝一样飞逝而去。

I said like painted kites, those days and nights, they went flying by.

就是隔壁的那个家伙。

The guy who was next door.

他拥抱了我。

And he he embraced me.

他抱住了我。

He hugged me.

这个上了年纪的中国老头，戴着助听器。

This old Chinese guy, man, with a hearing aid.

我当时就想，我碰到了这个人。

I'm like, I made I touched this guy.

我不知道我是怎么做到的，但我确实做到了，你知道吗？

And I don't know how I did it, but I did it, you know?

它们都已经过去了。

And they have gone.

对于任何一个纽约人来说，一次又一次为邻居做如此大的事情，远不止是偶然。

For any New Yorker to do something as big as this for his neighbors again and again is more than an anomaly.

这就像周期表底部的元素一样稀有且不稳定。

It is as rare and unstable as the elements at the bottom of the periodic table.

这场活动的关键要素——邻里情谊、慷慨、空闲时间、好天气、配合的警察——在本市本就难得，而要让它们在同一时间、同一地点连续数周齐聚，几乎不可能。

The key ingredients of this event, neighborliness, generosity, free time, good weather, cooperative police officers, are hard to come by in this city, and they are nearly impossible to find together in the same place week after week.

尼克和洛林的演出持续的时间，远超任何人的预期。

The Nick and Lorraine show has had a longer run than anyone could expect.

而某件事——下雨、初霜、第九警区，或与星光乐团的周五演出——很快就会让这一切画上句号。

And something, Rain or the First Frost or the Ninth Precinct or a Friday night gig with Starlight Orchestra, will soon bring it to a halt.

《纽约邮报》有一位名叫辛迪·亚当斯的八卦专栏作家，人们很容易会引用她的口头禅——只有在纽约，朋友们，只有在纽约——来解释这一现象。

There's a gossip columnist in the New York Post named Cindy Adams, and it is tempting to resort to her mantra, only in New York, folks, only in New York, to explain this phenomenon.

但在尼克的情况下，辛迪·亚当斯的智慧并不足以说明一切。

But in Nick's case, the wisdom of Cindy Adams does not suffice.

这并非纽约的常态，既不是真实纽约的写照，也不是昔日纽约的缩影，而更像是一个虚构的电影纽约，一个建在摄影棚背景板上的下东区街区。

This is not the stuff of New York, not of the real New York or even of the New York of a bygone era, but of a mythical movie New York, a Lower East Side block built on a studio back lot.

这就像战后不久一部未知的米高梅音乐剧的第一幕，主角是尼克·特罗基迪斯。

It is the first reel of an unknown MGM musical from just after the war, and it stars Nick Trokidis.

影片后续会发生什么，谁也说不准。

What happens in the rest of the film is anyone's guess.

夜色中的陌生人，交换着目光，在夜里思索。

Strangers in the night, exchanging glances, wondering in the night.

我们竟会在夜幕降临前分享爱意，这几率有多小。

What were the chances we'd be sharing love before the night was through.

布莱克·艾斯金，纽约。

Blake Eskin in New York.

嗯，我们这期节目是

Well, this episode of our show was

几年前播出的。

just broadcast years ago.

正如我所说，如今布莱克制作了一个关于地铁摄影的播客，名为《都市面孔》。

As I've said, these days, Blake makes a podcast about subway photography called Metropolitan Faces.

尼克和洛林的节目已经不再在这条纽约街区上演了。

The Nick and Lorraine show is no longer running on that block of New York.

他们去找过，但

They're go looking for it, but

这对搭档偶尔会在城里举办重聚演出。

the duo does occasionally perform reunion shows around the city.

本节目由南希·厄普代克和我共同制作，艾莉丝·斯皮格尔和朱莉·斯奈德协助。

This episode was produced by Nancy Updike and myself with Elise Spiegel and Julie Snyder.

本期节目的资深编辑是保罗·托夫。

Senior editor for this episode of our show was Paul Tough.

特别感谢杰里·罗。

Special thanks to Jerry Rowe.

感谢迈克尔·卡马特、苏珊娜·加伯、莫莉·马塞洛、凯瑟琳·雷蒙多和斯通·纳尔逊对本期重播的帮助。

Help on today's rerun for Michael Kamate, Suzanne Gabber, Molly Marcello, Catherine Raimondo, and Stone Nelson.

本周的重播是我们与苏珊娜·加伯合作的最后一期节目，她在这里担任实习生六个月，通过她的报道和见解让许多故事变得更好。

This week's rerun is the very last show we're working on with Suzanne Gabber, who's been our fellow here at the show for six months, has made so many stories so much better with her reporting and her thoughts.

我们会想念她以及她众多的才能。

We will miss her and her many skills.

《美国生活》由PRX（公共广播交换平台）提供给公共广播电台。

This American Life is delivered to public radio stations by PRX, the public radio exchange.

一如既往，感谢本节目的联合创始人托里·梅拉蒂洛先生，他说：不。

Thank you as always to a program's cofounder, mister Tory Melatillo, who says, no.

不。

No.

不。

No.