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【短文】The Tramp Who Stayed
【短文】留下来的流浪者
On a Monday, a ship left Port Kells without one passenger.
一个星期一，一艘船驶离凯尔斯港，船上没有一位乘客。
The stranding of Ilan was nobody's plan.
伊兰的滞留并非任何人的计划。
A storm had disabled the ferry.
一场风暴使渡轮瘫痪。
He stood on the dock, one bag in hand, and watched the vessel reel away.
他站在码头上，手里提着一个包，看着那艘船摇晃着远去。
Ilan was a teacher of modest background.
伊兰是一位出身寒微的教师。
His subject was biology, and his character was calm.
他的专业是生物学，性格平和。
He had come to this island to study terrestrial flora.
他来到这座岛上研究陆生植物。
The grant was small, the labour heavy.
补助金微薄，劳动繁重。
Yet he loved the marvellous abundance of moss and fern.
然而他热爱苔藓和蕨类那奇妙的丰饶。
He would crouch for hours, boring his students with detail.
他会蹲上几个小时，用细节让学生们厌烦。
"Every leaf," he said, "has an ingredient of the whole." He was prone to such leaps.
“每一片叶子，”他说，“都含有整体的成分。”他容易做出这样的跳跃。
The stranding changed his scope.
滞留改变了他的视野。
He could not leave.
他无法离开。
So he began to conduct a survey of the island's plants, purely for his own pleasure.
于是他开始对岛上的植物进行调查，纯粹为了自娱。
The work was slow but conductive to thought.
工作进展缓慢，却有助于思考。
He would rise at dawn and populate his notebook with sketches.
他会黎明即起，在笔记本上画满素描。
Local farmers watched him with mild suspicion.
当地农民带着些许疑虑看着他。
Then a girl named Ree asked to join.
后来一个叫蕾伊的女孩请求加入。
She was fifteen, literate beyond her years, and full of questions.
她十五岁，识字程度远超她的年龄，满脑子问题。
Ilan was tempted to refuse.
伊兰本想拒绝。
Instead he said, "Come along.
但他却说：“来吧。
But no talking until noon." They became a team.
不过中午之前不许说话。
Teamwork, he found, could boost even a dull task.
”他们成了一个团队。
Ree's instinct for pattern was sharp.
他发现，团队合作甚至能推动一项枯燥的任务。
She could differentiate one fern from another at a glance.
蕾伊对模式的直觉很敏锐。
Together they found an epidemic of a strange rust on the ferns.
她一眼就能分辨出一种蕨类和另一种蕨类。
This was a critical find.
他们一起发现蕨类上蔓延着一种奇怪的锈病。
It could disrupt the island's whole crop.
这是一个关键发现。
The rust seemed to stem from a chemical used widely on the mainland.
它可能破坏岛上整个收成。
Therefore the farmers had a stake in the matter.
这种锈病似乎源于大陆上广泛使用的一种化学品。
Some grew angry.
因此农民们与此事利害攸关。
One opponent of the survey tried to hamper it.
有些人变得愤怒。
He dubbed Ilan a spy.
一个反对调查的人试图阻挠它。
The accusation was tragic and false.
他给伊兰扣上间谍的帽子。这一指控既可悲又虚假。
Ilan did not retreat.
伊兰没有退缩。
He gave a preface at the village hall.
他在村礼堂做了开场发言。
Attendance was poor at first.
起初到场的人很少。
He spoke of the underlying cause: the runoff from a new detergent plant.
他谈到了根本原因：一家新洗涤剂厂的径流。
He kept his tone humane.
他保持语气温和。
He did not want to detract from anyone's livelihood.
他不想损害任何人的生计。
"We can fix this," he said.
“我们可以解决这个问题，”他说。
"The answer is attainable if we act prior to the spring rains." His speech began to crystallize a plan.
“如果我们赶在春雨之前行动，答案是能够实现的。
The farmers were sceptical, but Ree's father, a tribal elder, stood up.
”他的讲话开始使一项计划成形。
He said the land was a substance to be shared, not a commodity to be sold.
农民们持怀疑态度，但蕾伊的父亲，一位部落长老，站了起来。
That turned the room.
他说土地是一种应当共享的物质，而不是一种应当出售的商品。
A vote followed.
这扭转了全场。
The plant agreed to filter its waste.
随后进行了投票。
The rust receded.
工厂同意过滤其废料。锈病消退了。
By autumn, Ilan could have gone home.
到了秋天，伊兰本可以回家。
He did not.
他没有。
He had come to recreate a life, and here it was.
他来此是为了重建一种生活，而生活就在这里。
The island had given him a second chance.
这座岛给了他第二次机会。
He would stay, teach, and write.
他会留下来，教书，写作。
Ree would go to the mainland for university, then return.
蕾伊会去大陆上大学，然后回来。
The two would reunite each summer.
两人每年夏天都会重聚。
The story is not heroic.
这个故事并不英勇。
It is only what happens when a man stops moving and starts to look.
它只是一个男人停下脚步、开始观察时会发生的事。
Reference note
参考外刊短篇特稿的紧凑叙事体例，以一个普通人的一周为线索，在场景与对话中自然嵌入目标词，内容原创。