Between the Shores靈魂兩岸

Nicoya and Daniel are born in the same hospital in Jerusalem on the same date. At 2 a.m.， their fathers exchange smiles in the nursery. When Nicoya is three months old， her mother takes her on a bus to the assisted living home where Nicoya’s grandmother lives. In the back of the same bus， Daniel sleeps against his mother’s chest for two stops before he is carried off the bus and down the street and into his home， eyes peacefully closed all the while.

尼科婭和丹尼爾同一天出生在耶路撒冷，而且是同一家醫院。凌晨兩點，兩人的父親在育嬰室曾相視一笑。尼科婭三個月大時，母親抱著她乘公交車前往養老院看望祖母。就在這輛車的后排，丹尼爾倚在母親胸前安睡；兩站路后，母親抱著他下了車，沿著街道回到家中，而他自始至終都閉眼沉睡。

They both read The Phantom Tollbooth at age eight and then carry the book around， fascinated by the Soundkeeper， who catalogues sounds in vaults just to enjoy the silence. They listen to “Free to Be You and Me” in the car during road trips. Daniel’s family moves to Kfar Saba when his younger brother develops a rash like butterfly wings across his cheeks. The doctor who diagnoses his brother with lupus has a son in Nicoya’s fifth-grade class. The two are friends， but Nicoya doesn’t see him again after elementary school ends.

八歲時，他倆都讀了《神奇的收費亭》，對這本書愛不釋手，尤其著迷于那個將聲音封存于地下室、只為享受寂靜的“聲音守護人”。公路旅行時，他們都在車上聽《自由做自己》。當弟弟臉頰出現蝴蝶翅膀般的紅斑后，丹尼爾一家搬到了卡法薩巴。確診他弟弟患有紅斑狼瘡的醫生有個兒子與尼科婭五年級同班。兩人曾是朋友，但小學畢業后再無相逢。

In the army， Nicoya works a desk job on base just outside Ra’anana; Daniel is stationed on the border in Ramallah. After serving three years， they both travel to Central America. They each find their way to Cerro Chato on different days and hike down the inside of the volcano， pushing the vines and overgrown branches aside to reach the freshwater lake. They each sit alone on a log by the shore， waiting for their fellow hikers to catch up， contemplating the dangers of wading in. The fog rolls low when they swim in the volcanic lagoon， and before they are called back to shore， he by his friends， she by her sister， there are a few moments when all they can see as they tread water is the hurling of waves against rocks and the whiteness of the cloud around them.

服兵役期間，尼科婭在賴阿南納郊外的軍事基地擔任文職工作，丹尼爾則被派駐在拉姆安拉的邊境地帶。結束三年兵役后，兩人不約而同踏上了中美洲之旅。他們在不同的日子各自尋至塞羅查托火山，沿著火山口內部小徑徒步，撥開交錯的藤蔓與瘋長的枝椏，抵達那片淡水湖。兩人都曾獨自坐在湖邊的枯木上，一面等待同行的徒步者，一面思忖涉水可能帶來的危險。他們在火山湖中游泳時，濃霧低垂。就在被各自的同伴——他的朋友，她的妹妹——喚回岸邊之前，曾有片刻時光，兩人踩水四望，唯見波浪拍巖、白云圍繞。

The lodge near the volcano has a traveler’s book exchange. Daniel leaves his book of Robert Frost poems in exchange for a copy of Galapagos by Vonnegut. The next traveler takes the Frost poems and leaves The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran， which Nicoya picks up and brings with her to a tiny fishing village in Nicaragua where she and her sister live for two weeks on seventeen dollars a day. A man in the village takes her out on his boat and teaches her to scale and gut a fish. He almost persuades her to stay with him， but then she reads on page nineteen that love should be the moving sea between the shores of souls， and she returns to Israel with her sister.

火山旁的旅舍有一個旅行者圖書交換角。丹尼爾留下他的羅伯特·弗羅斯特詩集，換走了馮內古特的《加拉帕戈斯群島》。下一位旅人取走弗羅斯特詩集，留下紀伯倫的《先知》——尼科婭拾起此書帶去了尼加拉瓜的一個小漁村。她與妹妹在此待了兩周，每日花費十七美元。村里有個男人帶她乘船出海，教她將魚刮鱗掏腸。他差點就說服她留下相伴，此時她正好讀到《先知》第十九頁，那頁的詩句說，愛當是靈魂兩岸間涌動的大海，于是她與妹妹返回了以色列。

Daniel and Nicoya apply to different colleges. They study different fields， though she drops out before finishing her degree and becomes a secretary at a tech company in Tel Aviv. He is hired as a software engineer by the same company and， when a piece of his mail accidentally comes to her office， she registers how nice his name sounds before she drops the envelope in the mail forwarding pile.

丹尼爾和尼科婭申請了不同的大學。他們攻讀的專業不同，不過尼科婭中途輟學，未能獲得學位，后來在特拉維夫一家科技公司當秘書。丹尼爾被同一家公司聘為軟件工程師，當他的信件誤送至她的辦公室時，她注意到他的名字聽起來格外悅耳，隨后將信放入郵件轉送筐。

They live around the corner from each other—chose that particular street because of the bookstore cafe. On April 13th， they both compliment the barista on her enamel earrings.

他們住在同一個街角的兩邊——選擇這條街全因那家書咖。四月十三日那天，他們不約而同地夸獎了咖啡師戴的琺瑯耳環。

Daniel wants to be a teacher and interviews for a job at the University of Chicago， but he understands almost as soon as his interview begins that he can’t live outside of Israel. Nicoya quits her job and flies to visit her cousin in Colorado. When she returns to Israel after a week of hiking， mostly alone， her first flight from Denver to New York is rerouted through Chicago. She sits across from Daniel at gate E12 but is crying over a boy killed in combat whom she hasn’t even seen since elementary school. Daniel thinks about asking her what is wrong， if he can help， but he worries his foreign accent will scare her. They sit in separate sections of the plane.

丹尼爾想當老師，于是參加了芝加哥大學的教職面試，但面試剛一開始他就意識到自己離不開以色列。尼科婭辭去工作，飛往科羅拉多州探望表親。她基本上獨自徒步旅行了一周，之后返回以色列時，她從丹佛飛往紐約的首程航班經停芝加哥。在E12登機口，她與丹尼爾相對而坐，但當時她正為一個戰死的男孩哭泣，一個自小學畢業就再未見過的男孩。丹尼爾本想問她是否需要幫助，卻擔心自己的異國口音會驚擾她。最終兩人分別坐在了飛機的不同區域。

Three years later， walking down the main street in Tel Aviv one afternoon， Nicoya stops to listen to a street performer picking the strings of his guitar like a bass. She drops some loose change from the pocket of her steel blue trench coat into his guitar case. As she walks away， the musician starts to sing “Famous Blue Raincoat.”

三年后的一個午后，尼科婭走在特拉維夫的主街上，為一位街頭藝人停下了腳步——藝人撥動琴弦，吉他聲如貝斯。她從灰藍色風衣口袋里掏出幾枚零錢放入藝人的吉他盒。當她轉身離開，藝人忽然唱起了《著名的藍雨衣》。

“For you，” he calls， playing the opening chords.

“送給您。”他彈著前奏喊道。

She turns and smiles， though she doesn’t recognize the song.

雖然不知道這首歌曲，她仍轉身一笑。

When Daniel walks down the same block forty-five seconds later and hears the musician playing his favorite song， he stops and hands the musician the largest bill in his wallet， which is only a twenty， but still.

四十五秒后，丹尼爾走過同一條街道，聽見藝人正彈奏他最愛的這首歌。他停下腳步，將錢包里最大面額的鈔票——雖然只是二十謝克爾——鄭重放入琴盒。

Nicoya gives birth to her daughter eleven months later in the hospital where Daniel’s brother is having emergency surgery on his kidney. Nicoya’s boyfriend never shows.

十一個月后，尼科婭在醫院產下女兒。丹尼爾的弟弟當時正在這家醫院接受腎臟急診手術。尼科婭的男友始終未現身。

At their neighborhood grocery store on a Friday afternoon， she buys the last box of quinoa five minutes before Daniel arrives. He has promised to bring quinoa to a potluck dinner—it’s the only dish he really knows how to cook—so he goes to another grocery store where he starts a conversation with a woman wearing an army uniform in the grains aisle and asks her out on a date.

某個周五午后，尼科婭買走了社區雜貨店里的最后一盒藜麥，五分鐘后丹尼爾來到了店里。他原本承諾要帶藜麥去參加百樂餐聚會（他只會做這一種吃的），于是只好轉去另一家雜貨店。在谷物貨架間，他與一位穿軍裝的女子攀談起來，并邀她約會。

When he marries the girl from the grocery store six months later， Nicoya sees the bride being photographed in Yarkon Park the afternoon before the wedding. As she pushes her daughter in the stroller， she steals herself from envy and thinks to herself that the fiancé of a woman with such an easy smile must be a lucky man.

六個月后，丹尼爾與超市相識的女子就要結婚了。婚禮前的那個下午，尼科婭看見新娘在亞爾昆公園拍攝婚紗照。她推著躺在嬰兒車里的女兒，壓下心頭的羨慕，暗自想著，這女子笑容如此明媚，未婚夫必定是個幸運兒。

Daniel accepts a job teaching at the Mada Tech Science Center. Five years later in Tel Aviv， before visiting his brother in assisted living， Daniel stops by the bookshop on his old corner and picks up a red picture book with a horse on the cover. The owner asks Daniel if he has children， and he tells him no， not yet， but the author of the book is a friend of his from the army. The owner smiles and moves the stack to the window display. Later， when Nicoya’s sister walks by the bookstore， the red book in the window display catches her eye， and she purchases a copy for her niece.

丹尼爾受聘于瑪達科技科學中心擔任教師。五年后的特拉維夫，在去護理中心探望弟弟的路上，他順道去了以前住的那個街角的書店，拿起一本封面上印著一匹馬的紅色圖畫書。店主問他是否有孩子，他回答還沒有，但這本書的作者是他服役時的戰友。店主微笑著將整摞書挪到櫥窗展示。后來，尼科婭的妹妹路過書店，一眼相中了櫥窗里的那本紅皮書，便為外甥女買了一本。

One afternoon， Daniel finds Nicoya’s daughter roaming the science center， separated from her school group， tears thick in her eyes. He crouches next to her， tells her the dinosaur skeletons won’t hurt her if she’s friendly. When the teacher finds Nicoya’s daughter， she is telling the giganotosaurus all about her favorite book， Dad Runs Away with the Circus， and its red cover with a horse on the front， and how mom says that daddy ran away but not with the circus and also isn’t coming back like the dad in the book does in the end.

某個午后，丹尼爾在科學中心遇見了尼科婭的女兒，她跟同學們走散了，正淚眼汪汪，不知往哪兒走。他蹲下身，安慰女孩說，只要友好相處，恐龍不會傷害人。后來，老師找到女孩時，她正和巨獸龍講自己最愛的書——那本紅色封面上印著一匹馬、名為《爸爸和馬戲團一起逃走了》的圖畫書，還喃喃說著，媽媽說爸爸也逃走了，但不是和馬戲團一起，而且也像書里的爸爸那樣不會回來了。

Ten years later， Nicoya reads the obituary of Daniel’s brother at the breakfast table the morning after her daughter leaves for the army.

十年后，在女兒參軍離家后的那個清晨，尼科婭坐在早餐桌旁，讀到了丹尼爾弟弟的訃告。

In their happy old age， Nicoya and Daniel live across the street from each other in apartments outside of Jerusalem. Her son-in-law visits frequently with the grandchildren; his wife’s smile is as easy as it was on the day they married. Still， more than anything， they remember swimming alone inside the volcano through the rolling fog， nothing but whiteness， and no one else in the world.

暮年時光安然靜好，尼科婭與丹尼爾住在耶路撒冷郊外的公寓樓里，彼此隔著一條街。她的女婿常帶著外孫們來訪，他妻子的笑容仍如結婚那日般明媚。然而，最深切的記憶，仍是當年火山湖翻卷霧靄中的獨游，天地間唯有純白，再無他人。

（譯者為“《英語世界》杯”翻譯大賽獲獎者）