I was not yet 30 years old and was working as a firefighter in the South Bronx's Engine Co. 82, probably the world's most active firehouse at the time. It was warm and sunny, the kind of leisurely Sunday that brought extra activity to the neighborhood and to its firefighters. We must have had 15 or 20 calls that day, the worst being a garbage fire in the rear of an abandoned building, which required a hard pull of 600 feet of cotton-jacketed hose.
在即将30岁的时候，我曾经是一名消防员。工作在南布朗克斯的82消防队，也许是当时最繁忙的消防站。那个悠闲的星期天阳光明媚，天气温和，人们增加了额外的活动，这意味着我们的工作量也随之增加。那一天我们接到了15到20个电话，情况最糟糕的一个是在一幢被遗弃的建筑后方的垃圾堆燃起了大火，使用了600英尺长的棉质水管才将它扑灭。
Between alarms I would rush to the company office to read Captain Gray's copy of the Sunday NewYork Times. It was late in the afternoon when I finally got to the Book Review section As I read it, my blood began to boil. An article blatantly stated what I took to be a calumny -- that William Butler Yeats, the Nobel Prize-winning light of the Irish Literary Renaissance, had transcended his Irishness and was forever to be known as a universal poet.
在没有警报的时候，我会冲到公司的办公室，阅读格雷队长的周日的纽约时报。傍晚时分，我终于阅读到了书评部分，边读边觉得热血沸腾。一篇文章竟然公然诽谤威廉·巴特勒·叶芝。叶芝是诺贝尔文学奖得主和爱尔兰文学复兴之光，他将爱尔兰民族主义发扬光大，在全世界名垂青史。
There were few things I was more proud of than my Irish heritage, and ever since I first picked up a book of his poems from a barracks shelf when I was in the military, Yeats had been my favorite Irish writer, followed by Sean O'Casey and James Joyce.
有些事情比起我的爱尔兰血统更令我感到骄傲。在军队期间，自从第一次从军营的书架上拿起他的诗集，叶芝就成为了我最喜欢的爱尔兰作家，紧随其后是西恩·欧'凯西和詹姆斯·乔伊斯。
My ancestors were Irish farmers, fishermen and blue-collar workers, but as far as I can tell, they all had a feeling for literature. It was passed on to my own mother, a telephone operator, who hardly ever sat down without a book in her hands. And at that moment my own fingernails might have been soiled with the soot of the day's fires, but I felt as prepared as any Trinity don to stand up in the court of public opinion and protest. Not only that Yeats had lived his life and written his poetry through the very essence of his Irish sensibility, but that it was offensive to think Irishness -- no matter if it was psychological, social or literary -- was something to be transcended.
我是爱尔兰农民、渔民和蓝领工人的后代，但是我要坦然他们都热爱文学。这种感情代代相传，如果手边没有一本书，就算只是个接线员也会坐立难安。那一刻，或许我的指甲已经沾上了烟灰，但此刻我感到自己如同三一教的神父一样，准备好了站在法庭上发表言论并捍卫叶芝。我这样做不仅因为叶芝以他爱尔兰感性的本质生活并写作，也因为文章作者的观点超出现实情况，冒犯了爱尔兰特质——无论是从心理上，社会上还是文学上。
My stomach was churning, and I determined not to let an idle minute pass. "Hey, Captain Gray. Could I use your typewriter?" I asked.
我感到胃口一阵痉挛，决心不再迟疑。 于是我问道，“嘿，格雷队长，我可以用你的打字机吗？”
The typewriter was so old that I had to use just one finger to type, my strongest one, even though I could type with all ten. I grabbed the first piece of clean paper I could find -- one that had the logo of the Fire Department of the City of New York across the top -- and, hoping there would be a break in the alarms for 20 minutes or so, wrote out a four-paragraph letter of indignation to the editor of the Sunday Book Review.
即便我能用10个手指输入，但这台打字机实在是太旧了，以致我只能用一个手指打字，最有力的那一个。我抓住了我能找到的一张干净的纸，——在纸张顶部有纽约市消防局的标志 ——真希望在拉响下个警报前有个20分钟左右的时间，能写下一封四段信来对星期日书评的编辑表达愤怒。
Throughout his poetry, I postulated, Yeats yearned for a messiah to lead Ireland out from under the bondage of English rule, and his view of the world and the people in it was fundamentally Irish.
纵观他的诗，我推测，叶芝渴望一个救世主带领爱尔兰摆脱英国统治的束缚，从他对诗中世界看法和人物的看法，基本是典型爱尔兰式的。
Just as I addressed the envelope, the final alarm of my tour came in, and as I slid down the long brass pole, I felt unexpectedly calm, as if a great rock had been purged from the bottom of my stomach.
正当我在署名的时候，那一天中最后的报警被拉响，我顺着长长的铜杆滑了下来，内心意外平静，仿佛一颗巨大的岩石已从我的胃中清除。
I don't know why I felt it my obligation to safeguard the reputation of the world's greatest poet, at least next to Homer and Shakespeare, or to inscribe an apologia for Irish writing. I just knew that I had to write that letter, in the same way a priest has to pray, or a musician has to play an instrument.
我不知道是什么原因使我觉得有责任维护界上最伟大的诗人的声誉，至少仅次于荷马和莎士比亚，或者是为爱尔兰的文学辩解。我只知道，我不得不写那封信，就像牧师一定要祈祷，或音乐家必须要演奏乐器。
Until that point in my life I had not written much of value -- a few poems and short stories, the beginning of a coming-of-age novel. I knew that my writing was anything but refined. Like a beginning artist who loves to draw, I understood that the more one draws, or writes, or does anything, the better the end result will be, and so I wrote often to better control my writing skills, to master them. I sent some material to various magazines and reviews but found no one willing to publish me.
直到那时，我才感受到我生命中的价值——一些诗歌和短篇小说，一段成长纪事小说的开头。我知道我要写经得起推敲的文章。就像一个刚开始爱上画画的艺术家一样，我的理解是，一个人画得越多，或者写得越多，或者练习的更多，那么最终的结果就会越好。所以我持续写作，目的就是更好地控制我的写作技巧，最终掌握它们。我给很多杂志社和评论社寄送了文章，但结果没有人愿意出版我的作品。
It was a special and unexpected delight, then, when I learned something I'd written would finally see print. Ironically it wasn't one of my poems or short stories -- it was my letter to the Times. I suppose the editor decided to publish it because he was first attracted by the official nature of my stationery (was his staff taking smoke breaks out on the fire escape?), and then by the incongruity of a ghetto firefighter's using words like messianism, for in the lines below my letter it was announced that I was a New York City firefighter. I'd like to think, though, that the editor silently agreed with my thesis.
得知我写的文章终于可以被出版的时候，我感到一份特殊且意外的喜悦。具有讽刺意味的是，出版的不是我的诗或者短篇小说之一——它是我回复给“纽约时报”的信。我猜编辑决定出版它是因为他首先被我如此官方的信纸吸引住了目光（火灾发生时是他们的工作人员打通了逃生通道？），紧接着，他的注意力又被我虽然身为一个社区消防员却在用词上表现出对正义事业的坚定信念的不相称上。因为在那封信中，有几行句子像是在宣布我是纽约市的捍卫者。我猜想是这样，编辑默认了我的主旨。
I remember receiving through the fire department's address about 20 sympathetic and congratulatory letters from professors around the country. These letters made me feel like I was not only a published writer but an opinion maker. It was as if I was suddenly thrust into being someone whose views mattered.
我记得约20封同情和祝贺信寄到我的工作部门，这些信来自全国各地的教授。这些信件让我觉得我不仅是一个作家，而且是一个舆论制造者。好像忽然之间人们觉得我对事物的看法对他们很重要。
I also received a letter from True magazine and one from The New Yorker, asking for an interview. It was the latter that proved momentous, for when an article titled "Fireman Smith" appeared in that magazine, I received a telephone call from the editor of a large publishing firm who asked if I might be interested in writing a book about my life.
之后我从《真理》杂志和《纽约客》各收到一封信，邀请我去那里面试。这封信是我命运的转折点。后者一篇题为“消防员史密斯” 的文章发表该杂志时，我接到一家大型出版公司的编辑打来的电话，询问我是否有兴趣写一本关于我的生活的书。
I had little confidence in my ability to write a whole book, though I did intuit that my work as a firefighter was a worthy subject. And so I wrote Report From Engine Co. 82 in six months, and it went on to sell two million copies and to be translated into 12 languages. In the years that followed, I wrote three more best-sellers, and last year published a memoir, A Song for Mary: An Irish-American Memory.
我并不确定我有自信写一本书，尽管凭直觉，我作为消防员的工作是一个有价值的话题。因此，在六个月内我完成了《消防第82队报告》，它被上架销售了200万册，被翻译成12种语言。在随后的几年里，我写了三本畅销书，去年还出版了一本回忆录：《给玛丽的歌：一个爱尔兰裔美国人的记忆》
Being a writer had been far from my expectations; being a best-selling author was almost unfathomable. How had it happened? I often found myself thinking about it, marveling at it, and my thoughts always came back to that letter to the New York Times.
成为一名作家已经远远超出了我的预期，成为一个畅销书作家几乎是从未想过的。它是如何发生的？我经常发现自己想着它，惊叹于它，思绪总是将我带回写给纽约时报的那封信。
For me, the clearest explanation is that I had found the subject I was searching for, one I felt so strongly about that the writing was a natural consequence of the passion I felt. I was to feel this same kind of passion when I began writing about firefighters and, later, when writing about my mother. These are subjects that, to me, represent the great values of human life -- decency, honesty and fairness -- subjects that burn within me as I write.
对我来说，最明显的解释是，我找到了一直都在寻找的人生主题，，一个如此强烈的激情使我觉得写作是一种自然的结果。当我开始写消防员以及后来写关于我的母亲的时候，我就能感受到这样的热情。这些人生主题，对我来说，代表着人类生活的巨大价值——正派，诚实和公平——使得我在写作的过程中内心一直在燃烧。
Over the years, all five of my children have come to me periodically with one dilemma or another. Should I study English or art? Should I go out for soccer or basketball? Should I take a job with this company or that one?
在过去的几年中，我的5个孩子都因为遇到了困境或者其他事情而找到我。我应该学习英语还是艺术吗？我应该出去的踢足球还是打篮球？我应该去这家公司还是那家？
My answer is always the same, yet they still ask, for reassurance is a good and helpful thing. Think about what you're feeling deep down in the pit of your stomach, I tell them, and measure the heat of the fire there, for that is the passion that will flow through your heart. Your education and your experience will guide you toward making a right decision, but your passion will enable you to make a difference in whatever you do.
我的回答总是相同的，但他们仍然不断询问，因为一再确认总是一个很好并管用的方法。我会告诉他们，想想你胃口最深处的想法，并想想那样的愿望有多灼热，那就是热情，将流过你的心脏。你的教育经历和经验将引导你做出正确的决定，但你的热情将使你能够有所作为，不管你做什么。
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