雙語散文:Keep Your Goals in Sight(莫讓目標太遙遠)
【英文原文】
Keep Your Goals in Sight
When she looked ahead, Florence Chadwick saw nothing but a solid wall of fog. Her body was had been swimming for nearly sixteen hours.
Already she was the first woman to swim the English Channel in both directions. Now, at age 34, her goal was to become the first woman to swim from Catalina Island to the California coast.
On that Fourth of July morning in 1952, the sea was like an ice bath and the fog was so dense she could hardly see her support boats. Sharks cruised toward her lone figure, only to be driven away by rifle shots. Against the frigid grip of the sea, she struggled on—hour after hour— while millions watched on national television.
Alongside Florence in one of the boats, her mother and her trainer offered encouragement. They told her it wasn’t much farther. But all she could see was fog. They urged her not to quit. She never had . . . until then. With only a half mile to go, she asked to be pulled out.
Still thawing her chilled body several hours later, she told a reporter, "Look, I’m not excusing myself, but if I could have seen land I might have made it." It was not fatigue or even the cold water that defeated her. It was the fog. She was unable to see her goal.
Two months later, she tried again. This time, despite the same dense fog, she swam with her faith intact and her goal clearly pictured in her mind. She knew that somewhere behind that fog was land and this time she made it! Florence Chadwick became the first woman to swim the Catalina Channel, eclipsing the men’s record by two hours!
【中文譯文】
莫讓目標太遙遠
佛羅倫斯·查德威克向前方望去，除了綿延無盡的大霧，她什麼也看不到。她一直在游泳，已經遊了幾乎16個小時，身體都麻木了。
在那之前，她已經是第一位從兩個方向遊過英吉利海峽的女子。現在，她已34歲，她的目標是要成爲第一個從卡達琳納島游到加利福尼亞海岸的女子。
1952年7月4日的那個早晨，大海就像一個冰浴盆，霧是那麼濃，她甚至連救援她的船隻都看不到。鯊魚遊向她孤單的身軀，只能靠來複槍來擊退。她迎向冰冷的海水，努力向前遊，就這樣一小時一小時過去了；無數觀衆則坐在電視機前觀看這一情景。
在佛羅倫斯旁邊的一艘船裏，她母親和她的教練不斷地鼓勵她。他們告訴她離海岸已經不遠了，然而除霧以外，她卻什麼也看不到。他們激勵她不要放棄，事實上，她一直在堅持，然而在距離目的地只有半英里的時候，她卻要求，將她拖出水面。
幾個小時後，她一邊暖着身體，一邊對着記者說：“怎麼說呢，我不是爲自己找藉口，但如果我能看見陸地的話，我會成功的。”瞧，在這次游泳中，擊敗她的不是勞累和冰冷的海水，而是霧。因爲有霧，她根本看不到自己的目標。
兩個月後，她又試着遊了一次。這一次，儘管霧還是那樣濃，但她始終帶着必勝的信念，頭腦中始終有一個清楚的目標，她知道霧後面的某個地方就是陸地，這一次她成功了！佛羅倫斯·查德威克最終成爲第一個遊過卡達琳納海峽的女子，並且以快兩個小時的速度打破了男子游過該海峽的記錄，這讓男子記錄黯然失色。
