2015-11-22

【Aiden in English】

        On a hot sunny day, it’s nice to go have a dip in the cool pool. Three things are wrong with the sentence you just read. First of all, it is just above the freezing level outside. Secondly, it’s a swim meet. Finally, the water is hotter than the room temperature and there’s nothing “nice” about taking a dip.

        Apparently, an old, elderly lady was drinking from a glass bottle, and happened to drop it. The glass shards fell into the deep pool, and so the staff had to drain the water and pick out the glass. As for the swim team, we must change to the kiddie pool, in which had a funky taste and was a bit …… yellowish. The murky water made my vision so much worse, and I tried not to pay attention to the sour taste in my mouth. It felt like extremely diluted warm lemonade, with extra pulp as particles floated around in the pool. It got so bad that when I was staring down from one end of the pool, you couldn’t see even to the five-yard mark, not to mention a kid swimming at you. One might think that was bad enough, but the pool had worse things in store.

        Kids below the age of ten are not so hard core to swimming, and so it wasn’t necessary to control the kiddie pool’s water temperature. It is supposed to be relaxing and learning through play. For the swim team, however, it had quite a different affect. At the Lansdale YMCA, when the pool’s temperature went out of control, the coaches had the students either a) leave, or b) swim with your head above the water. Obviously, both were out of the picture in the Ambler YMCA. Therefore, every kid got a taste of heat stroke. The water felt like the Sahara desert at times, especially after we finished a set of laps. Luckily, I was the fastest in my division, and so I could climb out of the water and pace around for a tad bit before everyone was finished. I always enjoyed hot water showers, never cold ones. But for once in my life time, I took in the freezing air like it was my life line, which, it kind of was, in a sense. The coach seemed to understand the level of discomfort we were experiencing, and gave us timed breaks in between each and every set. With the few minutes we had, I decided to take a quick ice shower. Like my piano practice, I stopped and just drifted off, or walked around a bit every once awhile. In these moments, the sensation felt amazing.

        This swimming practice stretched on for hours, or that’s what it seemed like. Every time a break was called, I smothered myself in the coldest water temperature the shower could go. I got used to the heat in the end, though. But when I climbed out of the pool in the final seconds of training, my legs wobbled in exhaustion. Screw that old lady that dropped the glass bottle. She made us drink the lemonade in the kiddy pool!

【红霞译文】

        三伏天浸泡在一个凉爽的泳池里叫人倍感惬意，仔细品味你所读过的句子不难发现有三种场景与“享受”毫无关联：第一，外面天寒地冻；第二，正在参加游泳比赛；最后，水温比室温还高。

        如今摆在我们眼前的事实是，一位上了年纪的老太太喝水时不慎将玻璃杯摔进了游泳池，以致造成池底布满玻璃碴子，工作人员不得不靠放干池水来清除碎渣烂片。这下可好，我们游泳队只能临时改用气味熏鼻略呈……黄色的儿童泳池，浑浊的池水严重影响视线不算，我还得极力摆脱嘴角边臊臭味的刺激，感觉如同稀释过度的热柠檬汁，表面上一并悬浮着星星点点浆质状果肉。再低下头沿泳池一端向纵深望去，你连眼前五码线都难以看清，更不必强调一个小不点正对着你游了过来。别以为事情仅此而已，一连串好戏仍在后头哩。

        十岁以下的儿童不太追求游泳水平，所以池温变化并无大碍，只要舒适寓学于乐就成；而对于游泳队来说，池水温度高低至关重要。在兰斯代尔基督教青年会，一旦水温失控高到一定程度，教练准保要求队员不是离开泳池，就是把头伸出水面；而在安布勒基督教青年会却无人在意这一点，正因如此，我们个个心律紊乱，尤其当游完一组数趟来回，更觉水温堪比撒哈拉沙漠狂热，好在我游的速度最快，赶在大队人马到来之前提早登岸，得以舒缓节奏。我一向偏爱热水浴，从不喜欢用冷水洗澡，可就在此时此刻，自己破天荒心甘情愿尝试身体所能承受的极限低温冰水。教练似乎理解我们的遭遇，允许大家每游过一趟来回完成一组练习都可以停下来休息片刻，利用这几分钟间隙，我赶紧跑去冲把凉水澡。就像平常练习钢琴，我停一阵子淋一阵子，或者索性绕着水龙头兜起圈子，顿觉心情大好。

        这回游泳锻炼前后持续了个把钟头，不过却让人感觉相当漫长。每逢休息时刻，我便一头扎进冰冷刺骨的凉水里面，以致在训练结束之前我竟适应了热水游泳，等到最后爬出池面，我的双腿早已累得不听使唤。都怪摔碎玻璃杯的那位老太太，是她害得我们喝下儿童泳池的“柠檬水”。