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!

【紅霞譯文】

        三伏天浸泡在一個涼爽的泳池裡叫人倍感愜意，仔細品味你所讀過的句子不難發現有三種場景與“享受”毫無關聯：第一，外面天寒地凍；第二，正在參加游泳比賽；最後，水溫比室溫還高。

        如今擺在我們眼前的事實是，一位上了年紀的老太太喝水時不慎將玻璃杯摔進了游泳池，以致造成池底布滿玻璃碴子，工作人員不得不靠放乾池水來清除碎渣爛片。這下可好，我們游泳隊只能臨時改用氣味熏鼻略呈……黃色的兒童泳池，渾濁的池水嚴重影響視線不算，我還得極力擺脫嘴角邊臊臭味的刺激，感覺如同稀釋過度的熱檸檬汁，表面上一併懸浮着星星點點漿質狀果肉。再低下頭沿泳池一端向縱深望去，你連眼前五碼線都難以看清，更不必強調一個小不點正對着你游了過來。別以為事情僅此而已，一連串好戲仍在後頭哩。

        十歲以下的兒童不太追求游泳水平，所以池溫變化並無大礙，只要舒適寓學於樂就成；而對於游泳隊來說，池水溫度高低至關重要。在蘭斯代爾基督教青年會，一旦水溫失控高到一定程度，教練準保要求隊員不是離開泳池，就是把頭伸出水面；而在安布勒基督教青年會卻無人在意這一點，正因如此，我們個個心律紊亂，尤其當游完一組數趟來回，更覺水溫堪比撒哈拉沙漠狂熱，好在我游的速度最快，趕在大隊人馬到來之前提早登岸，得以舒緩節奏。我一向偏愛熱水浴，從不喜歡用冷水洗澡，可就在此時此刻，自己破天荒心甘情願嘗試身體所能承受的極限低溫冰水。教練似乎理解我們的遭遇，允許大家每游過一趟來回完成一組練習都可以停下來休息片刻，利用這幾分鐘間隙，我趕緊跑去沖把涼水澡。就像平常練習鋼琴，我停一陣子淋一陣子，或者索性繞着水龍頭兜起圈子，頓覺心情大好。

        這回遊泳鍛煉前後持續了個把鐘頭，不過卻讓人感覺相當漫長。每逢休息時刻，我便一頭扎進冰冷刺骨的涼水裡面，以致在訓練結束之前我竟適應了熱水游泳，等到最後爬出池面，我的雙腿早已累得不聽使喚。都怪摔碎玻璃杯的那位老太太，是她害得我們喝下兒童泳池的“檸檬水”。