TED演讲:性暴力的救赎之路(7)

（单词翻译）

Before sending the letter, I prepared myself for all kinds of negative responses,

发出信件之前，我设想着各种可能的消极回复，

or what I found likeliest: no response whatsoever¹.

或者我认为最后可能的是，没有回复。

The only outcome that I didn't prepare myself for was the one that I then got

我唯一没能预料到的，是我收到的这封，

a typed confession² from Tom, full of disarming³ regret.

表达忏悔的信，来自Tom，满是毫无防备的悔恨。

As it turns out, he, too, had been imprisoned⁴ by silence.

事实上，他同样，也一直被“囚禁”于沉默之中。

And this marked the start of an eight-year-long correspondence that God knows was never easy, but always honest.

这成了我们之间随后一段长达8年时间通信的起点，上帝知道，这并不容易，但我们一直是坦诚的。

I relieved myself of the burdens that I'd wrongfully shouldered,

我卸下了我本不应承担的重负，

and he, in turn, wholeheartedly owned up to what he'd done.

他，同样的，由衷地承认他的所作所为。

Our written exchanges became a platform to dissect⁵ the consequences of that night,

我们的书面交流成了一个平台，去剖析那个晚上对我们的影响，

and they were everything from gut-wrenching to healing beyond words.

这些交流有时令人感到极度痛苦，有时却也带来超越语言的治愈。

And yet, it didn't bring about closure for me.

但对我而言，一切并未终结。

Perhaps because the email format⁶ didn't feel personal enough,

也许，是因为电子邮件的形式并不够私人化，

perhaps because it's easy to be brave when you're hiding behind a computer screen on the other side of the planet.

也许，是因为躲藏在地球另一边的电脑屏幕前，勇敢变得容易一些。

But we'd begun a dialogue that I felt was necessary to explore to its fullest.

但我们开始了一个对话，我认为有必要由此来探索所有的可能性。

So, after eight years of writing, and nearly 16 years after that dire⁷ night,

所以，在通信8年之后，距离那个可怕的夜晚接近16年之后，

I mustered⁸ the courage to propose a wild idea: that we'd meet up in person and face our past once and for all.

我鼓起勇气提出了一个大胆的想法：我们应该见面，面对我们的过去，一次性解决。