读者文摘:魔术改变了我的生活(2)

（单词翻译）

One of the lessons you learn very early on as a magician is that the most amazing part of a trick has nothing to do with the secret.

作为魔术师，你很早就学会了一个道理，那就是魔术中最神奇的部分没有什么秘密可言。

The secret is simple and often dull: a hidden piece of tape, a small mirror, a duplicate playing card.

秘密很简单，通常也很枯燥：一段隐藏的带子，一面小镜子，一张复制的扑克牌。

In this case, the secret was a series of covert¹ maneuvers² to hide the coin behind my hand in the act of opening it,

在这种情况下，秘诀在于打开硬币的时候通过一系列的隐秘动作把硬币藏在手的后面，

a dance of the fingers that I learned so completely I didn't even have to think.

一种手指舞蹈，甚至不用思考我就完全学会了。

I would close my hand, then open it, and the coin would vanish not by skill but by real magic.

合上然后打开手，硬币就会消失，不是因为技巧，而是真正的魔法。

One day I made the coin vanish on the playground.

有一天我在操场上把硬币弄消失了。

We had been playing football and were standing³ by the backstop in the field behind the school.

我们一直在踢足球，站在学校足球场后面的场地里。

A dozen people were watching. I showed the coin to everyone.

有十几个人在看。我向大家展示硬币。

Then it disappeared.

然后硬币就消失了。

The kids screamed. They yelled, laughed, scrambled⁴ away.

孩子们尖叫、喊着，大笑着，逃之夭夭。

Everyone went crazy. This was great.

每个人都很着迷，好极了。

This was Bilbo Baggins from The Lord of the Rings terrifying the guests at his birthday party by putting the One Ring on his finger and vanishing.

这是《魔戒》里的比尔博·巴金斯，生日派对上，他的魔戒戴在手指上然后消失了，吓到了在场的客人。

The teacher on duty crossed the playground to investigate.

值班老师穿过操场去查看原因。

Mrs. Tanner was a wiry, vengeful woman who dominated her classroom with an appetite for humiliation⁵ and an oversize plastic golf club she wielded⁶ like a weapon,

坦纳太太是一个身材瘦削、复仇心重的女人，她在课堂上很强势，喜欢羞辱别人，手里拿着的硕大无比的塑料高尔夫球杆就像件武器。

slamming it down on the desks of the unruly and uncommitted.

重重地摔在那些不守规矩人的桌子上。